March 2019

29 March 2019

Life after OCD with Shawnté Johnson

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast! Today, we talk about life after OCD.

So often, my clients in my private practice have questions about what recovery for anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder looks like.  Clients and social media followers are often asking me what “recovery” means and how can they get there.  Understanding recovery is a crucial part of taking those first steps towards fear.  

Today, I am thrilled to share with you Shawnté Johnson, an OCD advocate and blogger who not only talks the talk on recovery but walks the walk too.  Shawnté Johnson has a blog called Life After OCD and she talks so beautifully not just about life after her recovery from OCD and Anxiety, but also life before and during treatment.  

In this week’s episode, Shawnté talks about how “doing hard things” is worth it and how she learned to embrace facing her fears and took on an approach where she commits to facing her fears every day.  Shawnté shares her own story and how she chose her own values over fear.  She talks about how she was “enslaved” to her OCD and how she “chose faith over fear.”  

What I loved so much about what she talks about is how fear was motivating much of her decisions and how she found her own form of motivation to take her life back from anxiety, fear, and panic.  Shawnté also talks about recovery being a long game and how she stays aligned with the core concept of her OCD and anxiety treatment. There is life after OCD!  

You can find Shawnté at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterocd/

Before we go, I want to remind you about upcoming events that I am thrilled to be speaking at: the OCD SoCal Conference and OCDeconstruct!  

This Saturday, March 30, I will be speaking at the OCD Southern California 4^th Annual Conference alongside other OCD specialists and advocates.  I’ll be speaking during the breakout session titled Managing OCD Roadblocks: Creative and Effective Tools to Tackle ERP. For registration information, visit ocdsocal.org or click HERE.

OCDeconstruct is a free online conference designed to give those with OCD, and their loved ones, the information needed to understand key concepts related to the disorder so they can get a productive start on treatment. During the conference, six therapists will present on topics including intrusive thoughts, ERP, family dynamics, medicine and more. OCDeconstruct happens on Saturday, April 13 and will run about 4 hours.  

Do you want to get weekly free content from us, right to your inbox?  SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR NEW WEEKLY NEWSLETTER! The weekly newsletter includes free mental health tips and tools, information about upcoming events with Kimberley. and free coupons for CBT School products.  

22 March 2019

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit.  You are going to LOVE this week’s podcast interview with Dr. Reid Wilson.  For those who don’t know Dr. Reid Wilson, he is a world-class specialist in the area of Anxiety Disorders.  Dr. Reid Wilson is the Director of the Anxiety Disorders Treatment Center in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC, and is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Dr. Reid Wilson is the author of the amazing book for Panic Disorder, called Don’t Panic, and the co-author of wonderful books such as Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents, Stop Obsessing! and Playing with Anxiety.

Dr. Reid Wilson is a Founding Clinical Fellow of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and a Fellow of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.  So, I am sure you are wowed already, but wait for it! This episode will blow your mind even more.  

In this week’s episode, I talk with Dr. Reid Wilson about a perspective change and an attitude change from one where we do not want anxiety to one where we WANT anxiety.   I know this may seem strange, but believe me, this will change your whole game when it comes to the treatment of anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders.   

In this episode, we address the following topics. 

• Why do we want anxiety? 
• What is going on in our brains when we have anxiety and when we face our fears 
• How to get a client to do Exposure & Response Prevention 
• How to Engage the Ambivalent or resistant OCD Client
• A different approach to the ERP hierarchy? 
• How to have a complete Attitude change about fear and anxiety.  

Please consult Reid’s other site, Anxieties.com, for additional information, videos, resources, and treatment options.

Before we go, I have a few exciting events to tell you about!  I’ll be speaking at both the OCD SoCal Conference and OCDeconstruct.

On Saturday, March 30, I will be speaking at the OCD Southern California 4^thAnnual Conference alongside other OCD specialists and advocates.  I’ll be speaking during the breakout session titled Managing OCD Roadblocks: Creative and Effective Tools to Tackle ERP. For registration information, visit ocdsocal.org or click HERE.

OCDeconstruct is a free online conference designed to give those with OCD, and their loved ones, the information needed to understand key concepts related to the disorder so they can get a productive start on treatment. During the conference, six therapists will present on topics including intrusive thoughts, ERP, family dynamics, medicine and more. OCDeconstruct happens on Saturday, April 13 and will run about 4 hours.  

Do you want to get weekly free content from us, right to your inbox?  SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR NEW WEEKLY NEWSLETTER! The weekly newsletter includes free mental health tips and tools, information about upcoming events with Kimberley. and free coupons for CBT School products.  

15 March 2019

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast! Want to know four massive changes I have made in my life? Well, here you go! In today’s episode, I will present to you four massive changes that I have made in my life that have changed the way I see myself, the way I spend my time and, lastly, the approach I have with perfectionism and mistakes.  

If you are someone who is hard on yourself, beats yourself up for not being perfect or productive or just for existing, this episode might be really helpful for you.  If you are someone who lets fear stop you from pursuing your dreams or even doing a smaller task, this is the episode for you.    In this podcast episode, we will address time management, setting intentions and surrounding yourself with people who will inspire you and hold you accountable to your big dreams and with the hard struggles you are going through. 

