http://www.drlisanapolitano.com/

drlisa.says, Miami Beach, FL (2026)

04/20/2026

We don’t get just once chance to set the course for our lives. Yet many people live their lives as if they only have just one shot to get it right. They agonize over picking the one “right” college, major, job, etc, so that all the stars will align and life will fall into place.

But what happens if the path you’ve chosen starts to feel unfulfilling or wrong? From a growth mindset perspective, the answer is simple: You course correct. This means you adjust the trajectory of your current life direction so that it aligns with your values, passions, or well being. It can look like switching careers, relocating to a new city, changing lifestyle habits, or ending a relationship that no longer serves you.

In growth mindset, course corrections are not admissions of failure. They are acts of bravery taken to to increase life satisfaction and meaning. We take lessons from past chapters into the next, making us wiser. You learn what you don’t want, what you value, and how resilient you are.

Here are some signs it may be time to course correct:
1. You feel drained instead of energized
2. You’re no longer growing or you’re actively shrinking
3. Your values have shifted
4. You envy someone else’s career pivot or fantasize about different work or living somewhere else
5. Success is not enough

Remember, you don’t get just one shot at setting your life’s course. You get as many as you’re willing to take. So, if your current direction is misaligned, course correct!

04/07/2026

Your mindset is like the operating system for your brain. It is a collection of beliefs that affects your resilience and how you handle setbacks, motivation and goal achievement, relationships, well being, and success. So, knowing which one you have and its impact pays off.

People with a scarcity mindset perceive key resources, such as time, money, and opportunities, as limited and insufficient. The key word here is perceive, and perceptions can be inaccurate. In other words, people can have this mindset even when they have abundance.

Scarcity mindset leads to tunneling—a narrow focus on efforts to get the resource and fix the scarcity, sidelining other priorities. Scarcity mindset can impair concentration and problem solving. For example, intense mental focus on a perceived cash shortage could lead to an impulsive decision aimed at quick relief that potentially worsens the shortage, such as taking out a high interest loan. The belief that opportunities are limited may lead someone to grab the first one that comes their way, rather than being selective; and to see others as competitors in a zero-sum game.

The antidote is shifting to an abundance mindset in which there are enough opportunities and resources for everyone. This mindset fosters collaboration, long-term thinking, resilience and fulfillment. Here are 3 practical techniques to rewire your attention from scarcity to plenty:
1. Practice daily gratitude: Start each day noting 3 to 10 things, personal and professional, that you’re grateful for.
2. Seek evidence of abundance: Keep an abundance log. Note daily wins, unexpected opportunities, and acts of generosity.
3. Cultivate awareness of scarcity triggers: Track scarcity flares in a journal to better understand what sets them off. Notice any physical or emotional signs of scarcity. Pause and ask, “Is this thought based on fear or reality?”

Changing your mindset is one of the highest leverage ways to change your performance and experience of life. Making the shift from a scarcity to an abundance mindset requires consistent practice, but it can dramatically reduce stress and increase life satisfaction.

03/09/2026

According to personality psychologist George Kelly, we are all amateur scientists. We create theories about ourselves, others and events to make sense of our world. The problem is that most of us don’t test out these theories. In other words, we are practicing “bad science.”

In “bad science,” we treat our thoughts as facts. If we make predictions, we don’t keep track of actual outcomes. We only focus on the evidence that confirms our theories and overlook disconfirmatory facts. This can lead to distorted views of ourselves, others and the world, fueling anxiety, depression or ineffective behavior.

The great news is you don’t have to stay trapped in those “bad science” patterns forever. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) gives you practical, proven tools to turn your upgrade unproven assumptions into accurate beliefs through systematic, evidence-based inquiry, much like a skilled scientist refining their theories.

1. Behavioral experiments: Treat your beliefs as hypotheses to be tested in the real world. Design small, low risk experiments to gather evidence. If you believe “people find me boring,” test it out in a social context. First specify how you think people will respond to you, e.g., they’ll zone out. Then, keep track of the actual outcome.
2. Evidence Tracking: Keep a “lab notebook” for your thoughts and record the facts that support and contradict them. Then, weigh the confirmatory evidence against to the disconfirmatory evidence. What’s more persuasive? What is the new evidence-based thought?
3. Contradictory evidence: To overcome the confirmation bias, actively search for contradictory evidence. Ask yourself these questions: “What am I overlooking?” “What piece of evidence would disprove this?”
4. Outcome monitoring: Log the actual outcomes of your predictions. This will help you to revise predictions going forward.

Try some of these techniques, and you just may find you have a more accurate perspective and less emotional distress.

02/15/2026

Florida Mental Health Professionals, don’t miss out! Join the Florida Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association this Thursday in Coconut Grove for networking, connection, and a chance to unwind. Thanks to Carrera Treatment and Wellness Spa for sponsoring this event. We look forward to seeing you there!

01/30/2026

Florida CBT invites you to a Professional Training Webinar 🧠

Join us for
An Overview of Inference-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy,
presented by Frederick Aardema, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction at the University of Montreal, and emceed by Dr. Lisa Napolitano, President & Founder of the Florida CBT Association.

📅 February 2nd
⏰ 1:00–2:00 PM ET
📍 Live on Zoom

This training will provide a clear introduction to Inference-Based CBT and its application in clinical practice.

💻 Free for Florida CBT members
💵 $15 for non-members

📩 RSVP: [email protected] to secure your spot.

01/14/2026

How does acculturation shape mental health and clinical care?

