Blog Posts

Hello friends, welcome to the blog this week.  Today I wanted to talk about check-ins.  This has came up a lot recently and I wanted to talk about different kinds of check-ins.  They can include daily check-ins with yourself, relationship check-ins, job, school, etc.  

Have you ever had that “gut” feeling that you need to reach out to someone in your life and check in? In my experience, listening to our gut feelings helps us build trust within ourselves.  I have heard clients recently who have talked about checking in on someone in their life and finding out that person was struggling or wanted support but didn’t want to ask.  I think that is one of the biggest mistakes we make as people is not being willing to ask for help or support.  

There are several different kinds of check ins  to consider.                                        

1. Checking in with yourself. I encourage clients to do at least daily check ins with themselves to notice how their body feels, if they are processing that day, and to assess needs they may have.  This daily practice helps increase self awareness and can improve self care when we start responding to physical and emotional needs we may have.                                               

2. Relationship check ins: This can include with a partner or other important relationships in your life.  I encourage couples to do at least weekly check ins that include how each individual is doing, what is going well vs what can be improved on, and any needs you may have. The most supportive relationships I have found in my life include the ones where people ask me how I am doing, can communicate themselves, and who care about growth and improving the relationship.                

3. Check ins with work and school. In my experience, good leadership does a monthly check in with employees to see how they are doing, offer support and validation, discuss areas that are going well and could be improved, and discuss individual goals.       

There are many situations that we can find where we need to “check in” with others.  Our job, is not to wait for others to check-in with us per se, but to do it ourselves.  Ideally, both people would be doing it.  If you are already doing this, how can you improve it?  Is there a different approach?  Can you get creative in your approach to help make them feel better, etc.?

Finding ways to grow that are important to you and setting goals for yourself can help improve confidence, sense of accomplishment and purpose, as well as overall satisfaction.  When it comes to therapy we always ask clients what goals they would like to accomplish in therapy and then we focus their sessions on the best way to help them achieve their goals. 

~Emilie Barragan, LCSW

Therapeuo Health – “Tackling Physical and Emotional Pain.”