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Typical Salary For A PhD Level Clinical Psychologist
Getting a PhD in clinical psychology and becoming a licensed psychologist is no easy feat. This process typically requires around a decade of postsecondary education: 4 years undergrad, 5-6 years completing the doctoral degree, another year for residency, and then an extra year to complete supervised practice.
A question then floats into many folks’ mind: Is the process worth it (at least financially speaking)?
Yes, yes, of course – we work because the job brings us meaning and helps support humanity. But meaning and supporting our fellow human beings doesn’t pay the bills. Let’s get to brass tacks: How much money can you make as a clinical psychologist?
Of course, the answer is it depends – mostly on where you work as a clinical psychologist. For example, some folks work in a hospital-based setting in a psychologist position. On the other hand, other people go into private practice or an academic setting. Some do a combination of both.
In this post, I go over some of the typical pathways and the general estimates that we might expect to make in each position.
Working in a hospital setting
In Canada, the typical starting rates for hospital setting positions tend to be around 40 to 50 dollars an hour. Assuming a full-time position, this falls somewhere between $80,000 to $100,000 per year.
Depending on your years of experience, skill set, education, and additional roles taken in the hospital, your salary is likely to increase with time. From my limited knowledge, it is less likely for this salary to cross significantly beyond $150,000 without taking on a more substantial role (e.g., senior scientist, clinic head, etc.).
Consequently, the amount you receive in the public health sector is certainly comfortable, though not outlandish by any means. The benefits of working in these settings is that you retain a stable career and all that it confers (e.g., pension, insurance, etc.). However, if you are looking to make spending 10 extra years on further education and training more commensurate to your income, this may not be as lucrative as an option (though you probably should not have gone the PhD route if being rich was your priority).
Working in private practice
Psychological associations in Canada have an ‘ethical guideline’ for how much psychologists should charge. For example, in British Columbia this is about $235 per session. However, some folks I have seen in Ontario, for example, charge between $250 to $300 per session.
Most psychologist usually start by joining a private practice rather than starting their own practice from the get-go. This is to avoid financial overhead, administrative headaches, and needing to market their services to acquire new customers.
As a result, the clinic takes care of the costs of admin and client acquisition. In return, they take a percentage split of your fees. The numbers differ (make sure to negotiate!) but a licensed psychologist should be able to negotiate a ~70/30 split. That is, they take 30, you keep 70.
Let’s do some quick maths. Let’s say you charge $250 per session. A 70% split would mean you make $175 per billable hour. Let’s also say you see 25 clients weekly (you can certainly see more, but most clinicians feel this is the golden zone without feeling burnt out from writing notes and having adequate breaks in between sessions). Accounting for four weeks’ vacation, that would be $175 per session * 25 clinical hours a week * 48 weeks = $210,000.
Not too shabby.
If you see more clients or start your own practice with your own associates, you can probably clear that estimated number by a fairly large margin.
However, it is important to recognize there are a few asterisks to this number. First, you likely won’t start with that many clinical hours. Acquiring and building your case load will take time. Second, there are not going to be the same benefits in private practice as working a salaried job. Finally, hours are flexible – but that can be a good or bad thing (you are more prone to working late, on weekends, or feel isolated). On the other hand, some people find immense freedom in choosing their own hours. To each their own.
Working in academia
Tenure-track professors tend to start off in the high five/low six-figures and then climb their way up as they become Associate and then Full Professors. For some of the particularly esteemed fellows, I see numbers above $200,000.
Typically, there is a bit of opportunity cost associated with the tenure-track option which makes professorship a less attractive option in and of itself for financial gain. For example, these positions are quite competitive. Therefore, many folks interested in pursuing this option have to work for a few years in a postdoc position to accrue more research experience. Postdocs usually do not pay super well – probably between 50-70k.
On the other hand, professorships may lend itself well financially too based on leveraging opportunities in this position. For example, being a professor may increase your ability to take on consulting roles, hold training workshops, obtain royalties from (text)books, and/or teach courses.
Mix-and-Match: Taking on a combination of roles
The nice thing about being a clinical psychologist is that you can take on a multiple of roles at the same time. For example, many psychologists choose to work part-time at a hospital to get some benefits of stability working in the public sector while simultaneously doing private practice on the side. Choose your own adventure!
In sum, psychologists can absolutely make a comfortable living – though this career probably should not be the first-line option if your goal is to make bank. Hopefully, this post was helpful to get a sense of the financial component of an otherwise very enjoyable, flexible, and (personally) meaningful career.
If you’d like to learn more (through video format) and also see how much I made in graduate school, here’s a fun video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t031OtU3xM
Best wishes,
P
Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash
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How Happy People Stay Happy – A Therapist’s Opinion
Happiness is a very important goal for most people. However, the art of being happy is surprisingly challenging and most folks find the goal of always being happy – or even being happy sometimes – pretty elusive.
I’m not an expert of happiness by any means (besides being a fairly happy person myself). Throughout my time as a therapist, however, I have found a few nuggets of wisdom that might get folks a bit closer to happiness.
In this post, I share a few reflections on how happy people stay happy.
Happy people see meaning in suffering
Life is not always easy. Life can be hard. Life can be suffering. Sometimes, life is downright shit.
I like to think of the analogy that we are all on a boat. Sometimes we are in the sunny clear weather and everything is hunky-dory. Other times, we experience the nasty temper of the sea and we need to weather life’s storm.
Some folks react to the bad parts of the journey with thoughts such as “this is unfair” and “why did this happen to me?” and sink into an emotional turmoil. On the other hand, I find that happy people tend to place meaning into life’s struggles.
For example, they see adversity as something that they grow from and become stronger as a result. Even in the context of a break-up or a passing of a loved one, they are able to reframe this experience into something of significance. In the wise words of Winnie-The-Pooh: “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Happy people understand how we act can come before how we feel
In life, we are usually guided by our emotions. If we feel happy, we smile. If we are sad, we stay in bed and isolate ourselves.
Following our emotions is not inherently a bad thing. However, this can be tricky at times because we may keep certain unpleasant emotions alive by following what the emotions are telling us to do. For example, a person who is depressed may continue to stay at home, lie in bed, and withdraw from people and things that give them joy. This maintains the depression cycle.
Happy people tend to recognize that behaviours can precede emotions. That how we act can affect how we feel. For example, taking a walk even when we are tired can make us feel a little better afterwards. Or smiling even if we are feeling sad can lift up our emotions a little bit.
