What if You Don’t Always Need to Calm Down?
In therapy, we often talk about emotional regulation–focusing on how to manage feelings in healthy, effective ways. We talk about dysregulation as though it’s something bad, something to be avoided or “fixed” with breathwork, mindfulness, or reframing our thoughts. As a therapist, I’ve fallen into this mindset too. When a client shows up dysregulated, my instinct is to help them calm down. There’s value in that, as sometimes soothing the nervous system is absolutely essential to [...]
