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Welcome to today’s episode of Fierce Calling, where we’re thrilled to have the multi-talented Karen E. Iverson back on the show. Karen is a licensed professional counselor, coach, public speaker, actress, singer, and artist, recognized as a difference-maker at the 2019 Author Advantage Live Conference. Her newest book, Winning the Mental Health Battle from Struggling to Thriving: 7 Tips to Navigate Anxiety, Depression, and Mania, offers invaluable insights into mental health.
In this episode, Karen shares her inspiring journey from aspiring psychiatrist to impactful mental health counselor and author. We delve into her personal experiences and explore her approach to therapy, which includes innovative techniques like the “54321” grounding method.
Karen and I discuss embracing authenticity, confronting societal stigmas, and finding strength in faith. We also highlight practical ways to navigate emotions and thoughts, underscoring the vital role of professional help. Get ready for a deep and fascinating conversation that will encourage, inspire, and challenge you. Listen in!
Key Topics and Takeaways …
- Karen Iverson’s Professional and Personal Journey
- Aspiration to follow her father’s footsteps as a psychiatrist
- Path to becoming a licensed professional counselor
- Shift from aspiring art therapist to counselor in Oklahoma
- Previous book on her breast cancer journey and companion journal
- Karen’s New Book
- Winning the Mental Health Battle from Struggling to Thriving: 7 Tips to Navigate Anxiety, Depression, and Mania
- Open discussion of faith while being accessible to a diverse audience
- Divine timing and the experience gained before release
- Thematic Insights on Mental Health
- Emphasis on journaling as a therapeutic practice
- Explanation of mania and importance of professional diagnosis
- Destigmatizing mental health treatment via diagnosis, therapy, and medication
- Encouragement to seek help without shame, acknowledging stigmas even in religious communities
- Spiritual and Faith-Based Elements
- Transition from secular music to faith-based speaking
- Christ-centered yet inclusive approach in Karen’s book
- Use of faith in resilience against cultural identity and relationship challenges
- Practical Techniques for Mental Health Management
- “54321” grounding technique for anxiety
- Emphasizing gratitude and positive thinking
- Concept of emotions being temporary; typically lasting about 90 seconds
- Role of the Holy Spirit and Divine Intervention
- Discussion on the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity
- Moments of perceived divine intervention in Karen’s life
- Use of Guided Visualization
- Free guided visualizations on Karen’s website to address anxiety, depression, and mania
- Guided visualizations explained as audio-guided relaxation exercises
- Clarification that techniques are not aligned with new age practices
- Examples such as walking on a beach as a calming visualization
- Acknowledgments and Contact Information
- Doris thanks Karen for her participation
- Encouragement for listeners to check show notes for more information
- Karen’s contact details and resources availability: mental health quizzes and service offerings on her website
More of Karen’s Books
Pick up the Original Books:
Winning the Breast Cancer Battle: Empowering Warriors and Guiding Loved OnesLoved Ones of Those Battling Cancer and Thrivers: Pick up the original book, ebook, and audiobook to help those facing a cancer diagnosis.
Winning the Breast Cancer Battle, Companion Journal: Empowering and Guiding Breast Cancer Warriors Breast Cancer Warriors/Thrivers: Geared for breast cancer warriors as they face their challenges.
Past Episode with Karen as Mentioned in the Show:
Karen Iverson: The Fine Art of Positive Connection
- In our first episode together, Karen shares about her breast cancer journey and her first book.
Connect with Karen!
You can connect with Karen and find her books and free resources at kareneiverson.com
Karen E Iverson was born in New York City and states that she has always been a writer at heart. She moved to New Jersey when she was ten and was often found in her bedroom writing poems and song lyrics and journaling in spiral-bound notebooks. She fondly recalls learning how to “show not tell” her senior year in high school.
Karen further developed her writing skills as an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire. Her education then included attaining 2 master’s degrees in education from Columbia University Teachers College and in clinical mental health counseling from Northeastern State University.
At age 39, Karen was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and when facing potential mortality, she did what she knew best and journaled her way out. Karen later published her first book Winning the Breast Cancer Battle: Empowering Warriors and Guiding Loved Ones, based on that experience.
Karen is a Licensed Professional Counselor, coach, public speaker, actress, singer, and artist and was honored to be recognized as a “Difference Maker” at the 2019 Author Advantage Live conference.
