Resources

Body Scan Coping Skill (Guided Meditation Exercise)

A body scan meditation can help us to notice what sensations are happening as well as what tension we might be holding in our body. The following is a short version of a head to toe body scan inviting you to creating greater awareness and connection with your body.

Perhaps take some time to practice this meditation at different points in your day, before and after different activities, or when you are trying to cultivate a greater sense of calm. As you get used to this exercise you can practice shorter and longer versions- using this as a check-in for yourself or a practice to allow yourself to settle into a longer mediation or prayer time. You might find that the more often you engage with a body scan practice, you create a greater awareness of your body and the emotions and experiences it holds.

Container Coping Skill (Guided Visual Imagery and Meditation)

As I do trauma work with clients, we often use an imaginary container as a coping skill. Clients imagine a container like a file cabinet, safe, or trunk that can “hold” triggering or distressing images, sounds, and emotions. This helps with emotion regulation and trauma responses as we have a skill that helps us have and take space. It’s visual imagery and a meditation that can be so helpful. 

One of my favorite things about using a container for a coping skill is thinking about how it becomes a choice to now contain triggers which helps with maladaptive coping patterns of running, escaping, or avoiding. Containing is not running. We chose to come back to the content in our container with our therapist or in our own time when ready and able to give it our full attention.

Podcasts:

Matrescence: The Process on Becoming a Mother on the Aligned Birth Podcast

The process of becoming a mother, matresence. Much like the process of becoming a teenager and adolescence, there are chemical, physical, and emotional changes that occur as we become a mother. In this episode, Dr. Shannon chats with maternal mental health counselor Kristina Tucker about the change in our identity in motherhood, where society fails us, and what resources are out there for support. They also discuss:
● How to treat matresence from a holistic and empowering lens
● The things that change within is in motherhood
● Support vs fixing
● Self-compassion
● Find the gray area of motherhood (the both/and)
● Trauma - attachment - narrative work

Self Compassion and Fertility on Woven Well Podcast

We can be hard on ourselves when it comes to our fertility journeys: "I should've done this. I ought to have known that. How could I have done that? I caused this." Kristina Tucker, GA LPC, shares the importance of self compassion when it comes to our bodies and fertility. We talk about what self compassion is, why it makes such a difference in our quality of life, what God has to say about it, and how to practice it - right now. This is a fantastic message that we think every woman benefits from hearing!
Kristina walks us through a real-time self compassion break. You can come back to utilize this at any time: it can be found at 14:00

Self Compassion and Grace on the Soul Grit Podcast

“Give yourself grace” is a common phrase in our culture, but how does it fit in with the biblical concept of grace? And does the modern psychology concept of self-compassion fit within a biblical worldview? Join us, two Christian therapists still figuring it out, as we explore these concepts.

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