Blog — communication skills

Four Fs of Stress and Trauma: Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn Explained 0

Have you ever found yourself reacting to stress in ways that seem out of your control? Those automatic responses can get you in trouble! They can mess with your relationships, work life, and personal well-being.

You are probably aware of the fight-or-flight emergency stress response concept but may not know that 2-only list of instinctual reactions has been expanded as more research into stress has been performed.

As the list has grown, the F alliteration has remained. The expanded list includes Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn. (Some have added others like Faint or Flop, and Friend. I'll explain why I don't typically include these when talking about the stress response.)

I added freeze to my stress response explanations to clients many years ago, but I resisted the idea of growing the list beyond three until I investigated fawn recently for a writing project and got excited about how well it explained some of what I have witnessed in client stories.  

Recognizing the Four Fs stress response can empower you to better manage stress and make healthier choices in challenging situations.

Let's explore the Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn stress response and its implications on your daily life.

15 Important High Emotional Intelligence Benefits 0

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has gained significant attention in recent years. It's the ability to understand, use, manage, and express your emotions, as well as the ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others. 

I have been helping people build their emotional intelligence for decades. I am more and more convinced that it is the key to personal happiness, successful relationships, and healthy communities. 

In this article, we will explore the research-based benefits of having a high emotional intelligence quotient (EQ). So, if you're curious about how emotional intelligence can benefit you and the people you care about, keep reading to discover the key advantages it offers.

101 Emotion Words List: Expand Your Emotion Vocabulary 1

Most people have a limited emotion vocabulary: they don't have many words to describe feelings. Having limited emotion words at your disposal gets in the way of you understanding yourself and others. This post includes a 101 emotion words list to help you better label what's happening for yourself and the people around you.

Is The Way You are Listening Damaging Your Relationship? 0

Listening in a way that works is a skill that most people don't have. Most people use what I call "Not Listening Skills" when their job in the moment is to be a listener. These communication missteps create misunderstandings and messy buildup in couples: accumulated hurt feelings and resentments. They also contribute to people talking at each other rather than hearing each other and considering what they have to say.

People using any of the 10 Not Listening Skills often think they are doing a great job as a listener and don't see or understand that it's damaging their relationship. They may be listening to their partner, but their partner doesn't feel heard, and they don't really get what their partner has going on.

Learn, Let Go, Lighten Up: Silver Lining Emotional Detox Journal and Workbook 0

My Learn, Let Go, Lighten Up: Silver Lining Emotional Detox Journal & Workbook can help you process anything that weighs you down, stresses you out, or keeps you stuck so that you can learn from challenging experiences and feel lighter and happier. 

Click Read More to find out how Learn, Let Go, Lighten Up can help you. 

Self-Help and Helper-Help Books by Therapist Ann Silvers 0

Through decades of working with counseling clients as individuals and couples, I've learned a lot about what helps people build healthier, happier, and more successful lives and relationships.

I've drawn on that experience to create self-help and helper-help books designed for individuals' personal use and as professional resources for teachers, counselors, therapists, and group leaders to assist their work with students and clients.

I'm up to 16 books published!

Topics include anxiety relief, what works and doesn't work in relationships, and emotional intelligence skills, among others.

Here are links for each. Some links are for the site you are currently on, and some are for Amazon. Listing books on Amazon allows each copy to be printed on demand when it is ordered—no matter where in the world you are.

The Amazon links are for Amazon.com (US), but the books are also available from Amazon in other countries, such as amazon.ca, amazon.au, etc.