As a mental health professional, I consistently find that one tactic that yields significant improvement in my patients is the art of intentional listening. Listening is, in itself, an intervention. I seek to embody Freud's concept of 'evenly hovering attention,' maintaining a receptive and non-judgmental stance. This allows me to actively listen and reflect the patient's experiences, emotions, and thoughts. By doing so, I create a safe space for patients to explore their challenges. My role is not to direct, but to walk alongside them, empowering them to find peace through change and/or acceptance. Through this collaborative process, patients gain clarity, develop self-awareness, and cultivate resilience. By listening deeply, I help patients: - Feel heard and validated - Identify patterns and gain insight - Develop coping strategies - Foster self-compassion In this shared journey, patients uncover their strength and capacity for growth, leading to lasting improvements in their mental well-being.
Each client comes with their own experiences and needs, but one tool I've used across several different types of clients is starting a gratitude journal. So often, clients get so accustomed to their own maladjusted ways of experiencing their life that even the idea of a list of things to be grateful for seems impossible. A journal can be totally personalized to the client - it can be a single thing a day or a whole list of things. It doesn't even have to be written down if a client doesn't want to do that - as simple as a thought before bed about what they were grateful for that day. Clients have noted that they start to spend time during the day thinking about what they're going to include in their daily practice, which puts them into the habit of noticing things to be grateful for, often for the first time.
There are quite a few things that I find work with clients, but the biggest is developing a strong therapeutic relationship. Building that trust and safety with a client will allow you to go deeper and explore more root causes which is the work that is so life changing. Having a strong therapeutic relationship allows you to find together the specific modualities that work, no one client is the same.
As a speaker and founder of Stay Here, a mental health organization, I often find cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to be immensely helpful for many of my clients. CBT teaches practical strategies for managing anxiety and negative thoughts. Through CBT, my clients learn to identify irrational thoughts, challenge them, and replace them with more realistic ones. For example, a client who feared social situations learned to recognize anxious thoughts like "Everyone will judge me," replace them with something like "Most people are focused on themselves, not judging me." This small shift made a big difference, and she started accepting more social invitations. Another client kept a thought record to track anxious thoughts and used it to find patterns. Recognizing her tendencies to catastrophize helped her avoid anxious spirals. CBT gave her concrete tools to steer difficult feelimgs, rather than being overwhelmed by them. With practice, CBT techniques can become second nature and help establish long-term resilience.
One tactic is to allow patients to be able to communicate easily with you, such as providing your phone number. Another tactic is to be available to them if they need to talk or they have a question. Open and easy communication allows patients to talk about side effects and to change medications sooner than waiting for a 3 to 4 week follow up appointment. Also, providing a phone number and messaging access allows patients to request refills, ask about side effects/interactions of medications or request sooner appointments.
One tactic I often return to is the integration of mindfulness and movement into my treatment plans, particularly for patients dealing with chronic pain or stress-related physical issues. Over my 30 years of experience, I've found that patients benefit not just from traditional physiotherapy, but also from understanding how mental and physical well-being are deeply interconnected. Many people carry tension from mental stress into their bodies, leading to muscular imbalances and pain, especially in the neck, shoulders, and lower back. By incorporating mindfulness techniques such as breathing exercises, body awareness, and stress-relief stretches alongside physiotherapy, I help patients not only manage their pain but also address the underlying mental health triggers that contribute to it. One example that stands out is a patient who came to me with chronic neck and shoulder pain, exacerbated by both her desk job and ongoing anxiety. She had been through various treatments but found no lasting relief. After assessing her posture and movement patterns, I introduced a combined approach: we focused on improving her postural habits through targeted exercises while integrating mindfulness practices to address the tension she unknowingly held in her upper body. Over several weeks, her pain significantly reduced, and she reported feeling more in control of both her stress and physical symptoms. My qualifications in musculoskeletal health and postural syndrome, paired with a holistic approach, allowed her to achieve long-term improvements, something traditional physiotherapy alone hadn't provided.
A tactic I frequently rely on is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), particularly focusing on reframing negative thoughts. Many patients struggle with automatic, negative thought patterns that exacerbate anxiety, depression, or stress. By teaching them how to identify these thoughts and reframe them into more balanced, constructive ones, I've seen significant improvements in how they manage their mental health. CBT empowers patients to take control of their emotional responses by recognizing and altering unhelpful thinking patterns. What makes this approach effective is that it not only addresses the current issues but also equips patients with a lifelong skill set. They learn how to better handle future challenges by practicing the techniques we work on together. Over time, this builds resilience and boosts their confidence in navigating difficult emotional situations.