Email: info@kareneiverson.com
www.winningthebreastcancerbattle.com
www.ivisionartwork.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/kareneiverson
FB https://www.facebook.com/kareneiverson
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareneiverson/
YouTube https://youtube.com/@kareneiverson
Connect with Doris!
Connect with Doris at https://dorisswift.com/ For speaking engagements, visit her booking page at womenspeakers.com
Join us for this heartening episode of Fierce Calling and be inspired to deepen your biblical study and walk with God.
What Threatens to Steal Your Joy?
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Find my free resources including Fear Fighting Bible Verses, Simple Tips for Sharing Your Faith, Surrender the Joy Stealers, Step Out of Your Doubt and Into Your Calling ebook, and more on my dorisswift.com homepage!
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Thanks for Listening!
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Transcript
Welcome back to the show. Today, I’m excited to welcome back a return guest, Karen Iverson. She is a licensed professional counselor, a coach, a public speaker, an actress, which we talked about in the last episode, which is pretty cool, singer and artist, and was honored to be recognized as a difference maker at the 2019 author advantage live conference. She speaks the name of Jesus. She has a new book, and the title is gonna grab your attention, and you’re gonna wanna listen to the entire episode, winning the mental health battle from struggling to thriving, 7 tips to navigate anxiety, depression, and mania. And before the show, we were talking a little bit about the book, and I had mentioned to Karen that some of us might want to hear more about what actually mania entails and how, you know, some people that are listening may have experienced it and not even known what it is, and then some may have friends or family that experience these things. So we’re gonna talk about that more. So welcome back to the show, Karen.
Karen Iverson00:03:02 – 00:03:05
Thank you so much, Doris. I’m I’m thrilled to be here again.
Yeah. It’s exciting. And I meant to get the number of the episode you were when you were on a few few years ago. It’s been a while. And so I will put the link in the show notes to the original podcast episode. We talked about your health journey and a lot of other things in first book that you wrote. So I would love if you would share how you feel led, if you want to kind of recap some of the things that we’ve talked about before and more of your story that’s continued since we last chatted and how you’re taking action where your passion, compassion, and conviction intersect.
Karen Iverson00:03:41 – 00:04:39
Yes. Well, my passion, compassion, and conviction, intersected just in general with with God leading me through all the trials I’ve had. You know, in the Bible, it talks about how Jesus comforts you, and then then you are supposed to use your comfort to help comfort others going through similar circumstances. And one of the things we talked about in the last podcast had to do with my first book, winning the breast cancer battle, and that had to do with my story and experience as someone going through breast cancer. And one of the things that God did was when I was back in college, I had wanted to become a doctor like my dad, and he had died when I was young. And so I thought I would become a psychiatrist just like him. But when I went to met, to college, I realized medical school wasn’t in my path. So I ended up picking up a English minor so that I could escape all the difficult science classes.
Karen Iverson00:04:40 – 00:04:56
And when I was going through breast cancer, I started journaling, and I’ve been journaling my whole life, but this time I was journaling about my experiences going through breast cancer. And I later realized I was editing my journals and realized all of a sudden that this was going to become my first book.
Wow. Yeah. That’s great. And I love that you were sharing how your dad was in the medical field. He was a psychiatrist. Right? You had said. Yes. And that is so closely tied together with what you actually are doing.
You’re helping people with mental health. And so that that was your journey and path that God had put you on. So I love that so much. And, yes, we talked about your health journey and what God brought you through and how he, you know, and I think it’s great that you found journaling to be very therapeutic and helpful. And I know that a lot of listeners do also journal. And if you don’t, if you’re listening to the show right now and you haven’t tried journaling, it, it it’s really just writing your thoughts down. And as you’re reading the word of God, you can write down what what you feel, you know, you’re reading about and how it’s how it’s affecting you and impacting you and and what you would want God to share and and reveal to you. And so I love that so much, Karen.
So so you wrote that first book, and then what happened between then and now? I know last time when we were talking, you were actually going through pursuing your masters, and now you’ve completed that. You’ve become licensed. And so how is it that you are now even more, able to help people who are looking for some kind of hope?