Therefore, happy people keep to the foundations when they notice that their mood is low. For example, getting sunlight in the morning, keeping to a social and physical routine, and continuing to the things that give them joy and meaning. Yes, it is important to give yourself some compassion and self-care when you are feeling depressed. At the same time, if these behaviours are keeping you stuck, then it is helpful to know that what we do can change how we feel.
Sometimes, you have to give a little to get a little.
Happy people develop a sense of purpose
“A person who has a why can bear almost any how” – Nietzsche.
Meaning comes from identifying your values – that is, what is truly important to you. Values are different for each person. Some common values I commonly hear: family, stability, health, relationships, career, being kind, compassionate (among others).
Take some time to consider what gives you meaning. Perhaps you felt best when you were learning a new language or hobby. Maybe when you were performing well in your area of expertise. Or when you helped someone out and made their day a little better. Even having your cup of coffee in the morning and simply enjoying the moment. Once you find your values, act in accordance with them.
Some folks struggle with some all or nothing thinking in the context of meaning. For example: “If I can’t change the world, what’s the point of helping one person?”
I personally really like the idea of the ‘rippling effect’ by Irvin Yalom, the founder of Existential Psychotherapy. The rippling effect is the idea that doing a good deed is like dropping a stone in the middle of a lake. We see a few ripples at first but then the ripples quickly disappear. However, the ripples don’t actually disappear – they just become invisible to the naked eye. In reality, the effects of your actions continue to ripple across time and space. Perhaps a small kind gesture you provided to a stranger on a whim one day ended up leading to some profound changes down the road.
We will never know, but isn’t it nice to think about it?
Happy people focus on the process rather than the outcome
What you get is sometimes out of your control. What you do is not.
People who are outcome-oriented tend to attribute their success to whether or not they got the job, received the award, or got their crush to say yes to going to the prom with them. People who are process-oriented attribute their success to simply applying for the job or asking the person out.
See the difference?
A person who is outcome-oriented puts their feelings in the hands of something outside of their control. “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be someone who hates peaches.” Your crush can still reject you even if you are the most-awesomest person in the world.
On the other hand, a process-oriented person judges themselves based on their actions. They succeeded the moment they studied hard for the exam, applied for their dream job, or asked out their crush – regardless if they said yes or no. By changing their perception of success to something about themselves and their actions, this person is never disappointed.
The paradox is that when we focus on the process of doing the right things, the outcomes likely end up more positive anyway. On the other hand, people who focus on the outcome sometimes start feeling really anxious, which can affect performance and reduce chances of success.
Happy people provide value to others
Humans are innately social creatures. As disconnected as we may be right now in the modern world, I (as an annoying optimist) believe that deep down we like being kind to others and giving when we can – at least to people who are truly appreciative.
Value can be provided in a number of ways. It can be showing that you truly understand the other person, helping them through a tough time, or solving a problem by developing expertise.
One way that I have found helpful to improve my own self-esteem and provide better value to other people is through developing my skills in an area. For example, becoming a good clinician and helping people through therapy. Or developing my writing and helping folks through these posts. If you suck at something, that’s okay. The first step to be somewhat good at something is to suck at it. So focus on the process and push on through to keep working. Something being challenging can be rewarding in its own right.
Some folks get stuck on what specific skill they should be developing and if the path they are taking is the correct one. I believe that there is no one right path. And there is no way of knowing until you have started journey in the first place. Anything you really stay committed to improving the craft and providing value to others can eventually become the right path. Take the first bold step and keep going!
Happy people realize that life is a paradox
If you want to get something, you first need to give. To force yourself to sleep is to stay awake. To want stability is to accept instability and join the dance of life. Even to strive for happiness can be seen as unhappiness.
In the heart of this message is a sort of acceptance.
That it is okay to prefer something (like being asleep rather than awake at night), but forcing something to happen rarely ever works. Instead, accept both being awake or asleep, being stable or unstable, being happy or unhappy, and allow it all to be a possibility. Paradoxically, you might get a little closer to your goal through true acceptance.
Happy people realize that being happy is not the end all be all
I used to think of happiness as a very important goal. Nowadays, I prefer to see happiness as a by-product of doing the right things – working hard, providing values to others, being present in the moment, and finding meaning in the things I do. For me, that’s sufficient. And if I also happen to be happy in the moment, then all the better.
I think of following the above recommendations as a way of cultivating the right environment for happiness to come out more frequently. Like tending to a garden so that little happiness critters come more often. However, happiness can still be fleeting and striving for it only makes it want to disappear.
Ultimately, happy people recognize that they are not always going to be happy. But if we’re doing the right things, then at the very least we are content knowing we are living life in a way that is consistent with our values.
Best wishes,
P
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
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How To Win Scholarships in Graduate School For Clinical Psychology
Introduction
I would like to preface this post by saying that I am by no means an expert on winning scholarships. However, throughout my graduate degree, I have had to apply to a number of different funding sources like grants, scholarships, research awards. In total, I have secured around $200,000 in total funding. This number sounds impressive but remember that this amount is spread across five or so years of graduate school (which the math quickly renders less cool).
Some places I have received funding from include:
- Social Science and Humanities Research Council
- Canadian Sleep Society
- Canadian Psychological Association
- Mitacs
- National Register of Health Service Psychologists
- …and a few travel and teaching grants and awards.
This post is meant to provide some reflections about strategies that can be helpful to increase your chances for success. For those of you starting graduate school in clinical psychology, I hope this post provides a few insights that help you on your journey to secure funding.
Recommendation #1: Make sure you apply
A certain someone once said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Many students decide against applying for research funding, travel grant, or leadership award because they feel like they won’t get it, or they don’t deserve it. Imposter syndrome makes a fool out of all of us.
There have been many times where I did not think I would be successful in applying, but I gave it a shot anyways. Sometimes I was right. Other times, I was pleasantly surprised.
You lose nothing by applying. In fact, I think you stand to benefit a lot even if you don’t get the award. For example, I think of grant writing as a skill. You learn to write concisely and in a way people understand; to manage time and organize information properly; and to sell your ideas as something that is worthwhile and deserves money. By practicing through applying for awards, these types of skills can be cultivated over time and increase your chances of success down the road. Moreover, they are important skills even beyond grant writing.
