Blogs and Free Resources

Here at PESI, our mission is to provide professionals like you with FREE practical and valuable tools, strategies, and resources to assist with the great work you do. Find expert tips, helpful worksheets, demonstration videos, CE, news, and more here. Happy learning!
Sort by:

Helping Kids Face Fear and Anxiety Head-On

Age-appropriate worksheets to help kids develop coping strategies & build resilience

Christina Furnival, MA, LPCC

Help educate children about anxiety, empowering them with awareness while opening the conversation to help normalize their experience with these age-specific worksheets from PESI author Christina Furnival, MS, LPCC!

Read more...

Excavating Hard Things

Free trauma-informed play therapy intervention

Paris Goodyear-Brown, MSSW, LCSW, RPT-S

When a child is experiencing the intrusive or avoidance symptoms of PTSD, building a coherent narrative becomes essential to treatment. Paris Goodyear-Brown, MSSW, LCSW, RPT-S, demonstrates an exercise designed to help children verbalize their big emotions.

Read more...

Understanding Clients Through the Lens of Attachment

Free therapeutic tool to discover your clients' attachment history

Terry Levy, PhD, DAPA

By truly understanding your client through the lens of attachment, you'll deepen your awareness of who they really are. Download free worksheets to help you understand your clients at the level needed for lasting change!

Read more...

10 Ways to Improve Mood with Food

Integrative strategies to reduce trauma symptomatology

Leslie Korn, Ph.D., MPH, LMHC

Dr. Leslie Korn believes that nutritional therapy is the most important missing piece in trauma treatment today. In this blog, she shares 10 lifestyle changes that will help clients improve their mood... and the symptoms of their trauma.

Read more...

Havening for Kids: 2 Powerful Stress-Busting Tools

Advice and video demonstration from Dr. Kate Truitt

Kate Truitt, PhD, MBA

Whether they're experiencing hyperarousal or hypoarousal, kids often need the help of a caregiver to return to a more calm, alert state. Dr. Kate Truitt shares two simple but effective techniques to help kids cope with stress and stay regulated.

Read more...

5 Tips to Prevent & Minimize the Impact of Bullying

Expert advice from therapists, moms, and children's book authors

Andrea Dorn, MSW, LISW-CP, Christina Furnival, MA, LPCC

PESI authors Christina Furnival and Andrea Dorn share their five strategies to help children develop social-emotional skills, recognize unhealthy friendships, and set boundaries with their peers.

Read more...

Avoiding the “What Do I Treat First?” Trap

Treating emotional disorders more effectively with the Unified Protocol

Shannon Sauer-Zavala, PhD

Real clients don’t fit into simple diagnostic categories. And when clients come in with multiple issues, it can be difficult to know where to begin. But in this overview of the Unified Protocol, Dr. Shannon Sauer-Zavala shares how one approach can get to the heart of suffering.

Read more...

Making the Most Informed Choice: The SODAS Problem-Solving Model

Free exercise to aid young clients in decision making

David Pratt, PhD, MSW

Help young clients make healthy choices with this simple problem-solving paradigm! PESI author David Pratt presents a step-by-step way to identify options, consider advantages and disadvantages, and select a course of action.

Read more...

Ask a Therapist: I Think I’ve Made My Child a Tattletale

How to empower children to utilize age-appropriate problem solving skills

Christina Furnival, MA, LPCC

Mother, therapist, and children’s book author Christina Furnival, MS, LPCC, provides guidance on how to turn a child’s unchecked tattling into autonomous problem-solving.

Read more...

Being Mindful with the 5 Senses

Free exercise to reduce anxiety and engage with the present moment!

Lawrence Shapiro, PhD

How can people with generalized anxiety disorder live in the present? Lawrence E. Shapiro, PhD, encourages mindfulness with the use of our senses—something we can use anytime, anywhere.

Read more...

Page 4 of 14 (140 Blog Posts)