The ICM Blog
Redefine Therapy

Our work and our mission is to redefine therapy and our conversations are about the art and practice of healing. This blog was launched in May 2018 by Dr. Jamie Marich, affiliates, and friends.

  Originally published on the Dancing Mindfulness Expressive Arts Therapy Blog, 5/4/2017 If you’ve followed Dancing Mindfulness and other projects connected to my Institute for Creative Mindfulness work, you’ve likely encountered the hashtag #redefinetherapy. What started as a book chapter and a hashtag is quickly turning into a movement that you

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A picture of a young Dr. Mary K Riley

The Girl From Nowhere: Subjectivity and World Around Us

The study of subjectivity is broadly concerned with what it means to be an experiencing subject in the world. When I touch the book, “I” am the subject doing unto an object, namely “the book.” This subjective “I” touches the book, reads the book, has the book fall on her

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Community Trauma of Mass Shootings

I woke up this morning to the news that a mass shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio, about 90 miles west of my home.  This was the second mass shooting in 24 hours from which I am still reeling.  Though these events did not affect me directly, it is still impactful

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Original artwork by Artwork by Amber Coulter

The Myth of “Ready”

​When I first met the person who would become one of my spiritual teachers, he told me that I wasn’t ready. I asked him a series of challenging questions from the crossroads at which I found myself in life. I struggled to make sense of deeper yoga teachings that would

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Before You Talk Shit About Another Addict

If there was a category in my high school yearbook for “Most Likely to Become a Junkie,” I would not have been a contender. Indeed, I was voted “Class Brain.” And none of my smarts could prevent me from developing an addiction problem on top of an already budding  mental

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A decorated cake with many layers.

EMDR Therapy & DBT: A Beautiful Fusion

As a certified therapist in both Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), many times therapists give me the “huh” look when I say that I use them both – together. You know that look, head cocked to one side and brow furrowed. “I don’t

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Drawn diagram of the brain.

How EMDR Therapy Helped Me to Reclaim My Life

I was sitting in front of a client one afternoon as she talked to me about the rape she had experienced a few months ago.  As the tears streamed down her face, I began to feel my hands shake, not that she could see, but enough that I definitely noticed. 

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Not So Much of a Rebel: Making Peace with the Standard EMDR Protocol

When EMDR clinicians learn that one of my specialties is addiction, I usually get asked, “Which protocol do you use? FSAP? DeTUR?” I’m often met with surprised looks when I respond, “I use the standard protocol mixed with good common sense about how addiction works, which informs my preparation approach.

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Never Enough

In her recent work, Process Not Perfection, Dr. Jamie Marich described the “call and response” technique in several different modalities. So, this article is in response to the call of her article “The Popular Kid Complex.”“I am not enough” has been an ongoing target for me in EMDR. You name

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Original work by Irene Rodriguez

Some Metaphors I Have Lived

Metaphors are conventionally regarded as literary devices: they are the weightier cousin to the simple analogy. Whereas the humble analogy claims, “Sally is like a brick wall in the face of adversity,” the metaphor boldly states, “Sally is a brick wall in the face of adversity.” Often the difference is

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