If you think “this was a success just because I gave it a shot,” then it’s a win-win either way!
Recommendation #2: Start doing some research early
Research experience tends to be a big priority in evaluations for funding. It helps to start accruing some amount of research experience early and get a couple wins under your belt.
For example, when I joined my lab, I hit the ground running by analyzing a bit of data to apply to research conferences. Typically, the bar for being accepted to a conference is much lower than a journal. Moreover, this sets you up to showcase your ability to perform as an independent scientist. Bigger funding grants tend to want evidence that you are going to be productive as a researcher (and the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour!).
Therefore, I would encourage you to seek out ways to do a little bit of independent research early on. It doesn’t have to be some cancer-curing work either. Just something that you would be able to write about to say that you are interested in research and able to start thinking like a scientist.
Recommendation #3: Participate in extracurriculars and university affairs
Beyond research, being part of the university community can be a great way to strengthen an application. This is especially true for leadership roles as well as initiatives that priority equity, diversity, inclusivity, justice, and wellness.
For leadership positions, there are quite a few that sound nice on paper but is not too time intensive. For example, I was the graduate student representative in the clinical psychology department as well as the larger grad studies program. I also joined a few committees that worked on improving grad experiences.
The emails for these positions pop up fairly frequently, especially in the beginning of the school year. Keep an eye on them to see if any might be a good fit – both for your prosocial desires as well as its benefits for applications down the road.
Recommendation #4: Do reasonably well in your classes
My supervisor always said to not strive for an A+ in graduate school and to just do reasonably well (A’s are pretty typical in graduate school – at least in clinical psychology). This is because folks down the road will not be putting much emphasis into your transcript as they did in undergrad.
Additionally, spending less time being perfectionistic in your classes gives you the time and mental bandwidth to focus on doing all the other awesome stuff that being a graduate student confers: attending conferences, teaching, joining committees, volunteering, research, among other things. Having reasonably good grades is important, but having a diverse amount of experiences will make you shine in applications.
Recommendation #5: Learn to write well and sell yourself
I have often found that my writing has improved the most when I looked at excellent writing from other people and wanted to emulate them. Being in graduate school means that there are no shortage of folks that you can use to inspire your own style.
When it comes to applying to awards and grants, it is important to write in a way that balances strong academic writing with being translational and understandable. Moreover, it is helpful to highlight early on why the work you are doing is important.
For example, if you are studying depression, you might write something to the effect of: “Major depressive disorder is a debilitating issue that affects a quarter billion people worldwide and leads to significant healthcare burden and loss of productivity.”
As early in the first sentence, you highlight the impact of the issue you are studying and why it is important to study. This draws the readers’ attention and makes them want to give you money to fund your work.
Therefore, it is important to be able to sell your work, as well as sell yourself that you are somebody who is capable of accomplishing this project. For any awards, it is also important to keep in mind the values or mission of the organization that is providing the funding and make sure the work you are doing (or the experiences you have) are consistent with these values.
Recommendation #6: Make it easy for other people to support you
Oftentimes, applications will require letters of support from advisors and/or peers. Contrary to more pessimistic views, most people are more than happy to see you succeed. However, folks are also very busy in their own lives.
Therefore, I believe it is very important to make these folks’ lives as easy as possible when it comes to supporting your applications. Help them out by writing a draft of the support letter, providing examples of what they could write about, and providing deadlines and steps on how to submit the recommendations.
Above all, just be kind and help other folks out when they need support. If you are the type of person that people can cheer for without reservation, they will go out of their way to help you succeed.
Best of luck with your scholarship applications!
Best wishes,P
Photo by Brands&People on Unsplash
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Benefits of Providing Validation As A Therapist
What is Validation?
Validation is affirming that what a client is feeling makes sense. That there is something ‘valid’ about their emotional experience to an event.
Providing validation is a very common skill used by therapists. It is a way to communicate understanding and acceptance of the human in front of them. In doing so, the client feels understood, which can lead to increased feelings of trust in the therapist and that treatment will be successful. This is important because alliance and hope are two key factors in positive treatment outcomes.
At its heart, validation is very simple and answers two questions: 1) “What is this person feeling?” and 2) “What makes sense about how they feel?”
What isn’t Validation
Validation is not just about casual chit chat, giving kind words, or providing vague compliments, such as “You’re doing just fine!”
In fact, paying someone a vague compliment when they are having troubles in many areas of their lives can be invalidating. It can make someone feel that you are not truly listening to their struggles and are just providing a blanket statement. In this case, saying “that really does sound tough” can be much more validating than saying “you can do this” or offering solutions like “just go get some exercise.”
In some treatments like dialectical behaviour therapy, we talk about the idea of “validating the valid.” Therefore, if a client says: “I hate people – they all suck,” then validating would not be agreeing that people suck. Rather, it’s about finding the ‘grain of truth’ and communicating that piece. For example, you might say: “It makes sense that you feel that other people are not trustworthy because loved ones have been dishonest to you in the past.”
Benefits of Validation
There a are number of different benefits to validation. Some are listed below:
1. Validation helps with emotion regulation: The act of naming a person’s emotions in and of itself has a downregulating effect. What this means is that if you are accurately identifying the client’s feelings, they literally feel better through just validation. This can be particularly helpful if a client is experiencing some really distressing feelings. If you can identify their feelings and why it makes sense, this is very therapeutic.
2. Validation supports move towards change: When a person feels adequately heard, then they feel more at ease with changing their situation. It’s quite common to hear of people immediately moving towards problem-solving (“go for a walk” or “just push through”), which can be very invalidating for the person who is struggling. By providing validation and showing to the client that you hear and understand them, this facilitates movement towards change.
3. Validation improves the therapeutic alliance: Again, validation shows the client that you are truly listening and understand their experience. When a person feels heard and understood, they are more likely believe that you can help them. This can foster trust and willingness to commit to therapy.
4. Validation helps client’s trust their own emotions: Sometimes client’s feel ashamed or guilty for feeling certain emotions. They may be unsure whether the feeling they have is legitimate. By providing validation, you allow the client to feel a sense of relief that what they are feeling is valid, which then allows them to properly express and process these emotions.
Examples of Validation
Some folks in the DBT space have identified six levels of validation. For the vast majority of purposes, there’s no need to go through and remember them all. However, I’ll go through a few that I often use. Remember: the goal is to communicate understanding and acceptance of an emotion and why it makes sense. It does not have to be a precise science.
