Let’s not wait to spread awareness. If there were less stigmas attached to getting therapy, more people would get the help they need.

What can therapists do to reach people who are truly suffering from deep wounds? Perhaps we could clear up any misconceptions about what we do. Most people think that therapy is reserved “for the psychotic.” I will not use the laymen’s term for psychotic as it is offensive and certainly callous. Labeling people as “psychotic” perpetuates the shame that keeps them from getting help they need.

“So.......what do psychotherapists treat? I thought you guys treat people who are psychotic.” This very thought is the reason that most people don’t get help. They’re not psychotic......

I, along with other psychotherapists, treat people who are simply trying to live beyond their fears. We meet with people who have anxiety. What’s anxiety? Anxiety is constant worrying. It’s the feeling that seems to nag you despite serious efforts to divert your attention. Anxiety is also feeling nervous about a new venture. It interrupts your sleep. It keeps you from focusing at work or in school. It keeps you questioning your children and your spouse.

We meet with men and women trying to cope with life before, during, and after divorce. We meet with teenagers who are trying to cope with life after sexual assault. We meet with children trying to recover after being victimized in incestuous relationships with their parents and siblings. We meet with adults who want to learn how to let go of the anger they’ve been living with for decades. We meet with stressed out teachers, doctors traumatized by the passing of a patient, business owners trying to juggle work, home, personal life, and children. We meet with your neighbors, your teachers, your professors, your parents, your favorite cashiers, your realtors.....we meet with people just like you....people who struggle to be heard....

Talk with someone you know who is struggling with something and let them know you care. There are too many people who have died simply because they did not see that there was any hope.

******People are not drug addicts. People are not alcoholics. We are all souls here on Earth with a God-given purpose.******

Mindful Psychotherapist, Daysha Phimphone LPC, LPN, CCATP

As you all know, I took this reprieve to explore myself a bit deeper. I wanted to develop a stronger awareness so that I could strengthen you all on our journeys together. I must admit, however, that I left Tampa feeling a bit disheartened.

I reflected back on my promise to all of you and could not help but feel discouraged. I remember lying on the beach with a book, waiting to be inspired. I remember looking into the sky waiting to be inspired but I felt nothing....I was up late on Saturday night on my laptop. My fingers typed away and I was led into thoughts and ideas that I was able to release from the depths of my mind. Still, there was no new awareness. How could I come back “the same?”

On the drive home, however, I was able to let myself go and not search for inspiration. It was in a happenstance moment that I was able to experience what I needed spiritually. I learned through this experience that the inspiration was already there! It’s inside of me and there’s no reason to go searching for it!

It was only when I stopped feeling the stress of arriving at a new sense of awareness that my spirit was able to lead me to a new understanding. I have indeed come back with a new awakening and it didn’t come as I spread out on the beach. It didn’t come as I wrote down my thoughts and ideas, nor did it come as I peered into the sky just waiting for an epiphany....it came as I just “let it all go....”my new awakening came as I allowed myself to be free from the desperation of trying to “find” what was already inside of me! I became free from “the search” and gained a new understanding.

I am so thankful for the peace that I was able to experience as I “let go.” I’m excited about our sessions and I’m ready to continue walking with you all!

The spiritual eye vs the eyes bound by our own perceptions. These eyes only allow us to see what we want to see based on our life experiences.

Wow! It’s refreshing to read things that are truly inspirational. I’ve been focusing on my own spiritual alignment over the past few months and have been especially attentive to my inner thoughts. It is only when we nurture our spirits that we can experience the peace that we all have inside. Yes, we were blessed with all things natural and many times we plague our own spirits with negativity. We become plagued by what we think, what we speak into our lives and into the lives of others. We also become plagued by what we invite in our spirits (negative conversations, media that interferes with our natural sense of peace: inflammatory language, shows or movies that are overrun with violence, corruption, intense drama, disturbing images, etc).

As a child, the cliche “you are what you eat” was incredibly confusing. It is only when I began to become more spiritually aware that I understood what this meant. I later understood that I must be careful of what I feed myself in the spirit. In order to be spiritually aligned, I have to be cautious of what I engage in and what I absorb. We absorb many things subconsciously so it’s important that I carefully choose what I read, what I watch, and the very thoughts I entertain.

......mindful psychotherapist....spiritual awareness....we cannot grow without attending to our natural, spiritual selves.....

