This content was created by Natalie Moore, LMFT. This content was uploaded by Natalie Moore, LMFT. This is a YouTube video titled "Therapy Skills Ep 4: The Serenity Prayer 🙏" (published April 8, 2021) featuring Natalie Moore, LMFT. It is a short therapy/self-help episode in a series of practical tips for early therapy work, focused on using the Serenity Prayer to distinguish what one can control (one's own behavior and attitude) versus what one cannot (other people). The speaker (Natalie Moore) explains why this distinction matters in therapy, mentions follow-up content on acceptance, and includes a call-to-action to like/subscribe, and to book a free 15-minute telehealth consultation in California. Metadata: content_type=YOUTUBE, thumbnail provided.
Chapters
If you've ever been to a 12-step meeting, you've probably heard the Serenity Prayer. This video is going to talk about that concept of identifying what you can control and what you can't. Hello there, Natalie Moore, LMFT, here. This is a new series about all of the first tips that I teach clients in our early work together in therapy. So if you haven't checked out the first 3, definitely check them out. Today I'm going to talk to you about deciding what you can control versus what you cannot control. This might seem super obvious, but it's actually something I have to work on with pretty much all of my clients on an ongoing basis. Why is this important? When we are in a situation that we are less than thrilled with, we will often try to control a lot of different variables in order to not feel uncomfortable feelings. This is problematic because we can't control other people. We can't control what they think, what they feel, what they believe, and ultimately they're going to do what they're going to do. So sometimes we might resort to trying to control what other people do, but I do not recommend that because that is called manipulation and it's not a healthy way to be in relationships. Maybe we'll cover manipulation in another video, but for now I'm going to keep it at we can't control other people. What can we control? The list is much shorter. All we can control we can control is our own behavior and our own attitude. Everything else we can't control. Sorry to break it to you. So in therapy, one of the first things that I do is help clients determine in any given situation what they can control. And so once we've determined what behavior they can control and need to do differently, we work towards that. And once we identify what attitudes are unhelpful or limiting or not serving them anymore or creating more resistance or suffering, then we can work on those too. There is a really helpful tool for this. You may have heard of the Serenity Prayer. It's a common tool used in the 12-step fellowship program. It's: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. If acceptance is difficult for you, we are going to cover that in the next video, so stay tuned. If you enjoyed this video, if it helped you at all, please leave a comment in the comment section and let me know what resonated. And if you are so inclined, if you could hit the like button, subscribe, share on your social media channels, and share with a friend, I would so appreciate you helping me get the word out about what I am doing here on this channel. Again, my name is Natalie Moore. I'm a licensed I'm a licensed psychotherapist in California and I provide telehealth, so that means I can work with you if you are anywhere in the state of California. If what I said today resonates with you and you feel like I might be a good fit for helping you, please reach out. You can go to my website and book a free 15-minute consultation there. I hope to hear from you soon. Take good care. Bye-bye.
