Game Changer - Redefining the Game: Psychotherapy's Impact on Breaking Behavioral Patterns
Game Changer
The Envision Yourself Series
It’s Your Time Now
Dr. Matthew G. Mandelbaum, PhD
Psychologist
Whether helpful or unhelpful, our patterns of behavior become part of our experience due to habit and due to expectations that these behaviors do and will continue to satisfy our wants and needs.
Psychotherapy can help to understand the value of the behavioral patterns, including understanding the benefits and delineating the costs.
Learning how the costs of these behaviors relate to and exceed the benefits in psychotherapy can stimulate progress. We learn how to reduce the intensity, frequency, duration of these negative behaviors and increase the positive behaviors.
In therapy, we seek to grow our wisdom and increase our understanding of the why’s and how’s of the behavior. We shift our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to develop new definitions of how we play the game including the value of new behaviors.
Life is like a game of cards.
The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
– Jawaharlal
Nehru
Oftentimes, people feel stuck in their behaviors. They feel that they have no control over them. They are afraid that without these behaviors, they will lose further control. They believe that their behaviors have no alternatives and so they delve deeper into the behaviors that do not function positively for themselves, their families or their communities. If asked if they can stop these behaviors, they might think that the answer is no.
They feel that they lack the agency to work with what they have and make change. Through psychotherapy, individuals can learn to increase their agency, improve their level of control, and be a part of a community.
As we learn to have control over our behaviors, we paradoxically increase our availability to moderate our control and be a member of society. We can share in society as a full participant.
As game changers in psychotherapy, I offer you high praise and extreme respect for taking on the processs.
The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.
– Florence Scovel Shinn
When we recognize the true costs of our actions, we radically accept them.
Sadness, anger, and fear may come with this recognition. We may also have relief in knowing ourselves and clarity in recognizing how our actions fit into our daily lives for us, for our families, and for our communities.
Liberated from the extra noise of our own limitations, we can learn to start again with new behaviors that offer us better outcomes.
As game changers, we seek to be able to support ourselves in these situations. We learn how to self regulate and how to problem solve so that we can reach our goals.
Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.
– Michael Jordan
We need Air. We seek Light. We pursue Joy. We aim for ways to reach these values. We deserve to take back words like pleasure and relaxation. These experiences combined with these positive values come with new insights and fresh commitments to savor our lives.
As we grow and as we grow, we can choose to embrace the joys we may not have known before. Our intelligence, our sensitivities, our intuitions can be utilized for new beginnings throughout the lifespan.
As game changers, we can work towards our own acceptance to play the game with wisdom. We can acknowledge what it means to play and what it means to win.
What will happen in therapy?
Psychotherapy can provide a framework for provocative analysis that leads to mechanisms that improve how and why we play the game. Psychotherapy can help you derive a clever method that takes you past the turning point, past the pivotal moment, that can lead to your capacity to make a lasting impact on yourself, your family and friends, and your community.
Finding the germane essence of your inherent wisdom and growing this inner acumen can help reduce unnecessary negative emotions that can cloud judgment and provide you with the capacity to get yourself ready and keep your head in the game.
As a game changer, you are a difference maker. You can determine what elements are of value and how they can merge to make an impact. You can find value in your history. You can see how the past functions in the service of who you are today and what you seek to do with your time. You can learn to clarify the myths that deceive you to see with increased precision about what is there. Based on understanding of contexts, you can increase your ability to make sound decisions.
Psychotherapy can help you become gain increased interest and investment in yourself and the world.
You can have improved knowledge, skills, and abilities to make good things happen.
You can learn to manifest your potential to improve your life.
I would be happy to talk to you further.
Clients who work with me have found that psychotherapy can be fun, relieving, and empowering. They have enjoyed learning and apply skills to multiple areas of their lives. I know that journey is yours. The experiences and tools belong to you. I seek to help you on the journey of self-discovery in order that you can improve your agency and your impact.
My aim is to improve your capacities as a sensitive, intelligent person, to fortify your capability to build your sense of self, to help you make meaning of your experience, to grow your wisdom, and to give you tools so that you can function in many aspects of the world.
Want to talk more?
Join me for a complimentary 20-minute phone consultation.