Q & A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

The purpose of this website, my book, and the Community Education course I teach at the College of Marin, is to teach people how to live a vibrant, meaningful life through the cultivation of self-empowerment and self-efficacy. In this weekly Q&A column, I post questions from students and from people who attend my presentations along with my answers.

Here is this week’s question:

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: Can you say more about building self-empowerment and self-efficacy?

ANSWER:

• * Self-empowerment and self-efficacy can grow from the supportive environment that exists in my College of Marin class. You can also do this by surrounding yourself with people or community, wherein you are appreciated and valued for being your authentic self.
• * These qualities are also developed by learning to live and move from a centered, grounded, mindful, and resilient place; the Self-Empowerment Walking meditation that is practiced in the class each week focuses on that. You can also become more body-centered by learning tai chi or yoga.
• * A third path involves learning how to attain freedom from the tyranny of negative thinking; we use various methods to attain that freedom in the class. You can also acquire this through mindfulness practice or from psychotherapy with an ACT therapist.
• * A variety of stimulating class discussions and growth-producing interpersonal exercises are designed to help learn the evidence-based behaviors listed above and explicated in my book.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges or issues related to wellbeing. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

If you would like to ask me something, you can type your question in the comment box below. An answer to your specific question may not necessarily appear in this column. The reason for that is I wait until I get a certain number of related questions, then I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.