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Speaker 1: Hi guys, and welcome to a new episode of Couch

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Speaker 1: Talks on You Need Therapy Podcast. My name is Kat.

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Speaker 1: I am the host, and if you are new and

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Speaker 1: don't know what couch Talks is, it is the special

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Speaker 1: bonus episode of You Need Therapy where I Kat answer

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Speaker 1: questions that you the listeners send to Katherine at You

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Speaker 1: Need Therapy podcast dot com. Now reminder before we get

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Speaker 1: into today's question that although I'm a therapist and this

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Speaker 1: is You Need Therapy, this podcast does not serve as

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Speaker 1: a replacement or substitute for any actual mental health services. However,

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Speaker 1: we always hope that it can help you in some way.

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Speaker 1: We also always keep the questions anonymous, so you don't

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Speaker 1: have to worry about your name being read or any

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Speaker 1: information that you would not want the world to know,

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Speaker 1: so you can feel safe sending in your questions. We

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Speaker 1: don't have any announcements today, which means we can just

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Speaker 1: get into today's question. So I'm gonna read the question

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Speaker 1: that I got and then we are going to just

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Speaker 1: chat about it. And this one's pretty straightforward, so we

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Speaker 1: just get right to the point. Here is the question. Hey, kat,

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Speaker 1: I was wondering if you could share some tips or

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Speaker 1: advice on staying present. I have struggled for the past

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Speaker 1: couple of months with feeling overwhelmed, and when I do that,

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Speaker 1: I tend to ruminate on my anxiety. Do you have

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Speaker 1: any tricks up your sleeve that help you or that

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Speaker 1: help your clients stay in the moment when things start

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Speaker 1: to feel like they are a bit too much. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for all you do. This question is really easy for

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Speaker 1: me to answer, and I can answer it in a

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Speaker 1: lot of ways. I could talk to you, I say,

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Speaker 1: it's easy for me to answer. I could talk to

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Speaker 1: you for an hour on tips to stay present when

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Speaker 1: you're feeling overwhelmed. But I'm going to keep it simple.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to give you one of my favorite tools

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Speaker 1: and coping strategies to help us when we are feeling

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Speaker 1: just a little bit overwhelmed, whether we are feeling anxious

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Speaker 1: about something happening around us, whether we're feeling overwhelmed with

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Speaker 1: how much we have to do. I mean, you can

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Speaker 1: use this when you're dissociating. When it goes as far

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Speaker 1: as that that this can even be helpful. This is

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Speaker 1: one of my favorite things to do, so it's called why.

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Speaker 1: I just call it the five senses technique. When I

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Speaker 1: do teach the skill to clients, I ask them to

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Speaker 1: make emergency bags. So I will have them bring in

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Speaker 1: a little like makeup pouch or something, and we will

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Speaker 1: put something in here and when they are feeling overwhelmed

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Speaker 1: somewhere they can just grab this bag and go through

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Speaker 1: the five senses with this. So they might put mints

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Speaker 1: or a piece of gum, or a piece of candy

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Speaker 1: or something, a piece of chocolate, a reces. That might

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Speaker 1: be harder because if this bag gets hot, you don't

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Speaker 1: want to be melted. But you know, so thaturgummy, warm

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Speaker 1: or something like that. You put something you can taste

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Speaker 1: in there, something you can see that's calming. So it

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Speaker 1: might be like a picture of your family. It might

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Speaker 1: just be a picture of I don't know, the ocean

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Speaker 1: or nature, or a flower or something that just makes

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Speaker 1: you happy. It could be a a picture of a

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Speaker 1: group of friends, or I don't know, a picture that

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Speaker 1: you really like of yourself where you feel calm and centered.

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Speaker 1: It also could be like a magazine clipping. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: have to be an actual photo that you've taken, a postcard, anything,

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Speaker 1: something you can hear. So this one's a little bit different.

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Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have to put something in the pouch

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Speaker 1: with that. You can just do that in general, like

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Speaker 1: you can hear birds chirping or music. Maybe if you

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Speaker 1: have one of those hit clips from back in the day,

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Speaker 1: which if anybody reminds what a hit clip is, I'm

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Speaker 1: pretty sure they were like prizes and happy meals or

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Speaker 1: something in order to we buy them. But they played

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Speaker 1: like thirty seconds of a song, So that would be

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Speaker 1: nice if you could put those in. But maybe you

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Speaker 1: keep a pair of headphones in that bag and then

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Speaker 1: you can plug the headphones in if you're somewhere where

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Speaker 1: you don't want to play something on your phone where

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Speaker 1: you can play a calming song, a calming sound. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you save some meditation music on your phone and then

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Speaker 1: you can plug those headphones in and listen to it.

