What is Really Therapeutic?
06/07/23 • 25 min
Calming activities are not a replacement for real therapy. Activities like “goat yoga” can offer a relaxing and decompressing experience that can help manage stress, but calling them therapeutic is a mistake. If you are suffering from trauma that is negatively impacting your sense of self and your ability to cope, it may be best for you to seek out genuine therapeutic help to overcome those struggles. Therapy is not a quick fix, so start the journey as early as you can, so you can learn to understand yourself and enjoy the benefits of a life with positive mental health. It’s never too late to ‘think about our thinking’ and integrate our joy with the understanding of our trauma from the past. Goat & puppy yoga may be cute and calming, but if you are struggling with anxiety, depression, or a skewed sense of self, consider speaking to a therapist today.
🐐 Goat yoga is not therapeutic in the real sense of the word. 01:50
🥺 Four of Bonnie’s older siblings left home because of their abusive father: why running away from home at age 15 was the only choice. 03:07
🤯 Bonnie survived trauma: reconstructing life in school, relationships, and work. 10:55
👱♀️ Mood swings and anxiety: looking back - if Bonnie had therapy at a younger age, it would have helped her tremendously. 13:08
🧒 Children blame themselves for abuse: self-blame that tangles with fear and affects all relationships. 14:05
🥃 Alcoholism is not the excuse for horrible behavior: PTSD is real for non-military people, too. 16:22
👉 Trauma response is real: Bonnie’s triggers and how they impacted her choices. 18:08
✨ Understanding and connection to oneself can deepen through therapy. 21:17
🎯 What proper therapy with a therapist can provide you. 22:06
Links:
Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.bonniewims.com
Book:https://www.amazon.com/Called-to-Lead/dp/B094RF5K9L
Follow Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims
Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims:calendly.com/bonnie-96
Calming activities are not a replacement for real therapy. Activities like “goat yoga” can offer a relaxing and decompressing experience that can help manage stress, but calling them therapeutic is a mistake. If you are suffering from trauma that is negatively impacting your sense of self and your ability to cope, it may be best for you to seek out genuine therapeutic help to overcome those struggles. Therapy is not a quick fix, so start the journey as early as you can, so you can learn to understand yourself and enjoy the benefits of a life with positive mental health. It’s never too late to ‘think about our thinking’ and integrate our joy with the understanding of our trauma from the past. Goat & puppy yoga may be cute and calming, but if you are struggling with anxiety, depression, or a skewed sense of self, consider speaking to a therapist today.
🐐 Goat yoga is not therapeutic in the real sense of the word. 01:50
🥺 Four of Bonnie’s older siblings left home because of their abusive father: why running away from home at age 15 was the only choice. 03:07
🤯 Bonnie survived trauma: reconstructing life in school, relationships, and work. 10:55
👱♀️ Mood swings and anxiety: looking back - if Bonnie had therapy at a younger age, it would have helped her tremendously. 13:08
🧒 Children blame themselves for abuse: self-blame that tangles with fear and affects all relationships. 14:05
🥃 Alcoholism is not the excuse for horrible behavior: PTSD is real for non-military people, too. 16:22
👉 Trauma response is real: Bonnie’s triggers and how they impacted her choices. 18:08
✨ Understanding and connection to oneself can deepen through therapy. 21:17
🎯 What proper therapy with a therapist can provide you. 22:06
Links:
Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.bonniewims.com
Book:https://www.amazon.com/Called-to-Lead/dp/B094RF5K9L
Follow Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims
Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims:calendly.com/bonnie-96
Previous Episode
Don’t Go To Therapy For Someone Else’s Advice; Go To Find Your Own Answers
A common myth about therapy is that therapists offer their patients advice. This is actually something that therapists are not supposed to do, as it gives away your power to someone else. Therapists are not trained to be expert advice-givers or to dish out solutions to problems. Rather, therapists are trained to deeply listen and serve as a guide for you to explore within and discover your own answers. When seeking therapy, the goal is to build a trusting relationship not only with your therapist, but more importantly with yourself. This allows you to explore your own feelings, safely and with support so you can make decisions that are right for you. While it may be tempting to ask a therapist for advice, this actually goes against the objective of therapy. The ‘right’ answers and the solutions that are best for you come from finding that place within where you trust yourself and recognize that you are in control of your own life!
🙅♀️ Why therapists should NOT give advice. 01:26
🤯 The shock to the system for all therapists who start training: everybody wants advice! 02:37
👩🎓 Student therapist placement and supervision: when the urge to help, along with the client asking for advice, led to failure. 04:22
🤩 Why your clinical therapist won’t give you advice: what is the therapeutic relationship? 08:19
🎯 You are the expert of you - we help you realize that. 11:51
✨ When we ask for advice, we don’t build trust within ourselves. 14:14
🌸 Learning to trust yourself: self-care is a highly used word, but what matters is giving yourself the gift of trusting yourself. 15:30
✅ Blaming the therapist vs. revealing your inner knowing and finding the answer within. 17:20
⚡ Listening and reflecting in therapy: the answer will always come from within you. 19:32
Links:
Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims: www.bonniewims.com
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Called-to-Lead/dp/B094RF5K9L
Follow Dr. Bonnie Wims: www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims
Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims: calendly.com/bonnie-96
Next Episode
Personality Unleashed: Embrace the Ever-Evolving You for Limitless Growth
Your personality is not hardwired into your brain. Many people believe that some of their behaviors and beliefs are a default setting in their brains, but this is simply not true. Our personality has grown and evolved with us throughout our whole lives and continues to be shaped by every experience we have. Therapy works on this principle by helping us to learn new ways of thinking about and understanding our past-experiences so that we can evolve new positive mindsets. You are never finished growing and experiencing new things, so embrace your change and continue to challenge and counteract the negative!
Show notes:
😟 Therapy is misrepresented in the media, movies, and TV shows. 01:13
🆚 “I’m hardwired”: cemented view of ourselves vs constant change. 02:21
📚 Science reveals how meditation and trauma change your brain and body: Dr. Bonnie recommends three great books. 04:08
🧠 Your identity is a moving target because neural patterns are constantly changing in our brains. 05:21
🤓 There is no fixed personality: the brain is learning and changing - the silly behaviors we had as kids vs our adult behaviors are proof of this. 07:47
🧱 You can’t undo your experiences, but you can build new and better defaults: what really works in therapy. 10:14
😍 What happens in therapy that helps people: thinking about our thinking and being aware of our self-talk. 13:52
⭐ We can change, and that is excellent news: you are not stuck and born this way. 18:33
Links
Altered Traits: www.richardjdavidson.com/altered-traits
The Brain: www.eagleman.com/books/the-brain
What Happened to You? www.amazon.com/dp/B08VVWW192
Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.bonniewims.com
Book:https://www.amazon.com/Called-to-Lead/dp/B094RF5K9L
Follow Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims
Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims:calendly.com/bonnie-96
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