Karen Iverson00:06:23 – 00:07:40
Yes. Well, one of the things I did after I had published that first book was I published a companion journal specifically for the breast cancer patient going through breast cancer to journal in, to have, mandalas to color in, to have questions to ask their doctors. So I continued helping more specifically the individual person going through that breast cancer battle. And as you said, I continued with my master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling, and so God really brought that all together because the whole the whole way I got into the master’s program was a testimony in itself, but then finishing the master’s program and graduating and becoming a licensed professional counselor, I was able to use all these things that I had learned, these tools I had learned, and, yes, the comparison to my dad’s career as a psychiatrist, came true for me because I realized I didn’t have to go to medical school and become a psychiatrist to do a similar thing. And so with my master’s in clinical mental health counseling and becoming a licensed professional counselor, I’m able to counsel people through mental health struggles, so that they can not suffer as much as I’ve suffered in my life or other people suffer as well.
Wow. That is really powerful that you’re able to do that. And oftentimes, we have these dreams, these thoughts, these plans of what our life is supposed to look like or what our journey is supposed to be. And when we surrender that to God, he does something totally new and fresh. And as the word says, you know, he does exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think. He he has even better plans than we could ever fathom. And so, it doesn’t always look the same. Like I share when I was growing up, I used to wanna be a teacher.
I loved teaching my dolls and, you know, that’s how I studied for tests and school work and all of that. And eventually, I thought, well, I’ll become a school teacher. But that’s not what I went to school for. You know, I went to school for counseling and I do teach, you know, bible studies and I, you know, I teach other ways. So I love that you’re able to use this equipping to help other people. And I know in the last show, we talked a lot about your book and your journey, and now we’ve we’re talking about continuing the journey. So would you be willing to share a little bit about how you said that getting into the master’s program was a testimony?
Karen Iverson00:08:56 – 00:09:43
Sure. So, basically, what happened was I wanted to become an art therapist, and I had been accepted in a program in New Jersey, but I thought I would work at the school and get a reduced, you know, tuition. And they hired me for a temporary position, and everybody said, don’t take the position because, you know, it’s gonna end, and you’re not gonna have a job. Well, I took the position. It ended, and I had no job. So So what happened was I said, well, I can’t go to this master’s program if I don’t have a job because I have to be able to pay my bills. So I ended up moving at the time I was living in New Jersey, and I moved to Oklahoma for a position here. And I found that in Oklahoma, you can’t practice as an art therapist and get paid.
Karen Iverson00:09:43 – 00:10:42
So you get paid as a counselor, a licensed professional counselor or a social worker. So I ended up going to this school and meeting with a professor to find out about the program I wanted to get into, and she says to me, she says, well, Karen, the program you want is not available, the degree you want is not available, and the campus is not available. So she said, I really think you should go for this degree instead. So I left the office saying, well, I’ll think about it. But in my heart, you know, I knew that God wanted me in the program that I wanted. And so I ended up applying anyway, you know, with God’s guidance for the program I wanted, the campus I wanted, the degree I wanted. And what happened was I was lying in my bed doing a bible study in the middle of the summer, and through my window in the apartment complex I was in, there’s a slight view of the pool area. And I was doing this bible study, and all of a sudden, I started hearing this music playing.
Karen Iverson00:10:42 – 00:11:15
And I’m like, wow. It must be so loud that I can hear it all the way here from the pool. And it was talking about this song that says deny your maker, and I’m like, no. I’m not gonna do that. And I’m realizing, wait a minute. That’s a song I once auditioned for when I was in a secular band. So then what happens is another song comes on, and it’s a Pat Benatar song, and it’s called your dreams will come true in the end. And I look over, and I realized, Doris, you’re not gonna believe this, but the music was coming from my cell phone, and I had not turned it on.
Karen Iverson00:11:15 – 00:11:33
Wow. So I decide, you know what? I’m just gonna belt this song out. My dreams will come true in the end. And as soon as the song was over, a banner went across my phone saying you got the interview for the position you wanted and the degree you wanted on the campus you wanted. And so I was just,
you
Karen Iverson00:11:34 – 00:11:49
know, blown away. Yeah. And sure enough, I went to the interview and got in the program, and I got the exact campus I wanted, the degree I wanted, you know, everything that that god was leading me to do. So it was just really glory to god.
