Why BASE?
Balance - Awareness - Strength - Evolution
One of my favorite mindfulness techniques is called, “Dropping Anchor.” What happens when you drop anchor, is that you push both of your feet into the ground, allowing yourself to feel the strength of the ground beneath you, along with the strength of the muscles in your legs. When I do this, I am always reminded of the fact that there is firm ground, and pretty much any challenge is workable as long as we have firm ground beneath our feet. This very simple principle is the reason for BASE. Psychological well-being has to be built on a very firm foundation, and we define this foundation as four key factors: Balance, Awareness, Strengths, and Evolution.
The main definition of balance is: an even distribution of weight allowing something to remain upright or steady. When we experience psychological struggles, we can feel out of balance, or unsteady, which is why balance is at the BASE of psychological well-being. From another angle, most of us have to find balance between accepting factors outside of our control, and addressing changes that need to be made. We may not have created all of our problems, but it really is up to us to solve them whenever solution is possible.
My favorite quote from GI Joe as a kid was, “Knowing is half the battle.” Awareness is the knowing of self, and it is key in true psychological change. It can be difficult to even see what the source of imbalance may be when we are living our lives, which is where consultation with an outside expert can provide insight into possible paths of psychological change. As therapists, we are trained to bring awareness to patterns of thought or behavior that create hardship, and we collaboratively work to develop more effective patterns.
Strength is key to movement through psychological change. It may seem hard to imagine, but we have a lot of resilience with which we can connect when we feel the most challenged or the most off balance. For most of us, failure teaches us about our limitations, but finding strength helps us to move beyond these limitations. In her work on shame, Brené Brown was able to demonstrate that we develop authentic connections with our support systems when we are able to be open about our internal struggles with a trusted resource. We can help find and cultivate authentic strength and support in the work we perform at BASE.
Evolution is carried through neuro-plasticity. The characteristic of CBT that makes it so effective is the fact that it results in neurological changes in the brain. It is a pathway to healing some of the pathological processes within the brain, and results in sustained changes. Study after study demonstrates the brain responds with structural changes when therapy is delivered correctly. We trust our physical trainers to create lasting changes in our muscle strength, CBT creates lasting changes in our psychological capacity.
For the development of this practice, Andrea and I went through our own journeys to connect with these core principles. We have found that we lean on each other in times where we need extra balance, and respect the awareness and strength that working as a team provides. Our own practice development has been an evolution from initial concept to our launch. We invite you to BASE, where you will find opportunities to become more balanced, aware, strong, and evolved. We would love to join you on this journey.