Therapy in a Nutshell

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I’m Emma McAdam, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and my mission is to make mental health resources more easy to access. I take therapy skills and psychological research and condense them down into bite-sized nuggets of help. I’m here to spread the message that while mental illness is real, it’s common, it’s debilitating, it’s also treatable. There are dozens of research-backed approaches to treating depression, anxiety, and other mental illness. Change, growth, and healing are possible. Please keep courage! Try one little thing every day to improve your life and health and things can get so much better! Therapy in a Nutshell, and the information provided by Emma McAdam, is solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and is not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. Therapy in a Nutshell and it’s logo are Registered Trademarks of Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Episodes

Thursday Mar 10, 2022

4 Ways to Manage News Anxiety

Thursday Mar 10, 2022

The news can make you really anxious, but you can learn to manage that anxiety. If doom scrolling is ruining your day or if the steady stream of bad news is getting you down, depressed, or overwhelmed, take a few minutes to learn how to manage anxiety about the news.

It’s been a rough weekend for Ukraine and the world. The news coming out of there is painful and scary to watch. And I know it’s affecting a lot of people.

Over the weekend, one of my friends posted how the news was making her anxious, discouraged, overwhelmed, and I know that’s the experience for so many of you kind, sensitive people. It’s stressful to care, but even more than that, our brilliant brain believes we are in danger when we read about other people who are.

So in this video we’re going to talk about how your brain has a reptilian reaction to the news and this can mess up your life, and four ways you can actively manage your brain so that the news doesn’t make you depressed or overwhelmed with anxiety.

News anxiety doesn't haven't to control you. Learn to manage it in a healthy way.

Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=03102022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.

In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Tuesday Mar 08, 2022

Morning Anxiety? It Might Be Cortisol Awakening Response

Tuesday Mar 08, 2022

If you go to bed worrying about your day, your body’s like, “Hey, let me help you out. I’m going to give you a dump truck load of cortisol the minute you wake up, doesn’t that sound great?” Then you may experience anxiety upon waking. This is called the cortisol awakening response. It's connected to your circadian rhythm, and depending on how you look at it, it’s a blessing or a curse.

If you wake up to anxiety first thing in the morning, you know how uncomfortable it can be. In this video we’re going to talk about how cortisol is different in the morning and what you can do about it to better decrease your morning anxiety.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that your adrenal glands pump out in response to fear or stress. It helps your body prepare for action and it makes your heart beat faster, and can make you feel jittery and anxious. Even for people without high levels of stress cortisol levels are generally highest within the first hour of waking up.

Some people wake up with a jolt of anxiety, so powerful that it makes the whole day seem overwhelming. Some people feel frozen in their beds. Some people get activated, irritable, jittery about their day or engage in frenetic activity (this one’s me). Or that jolt of cortisol makes some people wake up to panic attacks or feel like they’re about to have one. Not the way you wanted to wake up.

Why would your body do that? Cortisol’s function is to help you get alert and perform. If you’re playing soccer, cortisol helps you get pumped up and play hard. Cortisol can help you be motivated to finish a report for work or jump out of the way of a speeding car.

But if you go to bed worrying about everything you have to do tomorrow, the brain makes a secret plan: “I’m going to help my human get super activated right when he wakes up.” So it plans a little surprise party for you. Alarm goes off, Surprise! Dump-truck load of cortisol.”

Anxiety is an emotion. Emotions aren’t just bad things that happen to you, emotions serve a function, and when it’s functional anxiety helps you take appropriate action to stay safe and get things done.

But when we have too much anxiety that we don’t know what to do with, anxiety can trap you in a cycle of worrying about things without taking action, and make it hard to complete tasks.

Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=03082022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Wednesday Feb 02, 2022

How Self-Diagnosis Can Harm You

Wednesday Feb 02, 2022

The internet is really cool. You can learn all about psychology and mental health diagnoses, but you aren’t learning it in any order, which means that you aren’t getting the first lecture in every psych class - which means it’s more likely that you’ll self-diagnose depression or anxiety in a way that can be harmful for you.

In this podcast you’re going to learn all about how trendy psychology may be convincing you that you’re broken, depressed, or have an anxiety disorder and how to prevent yourself from getting sucked along with psych trends.

We humans have a tendency to read into things and twist them to fit our own reality. We see ourselves in vague descriptions, we empathize with characters in books, and when we hear a list of symptoms in a diagnosis, we think, “Uh-oh, that sounds like me. Maybe I am depressed, or maybe I did have a disturbed childhood."

It's easy to find information about depression diagnosis or anxiety diagnosis on the internet, but self-diagnosis may harm you. Right now anyone with internet access has the ability to look up a list of symptoms and decide if they fit the criteria for any disorder out there. Videos and blogs and webMD articles can all tell you what to look out for with any mental illness. But what they’re all missing is the first class in Psych 101. And this seems wrong to me.