Yeah. Wow. That’s amazing. And I’m glad we unpacked that a little bit and talked about that too because things happen like that. And sometimes we don’t really even realize that, you know, it’s something that’s leading us, and so I I love that you heard that. And it’s interesting, like you said, when you were a singer and you were you auditioned for a band, and Mhmm. The song was totally, like, against God, against our maker, our creator, and now you are speaking boldly about him to others. Yes.
So I love that so much. And, and I love how in your book, in the beginning, you do say that you share your faith of what you believe, but you say that this book will help you even if you don’t believe the same things I do. But you do continue to speak the name of Jesus throughout the book. I think it Mhmm. I think it kinda like there’s, like, 41 times or so that you mentioned Jesus. So I think it’s very powerful, and I love that we can use the books that God brings forth in order to reach people who may not know him, who will come to know him, and, you know, whether they make that choice or not, because I know you talk about that in the book as well. It’s like it’s it’s the reader’s choice, it’s the person’s choice if they choose Jesus. But Right.
It would it would be your heart that they would choose Jesus, and it’s his heart too. But the fact that it can reach people, and I think because the way that the title is written, it it will draw so many people that don’t know him and people will come to know him through reading your book. And so I think that’s that’s amazing. And that that is a testimony in and of itself and that you’re gonna hear a lot of testimonies coming forth after people read this book who may not have known him or or maybe knew who he was, but didn’t know him personally. So I love that. So and in the book, you give 7 tips and we don’t have to give all your tips away. But if you could share something that you feel would be encouraging to the listener having to do with, you know, navigating the anxiety, depression, and also mania, if you could touch on that. Because as I said earlier, some may not realize what that actually means.
Mhmm.
Karen Iverson00:14:18 – 00:15:08
Well, one of the tips I really like to share a lot, I learned this when I was in my internship, and it’s something that, where I’m working currently is a technique that we really use a lot. I would believe most therapists know this technique, but a lot of, people going to therapy don’t necessarily know this technique. It’s called 54321. And what you do is you use your senses to recognize the things that are around you. The really, really important re reason of why this is important is that it brings you back into the present moment. And so much of anxiety, depression, and mania as well is when we’re kind of out of the reality of the present moment. We’re you know, with anxiety, we’re worrying about the future. With depression, we’re caught in the past.
Karen Iverson00:15:08 – 00:15:58
You know, with mania, we might just, in general, be, you know, not in our level minds. So if we can come back into the present moment, it helps draw us out of these alternate areas. So with the technique 54321, the first thing you do is you’re gonna recognize 5 things that you can see, and you literally look at them, pay attention to them, say them out loud if you can. You then mention 4 things that you’re touching or can you can touch right away. You mentioned 3 things that you can hear. You mentioned 2 things you can smell and one thing you can taste. And it really if you’re paying attention while you’re doing it, can bring you back into the present moment. So that’s a technique that’s a really good technique for people to learn and be able to practice.
Karen Iverson00:15:59 – 00:16:11
The one thing that they do have to keep in mind though is that if you don’t practice it, you don’t think of it, your mind doesn’t think of it when you need it. So it’s something with all these techniques you need to practice them.
Yeah. So it’s kind of like it’s like it’ll automatically be like a go to if it’s something that you do. Because like you said, if you’re in a state like that, you don’t have often times the wherewithal to recall, like, what to do. And I I love this because it’s so tangible. Like, people can just do this. They don’t need any extra tools or resources. It’s something that they can do, and it will ground people to Yes. The present.
So it’s like a footing that they can regain their footing. And it it just reminds me of how we have a firm foundation in Christ, and he he’s our footing, he’s our firm foundation, he’s our rock. And so these techniques, help with that bring us back to the reality of the moment. But it is very interesting, and I’m so glad that you brought it up about the fact being that anxiety is worrying about the future. You know? How am I gonna have enough money for this? How am I gonna do this? What’s gonna happen to me when this happens? Or maybe we have something in our life. Maybe maybe some families have, and I’ve heard several of my guests have been on who have special needs children, and they had struggled with worrying about what’s gonna happen to their child when they’re gone. And and then, of course, God has a plan and then they trust that he has a plan, but that can be a source of anxiety for someone listening right now. You know, what am I gonna do if I lose someone that’s close to me and, you know, all these things.
