Practices
Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.
Narrowed down
7 practicesHow long you have · Five minutes
Who it is written for
Where you are right now
On your own, or with someone · Involves someone else
Theme · What worry does
There is a difference between being disappointed with how things are and having given up on how things will be. The second needs a different level of care.
Disappointment still has a future attached to it: this is bad, and later might not be. Hopelessness has closed that off. If you hear someone move…
The worst symptom is not always the one that costs the most. Ask what actually stops you doing things, and start there.
Someone might rate their racing thoughts as the worst of it and still be turning down every meeting because they go red in the face. If you are…
When someone is genuinely distressed by what happens on their phone, treat it as a reading of their anxiety rather than as a complaint about screen time.
For a lot of people, younger ones especially, the phone is where most of the social risk now lives: being left out, compared, watched, judged.…
Listen to the tone, not only the content. Sorrow and flat negativity about someone's online world can be the clearest reading of their mood you will get.
If most of a person's social life happens online, how they talk about it is a fair guide to how they are. Weariness, bleakness, no pleasure left in…
When a young person seems impossible to satisfy, the complaining is usually a symptom rather than ingratitude. Saying that plainly to a parent changes what they feel.
Parents worn down by years of grumbling often arrive carrying a resentment they are ashamed of. Naming the negativity as part of an illness gives…
Treat the whole of social media as poison and you will never hear anything true about it again. Some of what happens there is genuinely good for people.
Drawing, making things, finding others who share an unusual interest, keeping up with people who live far away: none of that needs fixing. What…
Parents see an adult sized person and assume adult sized judgement. It helps to say out loud that the wiring is still being finished well past eighteen.
The look of the young person is doing the arguing, and it is very persuasive, so only a plain statement will counter it. Say that the parts used for…
Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.