The Act of Forgiving & Releasing: in order to have peace, we have to release judgments, criticism, anger, resentment, etc. We have to release all negativity and see people with a fresh set of eyes. See them in their purest form. Why are people in your life mean, angry, vindictive? Why do they lack understanding? Hmmmm....Perhaps they have not experienced their pivotal moment yet. Sometimes the moment comes all of a sudden and spontaneously. When they finally learn, the shift occurs. We must see the person with whom we’re angry as a raw spirit. Cancel out judgments. If we don’t forgive them, we continue to encounter recurrent themes until we finally get it. We HAVE to learn the lesson or otherwise, we’re inviting life to bring about more circumstances that will mirror what we need to learn. Let’s not have to re-experience the same things over and over in our lives. Let’s move past this lesson and conquer the next one. Recurrent themes are real life examples of your unresolved issues. What themes are showing up in your life? Pay very close attention to these themes because they tell you about what you’re harboring on the inside. Do the same types of people keep showing up in your life? It’s time to explore why.  Go within yourself either through meditation which is always my first go-to method of self-exploration or through journaling.  Release and let go of psychological bondage.  

Finding Purpose in “Failed” Relationships

I have met many people who feel like they have a “long lost love” and they have grieved over this person. Let’s understand that each encounter is meaningful. Each relationship in the physical realm is time stamped. Your relationship may be stamped for 1 week or it may be stamped for 10 years. When the relationship ends, our conscious minds want us to feel grief. We have been socialized to feel heartbroken but if we’re functioning on a higher level of understanding, we have a Knowing that says “it’s okay.” What exactly is okay? It’s okay to accept the termination of a physical relationship. We must find purpose in our relationships and have a Knowing that says extending beyond the time stamp is detrimental. Have you ever met a person you truly loved? Have you ever said to yourself, “I’m going to get that person back no matter what it takes”? What occurred as you began trying to pull the person back into your life? Was it a nightmare afterwards? Did you end up with hurt feelings? Anger? Resentment? Disappointment? Of course! But why? You experienced these feelings because you tried to extend a relationship outside of its time stamp. Instead of grieving over a loss, try to find meaning in the time you spent together. Find meaning in your connection. Ask yourself “what did this relationship mean? What did I learn from this person’s presence?” Once you’ve moved from a place of externalizations, you can begin to resolve hurt feelings. You can live in the Knowing that your encounters are all intentional. Therefore, there is no such thing as “a failed relationship.” If you feel like you have failed, go back to my teachings about purpose. When you have a Knowing, there is no loss. There is no failure. There is only an expansive conglomeration of Truth and understanding.

Psychotherapist, Daysha Phimphone LPC, CCATP

Connectedness

Have you ever met someone and felt like you’ve been knowing him or her all your life? Have you ever felt the pain of a loved one when you’re not in their presence? Perhaps, you’ve seen someone who seemed heavily burdened and you could “feel” the burdens. Have you ever fed someone who was hungry? Have you ever given a person a dollar or more? Have you ever felt a “nagging” to do something kind to someone? Have you felt compelled to give to someone even after questioning if this act of giving is from a Divine Source? Have you ever been in need of something and someone seemed to arrive or appear out of “nowhere?” (Those of us with The Knowing understand that nothing just appears)! If you’ve experienced any of these things, you are not operating as an individual. Have you ever felt empathy for someone? You are operating in a state of connectedness. There is something that has connected you to another person’s feelings. Those of us living in The Knowing understand that this “something” that connected us is God.  

To exist individually would mean that we were connected to nothing when we began our life in the physical world. We all lived in a womb before our appearance into this world. The womb was our resting place and the place created not on our own. The womb was created by God and He made it to lie within another. We have NEVER been separate from another therefore, we are none individuals. Our connectedness goes centuries back so even if we wanted to place conscious barriers on this truth, we can’t. We are all connected to countless people. No matter a person’s belief system, there is no person who can attest to arriving in this world on their own. So what have we here? A truth. And remember that truth is beyond what any of us can fathom. Notice in my writing that I rarely use the word “you” when I’m talking about lessons and experiences. I use the word “we” to convey the sense of connectedness and togetherness in which we all exist.

It is only when we begin to think of ourselves as individuals that prejudices ignite. When we begin to see ourselves as separate from others, we begin to form judgments. These judgments are biased and do not reflect the love that Jesus told us to have for each other. Biases are reflections of our own unresolved issues and unresolved issues tell us that we have not aligned ourselves with The Knowing. To Know is to be without doubt. To be “unresolved” is to align ourselves with the concept of unfinished business.  There is no unfinished business in the spiritual realm. Unfinished business is, yet, another psychological concept that keeps us feeling trapped and bound by external phenomena.

Mindful Psychotherapist, Daysha Phimphone LPC, CCATP