What's holding you back?
The "Compass Reset" is an intensive that's designed for people who feel stuck and who are looking to break out of a cycle in how they're approaching their current problems. It's essentially a focused, condensed experience of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) which is a transdiagnostic approach to therapy that's effective at helping people fundamentally shift how they relate to their problems and internal struggles.
Stuck can look a lot of different ways. Some examples include:
- Stuck acting the same old way in certain relationships even though you hate it
- Stuck battling with certain thoughts or feelings all the time, such as not being good enough
- Stuck in a situation you hate but you can't seem to find which way to go next
- Stuck being passive in your life and you don't know why you can't just change already
Whatever your form of "stuck," there's a reason you're there. If you've already tried just-gritting-your-teeth-and-changing-already but that hasn't worked, it's likely the reason is deeper than you first thought and to really change, you'll have to explore beneath the surface. We'll look together for the heart of what's keeping you stuck and address that. Then, we'll look for where there's room for you to hold your thoughts, fears and feelings in different ways that move you forward. Oftentimes, it's simpler than you'd expect--you didn't realize that you don't have to battle with a certain thought all day, or that you could let yourself feel a certain feeling. We find a few places in the cycle where there's room for a small shift. And by making a couple small shifts in a very stuck cycle, you'll be surprised how quickly the whole cycle starts to fall apart and you can move forward in a new direction that better reflects what you truly care about.
Kathleen Taylor, therapist in Northwest, Philadelphia. Her office is accessible by Septa from Center City. The office is wheelchair accessible.
What's involved in the intensive?
An intensive involves back-to-back extended, in-depth & focused therapy sessions with breaks as needed. These sessions are intended to help you work in a thorough and unique way on a specific area of "stuckness" that you bring in. My aim is to support you to see, experience and approach the pattern in new ways that help you break through stuckness and feel freed up to be more simply yourself. You can learn a lot about my approach to therapy and how it works on other pages on my website.
Each person, goal and intensive is unique. Below is an example schedule for the intensives, with flexibility as needed.
Saturday 8:30 am - 1:30 pm
8:30 am - meet for a walk at Wissahickon park and begin by sharing big picture about what's going on and what it has been like for you (outdoors optional & weather-dependent)
9:45 am - Come back to the office and look more closely at the patterns that tend to emerge related to the pattern you're stuck in. Map it out in my big notebook, including thoughts, feelings, behaviors, things you're avoiding unconsciously, etc. Look in depth at even the subtle processes happening inside you
10:45 am - Shift towards looking at what's keeping this cycle in place. Where are the places that it's most strongly reinforced?
11:00 am - Devote the bulk of our time to what's happening beneath the surface for you in those places, which I can help you to find and explore within yourself. This is where we do the work that helps you shift the way you're relating to the cycle itself.
12:30 pm - Turn towards what that change might look like for you and how you could start living it out. Set intentions of specific behaviors you can begin practicing in your life that shift you in a new direction
1:30 pm - Finish up for the day. A recommendation to leave your phone off for a few hours as you continue to process.
I'm interested. What's my next step?
We can begin with a free consultation to connect about your goals for the intensive and see if it seems like a good fit. I'll ask you to share a little bit about the stuckness you're experiencing and what you're hoping for from the intensive. If we decide to move forward, I will follow up with you on some recommendations for ways to prepare for the intensive so you can get the most out of it. I will also follow up with some paperwork to complete. Once a date is set for the intensive, a 30% deposit is due to hold your spot. The total cost for the intensive is $650.