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Do you use ACT and CBT in your therapeutic work with clients? How can you explain the benefits of mindfulness to a brand-new client? How have these teachings impacted your life as well?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks about incorporating ACT, CBT, and mindfulness into anger and anxiety work with Alisa Kamis-Brinda.
Podcast Sponsor: Blueprint
Providing great therapy day after day can be challenging – even for the best of us!
At Blueprint, they believe that nothing should get in the way of you doing your best work, which is why they created a platform that provides therapists with an array of clinical tools – things like therapy worksheets, intervention ideas, and digital assessments – that are designed to help you and your clients can stay connected and confident throughout the care journey. Even better, Blueprint helps streamline your documentation so that you can spend less time on your notes and more time on the things that matter.
To learn more and request a free 30-day trial, visit blueprint-health.com
Meet Alisa Kamis-Brinda
Alisa Kamis-Brinda, LCSW, LCADC is the owner of Serenity Solutions, LLC, a group psychotherapy practice in Philadelphia, PA, specializing in anger management, anxiety, addictions, and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders. She has over 20 years of experience helping overwhelmed, stressed-out professionals and parents learn how to slow down angry and anxious thoughts in healthy ways so they can be in the present moment, relax and enjoy life again.
Visit Serenity Solutions and connect on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
In This Podcast
- The impact of ACT on everyday life
- Explaining mindfulness and CBT to new clients
- Turning training into real-time practice
- A quick masterclass for listeners
- Alisa’s advice to private practitioners
The impact of ACT on everyday life
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a powerful therapeutic tool to use with both clients and in your personal life as a therapist.
It has helped me to become more mindful. To be aware of my thoughts and my feelings in the moment, and what my thoughts and feelings are telling me to do, so that I can then decide, “Wait, is that what I want to do? Or do I do the thing that I wanted to do?”
Alisa Kamis-Brinda
When you are unaware of your thoughts and feelings, you find yourself acting on impulse. These impulses are attempts at keeping you safe and secure, but they may be coming from a dysregulated nervous system or an old trauma response.
Becoming aware of those impulses, developing that awareness, and then choosing how you want to respond in that moment is the key.
It has helped me to choose what I want to do in the moment instead of my thoughts and feelings choosing for me.
Alisa Kamis-Brinda
Explaining mindfulness and CBT to new clients
Clients that are completely new to therapy and mindfulness might associate being mindful with meditation or clearing the mind. Even though those are practices within mindfulness, it is not the full definition.
It is about learning how to be right here, right now, in this moment … when we’re feeling anxious or when we’re feeling angry, we are often either in the past … or the future.
Alisa Kamis-Brinda
With CBT, clients can be taught how to challenge thoughts that are limiting or harmful, or untrue.
The combination of using mindfulness with CBT teaches clients how to pause, address the thought, and bring themselves back to the real, present moment instead of being carried away by the impulse or thought.
Turning training into real-time practice
The most helpful tool that Alisa brought with her from training and education into the therapy room with her client is the mindfulness piece. From that standpoint, anything is possible.
People often go through life on autopilot and don’t pay attention to what is happening around them, and they just do things the same way that they have always done. Mindfulness is the starting practice of shifting away from autopilot to awareness, and a truer, freer choice.
That becomes really meaningful for them to then realize, “Hey, if I can notice that then I can also notice what is happening inside of me, and how that’s impacting me”.
Alisa Kamis-Brinda
A quick masterclass for listeners
The main aspects that Alisa wants listeners to know are that:
- feelings are okay
- you can sit with feelings
- your feelings are never going to be bigger than you
You do not need to constantly fall back on what you used to do to cope with your life right now. You are big enough and capable enough to rise and change the narrative of your life by changing your responses to life.
Alisa’s advice to private practitioners
Sitting with discomfort is a helpful tool to use to live a meaningful life. Apply this personally and professionally for amazing insights and positive changes!
Sponsors mentioned in this episode:
- What’s your Level of Practice?
- To learn more about Blueprint and to request a free 30-day trial, visit blueprint-health.com
Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Visit Serenity Solutions and connect on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
- Find out more about Group Practice Launch
- Visit practiceofthepractice.com/apply and join our membership communities!
- Check out practiceofthepractice.com/invite to join Next Level Practice
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Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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