In this episode of Therapy Deconstructed, Dr. Bonnie Wims speaks with mindfulness teacher and coach, Courtney Schulnick about her unique journey from being an attorney to embracing mindfulness as a way to manage stress and anxiety. They discuss the challenges of balancing professional and personal life, the transformative power of mindfulness practices, and the importance of being present. Courtney shares her experiences with the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program and how it led her to teach others. The conversation culminates in an experiential mindfulness practice, allowing listeners to engage directly with the concepts discussed.

Takeaways

• Mindfulness can help manage stress and anxiety effectively.
• The journey to mindfulness often begins with personal challenges.
• Balancing professional and personal life can be overwhelming.
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a structured program that can aid in stress management.
• Experiential learning is crucial in understanding mindfulness practices.
• Teaching mindfulness can be a rewarding way to share personal experiences.
• Transitioning careers can be daunting but fulfilling when aligned with personal passions.
• Mindfulness encourages self-awareness and self-compassion.
• Small moments of mindfulness can significantly impact daily life.
• Mindfulness practices can help in recognizing and releasing unnecessary tension.

Links:

Connect with Courtney Schulnick
https://www.courtneyschulnickmindfulness.com/
courtneyschulnickmindfulness@gmail.com

Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims
Book a free consultation https://calendly.com/bonnie-96/30min
bonnie@wimsandassociates.com
https://www.bonniewims.com/

Ed Coambs is the founder of Healthy Love and Money, a financial planner and marriage and family financial therapist. Ed shares his unique background, having transitioned from being a firefighter to a financial planner and becoming a therapist.

He was interested in how family dynamics and financial behaviors intertwine, and this led him to study therapy to understand these deeper connections. He discusses his own skepticism about therapy before experiencing its benefits personally and professionally. Over time, he embraced therapy because of its power to help people understand themselves and their behavior.

Everyone has a personal history and relationship with money, shaped by our lived experiences. Understanding this history is key in financial therapy, as it helps to understand seemingly irrational financial behaviors. We all have Emotional Connections to Money and sometimes Society Influences Spending and constant pressure to consume and compare fuels unhealthy financial behaviors, like impulse buying.

Ed has a specific Therapeutic Approach to Couples and Money and his view on Attachment Theory and Money is very interesting. Ed advocates for increasing awareness about the relationship with money and how this relationship was formed. One of Ed’s central beliefs is that empathy and curiosity can lead to meaningful change, whereas using shame as a motivator can have long-term negative consequences. In this episode, you will hear Practical Tools for Couples that will help build a more collaborative and positive financial relationship. Let’s stop the circle of fighting over money and build better habits.

Show notes:

👨‍🚒 Ed is a former firefighter: running into burning down relationships is harder. 02:01

💲 Financial intimacy: the intersection of love and money. 02:59

🚒 Ed's Journey from Firefighter to Financial Therapist. 03:38
👨‍⚕️ The Role of Therapy in Financial Intimacy: we all have our issues with money and it reflects our relationships with people. 10:21
🤩 You can’t be told what to do: your experiences are important for financial behavior.
15:27
⚡ Power of empathy and social media: what are your needs and emotions connected to money? 17:06
😎 Practical strategies for couples to develop financial intimacy: looking into all perspectives. 27:24
💰 The Role of Attachment Theory in Financial Therapy. 29:55
⏯️ Patterns of behaviors around money: fighting about money and going in circles. 36:28

Links:
Website: www.healthyloveandmoney.com

Book: www.amazon.com/dp/195355508X

Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims: www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims

Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims: calendly.com/bonnie-96

Willpower isn't real, it's just a myth. What's real is creating a healthy environment where habits can thrive.

Ethan Schiff is an Integrative Health Coach and the founder of Optimized Health. He has a passion for helping everyday people unlearn the harms caused by diet culture, achieve their health goals, and sustain results for life!

Ethan shares that, for the majority of his life, he has been on a diet. He shares that dieting began in his adolescence in a family where dieting was a regular part of life. He recalls a harmful cycle of yo-yo dieting that eventually resulted in him reaching a peak weight of 312 pounds. This precipitated a quest to unlearn everything he had been taught about nutrition, weight loss, and health, in order to create a new approach. Experimenting first on himself, he lost 130lbs, which transformed his entire life.

The key to achieving a healthy weight is building healthy habits gradually and focusing on your emotional well-being, including understanding stress eating, body image issues, and how mental health impacts our relationship with food and fitness. The hardest part isn't starting; it's staying consistent and not letting one off-day derail everything. Self-compassion is the key to consistency—no one is a failure because willpower didn’t show up today. It is essential to understand, deeply, that one moment doesn’t define you.

Show notes:
🏃‍♂️ Ethan helps people achieve their health goals: practical wellness for your real life. 02:31
😇 Ethan’s personal journey: the process of unlearning. 06:06
✌️ A two-pronged approach: habit development and understanding emotional health. 08:46
⭕ Diet culture feels like a battle with ourselves, but Ethan chose to reconnect with himself. 13:32
⚠️ When your self-worth is dependent on external factors, it attacks your identity and leads to a deep spiral. 16:23
🍀 Approaching it with intention: focus on developing one habit a month while making adjustments. 20:03
🔑 Willpower and consistency: Inspiring yourself instead of comparing yourself to external standards. 25:31
🦹‍♀️ Unrealistic expectation of waking up and feeling like a superhero every day. 30:07
🎯 The key to connecting with ourselves: I will check in with myself, not with others. 34:26
🤓 We need practical advice that fits into real life. 36:32
🤩 Ethan offers free consultations. 39:37

Links:

Website: www.optimizedhealthcoaching.com

Connect with Dr. Bonnie Wims:www.linkedin.com/in/drbonniewims

Book a free call with Dr. Bonnie Wims:calendly.com/bonnie-96