Doodle to Connect

A Doodle Exercise to Stop Outsourcing Approval

Thumbs up blog 8.1.22

Do you find yourself in an everlasting loop of seeking approval from someone on the outside?

Welcome to the club. The icky yucky truth is we can sometimes never get enough reassurance from anyone on the outside club!

Building an inner committee of support that's always there to remind us that we are:

  • okay
  • doing good enough
  • loving and lovable
  • kind
  • fun
  • imperfectly perfect

It takes time to build our inner committee of support... and I found little creative tricks to help along the way…

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Affirmations create new neural pathways

email newsletter:blog 7.26.22

We hear messages from every angle to think positively, look on the bright side, or be grateful.

Yet if you're anything like me, your brain interjects a BIG "yeah, but" or maybe a simple "hmpfh" squeaks out of your mouth in disbelief.

Our internal defense systems, old patterns for safety, and subconscious core negative beliefs are right there to raise a flag in disagreement the minute something positive is introduced into our system.

This doesn't make you defective, disordered, or broken dear …

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Doodle Heart Exercise

email doodle 7.19.22

You may have days when checking inside with your Inner World may feel too broad, unending, or just plain overwhelming.

On those days I like to simplify.

This is a simple doodle exercise for you to practice checking in with yourself. All it requires is:

  • a piece of paper
  • pencil/pen
  • and that moment during the day when you notice your heart

As you are going about your day and feel that twinge, cringe, or ache inside... allow yourself to stop for just a moment. Take a breath. What do you no…

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Collaging Your Mind and Heart

This collaging exercise invites you to use word cutouts from magazines to express your head and heart. 

Materials to gather:

  • Old magazines
  • Copy paper or journal 
  • Marker or Pen
  • Scissors
  • Glue Stick

If you would like to print out a copy of the Doodle Person for your collage words you can access it here.

Happy Collaging,

Dr. Trish





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Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Doodle Lesson

This Doodle Lesson discusses Mindfulness & Self-Compassion.

Materials used:

Happy Doodling,

Dr. Trish





Video is 5 minutes in length, set to music. Music courtesy of: https://www.bensound.com (acoustic breeze)

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Creative Healing 101 - Doodling Shapes

When we allow ourselves to scribble or doodle we are giving our overactive thinking mind a break. This "distraction" allows us to bring our attention to what is right in front of us, our scratch paper and pen...

In this video I will demonstrate drawing basic shapes. Continuing to work on lines and shapes is like building a visual alphabet. Soon we'll begin combining shapes to make recognizable objects. 

Allow yourself the freedom to be a beginner again and just enjoy the process. If you need t…

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Creative Healing 101 - Doodling lines

Learning to draw again, as we did when we were children, allows our expressive, body based brain to come alive. 

This is helpful when we feel stress, panic, fear, or simply don't have words to describe what were experiencing. 

For this exercise grab a piece of scratch paper and a pen and follow along.

In this video I'm using Suffle Art Marker Set and Canson Watercolor Paper or I also love Mixed Media Paper

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My child went back to (grad) school... am I supposed to still get jitters?

Back to School!

A topic that can evoke anxiety for children, as well as for parents.

Last week my son went back to school... grad school. From the moment he discussed his dream of attending grad school, the daunting application requirements, and his nervousness and uncertainties of getting in and paying for it, I could feel my mama anxieties begin to kick in. I had work to do, on myself... to help soothe my own feelings so as not to place my fears upon his.

Re-parenting and doing deep inner w…

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How do I care for my Inner Child if I was never taught how?

I often hear from clients how difficult and awkward it feels to listen to their inner child. Many of times it's because:

  • There was no one to role model self-care
  • Their childhood was unhappy and they're scared to re-visit old feelings
  • They feel silly because they are grown now

The list could go on and on. We find ways to resist those places inside that make us most nervous. Dissociation of childhood memories is a common phenomenon. With dissociation of memories, the inner child is often n…

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