How are you holding up? The past two weeks and this next week will go down as having been 3 historic weeks in a row. Three Wednesdays of monumental significance to the United States. In case you’ve blocked it already;
Wednesday January 6 – Insurrection
Wednesday January 13 – Impeachment
Wednesday January 20 – Inauguration
I wonder what Wednesday January 27th will be…? We’ve all had to carry on as much as possible with our “normal” lives. And the pandemic is still raging out of control in this country.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been finding it challenging to get things done. It makes sense that many of us are feeling distracted, down, tired, scattered, unmotivated and scared. Not a great combo platter of feelings for carrying on.
Just writing this (I’m a big believer in journaling and yet I’m one who finds I don’t do it anymore – my clients will find that amusing as I often suggest it as an action 😉 ) helps me see how the events in our country have been affecting me.
Even though returning emails and doing the basics has been challenging, I had 
the great honor and pleasure of assisting Bonnie Brennan, MA, LPC, CEDS in her training on Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) this past week. What a great distraction from the realities of the world. Intentionality comes to mind for the rest of the Wednesdays of this year…
What if we’re INTENTIONAL about our focus each week? What might be different?
Many of our limbic systems have been on fire with all of this chaos. Bonnie shared in the EFFT training that Emotion Coaching helps put out the fire in our limbic system and regulates it so we can listen. We need to do a whole lot of listening if we’re going to heal our country and ourselves. When we validate another’s feelings, our mirror neurons fire and we can put ourselves in their shoes.
Don’t worry, I won’t be switching from coaching families of those with eating disorders to facilitating conversations to heal our country…although I do hope someone is using this model to do that.
When I first heard Dr. Adele LaFrance speak about the EFFT model, I had tears streaming down my face. Why? Because I have seen the ENORMOUS and EGREGIOUS GAP in actual support for the family caregivers of those with eating disorders for over 20 years.
Adele researched and created this model specifically for family caregivers of those with eating disorders to fill this gap! I could see immediately how this tool can give these caregivers the practical communication skills to actually be able to listen to their loved one with an eating disorder in a way that reduces; conflict, anger, shutting down and increases emotional support.
Ever since learning about EFFT I’ve wanted to be officially trained in it and am thrilled to have gotten this training from Bonnie. Along with DBT, I wish this was being taught in our school systems…the world would be a much kinder place if everyone had these skills. 🙂 EFFT teaches us to be intentional in our listening and speaking. It’s not easy and take a lot of practice. We can work toward one degree of change and in the long run, that will make a big degree of difference. 🙂
You can learn more about EFFT on Dr. LaFrance’s website, she generously has free videos there for practicing this model.
If you’re thinking you’d like to add coaching to your clinical practice or if you’re a 
family caregiver who is a coach and you want to get trained in the coaching model I use with families you can learn more here.
Here’s to choosing intentionality each Wednesday going forward. How might you be intentional in conversations this week?
If you’re in need of more support, check out the services on my website to see which product or service might serve your needs best.
