https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools daily 0.75 2023-02-13 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/the-problem monthly 0.5 2023-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/29025de7-114d-4707-8eb4-c91b6947369e/alexander-krivitskiy-2vXYyYMcnzI-unsplash.jpg Thinking Tools - The Mysterious Problem - “The body always tells the truth.” Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/89aaa3f9-2470-4bfd-ac80-bd40d74527b4/carlos-de-miguel-VoghxilbfEI-unsplash.jpg Thinking Tools - The Mysterious Problem - Make it stand out Photo by Carlos de Miguel on Unsplash https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/96405ba4-feed-44ee-9918-82790d3cfaff/ivana-cajina-Hi0bdO0vEfo-unsplash.jpg Thinking Tools - The Mysterious Problem - Make it stand out Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/boredom monthly 0.5 2022-05-05 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/enduring-hardship monthly 0.5 2022-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/e479f816-bcb5-45b9-b7ae-2d9e6212f5dc/7497001.JPG Thinking Tools - Enduring Hardship Red-figured stamnos (jar) showing Odysseus and the Sirens. © The Trustees of the British Museum Used by permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/identity monthly 0.5 2022-07-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/6ef6f8be-c0cb-4744-8251-cbf71e307a3a/brett-jordan-lYW2El-YSCs-unsplash.jpg Thinking Tools - Identity - “. . . we are who we are in some mysterious, ineffable way, that makes it possible to commune with ourselves, a higher power, or others in a way that transcends socially constructed narratives.” Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/meaning monthly 0.5 2022-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/6b05fb64-0d5e-46cd-b51d-8fe964fde5f0/viktor+frankl.jpeg Thinking Tools - Meaning - Human freedom is not a ‘freedom from’ but a ‘freedom to’—a freedom to accept responsibility. 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Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychotherapist https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/bd9409ae-4af8-4b58-b98e-351c9302bd4f/large_lifetasks.png Thinking Tools - Meaning - 5 Primary Life Tasks love work social self spirituality https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1648600766656-FTOFHZTDQ123DZTYJAWJ/unsplash-image-IdjxBF_StBk.jpg Thinking Tools - Meaning - Life tasks are chosen, not begrudgingly put up with. https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/emotional-hospitality monthly 0.5 2022-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/f15f60e8-3179-4677-8a09-df5b0441c9ad/valiant-made-UrzN-8K1PCE-unsplash.jpg Thinking Tools - Emotional Hospitality - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/8ca9721c-0507-413f-a28e-b38aa13c64e3/greg-rosenke-HHgnQFBVs6o-unsplash.jpg Thinking Tools - Emotional Hospitality - This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. —Rumi https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/category/emotions monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Poem monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Congruence monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Depression monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Anxiety monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Akhmatova monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Trauma monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/thinking-tools/tag/Dissonance monthly 0.5 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/home daily 1.0 2025-02-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/f1b4e067-97f3-4462-b469-ca0364b32e59/Untitled+design+%283%29.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/8be15f22-41c0-45e8-8d84-430ca7a72299/t3+-+Step+2.3.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/ba4d51c2-abda-40b8-b3eb-f024616cf077/2.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/82c58bac-992d-4c00-a151-a2edbd7008ff/Headshot+edited.jpg Home - Get to know Tyler Tyler’s Story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/a37ff013-8d5d-4b3e-9533-9d0a2bac6b00/IMG_3711.jpg Home Contact Tyler https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1601906747931-D530FRKN0MSTYUFLQA5D/image.jpg Home Thinking Tools https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/5c13066d-3408-45aa-8a51-c44fb7965481/IMG_3709.jpg Home - dfasdfasd Therapy Process https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/tylers-story daily 0.75 2024-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1600186245846-78111TBGZMSD9S1KDWOO/image-asset.jpeg Tyler's Story - Growing through hardship Photo by Maasik/iStock / Getty Images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1599750997868-UJ8EE3GJZ2W1JQXDAYCF/image-asset.jpeg Tyler's Story - Recognizing privilege and sharing opportunity “I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates As a child, I was a product of my social context, blind to my White racial identity and ignorant of the social forces that made life easier for me than children of color in the very same neighborhoods and schools. As an adult, I acknowledge the unfair advantages and privileges associated with my identity and choose to stand in solidarity with those who have been disadvantaged and oppressed. I take responsibility for fighting systemic prejudice, division, and inequity and confronting oppressive ideologies like racism, sexism, and heterosexism. After college, I realized that if I was going to become the kind of therapist who could comfort people of diverse and complex identities when they were in pain, I would need to understand and deconstruct the privilege I’d been born into. I decided to set the books aside, as it were, and make myself vulnerable to situations and people who would hold me accountable. I chose to undergo training as a counselor at Adler University while doing social justice work in Chicago. Back in Iowa City, I have found opportunities to continue this work through activism in the community and raising awareness in educational contexts. Unfortunately, quality healthcare, food, and shelter are not accessible to many in our community. In addition to offering “traditional” psychotherapy on a sliding scale depending on clients’ ability to pay, I am committed to helping all clients find the material resources and other services they need to thrive. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1599749776690-492O3UN00IHY19GMKZB6/image-asset.jpeg Tyler's Story - Looking for meaning and beauty “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.” — Nisargadatta Maharaj I’ve been interested in philosophy my entire adult life—not the really abstract, skeptical stuff, but the kind that has to do with human beings making real decisions. While in school, I always tried to figure out how the things I was learning could be applied in a meaningful way. I read poetry and novels, philosophy, and religious texts interchangeably to see how they frame living a good life. As a classicist, I love learning ancient languages to fully appreciate the different terms in which ancient and distant peoples described the world and their experiences. As an interdisciplinary scholar, I believe that there is no essential antagonism between spirituality, the humanities, and the sciences. Although we can’t answer the big questions with certainty, it’s important to learn what we can in the right equilibrium. Some things are deeply mysterious, and that’s a good thing. To paraphrase, the Sufi poet Rumi, our eyes are small, yet they see vast things. Contemplating a mystery with intellectual humility, like gazing at a painting or landscape, can be an aesthetic experience that affords wonder and gratitude. I practice this myself both through meditation and through prayer. Aren’t we fortunate to have this chance to encounter beauty both in the outside world and in the inner world of our hearts and minds? It doesn’t matter to me whether a client prefers religion, spirituality, nature, or the sciences to get a better view of their place in the world, as long as it helps them see their value and purpose more clearly! https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/therapy-with-tyler daily 0.75 2023-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1613775795959-A7C00WO20H63OJ0T30N2/IMG_3711.jpg Therapy with Tyler - A client once told me that she got a new piece to her puzzle during each of our sessions. What did she mean? It’s not as though I had her puzzle pieces stockpiled in my office. Those puzzle pieces weren’t mine to give; they were hers to find, however, and I was doing my best to help her look. We began by figuring out what was missing. Then, we determined together the best places to search. In a figurative sense, I gave her some fresh batteries for her flashlight, and I walked with her. I comforted her when she had to look in scary places and encouraged her when she was feeling lost. I helped her interpret what she was seeing in herself by sharing what I’ve learned from the wisdom of ancient traditions and from modern research in psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science. When she found a piece of her puzzle, I prompted her to tell the story of how it fit into her life. Over the months, she created a much clearer picture of the person she wanted to be and was able to practice living it. The search for puzzle pieces may take you to some strange and scary places; I will walk with you, support you, and help you make sense of what you encounter. https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/contact-tyler daily 0.75 2025-01-07 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/hipaa daily 0.75 2022-01-02 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/therapy daily 0.75 2025-04-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/9133b310-6498-4fc9-899e-a6f6a039a49d/unsplash-image-Hx8HaI4ERkA.jpg Therapy Every culture has a wisdom tradition that preserves and passes on collective human insights with regard to living a good life. Philosophical counselors have a special education and training in one or more wisdom traditions and, critically, promote active participation in the unfolding of these traditions by reflecting cogently on lived experiences and by behaving in a manner congruent with deliberately chosen values. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/41dd537c-a938-4c77-ab51-5de59e7b20e9/unsplash-image-hWlvhJAxkIw.jpg Therapy Far from being the application of a dogma to life, ethics comes into play, according to Michel Foucault, “precisely where there is neither obligation nor prohibition.” In this space of uncertainty, there is also opportunity—opportunity to make aesthetic choices about your life. That is to say, we are pondering not only ethical questions (how can I best live?) but aesthetic ones (what is beautiful?). A client of mine recently concluded therapy, and as we discussed all that had happened in our time together, he murmured, “it’s like looking at a painting.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/4445eaf1-265a-4dfb-9222-b049e899f423/unsplash-image-KBn4-lyqRgQ.jpg Therapy I believe it is critical to situate this form of higher order thinking about how to use human freedom to live a beautiful life on a firm psychotherapeutic foundation, which involves regulating the nervous system, fostering the experience of emotions (and thought) as embodied, addressing trauma, recognizing the relational/embedded nature of our worldview and beliefs, and verbalizing your experiences in narrative form. As the National Philosophical Counseling Association (NPCA) states on their website, “philosophical and psychological forms of counseling are complementary and mutually supportive avenues for helping people to confront their problems of living.”* https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/f126fb43-a3ab-464b-b46a-323bbac248f5/unsplash-image--tikpxRBcsA.jpg Therapy Philosophical counseling encompasses a broad set of practices, including my particular blend of Virtue Ethics and Narrative Therapy, intended to promote client congruence and integration. The notion that well-being has to do with integration goes back, at least, to Aristotle in ancient Greece and to Confucius in ancient China. Both philosophers set forth a kind of Virtue Ethics. While Aristotle emphasized the inner integration of a person's character, Confucius emphasized the harmonious integration of the individual in the community. Achieving intra- and inter-personal integration in Virtue Ethics could be described as “inclusive happiness” (Luo, 2021). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f54020f8c2cfd60e4b0de3f/1bc49412-90fd-4d06-a54d-5b9d52fd9988/unsplash-image-QyjwUq5Amp8.jpg Therapy My favorite ancient philosopher Plato said that (and I paraphrase) just as our eyes see physical objects in the light of the sun, our minds think (a kind of mental seeing) in the light of the Good. With practice, we can develop the insight and wisdom to recognize a path, even through extremely adverse circumstances, toward a better life. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Therapy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Therapy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Therapy https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/recommended daily 0.75 2022-06-22 https://therapeuticthinkingtools.com/what-is-psychotherapy daily 0.75 2025-02-11