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

In this episode, Wendy is joined by Nicky Edwards an amazing woman, entrepreneur and physiotherapist who focuses on helping women achieve more than they believe is possible through movement, exercise and running. She is an incredibly active person who uses running to help her to cope and remain well mentally. An outlet that was taken away from her overnight when complications after an operation led to her not even being able to make a cup of tea.

Nikki explains what that was like and how she coped and eventually regained her mental and physical fitness.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Movement is medicine, it encourages the release of happy hormones.
• Do a little each day.
• Set small goals and reward yourself.
• Self-care isn’t selfish it is essential.
• Surround yourself with the right people.
• Remember that people care about you even if they are not messaging every day. You have to bear in mind that people have busy lives.
• Having a connection with others helps to pull you through.
• A strong why pushes you to do amazing things.
• The best exercise you can do is the one that you enjoy.
• As a woman´s hormones change, how they exercise needs to evolve.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Movement is medicine. ´

‘Just being surrounded by good people is so so important.’

‘Our brain works well on that kind of reward mentality.’

GUEST AND EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.nickyedwards.com/

https://www.instagram.com/nickyedwardsphysio/

https://www.facebook.com/NickyEdwardsPhysio/

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 talks about why willingness is such an important component of ACT therapy. She explains how developing the ability to be willing to do something will help you to do things that you don´t enjoy to get to where you want to be.

Wendy walks you through how to use thought records and other techniques to help you develop willingness so that you can overcome resistance and meet challenges. To do this, she uses real-world examples that everyone can relate to.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Willingness does not mean that you like, want, desire, or approve of something to engage in the process.
• Even when you don´t particularly want to say yes, you can still be willing to give it a go.
• When you are willing you make room for negative side effects in order to create a meaningful life.
• Climbing the mountain of personal development is rarely easy, so you have to be willing to do some things that you are not that keen to do.
• Identify what you are going to need to meet various challenges and work to put those things in place.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Willingness means you allow it to happen, you make room for it. ´

‘Willingness is essential, as it's really the only way we can deal with life's problems.’

‘Accept there will be challenges and think of a way around them.’

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://thehappinesstrap.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