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Speaker 1: Whenever you need something you can feel. So if I

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Speaker 1: was going to put something in my emergency bag, it

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Speaker 1: would be something soft, something soothing, So maybe a stone

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Speaker 1: that feels soothing to rub, or a blanket or piece

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Speaker 1: of material that's very soft, anything that just feels soothing. Also,

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Speaker 1: you can put some of those like face rollers. I

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Speaker 1: know some of them have stones that just stay cool.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if the stainless steel ones stay cool,

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Speaker 1: but I do think that like the rose quarts, maybe

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Speaker 1: ones do. So you can put something like that in

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Speaker 1: there that would be cool and calming to the touch.

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Speaker 1: And then the last one would be something that you

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Speaker 1: can smell. So I would put in my emergency bag,

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Speaker 1: maybe an essential oil, a perfume that is soothing, not

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Speaker 1: like a really pungent kind of strong set that's going

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Speaker 1: to overwhelm me, but something more so like a lavender

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Speaker 1: or peppermint, because peppermint also is something that you can

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Speaker 1: put like when I am feeling really overwhelmed, sometimes I'll

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Speaker 1: put peppermint on my temples or behind my ears. I

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Speaker 1: don't I actually know what the science is behind that,

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Speaker 1: but I like doing it. I would err on the

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Speaker 1: side of caution with less so much a perfume and

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Speaker 1: more so like an essential oil. But it also could

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Speaker 1: be something else that just like smells good and that

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Speaker 1: you like the smell of. So I am a big

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Speaker 1: proponent of having those emergency bags with you. Something that's

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Speaker 1: small enough you can just put in your purse and

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Speaker 1: your backpack. Maybe you make a couple of these and

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Speaker 1: maybe you put one in the center console of your

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Speaker 1: car if you tend to get overwhelmed when you're driving,

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Speaker 1: or you want one to have that you can go

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Speaker 1: run and get at all times. You can keep one

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Speaker 1: at home, maybe in your nightstand or in a drawer

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Speaker 1: that you can access easily in your living space. And

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Speaker 1: then I definitely would recommend putting one either in your

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Speaker 1: work bag or your purse or your school bag or

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Speaker 1: something like that. And you can see these aren't very

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Speaker 1: expensive to make. They're pretty simple, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: the things you're just already going to have in your

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Speaker 1: house to put in there. Now, you don't have to

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Speaker 1: make the emergency bag to do that. That's just a

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Speaker 1: technique you can pull out at any time. So if

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Speaker 1: I am somewhere without my emergency bag, I can still

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Speaker 1: go through my senses. Okay, what's something I can taste?

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Speaker 1: And maybe you have a drink in front of in

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Speaker 1: front of you can taste that. What's something that you

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Speaker 1: can see? Okay, I can see people around me, I

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Speaker 1: can see the sky, maybe I can see stars something

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Speaker 1: like that. Something I can hear, same thing. You just

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Speaker 1: go through all the senses. Some people do like a

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Speaker 1: five four three two one where it's like five things

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Speaker 1: you can see, four things you can hear, and you

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Speaker 1: go down that way. Sometimes that can be a little

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Speaker 1: bit too much information for somebody to follow, and if

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Speaker 1: you need to do it more than once, you can.

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Speaker 1: So let's say go through them and I'm still feeling

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Speaker 1: overwhelmed and I'm finding myself moving back into that. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we'll do it again, and you do it as many

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Speaker 1: times as you need to until you feel like you

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Speaker 1: are regulated and you can be more present now. Like

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Speaker 1: I said, there are so many strategies and tips and

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Speaker 1: tricks for staying present. That is just one of them,

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Speaker 1: and it's one that I really really love and appreciate

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Speaker 1: and use myself all the time, and it's probably the

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Speaker 1: one that I prep clients with the most. So start

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Speaker 1: with that, and if that doesn't work, then we can

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Speaker 1: maybe one day do a whole episode on tips to

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Speaker 1: stay present through our overwhelming our anxiety. But I hope

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Speaker 1: that this one works for you as well. It has

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Speaker 1: worked for me and some of my clients. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: this one was pretty easy to answer. This is one

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Speaker 1: that I am actually answering rather than just asking some

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Speaker 1: questions back at you. So I hope you enjoyed that

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Speaker 1: and I hope that this was helpful. If you guys

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Speaker 1: have any feedback, questions, comments, anything, you can send those

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Speaker 1: to Katherine at you Need Therapy podcast dot com. You

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Speaker 1: can follow us at you Need Therapy Podcast and att

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Speaker 1: van Buren And also remember that you can follow my

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Speaker 1: therapy practice, Three Courts Therapy on Instagram at three Courts Therapy.

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Speaker 1: And if you live in Tennessee, then you can also

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Speaker 1: check out our website and if you're looking for a

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Speaker 1: therapist then we might be able to help you, although

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Speaker 1: remember you have to be in Tennessee for us to

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Speaker 1: be able to serve you as actual therapists and providers

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Speaker 1: in that way that is going to do it. Today,

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Speaker 1: I hope that you guys are having the week you

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Speaker 1: need to have and the day you need to have,

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Speaker 1: and I will be back with you on Monday. Bye,