Being Truly Mindful

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

An interview with Ashley Graber, LMFT – Curt and Katie talk with Ashley about mindfulness and meditation – how to incorporate into daily life, considerations for teaching your clients, and the things that therapists can get wrong when using mindfulness interventions!

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. We are human beings who can now present ourselves as whole people, with authenticity, purpose, and connection. Especially now, when therapists must develop a personal brand to market their practices.

To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

Interview with Ashley Graber, LMFT

After 15 years working in Commercial Real Estate in New York City, Ashley Graber changed the direction of her life to the worlds of Psychology and Meditation & Mindfulness. Ashley came to these practices after getting sober and in the decade plus since, she now runs a busy mindfulness-based psychotherapy practice at Yale Street Therapy (www.YaleStreetTherapy.com) in Santa Monica, CA. Ashley is the Director of Curriculum for the next generation meditation app & mindfulness company, Evenflow. Ashley received her clinical degree from Antioch University and has trained extensively in Meditation & Mindfulness practices, earning her certificate in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through The Center for Mindfulness at UC San Diego. She has also trained in Mindful Schools (teaching mindfulness and meditation to children), Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Ashley was recently on Good Morning LaLa Land, spoke on Resilience at this year’s renowned Wisdom. 2.0 Mindfulness & Technology conference, and is putting her psychotherapy and Meditation & Mindfulness skills into print with a “how to” book for families. Learn more at www.AshleyGraberTherapy.com.

In this episode we talk about:

• How Ashley puts her message out widely
• Meditation and mindfulness tools that can help clients throughout their life.
• Making meditation and mindfulness accessible
• The difference between mindfulness and meditation
• The importance of avoiding judgment to decrease suffering
• Living in the present moment, without a lens of judgment
• Shinzen’s equation: Pain X Resistance = Suffering
• How we are most awake and alive in the present moment
• How to continue to return to the present moment
• Important ways to self-assess when thoughts, emotions, behaviors are unhealthy, including looking at the physical sensations in the present moment
• The importance of being consistent with mindfulness practice
• The requirements for therapists to have a regular practice before teaching clients
• How to incorporate practices, getting mentorship and training
• Different tools for teaching mindfulness and meditation to clients
• Adjustments for clients who cannot sit in meditation, so they can experience mindfulness (especially those who have complex trauma, anxiety)
• How therapists can consciously add mindfulness activities to their day.
• Slow down the pace between sessions, consciously breathing, weaving some slower moments into your life.
• The importance of using your senses, getting outside
• Scheduling meditation
• Setting reminders
• How mentorship works in meditation
• The resources of Even Flow (the app, the meditation/mindfulness company)
• The different types of certifications and training for mindfulness
• The inquiry process after the mindfulness practice (and its importance)

Resources mentioned:

We’ve pulled together any resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links.

Evenflow Meditation app

Yale Street Therapy

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Classes

Jon Kabat Zinn

Chris Crotty at AgainstTheStream, Boston