Engaging in a regular practice of emotional reflection can drive a richer experience within weekly therapy session. Here are a variety of resources which may help you on your journey to self-discovery, reflection, and mindful relaxation.
Attachment Theory Here are some excellent resources to explore the origins attachment theory, investigate your attachment style, and discover how attachment plays out in adult relationships or through parenting. Attachment styles are unconscious coping mechanisms, or relational adaptations, that we develop at a young age based on our early caregivers. Essentially, we all learn how to survive our families of origin by adapting our behavior, which is rooted in how we think and feel about ourself, based on feedback from our closest attachment figures (this could be parents, anyone who is present during our upbringing, and extends to teachers and other adult figures as we grow). When we enter adulthood, we often use these same adaptive behaviors in relationships with intimate partners, friends, and in our life- essentially, doing with others what we have done in our families. We can identify our adult attachment style by looking at how we feel in close interpersonal relationships. Here is an excellent resource for identifying styles of attachment. There are two episodes (5 and 6) of the podcast, Therapist Uncensored, which detail attachment theory and styles.
The Study and Implementation of Self-Compassion Creating space to engage with our inner critic, quiet our insecurities with comfort, and practice non-judgmental curiosity are all examples of self-compassion. Dr. Kristin Neff has a website packed with education, resources, and engaging tools to help you explore a practice of self-compassion. Videos, free meditations, and several writing activities can be found here.
Better Understanding Emotion and Connection with Self and Others Learning a shared, accurate language for emotion has proven to both lower the felt distress of emotions as well as increasing the likelihood you will feel understood by and more deeply connected to others. Atlas of the Heart is a book built with the sole purpose of increasing this shared language of emotion. Appropriate for persons of all ages, this concise and powerful book can be revisited over time. Better understanding concepts like vulnerability, authenticity, and resilience are often the foundation of creating stronger bonds with others. Dr. Brene Brown is a leader in both research and presentation of finding beauty in imperfection, developing emotional resilience around universal feeling states such as shame, and developing the tools to create a more balanced existence. Videos, articles, and links to her TED Talks can be found here. She has a Netflix special, Call to Courage, that highlights over 20 years of research and is an example of Dr. Brown's authentic storytelling.
Brene Brown, PhD's podcast, Unlocking Us, is available to download on Spotify. She interviews and engages with a variety of activists, authors, researchers, and scholars on a variety of topics central to authenticity, creativity, and vulnerability.
Reading, watching, and reflecting on these concepts can be the perfect driver to your next therapy session.
Harriet Lerner, PhD is well known Clinical Psychologist who has written several books on subjects ranging from anger to apologies, to mother/daughter relationships. You can find her Psychology Today blog here, with many articles detailing how to protect our connections, deepen our bonds, and learn to better present our best selves. She has a TedTalk on apologies as well as two episodes of the Brene Brown podcast, Unlocking Us.
Sometimes writing is an exercise in uncovering our internal world and emotional experience. This writing exercise created by the College Essay Guy is an excellent activity to engage with not only your experiences but see how you have been shaped, felt, and how these experiences shape your perspective. While you may not be preparing a personal essay, this is a thorough self-study exercise for anyone interested in their internal world. This website has some excellent PDF worksheets, a video explanation, as well as some great tools to help you explore the connection between your experiences and your values.
News Ways of Exploring Addiction I ascribe to the belief that individuals struggling with addiction are primarily struggling with a lack of connection; a deficit of essential bonds. Disengaging from shaming and outdated models of addiction treatment, as well as actively confronting our internalized messages around addiction is essential. Dr. Gabor Mate is a preeminent voice in the compassionate treatment of addiction; you can learn a bit about how he frames addiction here. Here are some resources for those interested in new, compassion-based approaches to addiction. Johann Hari, a journalist, speaks to a burgeoning shift in our views on addiction.