• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

NICABM home pageNICABM

Better outcomes. More quickly.

  • Home
  • Courses
  • Experts
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Log In

Skills for Helping Clients Get “Unstuck” During Times of Uncertainty

87 Comments

Times of uncertainty often become powerful opportunities for growth.

And yet, fear of uncertainty can freeze people in their tracks – they become hesitant to make decisions or take a step in any direction.

So when clients get stuck, how can we help them move forward?

In the video below Joan Borysenko, PhD describes specific skills that can help people become “unstuck” during periods of transition.

Take a look – it’s about 5 minutes.

What has kept your clients stuck, and how have you helped them move forward? Please leave a comment below.

Shares659FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPin

Related Posts: Fear, Mindfulness

Please Leave A Comment Cancel reply

This is a learning community for practitioners. We can’t wait to hear what you’re going to use with your clients.
But please do NOT:

  • Share about or seek advice for personal problems
  • Ask for referrals
  • Post links or advertise a product

87 Comments

  1. Brandy Riley, Another Field, Escondido , CA, USA says

    Self healing my own trauma
    By working with horses with behavorial problems and lameness problems
    Due to trauma

    I took off meds
    That covered the trauma
    And went to a crises house to allow the trauma
    Re experienced it and by breathing …. Letting it out in tears …. Bouts of rage sufficed
    Had a bat walked the parking lot kicking cans balls etc
    An hitting a bench screaming yelling at the perpatraitors who abused me..

    Point was to focus on the release of emotions….
    Let the thoughts picture just float by breathing deep breathing ….

    That is how I get unstuck..
    Was on 15 meds …
    Labeled by polar
    Am completely off all meds…. Since Oct 2022…..
    I go to crises house when ready to get unstuck

    Am free from the past…
    All gone
    I read … find your courses interesting
    I not interested in any certification
    But love to be a fly on the wall and learn….
    Helped me tramendously healing self
    God Bless
    Brandy

    Reply
  2. Karina Bercovich, Psychology, AR says

    Thank you so much for this video! Exploring uncertainty often reveals certainty oasis in the unlimited space of consciousness; people discover their inner measure moment by moment.

    Reply
  3. Belinda Woodsward, Another Field, Seaside, DE, USA says

    It is true that people prefer to stay in their comfort zone because it create a secure feeling to be in the familiar place. Being stuck, like Joan B. said, is giving some time to reflect or just to enjoy the morning breakfast, see the trees growing, and look at life with a different lens. The personal work in therapy clients do helps them to move in the more healthy direction in which they chose for themselves. Even if it’s not the same thing that the therapist prefers to take.

    Reply
  4. Lizbeth Hall, Other, Sonoma, CA, USA says

    I appreciate the idea of no longer and not yet. It gives hope, and lasting faith in the good things yet to come and openness to the possibilities.

    Reply
  5. Pa, Counseling, Lafayette, IN, USA says

    What you said is so true in so many ways. I will use this to help a friend in need at this time.

    Reply
  6. Barbara Miller Nickerson, Student, MAYVILLE, NY, USA says

    Guilt! It acts as an emotional superglue, binding one to the pains of the past, making it ostensibly impossible to move even as far as uncertainty at times, and obstructing any notion of, let alone vision of, the door of “the return”. -Barbara Miller Nickerson, doctoral student at Liberty University

    Reply
  7. Robin Trewartha, Psychology, GB says

    I find that court cases and claims for compensation can create stuckness. As with Thomas K’s observation below – context becomes crucial.

    Apart from the obvious perceived disadvantages arising from ‘getting better’ when claiming compensation, there are issues of re-traumatisation that arise from discussing incidents with non-clinical personnel seeking to achieve different goals and without the ability, or willingness, to ‘pace’ disclosure. In that situation, avoidance is a rather sensible, if short-term, strategy. Avoidance can then take on a sense of stuckness.

    Therapeutic direction? Consistency in reaching out to sustain trust when it may feel under siege – for client and therapist!

    Reply
    • Thomas K, Other, CA says

      Thank you, Robin, for your comment. In my personal experience, i have found that it is true that the administration and the documents to be produced for the insurance may be the cause of our first despair. But what helps clients/therapists during the life transition period and most important in the healing process is our perseverance.

      Reply
    • Brandy Riley, Another Field, Escondido, CA, USA says

      I totally agree with your observation
      Been there done that route…..
      Years and years of trauma
      Free now

      Reply
  8. Thomas K, Other, CA says

    I am not sure if she is talking about grieving or just loss in term of growth. For one their is grieving a loss and the other is facilitating growth. When a soldier coming from combats and have to be reinserted back in the community it is another kind of adversity that they have to overcome through resilience. Thats the kind of counseling we do. Starting from the beginning for them. Its not like something new to learn but from the memory. So is there anything uncertain nay more. Mentoring is always a goog thing. It is unlikely that they dont know how life was back then, it is just that how people will accept and welcome them back again in the society during that adjustment. Tha’st what I believe that the brain has lots more difficulties in finding its way back to normal.

