Life Changes

LYW Insight | Seven years ago, I came upon an article that changed the course of my career. The title was “Lifestyle and Mental Health.” At the time I was feeling bored and tired of sitting and talking with people one-on-one in a room. The weird thing was I adored my clients. Truly. I fell in love with each one of them.
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For months I could not reconcile how much I loved the people I worked with but not the actual work. I questioned therapy and being a therapist— the thing I most prized about myself. It was my existential crisis. The article was a godsend.
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Immediately, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do and the opening paragraph confirmed it, “Health professionals have significantly underestimated the importance of lifestyle in mental health. More specifically, mental health professionals have underestimated the importance of unhealthy lifestyle factors in contributing to multiple psychopathologies, as well as the importance of healthy lifestyles for treating multiple psychopathologies, for fostering psychological and social well-being, and for preserving and optimizing cognitive capacities and neural functions.” Heck. Yeah. Big time. This was it for me.
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Many therapists are trained to assess for biological, psychological or social issues that cause disease and discomfort in our clients. Truth be told though, many of us don’t ask much about biological issues and underestimate the basics of our clients everyday life when we assess for mental health. Many of us some ask lifestyle questions during the intake or assessment phase of treatment, but not regularly or  as the base of our work.
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Since the time the article was published the evidence for implementing lifestyle changes in psychological treatment has exploded but they’re still underutilized or implemented haphazardly because there are no protocols or guidelines for their usage. 
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That’s where LYW comes in. We’re going to do it! We’re going to create protocols and guidelines for whole mind/body health to help you Live Your Well! I can’t wait to share them with you! 

Photo x @jendzen_photography