educational Archives - LindsayBraman.com

This is an image of a flowchart titled “Anxiety - Choose Your Own Adventure.” The flowchart is hand-drawn and has a yellow background. The flowchart has multiple decision points and paths, with each decision point represented by a speech bubble. The flowchart starts with a white box that has a yellow striped border and reads, “Start Here.” This is pointing to a box that says, “Uh-Oh! Anxiety Increases.” If you ignore the increase, you can choose to ignore by disassociating or neglecting it, but you’ll end up at the same point: “You’re still anxious but have secondary problems,” and you’ll be sent back to the start. If you decide to pay attention to the increased anxiety, you get to a flowchart point that says, “Good call! How?” If you choose to be mean instead of kind, you may have a shame spiral or self-contempt, making you feel worse and spending you back to the start. If you choose to be kind, you can choose to seek care and connection/movement/journaling, and it may help lead to self-care, or you can choose self-care directly. Will it be with others or solo? If solo, you can pet a dog, garden, or make art. If you do it with someone, you can talk, move together, or hug. Either way, your anxiety may improve! The flowchart is credited to @lindsaybraman.

Anxiety Worksheet: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

Sometimes, a roadmap is all we need to find our way out of a confusing journey. I find that flowcharts can sometimes be that roadmap …

black and gray pencil scribbles to visualize anxiety drawing

Anxiety Drawing: Visual Insights into the Anxious Mind

Sometimes words fall short to describe feelings. For many, the feeling of anxiety is difficult to capture. As a therapist and artist, I’ve seen drawing …

infographic highlighting 8 ways to cope when your therapist goes on vacation.

7 Ways to Cope When Your Therapist Is On Vacation

It’s okay to feel upset, sad, or even angry when your therapist goes on vacation. A relationship with a therapist, which is a significant relationship …

A letterboard states: Understanding trauma triggers.

Trauma Triggers: What are They

Trauma triggers are activated by experiences – big or small – that remind our brains and bodies of past traumatic experiences we’ve gone through. While triggers may be complex to navigate or understand, and while they never truly go away, good trauma therapy can reduce the impact of triggers.

Claspened hands in the foreground with a second pair of clasped hands in a blurred background.

How to Find a Therapist in a Small Town or Rural Area

Therapy is helpful for anyone in need of a space to process life experiences. However, sometimes finding a therapist can be the hardest part of deciding …

The lower bodies of people sitting in a group.

PTSD & Trauma Recovery Resources

Research is exploding in the field of PTSD recovery and traumatic stress. In this section we’ve collected a number of resources about trauma and trauma …

Resources for Understanding and Managing Stress

Resources for Understanding & Managing Stress

When it comes to stress, it’s actually not all bad. There’s actually three categories of stress. Some stress and anxiety are part of coping well …

Desire is Not pathology: the radical self-compassion of normalizing physical and emotional needs.

Desire is Not Pathology: Affirming Neediness via Radical Self-Compassion

Pop-culture “wellness” often pathologizes desire. We are promised that if we can ignore physical hunger, meet our own needs emotionally, and keep our sexual desire …

Demonstrating Trustworthiness Builds Bridges that Self-Advertisement Cannot

Demonstrating our trustworthiness builds relational bridges that self-advertisement cannot. If you sense that your friend, partner, child, client, etc. feels hesitant to trust you, let …

All Social Media Has a Cost, Empowered Social Media Use Sets a Budget

It’s not that social media is good or bad, the real question is: What we are willing to trade for likes, views, and follows? This is …

Urge Surfing, Alternatives, and Harm Reduction

To follow my post earlier this week on developing (new) coping skills rather than attempting to just desert our old ones, here are a few …

Whether self-imposed (like dieting or working your way into vocational burnout) or external (like housing instability, job loss, or not getting core emotional needs met), scarcity changes how we think and make decisions. Interestingly, researchers note that brains in scarcity often make need-based decisions that backfire because brains in scarcity can't focus and value long term outcomes over immediate relief.

How Scarcity Impacts Our Brain, Relationships, & Mental Health

Needs that are ignored or unable to be met due to lack of resources do not go away – instead, they often become all-consuming until …

Schizophrenia is one of the most devastating and debilitating mental health disorders, so much so that there is a TON of stigma around it. But here's the thing: stigma is *especially* harmful when it comes to this diagnosis.

Red Flags for Early Stage Schizophrenia- An Infographic

Schizophrenia is among the most debilitating mental health disorders- so much so that there is still a lot of stigma around the diagnosis. The problem …

Here's a little unsolicited info on everyone's least favorite form of communication.

Unsolicited Information on Everyone’s Least Favorite Form of Communication

Below is sketchnote that highlights some interesting research on the psychology behind the behavior of sending unsolicited images of what is colloquially referred to as …

Starting therapy can be overwhelming for lots of reasons. It can be easier if you break it down into steps, and schedule yourself time to attend to each of those steps.

How to Get a Therapist – An Illustrated Guide

All of us probably know someone (or have been someone) who thought about (or even openly talked about) how we “need therapy” and “should probably …

Teaching kids to listen to their gut grows teens and adults who can hear their inner voice over external voices and make choices to keep themselves safe.

Listen to Your Gut

Humans have an innate ability to read people, situations, and our environment. If we pay attention, it helps keep us safe and helps us know …

How to Start Therapy (When You’re Anxious About Starting Therapy)

First, know that we therapists get it. Starting therapy is hard for everyone and if you have specific therapy-related anxieties it’s super hard. If meeting …