At the basest level, you can provide validation by simply showing interest through verbal and non-verbal cues, such as saying “gotcha’ or nodding your head and keeping eye contact.
Then, you might get more specific by working to identify the specific emotion. For example, you might say: “You are feeling powerless” or “You are really anxious about this situation.”
Further down in the validation strategies, you might label an emotion and let them know why it makes sense given their situation or past experiences. For example: “It makes so much sense that you feel like a bother to other people, because your mother always called you a burden growing up.”
The last level is called radical genuineness. Here you are coming from a place of authenticity (providing a very human response). An example might be: “Wow, that’s so incredibly upsetting. I feel like they are missing out on your beautiful compassion and talent at making other people feel good by not inviting you to that party.” Of course, with radical genuineness, the other person must feel that you are being authentic in this situation and coming from a place of total honesty. As you can see, validation can be provided in lots of ways. The main part is just trying to answer the questions of “What is the emotion?” and “Why makes sense about it?” Although it sounds tough, there is always something about a person’s reaction that makes sense.
What to do after validating the client
I like to think that once you have provided validation, you get these ‘validation credits’ you can spend as a therapist to support further change.
For example, you might follow up with validation by saying: “These emotions and thoughts keep you feeling helpless and distressed. I wonder if there’s a specific skill we can use to make sure you are acting effectively based on your goals.” In this case, we are balancing acceptance (validation) with change (skills).
Another possibility is simply to allow the client to fully experience and process the emotions: “Can we stay with this emotion for a little bit?” In doing so, we learn to sit with unpleasant emotions instead of pushing them away.
A third possibility is to explore more about where these emotions come from. For example, tying it back to past experiences or relationships with family. This can increase client insight about the reason why they are feeling this way. Awareness is the first step to change, which can be brought about through validation.
Conclusion
Validation is a very flexible and powerful tool that all therapists should incorporate into their practice. There is a ton of benefits associated with validation. At the same time, it is important to remember not to validate what is not valid and focus on the ‘grain of truth.’
Perspective-taking can be helpful to consider from your own standpoint the question of “if I were in this situation, how might I be feeling?” By doing so, you can access your own inner wisdom to support understanding of how the client may be feeling.
Best wishes,
P
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦on Unsplash
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Preparing For Graduate School In Clinical Psychology After Being Admitted
Congratulations! You’ve just received an acceptance to pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. With miniscule acceptance rates typically ranging from 1 to 7%, you definitely deserve some kudos for getting into such a competitive program.
After the initial rush of excitement wears off, there may be some worries as a bit of imposter syndrome sets in. You might wondering: “How do I best prepare myself for grad school?”.
Hopefully, this post gives a few insights on supporting you during this part of your journey.
1. You are already ready
This sounds like an odd place to start. However, I think it’s important to affirm that if you got admitted, you are already more than capable to take on the trials and tribulations of graduate school (even if your anxiety says otherwise).
The admission committee is not dumb; if you received an acceptance, then they see that you have what it takes to succeed in graduate school! I encourage you to keep that in mind.
2. Think about values and goals
I once heard that graduate school is like a gas – it will take up as much space you give it. There will always be more demands and opportunities and saying ‘no’ is going to be a difficult boundary to set.
One strategy that makes it easier for you to develop the conscience to more readily say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for certain opportunities is to identify your own values and goals. What made you decide to move into graduate school? Was it to be a great clinician, a strong researcher, a mix of both, or something else?
For me, I wanted to take part in the cool stuff that graduate students get to do: travelling and going to conferences, teaching and mentoring, and join committees to support other graduate students. Therefore, I placed less emphasis on making sure I got A+ in all my courses (like I tried in undergrad) and spent extra time getting to follow these extracurriculars.
The key takeaway here is to figure out what you’d like to get out of graduate school. Success will look different for each student, so find your path and follow it.
3. Read up on assessment and treatments
Being an expert in assessments and treatments before starting graduate school is certainly not a requirement. The program will drill you on how to conduct assessment and their specific treatment modality.
However, it doesn’t hurt to have some familiarity with assessment and treatments. For assessments, any old assessment book will do. Having access to the DSM-5 (the bible of mental health disorders – at least in the West) might be helpful.
For treatments, the specific book might depend on what type of treatment your school uses. For example, some programs take a more cognitive behavioural approach whereas others might focus on humanistic or psychodynamic therapies. CBT tends to be pretty common, and a basic book such as Judith Beck’s “Basics and Beyond” is a great place to start.
If you’re just wanting to learn how to be a good therapist, I would recommend Louis Cozolino’s “Making of a Therapist” or Irvin Yalom’s “The Gift of Therapy.”
4. Think about some ideas for your Master’s / Dissertation Project
I want to preface this section by saying that there is absolutely no need to be reading 10 research articles a day or to know your project inside out before even starting the program.
For me, graduate school would have been much easier if I had a sense of what I wanted to study and a few ideas that could feasibly done within a Master’s thesis or PhD dissertation. If you have some time, I would encourage you to read up on the literature (leisurely and enjoyably at a café) and think about a few possible research questions.
My favourite time to do work is when I have absolutely no pressure to do anything at a specific time. And doing some light reading before school starts is one of those times.
5. Consider logistics of graduate school
If you’re moving, there may be some things to think about in terms of finance and travel logistics. If you are in a MA/PhD program then you should have some amount of funding (though I’ll be the first to say we are pretty poor here in graduate school). Here’s a post on ways to increase your salary in graduate school if interested.
6. Familiarize yourself with the statistics
It certainly doesn’t hurt to have some familiarity with statistics. I would invite you to take an introductory statistics book and remind yourself of some of the basics: data entry and cleaning, t-tests and ANOVAs, correlations and regressions. Having these basics down will make it easier for you to write up your projects down the line. Moreover, they will put you in a comfortable position to analyze pre-existing data in labs for conferences or journals.
7. Enjoy your time before graduate school!
Celebrate! You just got some wonderful news. No need to worry so much and be neurotic about it – as much as graduate students like to do that. You’ll be fine. For now, take a nice stroll, enjoy time with friends, and go take a nice trip.
After my acceptance, I continued to work a little bit to make some money. However, I also just spend a lot of time with my partner, friends, and family; went on a bunch of little adventures; and just overall had a lovely time. It was awesome (and still is).
