Being there for your kids - Getting from Here to There

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Do you remember the old definition of insanity? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. With counseling and psychotherapy, we help patients change old, unhealthy habits and find new ways to get from here to there. My new treatment technique, mentalligent psychotherapy (MPT) aligns with our brain's neuroplasticity, using mindfulness, positive psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioral strategies to shut down unhealthy, old neural behavioral pathways and generate new, healthy neuropathways on your healing journey. If you want to get from here to there, MPT is the means to embrace your brain's neuroplasticity. Blessings, Jon

Hi, I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Did you know that neuroplasticity gets you from here to there? So, neuroplasticity, that's a fancy medical term. It also is relatively new. Up to 20 years ago, researchers and clinicians thought that our brains matured until we were age 25, and then, no more maturity. The brain just stopped growing and changing. Now, more recent research confirms that our brains mature and grow, creating new. neural networks throughout our lifespan. How cool is that? This gives underlying neurological foundation for the lasting change that can come from psychotherapy. Two maxims of counseling and psychotherapy apply. First, you can stop unhealthy old behavioral habits. Conditioning principles use the maxim, use it or lose it.

On your healing journey, this maxim becomes stop using it and lose it. So, Hank, you seem so excited. I paused after ushering my page. into my office. What's going on? Well, Doc, you know how you've been encouraging me for months to find the new me? The me where rage is not my go-to response with Carrie? Hank sat down and leaned forward in his excitement. Yeah, I hesitated anticipating his continuing his story. Well, the new me arrived last night. Beaming, Hank took a deep breath to collect himself. Great, I exclaimed. Introduce him to me. Okay, After I got home last night, Carrie started off on me, telling me all the things I had failed to do around the house. Some of it were things we had talked about, and then I had said I would take care of.

More of it was just her ranting about random messes, broken stuff and such, like we live in a pigsty, which we don't. Wow, that's a lot. I took it all in. How did you respond? That's the thing, you know? Hank took a breath, smiled, and continued. In the past, I would have countered her every point, shouted back, and stomp for. off, probably back out to the local bar. That would have been the old me. And the new me? I did none of that. Instead, I reached out to her softly and gave her a big hug. Hank chuckled, thinking back. She stiffened up. She didn't know how to respond. And then? Then I apologized for not getting to things she had listed. She softened after my apology and hugged me back. Then I active listened, like you taught me to, listening to her stresses with her work, the kids, the house. I let her talk,

and then concluded, so no wonder she's so overwhelmed. She broke down in tears. I held her some more, told her to put her feet up, got her a beverage, and did a load of laundry. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, really cool. I like your new you. I bet Carrie wants to keep him around. The second maxim of mental and psychotherapy is this.

What you pay attention to grows. Focus on the bad stuff and it gets bigger. Focus on the good stuff and it grows. weaving mindfulness, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioral strategies into your mental and psychotherapy with patients gives them the tools to shut down the old, unhelpful neuropathways and to engage your brain's neuroplasticity to create new, healthy, neuropathways along your healing journey. For more, check out my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life at Amazonbooks.com or check out my website at

author john robinson.com. If my comments, sir questions of your own, contact me through my website at www.orghum.orghumed.orghumor.com or email me at john Robinson 0.0. at bell south.net. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychologist, and author of Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting, and my new book, The Healing, The Healing, The Healing, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good Life. Blessings, Dr. John. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting, is available online at AmazonBooks.com and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson at TMC-P-I-N-C.com.