In this episode, Wendy talks about a specific component of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – how to challenge the rigid self-beliefs that are playing a role in your feeling stuck and unhappy. She explains the importance of recognizing and transforming these beliefs and shares two simple exercises to help with that.

Using these exercises will enable you to begin to challenge and change rigid self-beliefs. This will enable you to see yourself in a more positive light so that you can see that you are better than you thought and are capable of achieving much more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Everyone has rigid self-beliefs.
• Self-beliefs are ingrained ideas about oneself, that are often developed from early experiences such as failing at something or being bullied.
• These self-beliefs become a part of our identity and impact our self-perception and behaviour.
• I´m not good enough is a common negative self-belief.
• Identifying and acknowledging positive qualities helps to combat negative self-beliefs. Doing this helps you to get things into perspective so that you can see yourself in a more balanced way.
• You can train yourself to reduce the impact a negative self-belief has on you and the way you behave.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Rigid self-beliefs can be so strong and developed from an early age that we just see them as part of our identity. ´

‘You need to actually challenge that belief.’

‘Stop reading off the negatives… It’s about really focusing on your qualities.".’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.wendycastelino.com

https://www.instagram.com/wendycastelino/

https://www.youtube.com/@wendycastelino798

https://twitter.com/WendyCastelino

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Castelino has been working as a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years. As an accredited CBT and EMDR practitioner, she is committed to upholding the rigorous standards required for these accreditations and helping thousands of people reach their full potential.

Wendy currently runs a private practice where her focus is on CBT. Therapy is constantly evolving into developing new techniques, so she studies hard to integrate them into her therapy, to provide a rich and effective experience.

Wendy is aware that working in one-to-one therapy limits the number of people she can see. She has, therefore, created a range of online resources. These resources are designed to be easy to follow and provide clear, step-by-step instructions. This can help the individual to master skills and gain confidence, therefore optimising the therapy sessions. They are also suitable to be used on their own.

Further details are available at: WendyCastelino.com.

Podcast Description

Welcome to "Don't Get a Therapist - Yet!" Wendy Castelino, a psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience, aims to support individuals with mental health challenges to achieve their full potential. Although Wendy is passionate about providing individual therapy, there are limitations with this approach. This platform, therefore, is dedicated to offering self-help strategies which are designed to enhance personal well-being. The objective is not to discourage people from accessing therapy but to motivate a broader audience to explore therapeutic resources that are simple and effective to use.

This podcast aims to encourage people to make positive choices about therapy and to find a therapy that suits their individual needs. Additionally, the podcast features interviews with individuals who have successfully overcome mental health struggles

In this episode, Wendy explains what self-compassion is and why it is something we all need to learn to practice. She shares over a dozen self-soothing techniques, you can use to switch on your parasympathetic nervous system to balance things out again, so you no longer feel frozen or overwhelmed.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Self-compassion is about taking care of ourselves and building resilience.
• Be kind and gentle with yourself, especially when you are suffering.
• Strong leaders like Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, and the Dalai Lama all practised self-compassion as a way to help them fight for what is right.
• Accessing the nurturing part of your mind and self-soothing enables you to stop being too hard on yourself.
• Smells can be used for self-soothing.
• Visualising is highly effective, especially when you use all 5 senses.
• Slowing down your breathing is powerful.
• Moving to a safe space or wearing specific clothing that you like are both soothing.
• Focusing on a sound or something visual has the potential to be very calming.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Self-compassion is not a soft or fluffy concept. ´

‘Use your phone to enhance certain images that give you joy, and pleasure.’

‘Affirmations are reminders. Think about how you can use positive affirmations to help you to feel calmer and self-soothe.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.wendycastelino.com

https://www.instagram.com/wendycastelino/

https://www.youtube.com/@wendycastelino798

https://twitter.com/WendyCastelino

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Castelino has been working as a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years. As an accredited CBT and EMDR practitioner, she is committed to upholding the rigorous standards required for these accreditations and helping thousands of people reach their full potential.