    Reply
    • Dana Hill, Other, Denver, CO, USA says

      What if they had a life that didn’t work for them before they went to war?

      Reply
      • Thomas K, Other, CA says

        I don’t think that would have changed anything much.

        Reply
  9. Donna L, Other, CA says

    There is so much said in this video and about being stuck in a crossroad… it is where I feel like i am in now. It is very unpleasant and can be fearful. Thanks

    Reply
  10. Bryan Tran, Counseling, CA says

    Love her reference to Victor Turner saying “no longer and not yet – the oldest fading away the newest is yet to come” that is very clearly what uncertainty can be. Well done .

    Reply
  11. Steve Jones, Psychotherapy, Washington, DC, USA says

    I like the call into the “wilderness wandering” metaphor that reminds me of being in exploration without knowing what we are looking and searching for, until it naturally comes to surface from the scary darkness. It is like in the unconscious and to be first revealed in the subconscious mind.Thabjs.

    Reply
    • Bryan Tean, Counseling, CA says

      not sure that video said something about finding the way out of the darkness / forest besides waiting

      Reply
      • Joyce Weaver, Other, Lancaster, PA, USA says

        Yes, to validate uncertainty is comforting.
        But –wait…ok., what can I do while I wait?
        Yes, reflect, find mentors, grieve, anticipate growth. . . . Could we have more on how to encourage growth.

        Reply
        • Libby R, Other, Seattle, WA, USA says

          I think that is what is missing the most in this video.

          Reply
  12. Lin Jovanovic, Psychology, Grass Valley, CA, USA says

    Being uncertain and stuck doesn’t hurt as much as being mindfully in our moments of change. This is what people fear and avoid – experiencing the pain. They fear it will not end, so they shut it out, including decisions about one’s choices. I appreciate the ideas of no longer and not yet.

    Reply
  13. Sonia Hankin, Counseling, Davie, FL, USA says

    I agree that grieving is the first step to getting unstuck. I find it to be the most important one because you cannot bypass it or else, you stay stuck. Once I educate my clients on the stages of grief, it allows them to have some “certainty” about the “uncertainty”!

    Reply
    • Bryan Tran, Counseling, CA says

      I like that “more certain about uncertainty” .J.

      Reply
  14. Blair Shepard, Counseling, Spindale, NC, USA says

    Thank you for sharing this. I think it’s true that growth happens when we wrestle with the transitions and uncertainty of life. As humans, we don’t tend to wrestle with the valleys unless we are thrown into it. I appreciate Joan’s normalizing framework for clients.

    Reply
  15. Mary Curro, Stress Management, Portsmouth, VA, USA says

    This is so important for those of us who are aging and adjusting to change after change, loss after loss. Mindfulness is immensely helpful, as well as remembering that we are on a natural path, and remembering that “we may not know where we are going, but we are not lost.”

    Reply
  16. Tamie Bryan, Counseling, NORFOLK, VA, USA says

    Fear of the unknown keeps them in the “stuck zone”. Familiarity of the “stuck zone” is more tolerable. Client’s often tell me that this is “less scary” than trying something new and different.

    Reply
« Older Comments

Recent Posts

  • Two Telltale Signs of Gaslighting and Manipulation (and How to Address it Clinically)
  • Two Cognitive Restructuring Strategies to Help Disrupt Grief-Fueled Rumination
  • A Gentle Yet Targeted Approach to Help Clients Who Feel Empty Inside
  • A Four-Step Process for Working with a Client’s Shadow Side – with Chris Irons, PhD
  • Reporting In – Giving Back in 2024

Categories

  • Antiracism
  • Anxiety
  • Attachment
  • Body-Oriented Therapy
  • Brain
  • Charity
  • Chronic Pain
  • Compassion
  • COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Depression
  • Emptiness
  • Exercise and Mental Health
  • Fear
  • Gaslighting and Manipulation
  • Grief
  • Healing Trauma
  • Infographics
  • Mindfulness
  • Nervous System
  • Neuroplasticity
  • Perfectionism
  • PTSD
  • Relationships
  • Resentment
  • Shadow Side
  • Shame
  • Spirituality
  • Trauma
  • Trauma Therapy
  • Uncategorized
  • Unworthiness

40 Wilbur Cross Way Suite 102
Storrs, CT 06268
(860) 477-1450

NICABM Logo

About Us
FAQs
Contact Us
Courses
Claim CE/CMEs
Accreditation
ADA Accommodation
Hiring
SITEMAP PRIVACY POLICY TERMS OF USE

CONNECT WITH US

Facebook Logo YouTube Logo Instagram Logo

40 Wilbur Cross Way, Suite 102
Storrs, CT 06268
Phone: (860) 477-1450
respond@nicabm.com
Copyright © 2025

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!