My influences are varied, and they include but aren't limited to CBT, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology, and DBT. This page provides more detail about how I blend these various techniques into my Life Coaching approach.

While working toward a goal, it's normal to feel negative emotions sometimes: concern, worry, irritation, disappointment, frustration, anger, fear, sadness, guilt, or shame. Their purpose is to tell you that a need of yours is not being met and that it requires some attention, possibly some action. In other words, emotions give you a "heads up"...they're very good things!

The problem is that emotions can sometimes get so strong that they overwhelm and then take over. For example, compulsively avoiding, running in fear, expressing anger, or staying comfortable in a lazy way can too often feel more important than the original goals of having a loving relationship, getting a raise, having a good time at the party, or changing careers.

For these reasons, I emphasize building skills that reduce or clear away difficult emotions so that you can get back to achieving goals, feeling peace of mind, and having your happiest life. The sections that follow explain my techniques in further detail.

Twenty-five-plus years of research have shown that learning to shift how you think and act (Cognitive Behavioral Treatment or CBT Counseling), and learning how to maintain a pleasant and accepting focus on what you are doing in the present moment (Mindfulness) are the keys to reducing emotional upset. Overall, this work is called emotion management.

Think of emotion management as taking your current emotion and turning the intensity level way down low. Also, I say that Mindfulness is like "going to the gym to build up your emotional muscles." Mindfulness practice helps to keep emotions brief, preventing them from turning into lingering, debilitating moods.

Here are some handouts that can give you a brief feel for this kind of work:

• A one-page description of how to practice mindfulness
• Two pages about how to live in the spirit of mindfulness
• A few pages about how emotions work and how to manage them

Recently, other colleagues and I have been working to improve upon emotion management by developing approaches that provide quicker relief, that build a bridge from negative to positive emotions, and that create emotions designed for successful goal completion. The term I've read that best describes this approach is emotion transformation.*

Emotion-transformation skills include slowing down, shifting from negative thinking to realistic optimism, responding to emotional upset in ways that make you feel a bit better—instead of ways that make a bad situation worse, balancing your head and heart when making decisions, increasing feelings of motivation toward your original goal, delaying some gratification while still being able to enjoy the moment, and more.

Also, I've completed advanced training in DBT and Dialectical Behavioral Treatment skills training, and I fold these techniques into most of the work I do with clients. These techniques span both emotion management and emotion transformation.

After more than a century of professional focus on lowering suffering—for example, moving from a -5 to a 0 on the "feeling good and doing well" scale, some renowned psychologists have recently encouraged a shift to what makes a person strong, peaceful, happy, and able to bounce back quickly from problems—moving from a 0 to a +5 on the "feeling good and doing well" scale. They call this movement Positive Psychology. In addition to focusing on happiness, this movement emphasizes specific and practical action, instead of over relying on talk and analysis.

Sometimes, to reach your goal quicker and easier, you have to focus on some things that are not directly related to your goal—I know how strange that sounds, but it's true! This is a major reason why typical Life and Career Coaching often fail, because they're so intensely focused on managing goals.

Increasingly, science is supporting approaches that people used to dismiss as light weight or as "crunchy granola." Mind, body, emotions, and spirit appear to be so interwoven that the idea of there being a line between them is increasingly being disproved by scientific research!

On a more practical, day-to-day level, people do not experience their overall emotional health as being separate from finding a date for Saturday night, trying to avoid the sweet snacks at the coffee station at work, managing a difficult father-in-law or boss, making more money, or finding meaning in life.

Our work will go where it needs to get you feeling peaceful, joyful, and satisfied with how your life is going.

I'm glad you asked. Absolutey, yes! ;-) You can come on into the office, talk on the phone, or meet online using Skype.

In addition to being able to ask as many questions as would be helpful, attending a free, half-hour consultation meeting would give you a better feeling for how well we communicate and work together. Why not give me a call at 410-949-7888 or email me to schedule an appointment? You'll be glad you did!