Wendy currently runs a private practice where her focus is on CBT. Therapy is constantly evolving into developing new techniques, so she studies hard to integrate them into her therapy, to provide a rich and effective experience.

Wendy is aware that working in one-to-one therapy limits the number of people she can see. She has, therefore, created a range of online resources. These resources are designed to be easy to follow and provide clear, step-by-step instructions. This can help the individual to master skills and gain confidence, therefore optimising the therapy sessions. They are also suitable to be used on their own.

Further details are available at: WendyCastelino.com.

Podcast Description

Welcome to "Don't Get a Therapist - Yet!" Wendy Castelino, a psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience, aims to support individuals with mental health challenges to achieve their full potential. Although Wendy is passionate about providing individual therapy, there are limitations with this approach. This platform, therefore, is dedicated to offering self-help strategies which are designed to enhance personal well-being. The objective is not to discourage people from accessing therapy but to motivate a broader audience to explore therapeutic resources that are simple and effective to use.

This podcast aims to encourage people to make positive choices about therapy and to find a therapy that suits their individual needs. Additionally, the podcast features interviews with individuals who have successfully overcome mental health struggles

Today, Wendy is joined by Jim Lucas a very experienced CBT psychotherapist, supervisor, and ACT trainer, who founded Open Forwards. His practice offers evidence-based therapies to help adults, children, adolescents, and couples in person and online. He also trains other therapists to use ACT.

Jim explains how ACT works and improves our psychological flexibility to get unstuck mentally.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• ACT Acceptance and Commitment Therapy improves psychological flexibility, which enhances your life.
• People get stuck regretting things in the past or living according to the labels society gives them.
• We all try to get rid of bad feelings like anger, which does not work. Be open to it and find workable solutions to feel them less often.
• Learning to make room for your emotions gives you much more power over your life. You find ways to carry what you feel in a way that does not control you the entire time.
• ACT taps into your values.
• Focusing on what makes you feel good helps you to uncover what is truly important to you.
• You don´t have to change anything inside you to be able to put one foot in front of another and make progress, you just need to act.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It's built on pragmatism.’

‘I'm here to help you be better at feeling.’

‘Values are like verbs, it’s the way you do something.’

‘It’s the difference between living from the head down and living from the feet up.’

GUEST RESOURCES

https://openforwards.com/

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.wendycastelino.com

https://www.instagram.com/wendycastelino/

https://www.youtube.com/@wendycastelino798

https://twitter.com/WendyCastelino

ABOUT THE HOST

Wendy Castelino has been working as a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years. As an accredited CBT and EMDR practitioner, she is committed to upholding the rigorous standards required for these accreditations and helping thousands of people reach their full potential.

Wendy currently runs a private practice where her focus is on CBT. Therapy is constantly evolving into developing new techniques, so she studies hard to integrate them into her therapy, to provide a rich and effective experience.

Wendy is aware that working in one-to-one therapy limits the number of people she can see. She has, therefore, created a range of online resources. These resources are designed to be easy to follow and provide clear, step-by-step instructions. This can help the individual to master skills and gain confidence, therefore optimising the therapy sessions. They are also suitable to be used on their own.

Further details are available at: WendyCastelino.com.

Podcast Description

Welcome to "Don't Get a Therapist - Yet!" Wendy Castelino, a psychotherapist with over 35 years of experience, aims to support individuals with mental health challenges to achieve their full potential. Although Wendy is passionate about providing individual therapy, there are limitations with this approach. This platform, therefore, is dedicated to offering self-help strategies which are designed to enhance personal well-being. The objective is not to discourage people from accessing therapy but to motivate a broader audience to explore therapeutic resources that are simple and effective to use.

This podcast aims to encourage people to make positive choices about therapy and to find a therapy that suits their individual needs. Additionally, the podcast features interviews with individuals who have successfully overcome mental health struggles