Category
Practical self-help articles from the licensed psychologists at Coastal Therapy Group in Carlsbad, Encinitas, Vista & Pasadena, CA.
The archive
Intellectualization turns a feeling into a subject to study instead of something to feel. Sean Noe, PhD explains why the mind does it, what it costs, and what helps when thinking keeps standing in for feeling.
Experiential avoidance is the effort to escape uncomfortable inner experiences, and it quietly drives a lot of suffering. A Carlsbad psychologist explains.
When pain will not fully go away, ACT helps you reclaim your life from it. A Carlsbad psychologist on acceptance and commitment therapy for chronic pain.
Humor is one of the friendliest defense mechanisms: it names something painful while keeping you on your feet. Sean Noe, PhD explains why we joke through hard moments, when it helps, and when it keeps people at a distance.
Your values are not goals or rules. A Carlsbad psychologist explains what values really are in ACT, how to find yours, and why they steady a hard life.
The harder you fight anxiety, the stronger it tends to get. A Carlsbad psychologist on how acceptance and commitment therapy changes your relationship to anxiety instead of trying to eliminate it.
Projection takes a feeling you cannot accept in yourself and hands it to someone else. Sean Noe, PhD explains why the mind does it, what it costs, and what helps when you are the one being handed a feeling that is not yours.
Accepting a painful reality does not mean condoning it. A Carlsbad psychologist on what acceptance actually asks of you, why fighting a feeling backfires, and how acceptance is what makes action possible.
Letting go and giving up look almost identical from the outside and feel completely different inside. A Carlsbad psychologist on acceptance, resignation, and the line between them.
Splitting is the mind's habit of seeing people, including yourself, as all good or all bad, with no middle. Sean Noe, PhD explains where the defense comes from, what it protects, and how therapy helps it soften.
Cognitive defusion is the ACT skill of seeing a thought as just a thought. A Carlsbad psychologist explains what fusion costs you, what defusion feels like, and a few ways to practice it.
Acceptance and commitment therapy, explained from inside the room. A Carlsbad psychologist on what ACT actually is, how the six processes work in real sessions, and who it tends to help.
Defense mechanisms are the mind's automatic ways of protecting itself from feelings that seem too dangerous to feel. Sean Noe, PhD explains splitting, projection, repression, and more in plain language.
Psychologist Reid Kessler, Psy.D. explains why AI chatbots can't replicate the therapeutic relationship, drawing on Bion, Winnicott, Benjamin, and Harlow's research. Coastal Therapy Group, North County San Diego.
A psychotherapist reflects on how a Broadway show revealed the power of nonverbal emotional experience and what it teaches us about the connection between our bodies, feelings, and the moments when words fall short.
Being present with our loved ones in their suffering can be difficult. This post explores how advice giving can impact our loved ones who are in pain.
How do you help a partner with depression without burning out or making it worse? A San Diego psychologist on presence over solutions, and four ways to support someone you love.
Anxiety that keeps getting worse is usually anxiety that has been managed but never understood. Dr. Reid Kessler on the four reasons it grows, why it can feel like it is happening for no reason, and the step that actually brings it down.
