Sep 23, 2022
Today’s guest is Dr. Leah Katz, Ph.D., who is a clinical
psychologist practicing in Portland, Oregon. 
Originally from New York, she completed her doctorate training at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.
While living in New York, Dr. Katz worked at a community clinic where she led several groups, treated individuals and couples in therapy, and taught at Stern College for Women.
She currently works in a group practice where she specializes in working with teenagers and women, with a focus on treating anxiety and depression, amongst other things. She utilizes a hybrid of cognitive behavioral, ACT, and mindfulness techniques in her therapy work.
Dr. Katz is passionate about girls’ and women’s mental health, and helping women navigate challenges to live deeply connected and fulfilled lives. She writes for Psychology Today and recently published her first book, Gutsy: Mindfulness Practices for Everyday Bravery. You can find her on Instagram @dr.leahkatz, Twitter @drleahkatz, and her website, drleahkatz.com where she shares mental health related tips and insights.
Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on:
- Looking back and evaluating your past is a good thing to do, but don't dwell on it.
- It is not a weakness to say you need hel, to speak to a doctor and ask for help or to be referred to therapy etc. It is a sign of strength to admit that things are not right and you need help.
- There are many options available to try and better your mental health. If one treatment modality does not work for you, please do not give up hope and there are many other methods to try.
- Therapy is a great method for helping the user figure out how to tackle the problem in their own way.
- Thankfully the stigma on mental health is ending. It is ok to talk about your mental health struggles.
- There are a lot of online and free resources available to help you on your own journey of healing and betterment.
- You are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are generated by your brain on the situation, previous experience, what you have seen etc, they are not orders you must obey. You can listen to your thoughts and decide how to act. You are in control.
- Mindfulness is a great method to help with rumination, stress and anxiety and obtrusive thoughts, depressive moods etc.
- There is no one fit method for everyone. Something that works for your friend or sibling might not work for you. You just need to look for the right method for you.
- Looking at your thoughts, feelings and how your body is doing is a great self awareness tool to check in on how you are doing and see if there small clues that you are struggling and you can stop it earlier and not allow it to blow up worse. You could make this a daily ritual.
- Learn adaptive coping strategies, the best coping strategies will change as your grow, heal and feel better or worse. They may change over time.
- Again it is OK to ask for help.
- "Anxiety is a physical response that is not always bad".
- Anxiety can arise against your own personal life, what causes you anxiety might not be the same as for others.
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- Consider you thoughts, look at them from above them, what is the truth in them, what is causing them to arise, what is the meaning and message behind them. There will be some wonky thoughts, some untruthful and others that are just trying to keep you safe but not helpful. Learn to get in touch with your thoughts and take the lead rather than letting your anxiety etc taking charge.
- "It is not about avoiding it, it is about accepting it".
- You can name your emotions, name your fears or anxiety etc, and say 'not now' and it helps create the distance from being you, its a visitor, its not you and you can let it go and act as you wish not controlled by the emotion.
- Treat yourself as someone you loved, show yourself self-compassion and self-love.
- "We are all going to make mistakes" and need to "meet ourselves with self-compassion".
- Talk therapy is fantastic, speaking about your darkness and demons to another, helps lose the power they have over you.
- "We learn about who we are and how the world views us from our childhood".
- "There is a very big difference between blame and accountability." Try not to blame but hold people accountable for their actions and the way they deal with you going forward.
- Identifying where an emotion lives in our body can help identify it when journalling and help understand it better.
- "Eating, sleeping and movement" are three key areas where incremental changes will massively improve your wellness.
- Building a personal self-care routine can really help your healing, and building a better future.
- Set time to sit outside, being outside in nature can really help with depression and anxiety.
- Time in silence, without devices, phones and other distractions and letting you body, mind and emotions realign is a powerful tool even.
- Grinding 24/7 is not healthy, you don't live to work, you work to live.
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- "Give yourself permission to say no" and engage with the things that give you true meaning and happiness in life. Stop living life for someone else, find the path you want in life.
- Stop comparing yourself on social media to others, stop comparing your whole life to someones carefully controlled and edited highlights.
- A gratitude ritual, where you write out what you are grateful each day, even just three things, can be life changing. By seeing what we are grateful for, you appreciate how many good things are in your life, and you feel more confident and less likely to compare yourself against others.
- It is not selfish to take alone time, even when you have children. It is far more destructive to lose your sense of self and your true identity.
- "Change is possible". "Be the change you want to see" if you can't find it in your life.