Good Therapy San Diego
+1 (619) 330-9500
​
intake@GoodTherapySanDiego.com
  • About
    • Who are we?
    • Services
    • Payments
    • Reviews
    • Contact
  • Locations
    • North County - Encinitas
    • San Diego - Sorrento Valley
  • Our Team
    • Staff Summary
    • Ashley Fecteau, LCSW
    • Camille Mansour, ASW
    • Caroline Maehler, LMFT
    • Catie Peters, ASW
    • Deema Kanbaragha, AMFT
    • Eli Recht, AMFT
    • Hannah Schweizer, LCSW
    • Ilana Molkner, LCSW
    • Katie Brooks, LCSW
    • Katie Greasby, LMFT
    • Laura Baird, LMFT, LPCC
    • Laura Gonzales, AMFT
    • Leila Atiyeh, LPCC
    • Lindsey Cieslak, AMFT
    • Maggie Hollinbeck, LMFT
    • Millicent Sykes, APCC
    • Min Choi, LMFT, APCC
    • Nicole Stanko, AMFT
    • Sean Berkshire, AMFT
    • Shaghayegh (Sheri) Ameri, LMFT
    • Tiffany Triplett, LMFT
    • Whitney Molitor, LMFT
  • Blog
    • About Psychotherapy >
      • 10 Myths About Seeing a Therapist
      • How do I find a Therapist Near me?
      • Positive and Negative Beliefs
      • Psychiatrist, Psychologist or Psychotherapist: What’s the Difference?
      • Should I see a therapist?
      • The Benefits and Limitations of Virtual Therapy
      • The Power of Core Beliefs
      • What is AEDP?
      • What is Anxiety?
      • What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
      • What is EMDR?
      • What is Mindfulness?
      • What is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)?
    • Child Therapy >
      • 6 Tips to Help Your Child With Separation Anxiety
      • 9 Ways to Manage Your Child’s Anger
      • 10 Ways to Help Your Child Manage Difficult Emotions
      • ADHD and Your Preschooler
      • Child Disobedience
      • How Social Media Can Affect Body Image and Self-Esteem Issues in Adolescents
      • How to Support Your Teenager
      • Is Your Child a Worrier?
      • The Beautiful and Challenging Transition to Parenthood
      • The Underbelly of the Tantrum
    • Depression >
      • 8 Tips to Avoid Depression During the Holidays!
      • 9 Ways to Make This the Best Year Ever
      • Depression/ Grief and Loss
      • Grief and Loss
      • Mindsets Commonly Associated with Procrastination and Do-Nothingism
      • Postpartum Distress
      • The Story of the Stone Cutter
      • The Trouble with Self-Judgment
    • Divorce >
      • Anger
      • Divorce Recovery
      • Forgiveness
      • Parenting After Divorce
      • Predictors of Divorce- The Four Horsement
    • Eating Disorder >
      • Appearance on Channel 6 News!
      • Body Image
      • Eating Disorder Recovery
      • Healthy Food
      • New Way of Healing From an Eating Disorder: Curiosity and Compassion
      • The Power of Vulnerability and Connection
    • Relationships >
      • Appearance on Tonight in San Diego
      • Being a Safe Person Breeds Authenticity
      • Bisexuality
      • Can Marriage Survive Infidelity?
      • Connectedness Vs. Differentiation
      • Decoding the Sexless Marriage
      • Friendship - The Foundation for Successful Relationships
      • How to Be A Good Listener
      • How to Save Your Relationship from Certain Destruction
      • Improving Your Relationship
      • Repetitive Conflicts and Unsolvable Problems
    • Trauma >
      • How Trauma Has Impacted YOU
      • Trauma- Defining and Recoverin
      • Trauma: Discovering the Differences Between Explicit and Implicit
      • The Hidden Trauma of The Pandemic
      • Somatic Experiencing
      • What is Trauma-Informed Care?
    • Wellbeing >
      • 7 Tools for Coping with Difficult Emotions
      • 7 Ways to Tame a Whack-A-Mole Life
      • 8 Self-Care Ideas for Busy Parents
      • 10 Ways to Help Decrease Insomnia
      • Anxiety - Perspectives & Tools
      • Balance
      • Busting the Myths of Self-Compassion
      • Chronic Pain
      • Habits
      • How to Manage Stress
      • Living is a Choice
      • Mindfully Responding to Life's Challenges
      • Nature Nourishes the Mind
      • Not Sleeping?
      • Self-Compassion: The Key to a Courageous, Vulnerable, Resilient Life
      • Self-Esteem VS. Self-Compassion, What’s the Difference?!?
      • Sleep and Mental Health
      • The Enemy of Connection
    • Yoga >
      • What is Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy?
      • Demystifying Yoga
    • Videos!
  • GTSD Events
  • CAREERS
Picture

Core Belief System 
By Sarah Paulson, LPCC

Many individuals who seek mental health treatment in adulthood for Emotional Distress (i.e. Anxiety, Depression, Substance use, Panic Attacks or Relationship problems) have experienced emotional or physical neglect during their early development. Early emotional experiences of nurturance and protection are encoded in our brain’s limbic area (the emotional center). Over time, these repeated encoded experiences from our early developmental years become our internal working models and lenses for everything in our world (core beliefs about our self, our self in relation to others, and the world in general). Interestingly, research has shown that emotional neglect from one’s primary caregiver during childhood can lead to greater adverse consequences in emotional, mental and behavioral distress in adulthood than physical abuse can as the former can severely damage our self-image of our worth. If early neglect is identified in your history, counseling should be aimed at helping you change your negative core belief system, which developed in your early years and now runs your world view in ways that you may not be aware of.

In counseling, you will learn how to tolerate distressing emotional states instead of acting on them in ways that have led to negative consequences for you. You will also learn how to notice how your core beliefs have/are contributing to these distressing emotional states as they have fostered life-long patterns of behaviors that make things worse in your life.

Treatment in this area includes helping you change your core attachment capabilities. Safety (physical and emotional) is first/TOP priority: One must feel safe currently in order to begin the healing process. In the absence of safety, love cannot be truly enjoyed and can even feel threatening. With safety in place, a bridge develops across which love can flow and self-empowerment can begin to develop and ultimately thrive.

If you believe you may have experienced neglect in your developmental years, you may want to start journaling when you experience intense interpersonal emotional distress by answering the following questions:
  • What is the feeling I am experiencing?
  • What is my thought about my world or myself as I experience this feeling?
  • When have I experienced this feeling or thought in my past?
  • What was my world like at that earlier time?
  • Did I feel safe? Did I feel Loved? Did I feel worthy?
  • What were my core beliefs about the greater world and myself at that earlier time?​
This exercise may be emotionally painful and evocative and thus, doing so while enrolled in psychotherapy is ideal so that you have someone to process the powerful experience and feelings that may be dug up and/or awakened. This exercise will give you a small window into understanding how these earlier experiences may have impacted your current thoughts, feelings and behaviors and can be explored with your therapist. By gaining this insight and understand your core belief system, you will gain tools of enlightenment and empowerment that can allow you to grow into the best version of yourself!
Proudly powered by Weebly