Reappraisal (changing the meaning we give to experiences) has been repeatedly shown to be one of the most effective ways we have to regulate our emotions.  It's one of the star components of effective emotion-regulation, coping-skill toolkits ... and it's important to realise that these toolkits can be very helpful (De Castella, 2017).  Reappraisal is important across a variety of difficult states ... depression (Cheng, 2017), anxiety (Goldin, 2017), anger, interpersonal conflict, minor hassles (Richardson, 2017), and major life difficulties.

“

The brains of human beings seem built to process stories better than other forms of input ...  

” - Thomas B Newman, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics

Here are a series of forms that I use almost every session with clients, or for screening and orientation at the start of therapy:

This blog post is downloadable both as a Word doc and as a PDF file.

Here are a series of forms that I use almost every session with clients, or for screening and orientation at the start of therapy:

“

We camouflage our true being before others to protect ourselves against criticism or rejection.  This protection comes at a steep price.  When we are not truly known by the other people in our lives, we are misunderstood.  When we are misunderstood, especially by family and friends, we join the "lonely crowd."  Worse, when we succeed in hiding our being from others, we tend to lose touch with our real selves.  This loss of self contributes to illness in its myriad forms.

” - Sidney Jourard

Here are a series of forms that I use almost every session with clients, or for screening and orientation at the start of therapy: