Carolee Coleman Therapy Services

04/12/2022

Here is a new blog I wrote about "living in alignment" as it relates to the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance.

Photo Credit: Mohamed Nohassi “Align”, there are memes aplenty these days encouraging us to align, live in alignment, and so forth. What exactly does that mean? While there are always various interpretations of any given platitude, I would like to take a moment to discuss how it is related to th...

01/04/2022

New address at Keller Station.
6035 N Knoxville
Peoria, IL

10/16/2021

It seems the upcoming generation is doing a great job of this! Way to go!

10/12/2021

Avoidance often creates greater challenges.

We often find that the harder we try to get rid of emotions and thoughts, the stronger they become.

Dick Schwartz’s new book No Bad Parts, available now:

https://ifs-institute.com/nobadparts

# selfleadership

10/05/2021

10/05/2021

Everything too much? Here are a few ideas I put together to help manage stressful times.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the stressors of life seem amplified right now? We, as a collective, are going through very interesting times with the pandemic, politics, the work culture changing rapidly, to name a few things. It often feels like uncharted territory. People are not only trying....

10/04/2021

Struggling with being over-stressed, feeling uncertain, experiencing loss, having relationship issues, and/or losing interest in the things you once enjoyed due to the weight of current life conditions can feel isolating. You don't have to go through it alone. Therapy can be an excellent option for added support in a confidential and non-judgmental space.

09/28/2021

Do you ever hear the term 'mindfulness', and think "That's not for me"?

Sometimes people hear the term “mindfulness” and think, “That’s not for me, I don’t like meditation”. Mindfulness is not the same as meditation but often go hand in hand. You can practice mindfulness without practicing meditation. One of my favorite mindfulness teachers, Jon Kabat Zinn d...

09/28/2021

I love so much of what she has to say.

Unresolved trauma is stored in the body. It creates a cycle that we call all sorts of different names: burnout, resentment, overwhelm, anxiety, depression. Many of us have been living in this cycle our entire lives.

Trauma impacts our vagal tone. Our vagal tone is a measure of our adaptability to stress. It involves our heart rate and our activation of our nervous system.

Poor vagal tone creates negative moods + thought patterns. Many of us wake up with a ‘doomsday’ thought cycle because of this. Immediately the mind starts it’s to do list + it’s fear based thoughts. Inability to sleep at night with racing thoughts is also common.

Our dysregulated nervous system causes us to not be able to cope with the stress around us. Our mind + body is attempting to protect us from a perceived ‘threat’ of our past in the present moment. We cope with this threat in ways that leave us feeling even more alone + unseen.

✨HERE IS HOW TO START HEALING THIS CYCLE:

1. Have a pattern interruption every morning: take the first 5-10 minutes to re-wire the subconscious mind (my future self journal is a free amazing tool for this— link in bio.)

2. Prioritize sleep: sleep repairs the body + allows us to process emotions in healthier ways

3. Being pausing RATHER than reacting. This is a super power that takes lots of practice. It will lead to more confidence.

4. Start healing your inner child (I have a YouTube meditation that will allow you to start to feel the inner child)

5. Find community on the healing journey. Breaking trauma cycles can be very lonely, isolating, + can make us feel misunderstood. Find a community of people healing (online or in person) especially if you lack this support in your close relationships.

6. Affirm that you’re healing. Because you are. And so it is

09/24/2021

Check out this blog I wrote on silencing your inner critic.

Step One to silencing your inner critic: BECOME AWARE. So much of the running thoughts in our minds are unconscious, or outside of our immediate awareness. Thoughts just roll through without us noticing. The inner critic is unhelpful at best and cruel at worst. They tend to feed off our worst fears....