Dr. Nicole CainAnxiety Healing | Holistic Mental Health

138. The Many Sides of Mental Strength With Amy Morin, LCSW

Name: 138. The Many Sides of Mental Strength With Amy Morin, LCSW
Uploaded: 2025-02-25T19:00:37+00:00
Duration: 59 s
Channel: Dr. Nicole Cain
Description: This YouTube interview (episode 138) features Amy Morin, LCSW, describing her mental-strength approach: instead of prescribing a long list of positive…

25 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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This YouTube interview (episode 138) features Amy Morin, LCSW, describing her mental-strength approach: instead of prescribing a long list of positive actions, she wrote herself a short "what not to do" letter to reduce overwhelm and make behavior change feel doable. She contrasts strengths-based clinical training with the practicality of limiting harmful actions (analogy: a trainer telling you to lift weights but also to avoid junk food) and gives examples like "don't feel sorry for yourself" and "don't give away your power."

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Why you decided to do the list of things that people don't do rather than a list of things that people do do.
Yeah. As a clinical social worker, I was trained to really build on people's strengths. So when they come in your office, point out what they're doing well, tell them to keep doing that. And I thought, that sounds great, but, like, what if I went to see a physical trainer and they said to run on the treadmill and lift weights? Like, great, I'll keep doing that. But I would hope that they would tell me, don't eat all this junk food that's out doing all the hard work that you're doing. And I know for me, when I was at some of the lowest points in my life, I got so much advice from people like, well, just try to exercise, go for a walk, meditate, read books. I'm like, thank you. That's all great information. But I'm just trying to put one foot in front of the other, and having a long list of more things I should be doing just felt overwhelming. So that's why I wrote myself a letter of what not to do, because somehow that felt doable. If I wake up today and I say, amy, just don't do these certain things, don't feel sorry for yourself. Don't give away your power.