And then depression stemming oftentimes from things of the past, like what’s happened. Yeah. What’s been done to them, what they’ve done, where they’ve been, you know, things that have happened, maybe abuse and things like that. So I think that is really great how you talked about all of those things. And so how would you easily I know it’s not easy to define, but how can you put in simple terms defining what mania actually means or looks like? Because that can actually be very scary for someone to, like, see or go through themselves.
Karen Iverson00:18:20 – 00:19:31
Mhmm. Well, mania has a lot of different characteristics, and, normally, you have to look at how extreme the characteristics are, if they’re really affecting you for a long period of time. For example, with mania, one of the DSM 5 criterias are that it lasts for a week or longer to be considered mania. Now there’s also hypomania, which is not quite as intense a mania as mania is. But you look at things like whether you have an inflated self esteem and feelings of grandiosity. You look at whether you’re much more talkative and having a pressure to speak versus what your normal is, whether you’re jumping from topic to topic to topic, and again some of these things on a certain level can be just, you know, standard typical way people are acting and feeling, you know, versus whether it’s characterized as true mania. And the thing is that people think that that they can look at these criteria and say, okay. Well, I have all of these, so that’s it.
Karen Iverson00:19:31 – 00:19:56
I have bipolar or I have manic, episodes, but the thing is you really need a counselor who’s trained in this or a psychologist or a psychiatrist to diagnose you. So people often will say, well, you know, my friend had a bipolar episode. Well, you know, we are really using the word in the wrong way because we’re we’re making it a label when we don’t really know what the label means.
Yeah. So it’s so important to have a professional who is familiar with these things and can basically give a a diagnosis, basically allow people to understand what is actually happening. And it is freeing when people really can come to understand what it is that they’re experiencing. Isn’t it, Karen?
Karen Iverson00:20:21 – 00:21:03
Yes. It is. I mean, we don’t want to be labeled, but the thing is that if we do get a diagnosis, then we can better treat it because we know what we’re dealing with. You know, sometimes people need medications, sometimes people don’t, some things will will lead to medications for your whole life, Some things will lead for medications just temporarily. You know? All of them, I believe, need therapy as well because it’s a hand in hand. It’s not I take medication, so I’m done, or I do therapy, so I’m done. You might need both so that you can manage your symptoms and learn how to treat your symptoms, you know, but you might need the medication to help you get through the rough spots. You know?
Wow. That is so true. And and also to not walk in shame or allow certain stigmas to attach, you know, to your situation because we find that a lot, and we do even find that in church. Don’t we?
Karen Iverson00:21:23 – 00:22:03
Mhmm. Yeah. And, I mean, the thing is that, you know, I would love to say that, you know, with prayer, we’re completely healed, and we want to be completely healed by Jesus. The thing is that there’s also healing through people that Jesus ordained. So Jesus might have ordained this doctor to prescribe these medications as a way to help somebody versus, you know, Jesus might have ordained you or or a minister to pray through you and through for you. So I think, you know, there’s a lot that that we even don’t even know the full answers to.
Yeah. That’s so true. And it it is something that we can kind of open our eyes to what God is doing and have a different perspective on the situation. And there will be voices that might speak into our lives that aren’t always positive and helpful. They might be critical and they might mean well or they might not mean well. So it’s so important to discern those things and to seek the help and it’s okay to get help. It’s okay to say, you know what? I’m not okay. There’s something going on and I need some help.
It’s okay to do that and almost have permission to especially, I think women, because we tend to wanna fix everything sometimes, not all women, I guess, but I think it’s kind of a trait that we tend to have. We wanna be a nurturer, we wanna fix things, we wanna help help other people. And and when I, had had another counselor on the show, Gina, and I remember she had said, you know, do you always feel like everybody around you has to be okay for you to be okay? So I think you can probably expand a little bit about on that too if you could.
Karen Iverson00:23:13 – 00:23:44
Mhmm. Well, yeah. I think there’s there’s this stereotypical view that that we have to put on this pretty face, you know, and that might be something that the culture, teaches us, that the world says to us, you know, but God wants us to be who we are. You know, we’re children of God the way we are. We’re fearfully and wonderfully made. Our hairs are counted. You know? We’re knit together in our mother’s wombs, and God knew us before he even created us. You know? And we became living beings, you know, as as we are as humans.
Karen Iverson00:23:44 – 00:24:17
But, you know, the thing is that it’s there’s a time for saying, you know, I’m not okay, and that’s okay to be not okay. And maybe it’s also okay to not be okay. Like Darren Mulligan from We Are Messengers quotes that in one of his songs, which I mentioned in my book, you know, that that God is there for us because we need God, and we can’t do this on our own. So it’s okay for us to not be okay because he’s there filling in the missing pieces for us.
Amen. Amen. And and I I feel like too a lot of the struggles that we deal with on a day to day basis is because we’re trying to do things in our own strength, and we’re we’re striving. It was it was funny when I was trying to, say your subtitle before we started recording, I said, so let’s see. I said, okay, winning the mental health battle from struggling to striving. And then I was like, wait, not striving. I mean, it’s good to strive for things, but not like feel like you’re it it sounds like so labor intensive. You’re striving, striving.
And I think sometimes we can get caught in that striving thing to try to keep doing things on our own. But, actually, the word in your subtitle is thriving because we definitely wanna thrive. But like you said, apart from, you know, Jesus, we can do nothing. You know, he’s the vine, we’re the branches, and so as it says in John 15. So I love that you bring that up, that we can’t really do things in our own strength. And when we’re weak, we’re strong. Because when when we Mhmm. Really see what our humanness is, it it really is what’s missing in our life if we’re not seeking the Lord, because we definitely need to surrender to him and we definitely need to depend on him.
And I think that is really a powerful reminder today for us. Mhmm. And, so what would be an encouraging word that you would wanna give someone right now who maybe is in the the depths of despair, something is happening in their life, maybe they lost someone, maybe it’s a financial crisis, maybe, you know, they just lost their job or, you know, maybe there’s other things going on in their life. They have a prodigal child that they’re just praying, you know, that they that child will come back to the Lord. What what is something maybe you could share that would encourage them today?
Karen Iverson00:26:16 – 00:26:56
I would really just say to to keep moving forward, keep taking one step after the next, and you might feel like you’re going backwards sometimes, but just keep going. You know, include prayer, include God in all of that because he’s right beside you, you know, wherever you are. And the thing is that when we’re in our deepest turmoil, if we can just wait a moment, we can get past it. And, normally, we will get past it. So I have always learned that an emotion only lasts less than 2 minutes. So if you can get through that emotion and not ruminate on that emotion, you can get past it.
I love how you just said that. That is so very helpful. Wait a moment. You know, if we can like you were saying with the 54321, you know, kind of doing that regularly if we need help in that area. But wait a moment is also such a great important reminder, and it is a biblically sound principle to wait because we wanna wait on the Lord for things, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not moving forward or standing still. Now, sometimes he says be still, but that would mean also to just be to quiet ourselves. But it doesn’t mean we, like, call in sick to work or, you know, or don’t go to work or, you know, we that we don’t do the things that, you know, we normally might do. But I love wait a moment.
That is such great advice, and it’s something we can all remember to do. And, and in that moment, you know, take a breath. Just just, get outside or, you know, do something that would change change our environment, change our atmosphere. And and I know oftentimes, you know, it’s so helpful if we help someone out, you know, if we are if we’re going through a struggle. And it’s not necessarily only to take our mind off of something, which it actually does, but we’re actually doing something that’s productive and it’s according to God’s word. You know, we wanna love our neighbor and and do those things. So it’s very fulfilling. And, we feel like then we’re walking in in something purposeful because sometimes we can really be kind of allow our emotions to drag us down, and we become almost, I don’t know, like, immobile.
I know we’re not we’re not doing what we’re we’re called to do or, you know, not aim. And then these seasons where we have to take a take a breath take a few breaths, you know, if we’re if if there’s a grief, issue, situation going on, or something we might need to take some time. So but that is so very helpful. Wait a moment. And how you said that usually emotions pass with how how long did you say it usually?
Karen Iverson00:29:06 – 00:29:38
I will I really should look it up, but I believe it’s something like 90 seconds. Mhmm. And if you can get through those 90 seconds, then you’ve passed that specific emotion you’ve just felt. Now sometimes people think, well, wait a minute. That doesn’t make sense because I was crying for an hour and a half. But the thing is that when we’re doing that, we’re we’re taking that thought and continuing to think that same thought and continuing that emotion on and on. So if you can get through the physical actual emotion, then the motion passes.
