Weekly Insights: Try This Instead of Gratitude

Heal NPD

The "Weekly Insights" series is for paid members of Dr. Ettensohn's Heal NPD Youtube channel. In the short-term, Dr. Ettensohn is posting all even-numbered episodes free of charge. If you would like access to the full series, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeT5kujD1JqHRAi-x8xD-w/join

In this episode of the members-only "Weekly Insights" series, Dr. Ettensohn reflects on the positives and negatives of gratitude as a therapy intervention, noting the potential for unintended enactments of invalidation or 'pressure to perform' in the therapy relationship. Things like gratitude journals invite us to reflect on the things that are good in our lives. But they can also reinforce inauthenticity when someone has been raised in an emotionally invalidating environment.