Tons of people are essentially making money telling you that you might be broken but they aren’t taking the time to tell you first that you’re likely to jump to conclusions. And this can make you feel broken. I

n Psych 101 the teacher almost always starts the course off by telling people, “As you learn about these diagnoses, you’re going to be tempted to see yourself in every one of them.” We have a tendency to self-diagnose, to label ourselves and to take suggestions as if they’re fact. But just because you sympathize with a list of symptoms, doesn’t mean you actually have that disorder.

I’ve heard this lecture at the beginning of most of my psych classes, but even into grad school, and even with that knowledge, it was easy for me as I went through DSM to start seeing myself in every diagnosis.

We have a tendency to diagnose ourselves inaccurately because we don’t have the context to see that it’s common to over-diagnose yourself.

Looking for affordable online therapy? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=02022022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Saturday Jan 29, 2022

How to Stop the Shame Spiral

Saturday Jan 29, 2022

When you make a mistake you have two choices. Knowing the difference between shame and guilt can change your life. Let’s say you hurt someone you really care about. Guilt says “What I did was wrong. I made a mistake.” Shame says “I am a mistake. There’s something wrong with me.”

Is shame ruining your life? Is shame ruining your relationships? Do you feel like you’re a piece of crap? Do you feel broken when you mess up? Shame leads to defensiveness, trying to cover up what you’ve done, or just giving up.

Brene Brown teaches how shame ruins relationships, but in this video I go into detail. Shame is a very subtle form of avoidance. It’s your super smart brain trying to squirm it’s way out of responsibility by saying that you had no choice because you’re just a bad person.

But shame is a lie. It’s a distortion. Shame can lead to self-punishment, withdrawal, blowing up relationships, and destructive behaviors like drug use. On the other hand, guilt - I’m not talking about exaggerated guilt due to impossible standards - but honest guilt can actually help improve relationships. For an addict in recovery, feeling guilt can be a sign that you’re going through a healthy recovery process by owning your behaviors and trying to change them.

Want to let go of shame and excessive guilt? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=01292022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Thursday Jan 27, 2022

How to Stop Panic Attacks 3/3

Thursday Jan 27, 2022

Okay, in the last two videos we talked about the difference between an anxiety attack and a panic attack, and how you can get stuck in a cycle of having panic attacks. In this video we’ll talk about how to stop panic attacks. It’s a bit paradoxical, but it works.

In the previous video we talked about the panic attack cycle. 1- a sensation or feeling, 2- you judge that feeling to be unacceptable, bad or dangerous, 3- this triggers an escalating FFF response, and 4- your brain learns that panic and anxiety are “dangerous”. So let’s take a deeper look at step 2, the thoughts that transform a physical sensation into something we see as dangerous.

Here are common ways of thinking that trigger panic attacks. The Big issue is believing that panic attacks are dangerous. Panic attacks are inconvenient, they are uncomfortable, they can be embarrassing or they can interfere with what you want to be doing- but they aren’t physically dangerous. All these uncomfortable symptoms are just the body tossing you into FFF mode, which makes it less likely that you’ll pass out, stop breathing or any of those other fears.

If someone is having a panic attack and they go to the ER, an EKG will show a regular, but rapid heartbeat. You pass out with low blood pressure, a panic attack takes your blood pressure up. Heart attacks feel worse when you walk around, move about, panic attacks feel better.

Looking for affordable online therapy? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=01272022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Friday Jan 07, 2022

The Panic Attack Cycle 2/3 How to Stop Panic Attacks

Friday Jan 07, 2022

In this video you’re going to learn how to stop having panic attacks. You’ll learn what you’re doing that makes them come back. You’ll learn the difference between a trigger and the real cause of panic attacks. And then you’ll learn the three steps to stopping panic attacks from coming back. But there is a straightforward process to stop recurring panic attacks. As Nick Wignall says “Once you understand what panic really is and how it works, it’s possible to completely free yourself from it.”

So let’s talk about what leads to panic attacks so we can understand how to stop them. Because, you see, panic is all about feeling in danger when you’re actually safe. A panic attack is anxiety about anxiety, it’s a loop that feeds itself. (1) A panic attack is often triggered by a physical sensation)- something like your heart pounding or your stomach feeling queasy. And this may have been triggered by a performance review at work or something that reminds you of your past. Trigger is any event or sensation or feeling that takes your anxiety up a bit. It’s anything that you/your body interpret as being dangerous. Panic attacks are different than anxiety attacks and you can learn how to stop them.

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=01072022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Monday Jan 03, 2022

What’s the Difference Between Panic Attacks, Anxiety Attacks, and Panic Disorder? 1/3 Panic Attacks

Monday Jan 03, 2022

What’s the difference between an anxiety attack, a panic attack, and panic disorder? This is important because people sometimes use these terms interchangeably, they both have a lot of overlapping symptoms, but the treatment for each of them is different.