One of the points I am so excited about is my new plan to FAIL MORE! Yes, you heard and read correctly.  I plan to fail more this year.  More than I ever have. As Amy Porterfield says in this podcast episode, failing can get you closer to your goals.  As I also plan to aim higher and be 100% intentional as I go.  

The massive changes I have made in my life have made me into a bolder, braver and more confident person.  I hope they inspire you too.  

8 March 2019

Welcome to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit podcast.  This week’s podcast episode is very dear to my heart.  My intention with this podcast is to give you all some direction with food and body, specifically if you struggle with immense fear around food.  This week’s episode has the most amazing guest, Evelyn Tribole, the author of Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.  

In this week’s interview, we break down some of the barriers between fear and food.  Evelyn does a great job at identifying why there is so much fear surrounding food, addressing societal, cultural and familial rules around food.  We discussed how, for many, food creates anxiety for us personally, or how our anxiety manifests a bad relationship with food.  

Evelyn Tribole discusses : 

• What is Intuitive Eating? 
• Why is Intuitive Eating so important?
• What is diet culture and why is it such an important concept to understand? 
• What happens when you don’t Intuitively Eat? 

Evelyn also answers some questions given specifically by the CBT School family.  Here are a few questions she addressed:

• How can I introduce myself to Intuitive Eating? 
• What are the steps of Intuitive Eating? 
• How do I avoid the extremes of eating? I am either eating “too unhealthy and too healthy as a compulsion.”
• How do I address Emotional Eating or “bad” eating because of a hard day? 
• How do I attempt Intuitive Eating if I HAVE to lose weight because of health reasons? 
• How do I manage the fear of gaining more weight? 
• How do you make all foods neutral whilst also finding joy in food? 
• How do I not get trapped in diet culture? 
• How long does it take to get a good handle of Intuitive Eating? 
• How do I begin to desire and have the persistence to intuitively eat while having an Eating Disorder?
• Due to mood changes, how can I eat when I don’t want to? 
• What is the best way to stick with Intuitive Eating?
• What is the best way to approach Nutrition for Anxiety Disorder? 
• How does Anxiety impact hunger cues. etc.? 
• How do I address Avoidant and Restrictive Food Intake Disorder? 

For more information on Evelyn Tribole, visit: https://www.evelyntribole.com/

Do you want to get weekly free content from us, right to your inbox?  SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR NEW WEEKLY NEWSLETTER! The weekly newsletter includes free mental health tips and tools, information about upcoming events with Kimberley. and free coupons for CBT School products.  

1 March 2019

Not Alone Notes (Morgan Rondinelli and Molly Fishback)

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit.

One of the most common statements I get from new clients when I meet them in my office is, “I feel so alone.”   After waiting and being so afraid to finally talk with someone about their mental illness and personal struggles, they are overwhelmed with isolation and loneliness.  The experience of feeling alone and wondering if you are the only one on this planet that is suffering in this way is a common one.   Given the stigma of mental illness, we are often shamed into keeping our mental illness and mental struggles private and suffering in the dark alone.    

If you have ever felt this way, or you know someone who feels this way, you are not alone.  In this episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit, we talk with Morgan Rondinelli and Molly Fishback about their project called Not Alone Notes.  In this episode, Morgan and Molly share their own stories of feeling alone and unseen in their struggles with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  Together, they joined hands from across the country to send personally painted and written notes to those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB’s).  

My hope after today’s episode is the you begin to understand that you are not alone and there is a whole community out there who wants you to know that they are on your side.   

Here is a little blurb from their website: 

“The idea from this project stemmed from becoming pen pals with several friends from OCDcon. Morgan was writing back and forth with them and wanted to somehow reach out to strangers with OCD. Morgan loves snail mail because there is something special about receiving a handwritten letter, so she wanted to pass that on to others.

In October of 2017, it started simply as a link to a Google Form on Morgan’s blog. Shortly after, Molly reached out to Morgan with the idea of handmaking notecards for the project. Not Alone Notes has continued to grow as Molly and Morgan work together to send letters to individuals with OCD and related disorders.” 

In this episode, Molly and Morgan get really vulnerable and showcase proof that you are not alone. They talk about their own recovery journey, what it was like to begin Exposure and Response Prevention treatment, and how it feels to be at different stages of recovery.   In effort to ensure that you are not alone in this mental health journey, Morgan and Molly also share their specific steps of ERP and how they are getting creative with ERP.

To learn more about Not Alone Notes, visit: https://www.notalonenotes.org/

Before we go, I want to talk about my upcoming exciting weekend in Colorado at the OCD Gamechangers event that Chrissie Hodges is putting on. I will be speaking alongside other licensed clinicians on important topics about OCD recovery.  OCD advocates will take the stage to discuss the emotional impact that OCD has had on their recovery.  The event takes place on Saturday, March 2.  Click HERE for more information on the event or to get tickets.