Best wishes,
P
Image by Albert Vincent Wu: https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-in-black-coat-standing-on-road-during-daytime-L2nMR8YRCNI
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What To Expect In Group Therapy
In many hospital-settings, group therapy tends to be the norm for folks wanting to receive therapy. This is because of the high demand for mental health services and limited resources in these healthcare settings. As a result, individual therapy is more rare compared to group-based therapy.
When people think about group-based therapy, there can be concerns that come up:
- “What should I expect?”
- “Will I get better?”
- “What will it be like with other people around?”
- “What if I don’t know what to say?”
- “Are people going to think I am weird?”
These worries can make it hard for some folks to jump into unknown and act as a barrier to get therapy. This post offers some clarity into the group treatment process to hopefully reduce some anxiety.
Format of Group Therapy
Group therapy is usually much more structured than individual therapy. For example, a group therapy for depression might have 15 sessions where the facilitators (mental health professionals like counsellors, social workers, and psychologists) and group members meet once a week for two hours.
The first hour is usually reserved for checking in on home practice and progress over the past week. The facilitators will work with each client to figure out what has been going well and troubleshoot things that have acted as obstacles to progress. It’s not shameful to have had difficulties with home practice – that is what the groups are for!
The second hour typically focus on new teaching for the week and assigning new home practice. For example, learning how to challenge negative beliefs through thought records.
The first session can be a bit different. For example, the first session will focus on introductions, learning more about each person’s goals, and housekeeping (e.g., limits to confidentiality). Some folks worry about whether the information they share in groups are kept confidential. The answer is yes – group members and facilitators are encouraged to keep everything discussed in group to be stay in groups.
And don’t worry about what to say in any of these situations. The facilitators will take the lead, so just go in with an open mind!
Benefits of Group Therapy
Below are some benefits that I have found true over my time as a facilitator:
1. Group therapy is normalizing: Sometimes folks with certain conditions – trauma, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and urges, or anxiety – tend to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them. They feel that nobody understands their experience. Group therapy, where folks with similar challenges come together, can therefore be a normalizing experience. People can realize that their situations are not one of a kind and they can be a non-judgmental space. This recognition can be healing in and of itself to reduce stigma and shame.
2. Group therapy increase accountability: What you do outside of sessions is arguably more important than what you do inside a session. And some folks have difficulty trying out home practice between treatments sessions. However, when you have multiple pairs of eyes looking at you, you may be more likely to put in a bit of extra effort into your practice. This may lead to greater engagement and more positive outcomes.
3. Group therapy allows for shared wisdom: Although it may seem like a bit of a chore to listen to other people’s experience, this can be quite beneficial. Specifically, we may be able to take away from this community of knowledge and apply it to our own lives. On the other hand, we might also be able to provide our lived experiences and expertise to support other people. Helping other people can be affirming and increase our own resilience and self-esteem.
4. Group therapy can be cozy and supportive: Getting support from therapists is nice. Getting support from other humans who share a similar struggle can be enormously validating. I’ve had many therapy groups where group members were very supportive of each others’ progress. They were willing to let each other know how proud they are of the progress others have made. Again, this can be a very affirming experience and cultivating these type of support networks is understated in improving our mental health.
5. Group therapy is effective: There is significant research evidence to suggest that individual and group therapy can. both be equally effective. Regardless of what treatment you get, the most important. components are fairly controllable: 1) your attendance and engagement with home practice; 2) willingness to be vulnerable and stay curious; and 3) feelings of hope and expectations for progress in treatment.
Limitations of Group Therapy
Despite the benefits, there are limitations of group therapy. A few are listed below:
1. Group therapy can be less accessible: Because of the group format, there is a need to stay with a certain agenda and provide information in a structured way. For folks with certain accommodation needs (e.g., English is not their first language), this can be tricky to meet clients where they are at all the time. In some cases of accessibility challenges, individual therapy may be a better fit.
2. Group therapy makes it hard to go very deep: For some folks, there is usefulness in diving deep into the person’s specific thoughts, emotions, or past experiences. Because of the nature of group therapy, there is limited time to check in with each client and the check-ins are fairly superficial. This is necessarily to balance time and make sure every client feels supported. However, there are certainly some clients that would benefit from a more in-depth approach.
3. Group therapy can be triggering: There will be times when other people say things that can bring up upsetting feelings. For example, a person may talk about substance use in the presence of someone struggling with staying abstinent. This can of course be distressing in the moment. However, I believe these experiences are important because groups can be seen as a micro-version of the larger world. It’d be pretty hard to go through life without ever hearing your triggers. Being able to sit with and process this distress in a therapeutic space is therefore an important part treatment.
How to Get the Most out of Group Therapy
Attend the sessions, do the homework, and be willing to open and honest about your experience. Just following these points will get you far. There’s no need to put pressure on yourself on what you need to say or do. Just keep a curious mind and enjoy the experience!
If this post motivated you to seek help, congratulations on taking your first step! And I do hope you have a productive and positive time in groups.
Best wishes,
P
Photo by Danie Franco on Unsplash
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Different CBT Strategies for Treating Obsessions in OCD
Introduction
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of mental health disorder where a person experiences intrusive thoughts, urges, or images. For example:
- Needing things to be placed in a certain way
- Doubts about whether certain objects (e.g., doors, stoves) are still open
- Immoral or aggressive thoughts
- Worries that something is contaminated
These obsessive thoughts tend to increase anxiety, which then leads to compulsions that are meant to reduce distress – at least in the short-term. Some common compulsions include:
- Doing something until they feel just right
- Washing hands frequently or for a long period of time
- Thinking a more positive thought to replace the negative thought
- Checking something over and over again to make sure that it is locked or off
The reason why obsessions lead to anxiety and compulsion is how we interpret the thought. Most folks have weird thoughts from time to time, but they are able to brush it off and just say “Oh, that was weird” and get on with their day.
However, folks with OCD tend to place special significance into the thought. For example, they worry that having a negative thought (for example, “my friend sucks”) might mean that something bad will happen to that person. Therefore, they feel compelled to “neutralize” the thought.
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy
One very common psychological treatment for OCD is exposure and response prevention therapy. The idea behind the therapy is to “expose” ourselves to the obsessive thoughts and urges but not follow through with the compulsion. For example, you might touch something dirty but then refrain from washing your hands.