So in this episode we’ll talk about the difference, in the next episode we’ll talk about good and bad advice for treating them, and in the third episode we’ll talk about how to stop panic attacks.

Okay, so what’s the difference? First, definitions vary because the DSM-5, the diagnostic manual of mental health disorders, doesn’t define an anxiety attack.

Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, physical discomfort, and fear. Anxiety attacks usually come in anticipation of some event. You might have work stress or a family event or financial trouble or all three, and the stress becomes overwhelming. Anxiety builds over time until it reaches a breaking point. While anxiety may build over hours or days, anxiety attacks usually last less than 30 minutes. P

anic attacks are defined in the DSM-5. Around one in three people will have at least one panic attack in their lifetime. With panic attacks, a sense of overwhelming fear comes on suddenly. They are more like a balloon popping.

There are two types of panic attacks: unexpected panic attacks which seem to come out of nowhere, and expected panic attacks which come in response to some kind of phobia. For example, if you’re afraid of snakes and suddenly come across one, that may trigger a panic attack.

Both panic attacks and anxiety attacks include a sense of fear, discomfort, and the FFF response triggers physical symptoms like fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, tightness of throat, dizziness, nausea, sweating, dry mouth, shaking) etc.

Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=01032022

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Friday Dec 31, 2021

Is This Why You’re Depressed? Stop Should-ing on Yourself

Friday Dec 31, 2021

Here's one way you make your depression worse: should-ing on yourself.

A should statement is a cognitive distortion. It’s based on an overly rigid rule inside your head that you aren’t able to live up to. Shoulds generate a lot of shame. This way of talking to ourselves is like having a little shoulder angel constantly finding fault and criticizing you. But shoulds just aren’t that helpful in actually creating change - they mostly just make us miserable and discouraged.

Is this what's making you depressed? Are shoulds making you feel like you're never good enough? Shoulding is a bad habit that sends a message to your brain that you’ll never be good enough. It creates hopelessness, which leads to depression.

So how do we stop shoulding on ourselves? How can we stop making ourselves more depressed? In order to resolve these shouldy feelings, we’re going to use the emotion processing model: Notice, Pause, Explore, Clarify and Act.

So the two shoulds we’re going to look at for our example are “I should always be happy” and “I should spend more time with my kids.”

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: h ttps://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=12312021

Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Monday Dec 13, 2021

How to Release Trauma From Your Body

Monday Dec 13, 2021

Trauma is very common. But despite how common it is, trauma treatment is complicated, and complex trauma, stemming from years of abuse, really impacts the brain in long-lasting ways. So I’m not going to pretend that I can just teach you how to fix it in one short video. But we can break trauma treatment down into practical steps. It’s not that hard to learn how to release trauma in the body. So let’s talk about that.

In my previous video I talked about how trauma gets trapped in the body- the FFF response gets kicked on over and over, it doesn’t get resolved, and it become habitual, essentially a muscle memory that turns on that physiological response. Adrenaline and cortisol flood the body, the pupils narrow, the muscles tense, the heart and lungs pump faster, the immune system and digestion turn off.

When it comes to trauma, our body is not only reacting to the present moment's sense of danger or safety, but the memory of past danger that has basically been stored in our nervous system. This activated, stressed-out, hypervigilant response becomes habitual, and when it’s chronic, the toxic stress harms your body and makes it difficult to function mentally and emotionally.

But your beautiful, brilliant body is not designed to just leave you trapped there; it’s designed to heal, to repair, to connect, to restore its sense of safety.

Want to work on past trauma with a licensed therapist? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=12132021

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.

Friday Nov 26, 2021

30/30 What‘s the Core Issue? How to Actually Change

Friday Nov 26, 2021

Buy the full, ad-free Emotion Processing course now for only $147 https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/emotion-processing?utm_campaign=Nov%2026,%202021&utm_medium=Description&utm_source=podcast

Just “stopping it” often doesn’t work, and it has negative side effects. If “just stop it” worked for every problem, then you wouldn’t be taking this course and no one would ever come to therapy.

If we could just willpower our way to change then none of us would feel stuck or need help to grow. Almost everyone who comes to me for therapy has already tried “just stop it” and it’s not working. Nothing they are trying is working.

One way of looking at that is, “They just haven’t tried the “right” behavior yet. Try a different diet, try a different way of forcing your kids to do stuff. But what if the “solution” is the problem? What if focusing on behavior change is, at best, a waste of energy and, at worst, it’s making things worse?

This lesson is #30 from the How to Process your Emotions course.

Looking for affordable online therapy? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional for $65/week. Try it now for 10% off: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell

Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=11262021

Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell

Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.