Murphy Therapy LLC

If you work with me, we're going to talk about your values. And if that makes you feel like cringing, you're not alone.

It's not unusual for people to struggle to tell me what their values are. We might have some vague idea, but figuring out how values actually look like in our everyday life can be a challenge.

So to help you start finding your own values, here are three ways your values show up in your daily life.

See if you can find evidence of your values this weekend!

Tonight's presentation was a success! Thank you for the thoughtful questions and comments, Maryville adjuncts!

I used to bother getting offended by portrayals of bad therapists and bad therapy on TV.

I was teaching an undergraduate class when the first season of 13 Reasons Why came out, and they kept asking me about the school counselor, so I watched the whole thing in order to be able to talk to them. It made me really angry to see my profession portrayed in such an inept manner with such tragic consequences. So I had to sit with that anger and figure out what it meant.

What I landed on was this: Bad therapists make good TV.

I value good therapy, so when I see bad therapy, it conflicts with what is important to me - providing quality, competent, compassionate counseling that helps people connect to the lives they want.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying portrayals of therapy on TV, whether it's Gypsy, In Treatment, Private Practice, or any other show that includes therapy or a therapist character. Just make sure that you see it as entertainment and not an actual depiction of what happens in therapy.

(If you'd like to know what therapy is ACTUALLY like, reach out to a therapist, not Netflix.)

Sometimes the most fun things are surprising or unanticipated, so if you're seeking fun, you might not find it.

Let fun come to you. Even if that concert, that dinner party, that video game, or that book doesn't *sound* like fun, you may still find fun in the experience.

That doesn't mean that any experience has to be 100% fun top to bottom. There can still be anxiety, uncertainty, disappointment, frustration, or boredom mixed in there.

Remove the pressure to HAVE FUN!!!!! And you may actually have some fun.