Hi everyone,

Let’s get right to it!

Sequencing is taken directly from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The purpose of sequences is to help us move from reacting to circumstances to responding. I encourage you to do a sequence a day in your journal. Powerful stuff. Apply to your own life.

  • Situation:  Marie, 61, after having been in their current home for ten years, her husband’s being transferred to another state.
  • Thought: “Moving is really hard. Just awful. At this age I thought my moving days were over.”
  • Feeling: Very angry.
  • Action: Tries to write “to do lists,” but procrastinates the job of packing up.
  • Results: The couple loaded boxes in a rush. Marie barely had time to have lunch with her friends. She ruminates daily about leaving her dear friends, but also her roses, the beautiful deck they’d just had built, and the pumpkin plants that she’d started to show the grand kids where pumpkins actually came from.

Yes, we need several bridge sequences before getting to the below sequence.

Chosen Sequence

  • Situation: Marie, 61, after having been in their current home for ten years her husband is being transferred to another state.
  • Chosen thought: Marie tells herself that she’s a smart, strong woman who can handle the challenges life throws at her. She’s already managed plenty.
  • Feeling: She still feels some fear, some anger, but she also has pride in herself for making “we can do hard things” a reality.
  • Action: Marie researches how to make giant moves a little bit easier.
  • Results: Marie finds loads of online information and uses several to make her state-to-state move a whole lot easier

Have you guys seen the Netflix show Love on the spectrum? Bring your tissues!

Have a great week!

Author

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