Mother’s Day got you down? Or maybe it’s her birthday. Or Christmas. Thanksgiving. The last day of school. Father’s Day is the one that gets me weepy and blue. Certain anniversaries? Please. Whatever your reason, whatever the season, holidays and special occasions can be mental health challenges, even in the best of times. Not to mentionContinue reading “How to Get Through Mother’s Day When You’re Dreading It”
Author Archives: Phyllis Capanna, MA, OTR/L
When Your Client Is Silent. Don’t Panic! Try Therapeutic Writing.
It happens: Your session begins in the usual way, either sitting in expectant silence, or posing an open-ended question. Your client looks at you blankly and says, “I really don’t have much going on today.” You ask a few more pointed questions. No, everything’s going pretty well, actually. Yeah, feeling pretty good. Great. Session over?Continue reading “When Your Client Is Silent. Don’t Panic! Try Therapeutic Writing.”
Have Your Therapy Sessions Gone Stale? Try These Pro Tips
Therapists love their work. But the truth is, even the most dedicated therapists can face times when their sessions feel stale. There’s nothing quite as difficult as trying to infuse your sessions with life when you yourself feel uninspired—and a little panicked. There’s nothing wrong with developing a grab bag of tried and trued activitiesContinue reading “Have Your Therapy Sessions Gone Stale? Try These Pro Tips”
Tips for Printing, Cutting and Folding Your Instant Download Printables
Intimidated by downloading and printing at home? Some people shy away from using instant downloads out of fear that the final printed product won’t measure up. It’s true that print-at-home will not have the same quality as a professional printshop. But once you weigh the factors that matter in your situation–quality of print vs. expenseContinue reading “Tips for Printing, Cutting and Folding Your Instant Download Printables”
Making Complex Medication Management Simple and Stress-Free
I Hit the Ground Running When I took over caregiving responsibilities for my Mom, it wasn’t the best of circumstances. My brother was dying of cancer, and I was getting ready to move our mother 500 miles from New Jersey to Maine. She would be leaving the assisted living facility where she’d lived for fourContinue reading “Making Complex Medication Management Simple and Stress-Free”
What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do
9 Strategies for Getting Through Minute-at-a-Time Days And some of those minutes can be difficult to navigate. Our minds—or our hearts—are racing. We’re at loose ends. We have nothing scheduled. We all have jangled, disjointed, difficult days. Some of us have heard the advice to take it a day at a time. But then thereContinue reading “What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do”
Does an Oracle Know Something I Don’t Know?
Last March (2019), I took a leap. I created 30 mandalas with music and a video in 30 days. I’d never drawn mandalas before, never committed to drawing something for 30 days, let alone sharing them publicly, had never written a song a day, had never recorded myself making up songs on the fly, hadContinue reading “Does an Oracle Know Something I Don’t Know?”
A Flexible and Fun Tool in Your Wellness Toolbox: Cards Decks
Besides relieving us of the job of generating ideas just when we’re least likely to generate good ones, card decks give us ultimate flexibility to experiment and discover new strategies and new information about ourselves, in the process of looking for ways to feel better.
7 Simple Soothers for Anxious Times
Way back before I had any coping skills, my life was pretty stressful, and I found drugs. There’s a lot more to that story, but that’s the gist of it. Drugs calmed me down. Booze seemed to melt all my fizzling and jangled wiring. I found more and different drugs to put into my body,Continue reading “7 Simple Soothers for Anxious Times”
10 Ways to Use Wellness Cards in Your Therapy Practice
TL;DR: Download the free tip sheet As a therapist, you know all too well that talking doesn’t always cut it. Neither do thinking, intending, wishing and praying. In fact, none of these alone creates change in your clients’ lives. The thing that makes for real change in people’s lives is behavior. And all the cognitiveContinue reading “10 Ways to Use Wellness Cards in Your Therapy Practice”
Possibility Printables 