Yeah. And then, you know, as you counsel people, I’m sure, and just to that scripture verse to take the thought captive under the obedience of Christ. And in in Philippians, how God tells us what to think on, things that are good, and, the the whole gratitude thing and being thankful and those kind of things. So that’s really helpful. Before we share how people can learn more about your book and how to connect with you, was there anything else that you felt that you really wanted to share today with the listeners?
Karen Iverson00:30:13 – 00:30:37
I think really just that same thing to to just continue. You know, move forward, continue continue taking that one step after the next because, you know, we are all on this path that God has created for us, and we make our own choices. But, you know, if we intune ourselves with the Holy Spirit, then we’re walking that path, and we want to walk that path with the Holy Spirit.
Yeah. Amen. And sometimes we forget about the Holy Spirit, the helper that God has, you know, has given us, and he is God God the Holy Spirit. He is a person Mhmm. Of the Trinity. So and I love how you talk about that in your book. You talk about God the father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and it’s all, you know, throughout your book. So I think it’s so encouraging.
I was just gonna ask you, when did you really start writing this? And was there something a certain event or something that prompted you to begin this book?
Karen Iverson00:31:11 – 00:31:56
So I began this book actually in 22, and, I just really was struggling a little bit with my own mental health. And I wanted to write this book because God told me it was the time to write it. You know? And I had done the mental health, the breast cancer books and wanted to do this mental health book, but was waiting for the right time. And then once I wrote it, it actually took me, you know, a couple years because it’s 2024 now, to actually get it to the point where I was ready to publish it, because the timing needs to be right according to god, and the timing wasn’t right. So it was the right time for me to write it in 22, but it wasn’t the right time for me to publish it yet. Yeah.
Wow. Thank you. Because that kinda falls into the wait a moment. It’s like
Karen Iverson00:32:01 – 00:32:02
A moment.
And so there’s so much more that had happened probably from the time you started writing it to the time that actually now, you know, having an actual finished product, you know, published. So I think that’s important to remember too. And you’ve you’ve been through so much more, and you’ve been able to to counsel people and to get even more and more experience in this. And I think it’s it’s great because it lends also a level of credibility to the words that you’re sharing. You know, these are tried and true things that you’ve put into practice, and you wanna encourage and help other people because, obviously, you can’t see every single person, you know, for counseling. But your book can reach a lot more people than you could ever meet personally. And so, I think that’s a powerful thing. That’s what is so great about books.
They’ve really made an impact on so many people’s lives, so I know this one will as well. So this has been so great, Karen. I I always find it so fascinating to talk about mental health, and it’s so important, especially as as I say in Esther, at such a time as this, because Mhmm. Of the way that the world is. And I know the world’s always been tough, and even Jesus said, you know, in this world, we’ll have trouble. But to take heart, he’s overcome the world, and the world’s been having a lot of trouble for a long time. But it just seems now in our culture, our culture is so just I don’t know. The enemy is just wreaking havoc on identity, wreaking havoc on family and relationships, even causing division in the church with things that are just it’s kind of like sneaking in and causing a lot of division.
So I think that this is a really powerful message and book that is an important, to to come out. So, Karen, would you please share how can a listener connect with you and find your book and find out, what other resources that you might have and also grab the other book you have. Because that book that you wrote originally is not only for breast cancer survivors or people going through that certain, type of cancer, but also for loved ones, right, and caregivers?
Karen Iverson00:34:23 – 00:35:20
Yes. Yes. So the the first book is winning the breast cancer battle, and you can find all of my books on Amazon under Karen Iverson or Karen e Iverson. And, the breast cancer books are for breast cancer, but I’ve had people with other types of cancers read them and say that it’s it’s transferable to their cancers as well. And my most recent book, Winning the Mental Health Battle, again, will also be available on Amazon under Karen Iverson or Karen e Iverson. And you can either type in winning the mental health battle or you can type in Karen Iverson, or, again, Karen e Iverson. And I do have some, resources available to people. So if you want to get a free guided visualization to help with, you know, anxiety and depression and mania, you can go to my website, which is kareneeiverson.com /mentalhealth.
So it’s
Karen Iverson00:35:25 – 00:36:07
karenievers0n.com slash mental health. And you can find the guided visualizations there as well as I have 3 quizzes there for mental health. So there’s a quiz for anxiety, a quiz for depression, and a quiz for mania. And so anybody that wants to can go to that website and take those quizzes or get the free guided visualizations. I’m also found, my handles are Karen e Iverson on all platforms that I have available, and you can reach me at info atkareneeIverson.com.
