WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice.
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You should seek the services.
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Of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
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At the end of the day, it's not about what
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you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what
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you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted up,
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who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
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Denzel Washington, welcome to Inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is
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to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you to.
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Do the same.
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Michelle, welcome to the show.
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Hi, thanks for having me.
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It's great to have you. I'm looking forward to this.
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You come with some incredible credentials, and so you know,
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it's going to be interesting with all of those credentials
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to talk to you about a number of these things
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that I've talked to other people about, maybe not with
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as high credentials as you.
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Have, So it's gonna be really fun. I'm gonna have
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some interesting questions for you, so.
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I'm super excited.
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Before we start, can you explain and share with the
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audience your journey who you are. Don't be afraid to
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talk about what you've accomplished and why.
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You know, we all have questions of why are you
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doing what.
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You're doing now, and that would be one of my
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questions I'd like you to answer.
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Yeah, So I'll give you an example of why I'm
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doing what I'm doing. Okay, yesterday, for example, I had
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a person who I was saying, she's in her twenties,
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and I started seeing her when she was maybe eighth
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grade something like that, and her parents, of course made
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her come in and it was involuntary, and she came
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in because she was having some I guess disruptive behavior. Again, academically,
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she was doing fine, but she was being a little
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bit let's say, disrespectful and combative at home, so they
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thought it would be important for her to come in,
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and they were concerned how that was going to carry
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over into her friendships, you know, across the board. So,
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of course, because she was coming in involuntarily, she was
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not happy to be here, and she really gave me
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a hard time, but we did form a connection and
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I did whatever I could with her, but it was
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you know, more supportive in nature, I would say, and
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just really make her feel supported and comforted and also
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that she could like openly express herself. Fast forward, she
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came and she was really working on anxiety. That was
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the core of the issue that was coming up for her,
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which I discovered that a lot of the combative behavior
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was coming from underlying anxiety, which I shared with them. Anyway,
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fast forward she ended up after seeing her for a
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bit of time, and then she circled back to me.
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Now she's in her twenties, and I felt like I
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really really got a good picture of her, understood her.
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She circled back and she said to me, you know, gosh,
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I gave you such a hard time when I was younger,
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but I'm really ready to work now and I'm coming
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back because I'm serious about it. Fast forward. This is
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a kid who literally was so rigid and so tightly
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wound and so protective and defensive, and you know, all
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the adaptations you can imagine coming up to the surface.
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And then yesterday she announced to me that she's considering
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being a therapist as a career option. Now, if you
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told me that when she was in eighth grade, I
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would have fallen off my chair because she was going
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to be an attorney and she was going to this
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school and it was going to look this way and
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that that was it. Anyway, and then she just recently
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a couple months ago, got into this really healthy first
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and healthy and you know, intimate relationship and it's going
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really well. And anyway, the transformation is vast. I cannot
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even tell you. And she said to me, she expressed
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to me the read. I said to her, Wow, this
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is a big change of heart. What's going on? Where
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did this come from? And she said, I realize how
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much therapy has helped me over the time we've been together.
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And I really want to do something that's significant and meaningful.
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And I really feel like I could make an impact
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like you've made for me. And again, this is a
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kid who does not like to be vulnerable. She does
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not express herself emotionally. I could go on and on,
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and I you know, I really I almost like welled
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up in tears. I have to tell you, because this
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is like her authentic self, her like golden shadow coming
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to the surface. And I said to her, I said,
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I am seeing like feminine qualities come up like I
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used to see like this aggression and defensiveness, right, but
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like we're peeling away this onion in the surface and
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look what's showing up. Like how beautiful and that you
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were able to share with me, how much I've meant
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to you, Like how meaningful that was to me. Anyway,
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That's why I do what I.
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Do, Okay, And you know what we don't We don't
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get enough of that feedback.
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I mean, it's you.
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Know, I've talked about this a lot, and I remember
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when I was teaching some classes in church and at
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that time I was very involved and so forth, and
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it was so frustrating because it's like, you know, am
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I making a difference for these people? And just one
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time someone came in and said, hey, I need to
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tell you, and it's like, wow, that made all the
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difference in the world. So please talk about who you
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are as far as your background, your you.
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Know, I have a private practice in Harrison, New York.
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I am the founder of a foundation which is a
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nonprofit and it's called Through My Eyes th HRU and
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it offers free clinically guided videotaping for chronically medically ill
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individuals who want to leave a video legacy for their
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children and loved ones. Yeah. I've done that for the
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past ten years. I've done over three hundred videos, and
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I'm really looking actually at this point, to expand it
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because I really want it to be more nationally based.
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I'm looking for a partnership. I'm looking for anything. Literally,
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I have absolutely I'm open to anything because I am
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so so passionate about the mission and I see how
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helpful it is for people. So it's my baby that
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I really want to nurture so badly. I'm an adjunct
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faculty member at NYU New York University, and I teach
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a course how to integrate mindfulness practice in Clinical Practice,
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which I love you to therapists, which is so lovely.
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And then there's so many things that I do, but
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I'll just kind of cut to the chase and zoom
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right to the next thing. I recently published a new book.
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It's my second book, and it's called Acier Life. Unleash
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your best self and live the life you want. And
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it's predicated under acceptance, compassion, and empowerment. That's what A
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stands for. I am a Psychology Today blogger and I
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have almost two million readers, which is so exciting. And
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then I also publish on my YouTube channel a guided
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meditation every Thursday morning. Okay, a little bit about me.
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That's who you are.
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So I have a question, and I hope this is
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not going to be offensive, Okay, because so often, and
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I've experienced this personally when we talk about talk therapy
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and I think you understand what I'm saying. Oh yeah,
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I had so many people say to me, you know what,
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I spent years and years and years in talk therapy
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and all we did was talk, yes, And all I
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did was pay the therapist to listen to me talk,
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Whereas I've had others tell me every once in a
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while they'll meet someone who gets to.
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The root cause.
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So when you were talking about your client that had anxiety,
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how did ultimately.
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Yeah, did you get to the root cause of what
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was causing that anxiety? And how do we fix it?
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So tell me your thoughts on that, and sar, what's
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the difference between talk therapy and everything you do? Because
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I know there's a lot of things you do, and
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we're going to talk about that some more.
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Yeah, that's a great question, and I wish more people
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would ask questions like that, because there's different types of
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therapies that's better fit for different types of people. You know,
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I think when you talk traditionally about talk therapy, what
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I'm hearing you say is more supportive in nature, that's not.
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And again it takes different kind of shapes and forms,
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you know. I think for certain people that's very helpful
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and that's all they want, you know. And I say
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to them when I see they're just kind of droning
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on and on and on and telling their story and
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that they need the support, they need to be heard,
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that that is primary for them, I'll say to them.
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It seems to me, right like you've kind of listed these,
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you know, several challenges you want to work on. But
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I'm also hearing that you really want to tell your story,
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you really want to be heard. Do you want to
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focus today? And really just you know that I offer
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you support? Is that? You know? So I give people
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a choice because inevitably, if I lead them in a direction,
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that's my agenda, not theirs, right, So that doesn't work
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for everybody, It just doesn't. So what the type of
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work that I do personally, and I have many people
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who come to me who say they've been in therapy
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and it hasn't been helpful. So I do want to
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say that. Yes, So I think what what makes my
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I'm going to say my experience, my knowledge, you know
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a little bit different is I have skills in different areas.
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So I do something called E MDR, which is I
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movement desensitization reprocessing, and that does more work with a
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subconscious and it's more like in our child's you know,
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deeper work. I do work around polyvagel theory, which is
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more somatic. Right, things that happen in our bodies that
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you know kind of come up as a result of
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anxiety and other things.
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Right.
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So, for example, you know, I do cognitive behavior therapy,
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which again is a different type of So I do
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I pull I'm going to say, from a lot of
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different therapies. And my method that I came up with
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through my experience and my work with people, called the
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East Method, is very systematic and it actually works on stuckness.
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The goal of it is to move through any type
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of barrier stuckness challenge that anyone has. We all have
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stuckness if you're a human being, Okay, we all have stuckness.
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It's part of our humanism and right, So it doesn't
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matter what it is. It could be interpersonal related, it
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could be a relationship, it could be career oriented, it
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could be a personal barrier, it could whatever whatever, and
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it really helps you kind of to moul through that.
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So whatever comes your way throughout your life developmentally. And
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I use it with you know, teenagers, I use it
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with adults. I use it with people with all different ages,
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and they use the lingo, which is really cool too.
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They'll say, like, I didn't quite lean into my values,
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you know, this week, and I realize I have to
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really kind of focus on this, you know, this value
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that I've been a little bit kind of neglecting. So
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I think it depends where the person comes from, you know,
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what their kind of knowledge base is, what their interest is.
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You know, some people, I'm a very direct person. I
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don't give advice because if a therapist is giving you advice,
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then that's not necessarily helpful because I don't have to
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suffer the consequences of other people's actions. So I can't
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tell it be telling you what to do. I could
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say hmm. It seems like there's options you have. I'm
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seeing this option, this option, this option, Right, what do
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you think would work best for you? What do you
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think you know about these options? You know?
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So, so let's get into the E. M.
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D R.
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Because you talk about getting back into that real subconscious,
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and you know, there's there's this whole theory that goes
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on and on and on and on about and I
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happened to believe it, by the way, about the subconscious
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and how that literally is creating our life experiences. And
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as we talk about subconscious not only our own personal
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experience growing up as children, but also when we get
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into the DNA history and all of that type of stuff,
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where we literally inherit some of these emotions and beliefs
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from ancestors years ago and behaviors.
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Yeah, yes, yes, So.
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How do you how do you help people to really
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number one, identify that you know, what you're experiencing is