Journey Therapy Services

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Grande Prairie, AB
Journey Therapy Services

Registered Provisional Psychologist
Offering individual counselling

03/22/2024

If you are living with Borderline Personality Disorder...What do you want therapists to understand about you? What do you most need support with?

Please share your thoughts with me (either in the comments or in a private message).

01/27/2024

DBT Skills Group (online/virtual)
Starting Feb 7th
Learn how to manage your emotional responses, tolerate distress, and improve your relationships.
Enroll now to join or contact for more information.

11/23/2023

Radical Acceptance - How is it helpful?
WHAT IS IT?
➢ Radical means all the way, complete and total.
➢ It is accepting in your mind, your heart and your body.
➢It’s when you stop fighting reality, stop uncontrolled emotional reactions because reality is not the way you want it, and let go of bitterness.
WHAT IT IS NOT:
➢ It is NOT approval, being passive, or being against change.
What should we accept?
➢ Reality is as it is (the facts about the past and the present are the facts, even if you don’t like them).
➢ There are limitations on the future for everyone (but only realistic limitations need to be accepted).
➢ Everything has a cause (including events and situations that cause you pain and suffering).
➢ Life can be worth living even with painful events in it.
WHY ACCEPT REALITY?
➢ Rejecting reality does not change reality
➢ Making changes requires first accepting reality
➢ Pain cannot be avoided; it is our signal that something is wrong.
➢ Rejecting reality turns pain into suffering.
➢ Refusing to accept reality can keep you stuck in unhappiness, bitterness, anger, sadness, shame, or other painful emotions.
➢ Acceptance may lead to sadness, but deep calmness usually follows.
Learning Radical Acceptance takes time and effort but life can feel a bit easier as a result.

11/18/2023

Signs that you are struggling with emotions:
- an urge to push away what you are feeling and not have to feel it.
- a struggle to identify why you feel uncomfortably upset.
- discomfort when others are expressing emotions.
- feeling quickly overwhelmed during emotional events.
You may not have learned how to deal with emotion in healthy, helpful ways but the good news is that it is never too late to learn emotion skills.

11/10/2023

In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. - Buddha

11/09/2023

Invalidation of emotions - Why does it hurt so much?
It can make us feel misunderstood, misinterpreted, not believed, trivialized, or denied. This can be triggering because all you ever wanted was for someone to validate what you were feeling. Recovering from invalidation can include: reminding yourself that the emotions are valid, practicing self-soothing, seeking support from those you trust, allowing yourself to grieve traumatic invalidation, and practicing radical acceptance of the invalidating person.

10/19/2023

Emotions are contagious.
This occurs when someone's emotions (and related behaviors) lead to similar emotions and behaviors in others.
This happens very quickly and we are usually unaware of it. Building awareness of it is important for managing our own emotions and related actions.
Emotional contagion can have a positive, helpful impact or a negative, potentially harmful impact. Social media is a place we can exercise caution in this regard.

10/14/2023

How are you doing?
Many of us have just spent time with family for Thanksgiving...this can bring up painful emotions.
You may feel the desire to spend time with family but it can leave you feeling hurt, sad, resentful, or invalidated. Sometimes we feel like others do not understand this.
So, if this is your experience, how are you doing?
Reach out to someone who understands;
Reflect on what brought you to spend time with your family - what were your expectations? Were these inline with what usually happens?
Consider how you could deal differently with the next occasion.

09/28/2023

How to use your emotions.
This can be more difficult than it sounds.
If you were taught to ignore or avoid your feelings, you may not be comfortable expressing them.
Check out this link to Dr. Jonice Webb's article:
https://drjonicewebb.com/how-to-use-your-emotions-3-real-life-examples/

09/21/2023

Why do we have emotions?
If we experience intense and overwhelming emotions, we may wonder what the purpose of even having emotions is...
Emotions:
Motivate our behavior; Communicate to others; Communicate to ourselves.
We need to be careful not to treat our emotions as facts. This can cause undue struggle if we do not check the facts before acting on our emotions.

09/14/2023

How many different words do you use to describe your emotions?
Try something: The next time you feel a strong emotion, notice how you are labelling it. Do you use generalizations like "upset", "emotional", or "overwhelmed"?
Something interesting (and helpful) happens when you find an emotion word that pinpoints your feeling.
Check out the emotion list link.
How did that feel?

09/07/2023

Improving Self Talk
How we talk to ourselves is important!
The more you beat up on yourself, the more you may be hooked by your "emotion self" and this makes it harder to access your "wise self".
("Wise self" is the balance between rational and emotional reasoning).
Talk to yourself like someone you care about.

09/04/2023

What is DBT?
DBT is "Dialectical Behavior Therapy". The focus of this therapy is to teach people skills and strategies to help them build a life worth living.
This therapy is often used to help with borderline personality disorder but can also be helpful with depression, anxiety, addictions, and eating disorders.
4 Essential Skill Sets:
Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation, Relationships
How can DBT help?
The essential skills are designed to help you master dealing with issues without the overwhelm of your emotions getting in the way.

Using the skills helps with:
- getting through distress/crisis safely
- building awareness of your emotional experiences
- being heard by others
- improving relationships
- increasing the ability to move towards personal goals

If you are looking for more information, contact me:
journeytherapyservices@gmail.com
pamdueck.podia.com

09/02/2023

"I keep moving ahead, as always, knowing deep down inside that I am a good person and that I am worthy of a good life." Jonathan Harnisch

08/31/2023

Registration is now open for the next DBT & Emotional Regulation Essentials Group.
This 12 week course is delivered weekly with online content and a live group session.
Go to the link or email me to learn more about it.

08/28/2023

When was the last time you checked in with yourself?
It is good self-care to pause regularly to see how you are feeling, where your thoughts are at, and what your body is experiencing.

08/24/2023

Emotional Regulation is a person's ability to manage their response to an emotional experience.

This can mean regulating or managing the intensity or duration of the emotions experienced.

It may also involve adjusting your emotional response to fit the facts of the situation.

Some people struggle with Emotional Regulation and they can feel very overwhelmed at times.

There are many reasons why some people struggle with this and others do not.

The good news is that Emotional Regulation skills can be learned.

Looking for more about Emotional Regulation?

Send me an email:
JourneyTherapyServices@gmail.com

Visit my website:
PamDueck.podia.com

Address

301, 10011 92 Street
Grande Prairie, AB
T8V4C9

Telephone

+17804024698

Website

http://jtsgp.ca/

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