Episode 7: Triggers and the layers below an emotion with Elizabeth Hardesty

Something happens and you begin to feel a particular way. This is a trigger and what you feel is an emotion. But what do you do next to respond from a place of emotional well-being? 

In this episode, mental health counselor Elizabeth Hardesty shares the techniques she uses to help her clients dig deeper into an emotion. Learn about the iceberg technique, where you investigate what meanings, beliefs, and needs you may have around an emotion. Through this technique, you can learn to work through a strong emotion and share about it with others in a healthy way. 

So, let’s dive in to see the iceberg (pun intended).

Key takeaways

• What she does specifically in the emotional well-being space
• What causes emotions
• Why people can act differently to the same situation
• Her definition of triggers
• Why people have triggers
• Some of the triggers people experience with the pandemic and the current political situation
• How to work through your feelings and triggers
• What coping is
• How to differentiate coping from self-care
• What your feelings tell you
• How to go about interrogating your feelings
• What the iceberg technique is all about
• What the different layers are
• What to do after your needs are met
• The seven deep desires of the heart
• Why different desires resonate with different people

Books

• Seven Desires: Looking Past What Separates Us to Learn What Connects Us by Mark and Debra Laaser - https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Desires-Looking-Separates-Connects/dp/0310318238

Elizabeth Hardesty Bio

Elizabeth Hardesty is a mental health counselor in the Twin Cities area. She received her graduate degree from Denver Seminary. She is passionate about emotional health and finds it such a humbling experience to walk alongside her clients as they move from a place of surviving to thriving. Her own experience of walking that same path with her therapist is what brought her into this career.