Great. Thank you. And I’ll have all those links in the show notes for people to find you. So what what is it that the resource that you have, which is called a guided visualization, what is that, actually?
Karen Iverson00:36:21 – 00:37:20
Yeah. So what it is is basically the listener will just sit there or lie down and listen to myself guiding them through a series of activities. So one of them is a walk through the woods, another one is a walk on the beach, and they’re 5 minutes to about 8 minutes long. And what it does is it helps you relax because you’re being guided by somebody else’s voice, and you’re allowed to just let your imagination put the images in your mind for you because they’re being guided to you by my voice. And you can hear them and you can let your mind just wander, you know, as you imagine them. One of the things that it does is it brings you to a safe place where you can put things into a box, a container, and you create the container, you create the building, you create everything in your mind as I’m leading you through this guided visualization.
Okay. And so how would you, like, maybe encourage or advise people? Because sometimes when people are struggling with something going on in their life, and then their mind tends to wander, and the enemy can take hold of thoughts. And and how would a person doing that avoid the enemy being able to invade those thoughts at that time, or is there a good way that they could do that?
Karen Iverson00:37:49 – 00:37:57
When they’re going through the guided visualization? Well, I would think that it would be because you’re focused on what I’m saying.
Okay.
Karen Iverson00:37:58 – 00:38:56
So, you know, you’re you’re when when we’re resisting the devil and we’re we’re focused on a specific thing, it’s harder for the devil to infiltrate because we’re focused on what we’re doing. Yeah. So when you’re doing the guided visualization, I’m talking pretty much the whole time, and you’re continually thinking about what I’m leading you to do. So I would think that it would be more difficult for the devil to infiltrate because of the fact that your your brain is actively thinking. That’s a technique that that we do, in therapy as well when I’m working with clients is that we help you identify whether a thought is helpful or not, and I mentioned this in the book at this technique as well. And if you find that the helpful thought is not a helpful thought or it’s not a true thought, then we change the thought. And after we change the thought, we have to get our mind busy on doing something that specifically takes our focus.
Okay. Wow. That’s good. So we you know, so it’s, like, helps the person going through that process to discern what the thought is, if it’s true, if it’s truth, if it’s good, and if not, then redirect the thought to something that is true and good. And so yeah. So it’s as if they’re in your office with you, going through that. So okay. Yeah.
I just wanna get a little bit more details on that, just to clarify for the listener because, you know, maybe familiar with other types of things that, like, say, people do in the new age and that kind of thing and just to kinda distinguish that this isn’t, like, anything to do with that. But it’s for Yeah. You to help the person to be in a calm, safe space. And I’ve been because who doesn’t like to walk on the beach? I mean, it’s like, you know, that’s that’s just we’re out there and the ocean is so vast, and it’s just very very calming and peaceful even with, millions of families all around and kids running running crazy. But but it is nice. I mean, I I know so many people who love to just go down and walk on the beach at night. And, of course, blessed to be near the beach. I I take that for granted sometimes, but I don’t get down there as often as I should.
But it’s it’s great to know, that it’s there. And so a lot of people love to do evening walks on the beach. And so I think that’s really great, and it’s very calming and peaceful. So, wow, Karen. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I really loved our conversation, and it kinda just picked up from where we left off last time. And as I said, I’ll put the links in the show notes, and I’ll also put the link to the previous episode, as I said, in the show notes so people can go back and listen to that first, interview as well because that was really good. And so I always love having you on.
So thank you so much, friend, and God bless you in all you’re doing. And that this book, we just, pray that God would lead people to him through this book and to experience true healing. And so we thank you so much, and I hope to have you back on again.
Karen Iverson00:41:07 – 00:41:20
Well, thank you so much, Doris. It’s been a pleasure. And and, yes, we just ask the Lord to bless everything and lead every person that listens to whatever the God wants them whatever God wants them to go to.
Exclude
01:53 – 41:37
Amen. That is a great note to end the show. So, if you’re listening today, check out the show notes and check out Karen’s book, and we just, would love if you would reach out to us as well. So thank you, Karen, again, and we will talk soon.
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