By tolerating the distress of not immediately going for the compulsion, we learn to sit the with the distress. Over time, we recognize that nothing bad happens and the distress reduces. It is important to do these types of exposures repeatedly and for long enough to see a drop in distress.
SMART Goal Setting for OCD
Of course, sitting with our distress is easier said than done. However, there might be ways to use SMART goals to make these goals more achievable and realistic.
SMART Goals stand for:
- Specific – What exactly am I doing?
- Measurable – How do I know whether this is working?
- Achievable – Is it within my capacity (at least right now) for me to accomplish it?
- Relevant – Does this actually work on my problem?
- Time Bound – When do I have to finish this by?
The use of SMART goals allows us to work on OCD symptoms based on what you are struggling with and start at a place where you feel confident succeeding. SMART Goals can also be used in many different psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and sleep. SMART Goals can be particular helpful for certain obsessions. Some examples below.
SMART Goals for Feelings of Contamination
Typically, the compulsions associated with contamination is to wash hands, take showers, or make sure that there is no ‘cross-contamination’ happening when a person touches something they perceive as ‘dirty’ with something they perceive as ‘clean’.
To slowly work on these OCD-related symptom using exposure and response prevention, we can play around with duration or frequency to build up our tolerance. For example, a few possible SMART goals include:
- Washing hands for 30 seconds instead of 2 minutes
- Waiting for a period of time before washing or taking a shower (e.g., 5 minutes)
- Reducing shower time by half of usual time
- Reducing how much soap you are using when washing hands to only one pump
- Touching clean clothes with dirty hands and tolerating the distress for 5 minutes
As you feel more comfortable, you can up the stakes. For example, washing for a shorter duration, fewer times, or waiting for a longer period of time before taking a shower. For cross-contamination, you can touch something clean after touching something dirty without following the need to clean it afterwards.
Tackling ‘Not Just Right’ Feelings
Some folks feel compelled the need to do or think something until it feels ‘just right.’ For example, needing to place items down in a way that feels right. Another example might be being compelled to touch something with both hands so that there is a feeling of completeness. The same SMART goal setting can be used in this case:
- Placing objects in a ‘not right’ way and then sitting with the distress
- Engaging in one behaviour (e.g., moving to one side) without ‘evening it out’
- Intentionally putting things in odd or even numbers – whichever is more uncomfortable
By staying with the distress of feeling ‘not just right’ longer and doing this multiple times throughout our day, we will gradually see reductions in our distress.
SMART Goals for Checking Behaviours
For checking behaviours, SMART goals can mean reducing how long and or how much time you are spending checking:
- Checking the stove only once and then going to sleep
- Spending 1 minute engaging in checking behaviours before leaving the house
- Keeping the tap slightly on before going on a 30-minute walk
At this point, you are probably an expert of SMART goals, so I won’t belabour the point.
Behavioural Experiments for Scary Predictions
For some intrusive thoughts, it is harder to develop a specific SMART goal. For example, some folks have a type of magical thinking that if they say or do something, then something bad could happen. A person might think: “If I think a bad thought about a person, something terrible will happen to them.”
In this case, we might slowly experiment with these hypotheses and see what happens when we let the bad feelings stay. These are called behavioural experiments.
Similar to SMART goal principles, you can start with something low stakes. For example, you could start by imagining something bad happening to a coworkers or acquaintance (and then observe if anything indeed went wrong). You can even start with me! I won’t mind. You can email me afterwards to see if I’m still okay.
Changing our Morally-Related OCD Thoughts
Some folks get very distressed from thoughts or images like hurting people or seeing people injured. This causes a lot of distress and doubt about themselves and who they are: “Maybe I really am a bad person.”
Using cognitive strategies can help change the way we think. For example, people with moral OCD have thoughts about hurting someone which they feel very terribly for. One common strategy I find helpful is to notice that the fact that you distressed about this thought is probably good evidence why you’re not a bad person. Would a truly terrible person care if they had these thoughts? Probably not.
Another helpful strategy is to make the distinction between having a thought and engaging in it. You’ve likely had the thought, but you have probably never done anything with them. So intention is important.
Using a full thought record can be helpful to tackle these negative beliefs of “I’m a bad person” or “Thinking something is just as bad as doing something.”
Hopefully, this post was helpful to start working on a few OCD symptoms!
Best wishes,
P
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How to Be Your Own Therapist and Increase Motivation to Change
Working through ambivalence
It is normal for people to have ambivalence about whether this is the right time to make a commitment to change something in their lives. Even in therapy, people come at different stages of change – from precontemplation (“I see no problems with what I’m doing”) to preparation (“I’m already thinking about how I can start moving towards my goal”).
You might be thinking yourself about whether this is the right time to make a change in your life. For example, deciding whether or not to start facing your anxiety; become more socially active; or improve your health.
There’s likely a part of you that wants to change; however, you might notice sometimes that it hard to gather enough motivation to actually get going. Another possibility is that you have all the motivation, but can’t seem to figure out how to get started.
This post provides some strategies to both increase motivation and figure out how to get started once you are committed for change!
Suggestion #1: Identify your values
Nietzche once said: “A [person] who has a why, can bear almost any how.”
When we are looking to change, we need to understand our underlying values and reasons to change in the first place. Here are a few examples of possible values that help guide behaviours:
- Health
- Family
- Finances
- Being a provider or caretaker
- Adventure
- Kindness
- Courage
…Or you might just want to be the type of person that does the thing. Asking why a change is important to you is important for increasing commitment.
For example, a person may want to become more physically fit so that they are able play with their kids or grandkids even when they are old and grey. Another reason that this person wants to change may be to become a good role model for future generations.
Either way, the first step is figuring out your ‘Why.’
Suggestion #2: Develop a pros and cons list
Change is hard. Change is scary. Sometimes people think about ‘positive’ changes and that it is all rainbows and unicorns. A total no-brainer. However, in reality, there is a cost with any decision that we make.
It can therefore be helpful to develop a pros and cons list and write out the benefits and drawbacks of making a change. You might notice that there may be pros that are more long-term focused and consistent with your values. And identifying these benefits might move you up the totem pole of motivation.
However, there are also often drawbacks to changing as well. Maybe with greater stability, there’s less drama in your life. Perhaps with less mood challenges come less emotional support from friends or family. Or even being more active might lead to less opportunities to veg out in front of the television with your favorite cold beer and chips.
