Simply Thrive Therapy Blog

The Big Five: Can people be organized into just five personality traits?  According to researchers, yes. Ok, not exactly. You should know by now that nothing in human psychology is that simple! We do mostly fit into five major categories, with other traits grouped into each category. There is ongoing debate that one or two more traits should be added and that this model works best for the Western European world, but so far, the field has mostly stuck with the Big Five.  Each trait is a spectrum with polar opposites at each end – we are all somewhere on these spectrums.  Openness (opposite is Traditional/Rigidity) Conscientiousness (sorta-kinda opposite is

Benefits of Working with a Counseling Intern Now that you are ready to work on yourself with a therapist, you may find yourself waiting months to meet with a licensed mental health professional. However, let’s say you can wait a week to meet with an intern but question the benefit of working with one. Though interns are not licensed professionals and have less experience, they offer many advantages worth considering when selecting your therapist. Lower Caseload Intern students have a lower caseload than licensed therapists. This allows these clinicians-in-training to allocate more attention and time to planning sessions for their clientele, from conducting research to selecting appropriate activities.  Wealth of

Thoughts – Emotions – Behaviors: A cheat sheet to making changes People operate within some form of this basic interconnected cycle: we have a feeling/emotion, which triggers a thought/belief, which we act on (behavior). Or we take an action (behavior), like give someone a hug, which causes a feeling (warmth or safety or affection), which makes a thought pop into our heads (“I want to see this friend more often!” or “I’m so grateful for my mom!”), etc. You get the idea.  This three-part cycle is the basis of pretty much everything we do. This means, if one of those parts becomes harmful, it can turn into what we all

Questions to Ask Your Potential Therapist Congrats on taking the first step towards taking care of yourself and your mental well-being!   Now that you’re ready to enter into therapy and start working on yourself, you have the opportunity to screen and select your therapist. This person will be your cheerleader, your guide, your supporter, your confidant. Not just any individual can fulfill this role for your journey, so as much as possible, take the time to vet this person and make sure they fit your needs. You’ll be investing time and energy into yourself, so I strongly suggest taking the time to understand who the professional is before you

Bisexuality Awareness Week This week is Bisexual Awareness Week, also known as #BiWeek. This week is an annual celebration held in September, from the 16th through the 23rd. It is an extension of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, held annually on September 23.  Bisexuality is a type of sexual orientation where individuals experience a sexual and/or romantic attraction to more than one gender. Bisexual people actually make up the largest population within the LGBTQIA+ community and about 3.9% of the adult population in the United States.  How many times have you heard “it’s just a phase” or “they’re just being indecisive.” Well, these phrases may actually have a significant effect on bisexual individuals.

Strengths We hear a lot about using our strengths, but the annoying truth is that we humans are usually better at focusing on our weaknesses (or, more often than not, what we think our weaknesses are) than we are at focusing on our strengths. So let’s break down this whole strengths thing into something that’s actually usable! First of all, we need to identify some strengths that we know we have, beyond any doubt! Here’s a link to one list, but it’s not hard to find all kinds of these lists: https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/strengths-list No matter how hard we are on ourselves, we usually have at least a couple that jump off