Hi, I’m Dr. Z.

I’m a psychologist, a passionate behaviorist, and a person that loves to make behavioral science accessible for day-to-day life. I specialize in Acceptance and Commitment skills (ACT), a form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).

In this newsletter, I do my best to share with you compassionate, caring, and actionable research-based skills for everyday problems with worries, fears, anxieties, obsessions, and ineffective playing-it-safe actions.

Dealing with fear-based reactions it’s human and it can be messy, complicated, and overwhelming. Think about it:

– We all experience fear, all types of them: fears about making mistakes, being a failure, getting rejected, being lonely, and so many more.

– When we feel scared, our brain goes into reactive mode and quickly sends out signals to get out of a situation. When receiving signals to get out of a situation, we play-it-safe.

– We all do what fear, anxieties, obsessions, and worries push us to do: play-it-safe.

We play-it-safe in so many ways; sometimes we’re aware of them, most of the time, we’re not, because our playing-it-safe moves are so familiar to us.

For instance: 

– Have you ever overthought a situation, trying to come up with the best decision but then never took any action?

– How often have you gone to a party and drank more than you should have because you were anxious?

– Were you ever in a relationship that you knew wasn’t healthy, but the fear of loneliness and uncertainty made you stay in it?

– Do you spend hours in your head thinking about something that happened, could have happened, or might happen?

No human being walks this life without approaching a situation, activity, or encounter with safety crutches. Playing-it-safe behaviors are embedded in our day-to-day life; they work because they quickly minimize, suppress, and eliminate the distress that comes with any fear-based reactions, regardless of what we’re afraid of, how intense our fears are, or where our fears are coming from.  

The reality is that playing-it-safe is the norm, not the exception.

That’s natural, that’s not the problem. The problem lies in how often we do it, when do we do it, and how it affects our life. 

This newsletter is an extension of my work – passion – to spread the word about actionable skills to build the life you want to live, and not that life that fear pushes you to have.