It sounds silly, but there is reason why we stay in our comfort zone – because it’s comfortable. There is always give and take with any decision. And it’s not a bad thing to take a bit of time to grieve for these potential losses.
Suggestion #3: Using the Devil’s advocate technique
One strategy that can be helpful to generate some momentum if you are having difficulties finding reasons to change is the Devil’s advocate technique. This strategy makes you play the other side by asking the question “Well things are going well enough – why not just stay the same?”
By asking this question, you start thinking about how your current behaviours are contributing to challenges in your life. This may showcase important values that you are missing out by not changing.
Suggestion #4: Using SMART Goals
Now that we are (hopefully) sufficiently motivated, we need specific strategies that move us closer towards our bigger goals.
SMART Goals can be a great way to set ourselves up for success by making goals specific and achievable.
For example, instead of thinking “I need to be more social,” a possible SMART goal could be “I will call up one friend to hang out for lunch.” If a goal is “to be more active,” then a SMART goal could be going out jogging at least twice a week.
When engaging in SMART Goals, make sure that they are relevant to what you want and are achievable and realistic to set yourself up for success. Here’s a guide on SMART goal setting if interested!
Suggestion #5: Reduce barriers that get in the way
When we think about changing, we might have certain thoughts that make it harder for us. For example, we may think “What’s the point?” or “It’s just a drop in the bucket.” These thoughts can de-motivate us from wanting to start.
It can be helpful to challenge these thoughts and notice that they are not helpful in moving towards your goals. And perhaps a little reframing never hurts: “Yes, it is just a drop in the bucket, but with enough drops we’ll get there.”
In terms of our actions, there are ways to reduce friction of starting. When we are first developing a new behaviour, it is going to be very uncomfortable. Therefore, we want to make this process for change as easy as possible.
For example, putting your alarm clock away from you so you have to physically get up to turn it off if you are wanting to wake up earlier. Another example might be keeping your workout clothes ready nearby so you can change immediately to go to the gym.
Make it easy to do the hard things.
Suggestion #6: Giving yourself permission to stay the same
Sometimes change sounds nice on paper, but it actually not something personally important to you. I would encourage you to ask yourself if this change is really consistent with your values – or if society or someone else is telling you that it is important.
For example, some folks might just naturally prefer to be more introverted or want things a little more tidy than others. This doesn’t mean you have social anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder. And it doesn’t mean you have to change.
Let your values guide your behaviours. When it comes to your life, the most important thing is that you feel like you have a choice. And it is up to you to decide whether or not to change.
Best wishes,
P
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Therapy Goals for Generalized Anxiety Disorder
People with generalized anxiety disorder tend to worry about a number of different themes in their lives. For example, family, friends, health, the future, being late to appointments – all the way down to what they need to talk about in therapy.
This might resonate with you. For example, you might be worried about what to say in therapy or what goals that you might set. This post provides some general information about possible treatment goals based on what we know about generalized anxiety disorder.
Normalizing anxiety
Before we discuss possible goals, it is important to note that the idea behind therapy is not to get rid of anxiety. A normal amount of anxiety is actually helpful to make sure we are prepared to tackle any threats in our environment. If we had no anxiety, we would never study for tests, constantly be late to appointments, or stop taking care of ourselves or plan for our future.
Therefore, we are not trying to get rid of anxiety. Instead, we want to turn down the volume of our anxiety and worry so that it does not bother you on a day-to-day. That way, we can still use anxiety to motivate us towards our goals without it constantly wearing you down and negatively affecting your life.
Goal 1: Tolerating uncertainty in people with generalized anxiety
Some researcher describe folks with generalized anxiety disorder as having an ‘allergy to uncertainty.’ What this means is that these individuals tend to be really nervous about vague or ambiguous situations (e.g., whether or not they passed a test, or if trying out a new restaurant might end up being a terrible experience). In fact, this ‘allergy’ is so strong that some folks prefer to just know that it is negative outcome rather than sitting with uncertainty. For example, they might say: “I’d rather just know I failed than have to continue wondering if I passed the test or not.”
Consequently, one goal of therapy could be to increase our ability to tolerate uncertainty. By sitting with the distress, we may begin to realize that uncertainty does not always end up being negative. Moreover, we learn that we can cope much better than we thought even if the bad thing happens. For some people, they may even begin to see uncertainty as novel and exciting!
Goal 2: Changing our relationship with worry
Our worry thoughts tend to take the form of ‘What ifs’ to its illogical extreme. Folks with generalized anxiety disorder often find themselves paralyzed because there are so many possible scenarios that our worried minds can dream up.
One possible therapy goal then is to notice when our worries tend to take us away from engaging in behaviours that are important to us. As a result, we stop being controlled by our worries and are simply allowed to put them away if it is not serving us (and it usually isn’t).
Goal 3: Become more aware of worry thoughts
Sometimes when we are constantly worried, we don’t even know what exactly we are worried about! We just have a general feeling of dread that we can’t do anything about.
By becoming more aware of our worries and its contents, we can then make sense of this thought and work with it. This makes it much easier for us to problem-solve or simply recognize that the worry is a bit exaggerated, and we can scale down our anxiety. If we know problem, then we can solve for it.
Goal: 4 Develop skills to become our own therapist
Once we become more aware of our worries, we need the skills to be able to handle different types of worries. For example, real-world worries (“I need childcare next week”) might require us to learn how to problem solve, whereas scary hypothetical worries (“What if my child does not get into college?”) might require other types of cognitive strategies.
Either way, one goal that you might have when entering therapy is to become your own therapist and learn these skills to be able to handle whatever comes up in your life.
Developing more goals using the magic wand technique
One strategy that can be helpful to explore goals is to use the ‘magic wand’ technique. This technique makes you ask the question of: “If I could wave a magic wand and my life was the way that I want, what would be different about it?”
By using the strategy, you can explore how worries get in the way of your goals and how your life might play out differently if you weren’t struggling with generalized anxiety disorder. For example, you might say:
- “I would be more likely to say yes when people invite me out”
- “I would go back to school”
- “I would take a solo trip to Japan for a month”
- “I would stop checking my emails 10 times before sending them”
By using this technique, you give yourself permission to dream about how life might be different. These differences can then help guide your goals.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post helped guide a few possible goals you can have in therapy. Of course, this list is not exhaustive and any good therapist will help you figure out what is most important to work on in your life. Now let’s start tolerating some uncertainty, and jump into the unknown of therapy!
Best wishes,Parky
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Simple Ways To Get Better Sleep If You Have Insomnia Based on Sleep Science
Introduction
The world is full of myths, misconceptions, and misinformation about how to treat insomnia. For example, people talk about sleep hygiene as a solution to insomnia; in reality, sleep hygiene is not an effective strategy to treat insomnia. Even physicians tend to immediately jump to sleep medication, which most people do not prefer because they have side effects and are a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
The science of sleep research is very effective. However, they are hidden under a scientific guise that makes it hard for people to access. Moreover, treatments like cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia are hard to come by because it is expensive and there are not a lot of trained folks out there providing the service.
All in all, it is just hard to get the right information in a simple way that can lead to immediate positive benefits in your life. This article provides a few suggestions based on what we know in sleep research that you can use to start breaking out of the insomnia cycle and getting some better sleep.
Insomnia is a vicious cycle
Something that we need to remember about insomnia is that it can be a bit of a trap. That is, our thoughts and behaviours when we have insomnia can often sabotage us and maintain our problem. For example, when we struggle with insomnia and are downright exhausted, we might:
- Go to bed early
- Press the snooze button
- Cancel plans or activities
- Reduce our exercise
- Take naps
- Worry about not getting enough sleep
All of these compensatory behaviours make a lot of sense when we are exhausted. But the problem is that they actually maintain our sleep problem. We need to keep this in mind because the recommendations below are very effective, but they run counterintuitive to what we think makes sense. With that being said, let’s get to the recommendations!
Recommendation 1: Build sleep drive
Sleep drive is how likely we are to fall asleep at any given moment. The more sleep drive. we have, the more deep sleep we get. However, when we are exhausted, we reduce activities that increase build-up of sleep drive that would give us the deep refreshing sleep that we need.
For example, we may decide to stay in the bed instead of going out to take a walk. As discussed, this behaviour makes perfect sense, but it is a recipe to have another night of poor sleep.
To break out of the cycle, we need to engage in behaviours that help us build up sleep drive. This means:
- Getting out of bed in the morning as soon as possible
- Taking walks and staying active throughout the day
- Trying not to go to bed until your typical bedtime
- Avoiding naps and snoozing
Try to spot times in your day that could be contributing to low sleep drive. Although it will be tough at first, making a conscious decision to continue building our sleep drive will be helpful to get the deep sleep that we desperately need.
Recommendation 2: Keep to a consistent daily rhythm
When we have insomnia, we might try to compensate by going to bed early and sleeping in as much as possible. This creates a lot of disruption in our routine and can actually lead to symptoms of jet lag. For example, if you get out of bed on Friday at 8:00am and then Saturday on 11:00am, that’s essentially the same as travelling from California to New York!
Therefore, we need to do our best to stay consistent in our routines. This means going to bed and getting out of bed at fairly consistent times. As a benefit, getting out of bed at the same time even after a crappy night means you will have more sleep drive the next night.
To further strengthen our circadian rhythm, I would also encourage you to generally keep to a similar routine each day even outside of sleeping. For example, timing your meals and exercise. There’s no need for perfection (but it is helpful to have in the back of your mind).
Associate the bed with sleep
People with insomnia has often created associations with the bed and wakefulness. If you notice that you often go to bed sleepy, but then feel wide awake the moment your head hits the pillow, this means that the bed has been associated with wakefulness.
This association is created because people with insomnia spend a lot of time in bed being awake – feeling distressed, worried, and generally just not having a good time. Over time, our brain begins to develop conditioned arousal, which is a fancy term for being anxious anytime we are in our bedroom.
We need to break this association. Fortunately, there are a few recommendations that are very effective to making sure that we start thinking the bedroom means sleep:
- Only go to bed when sleepy
- Get out of bed when you are not sleepy (do something pleasant instead until you feel sleepy)
- Avoid doing activities in bed outside of sleep (e.g., watching movies in bed)
- Try to not take naps
Typically, if you notice you are fully awake or if sleep has not come in 20-30 minutes, try to get out of bed and do something pleasant. For example, reading a book or watching a comedy show. Don’t try to force yourself to fall back asleep. Simply go to bed when you notice the sleepy come back. If you don’t, just wait until tomorrow night. You’ll have more sleep drive anyway.
Recommendation 4: Reduce arousal
Sleep and stress are incompatible. This makes sense – we wouldn’t want to be sleeping if there was a bear around. However, we need to reduce stress to make sure that sleep comes easily when there is no immediate threat. Typically, relaxation strategies are quite helpful in that regard. I would encourage you do something each day that relaxes you. For example, taking a walk or doing some breathing exercises.
However, one key piece to note is not to intentionally do relaxation exercises in the moment to try to fall asleep. When we start making these strategies part of our efforts to sleep, this can backfire and lead to more anxiety. Therefore, try to use relaxation exercises in morning or early evening to create a routine.
Recommendation 5: Be okay with not being asleep
People with insomnia can be described as having a phobia of being awake. They do everything they possibly can at night to try and fall asleep. However, this tends to lead to more anxiety, which makes it harder to fall asleep. What we resist, persists.
To relieve yourself of your suffering, I would encourage you to try your best to reframe the awakening as something that is positive. For example, maybe watching a show that you like or catch up the book that you have been meaning to read. If we can come to accept being awake, then our anxiety about not sleeping reduces. Paradoxically, this means sleep will likely come more quickly.
Some people might be worried about performance the next day. There is good research to show that people with insomnia’s performance is not that different from good sleepers. It is just that it all feels more effortful. So trust your resilience!
Recommendation 6: Prioritize the next night
We get trapped in the insomnia cycle when we are constantly striving to save the past night. We usually do not do much for the last night and we set ourselves poorly for the next night.
When thinking about your behaviour, consider if they are a way to make sure the next night is better or if you are trying to make up for the past night. By focusing on prioritizing the next night, we give ourselves a fighting chance to. break out of the insomnia cycle.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post gives you a few tips to support your sleep and think like a sleep scientist. If you find yourself caught in an insomnia trap, remember to do your best to prioritize the next night by building sleep drive, keeping to a regular rhythm, and make sure that the bed is for sleeping (and not being awake). I believe in you – you got this!
Best wishes,
Parky
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
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