This webinar explores how acculturation and acculturative stress influence psychological distress in individuals and families with immigration histories. Learn practical, culturally responsive CBT and DBT strategies to improve assessment, case conceptualization, and intervention with diverse clients.

🧠 Culture-informed care
🌍 Acculturation & mental health
🛠 Practical tools for clinicians

📩 RSVP: [email protected]

💰 Free for Florida CBT members | $15 for non-members

12/30/2025

We all know the thrill of starting something new. That spark of excitement when an idea hits, the rush of diving into a project, a goal, or a dream. But somewhere along the way, the shine fades. Obstacles appear. Doubt creeps in. And too often, we abandon ship, leaving a trail of unfinished novels, half-trained fitness routines, or stalled side hustles behind us.

What if I told you that the real magic—the true transformation—happens not in the starting, but in the finishing?

Finishing what you start isn’t just about checking a box. It’s about building unbreakable trust in yourself. Every time you push through the messy middle and cross that invisible line, you prove to yourself that you’re capable. That you’re reliable. That your word—to yourself—means something.

The benefit of finishing go deeper than success stories. Momentum builds confidence: Completing one thing fuels the next. You gain clarity:. Only by finishing do you see the full picture—what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve. Freedom from regret: Unfinished projects haunt us, draining mental energy. Finishing releases that weight.

Imagine your life as a mountain climb. The view from the summit? That’s reserved for those who keep going when their legs burn and the peak seems impossibly far.

So, what’s that one thing you’ve been putting off? That book, that course, that conversation, that dream? Today, commit to finishing it. Not perfectly—just completely.
Because in the end, it’s not how you start that defines you. It’s how—and whether—you finish. In the words of Robin Sharma, “Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic.”

12/12/2025

Do you ever feel like you’re living a life that’s smaller than the one you’re capable of—and smaller than the one you truly want? If so, you might be playing small. Playing small means avoiding opportunities out of fear of failure, or convincing yourself to settle for less because the status quo feels safe and stable. Playing big means you’re willing to embrace short-term discomfort in exchange for what truly matters to you. It involves taking calculated risks for greater rewards and tolerating uncertainty in pursuit of a more meaningful life.

Here's how to start playing big:
1. Challenge assumptions and limiting beliefs that hold you back. A classic is “I’m not good enough.” Ask yourself, “Good enough for what?” You may not be the best in a given field, but you’re often more than qualified to seize the opportunities in front of you.
2. Embrace discomfort instead of designing your life to avoid it. This means deliberately facing your fears, e.g., the fear of rejection, failure, public speaking. Over time, you’ll learn many of your fears are unfounded, and your resilience and confidence in your abilities will grow.
3. Practice “wise mind” decision-making. When playing small, emotions often dictate our choices. Wise mind decisions combine logic, emotions, values, and long-term goals. Your personal values determine what “playing big” looks like for you. Without clarity about your own values and priorities, you may end up adopting society’s definition of success instead of your own—ending up with a life that looks impressive to others but feels empty to you. Identify which values are prominent in your life and which are lacking. Perhaps achievement and recognition are well-represented, but adventure and fitness are not. Create goals that bring these values into your life. Living in alignment with your values creates meaning.

Give these tips a try—you might just find yourself playing bigger more often and building a life filled with deeper meaning and true satisfaction.

11/13/2025

The Florida Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association (FL-CBT) is thrilled to announce a professional training webinar with Dr. Todd Kashdan, Ph.D., Founder of the Well-Being Lab and Professor of Psychology at George Mason University, on “The Unappreciated Science of Curiosity.”

Dr. Kashdan is an internationally recognized researcher and author whose work focuses on curiosity, well-being, and psychological flexibility.

In this presentation, he will examine the pivotal role of curiosity in adaptive functioning, motivation, and learning. Drawing from extensive research, Dr. Kashdan will discuss how curiosity contributes to effective cognitive-behavioral interventions and enhances both clinical practice and personal development.In this presentation, he will examine the pivotal role of curiosity in adaptive functioning, motivation, and learning. Drawing from extensive research, Dr. Kashdan will discuss how curiosity contributes to effective cognitive-behavioral interventions and enhances both clinical practice and personal development.

His scholarly contributions have been published in leading academic journals and featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Psychology Today. Dr. Kashdan is also the author of several influential books, including Curious?, The Upside of Your Dark Side, and The Art of Insubordination.

📋 Event Details

📅 Date: December 10th | 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
🏢 Hosted by: Florida CBT Association
💰 Cost: Complimentary for Florida CBT members | $15 for non-members
📧 RSVP: [email protected]
✨ We look forward to your participation in this training event! To learn about other upcoming events, visit our website: https://floridacbt.org

10/20/2025

When it comes to achieving goals, choose discipline over motivation.

Discipline is the steady commitment to do what needs to be done regardless of your emotional state or energy level. In other words, you go to the gym at 6 am everyday even when you don’t feel motivated to go.

Motivation, on the other hand, is the desire or willingness to get things done. And, as you probably know from experience, motivation comes and goes. One day you feel it, another not so much. So, if you’re relying on motivation to achieve your goals, your performance will be inconsistent.

By contrast, discipline is a reliable force for achieving goals. It’s a form of mental toughness. It turns aspirations into consistent action through habits and routines. Motivation may help you start, but discipline keeps you going when motivation fades and build momentum over time.

Studies consistently show that people with self discipline are happier because they are accomplishing more of the goals they care about. Low self discipline can lead to depression, anxiety, impulsivity and procrastination.
To cultivate discipline, set clear, achievable goals, establish a daily routine, and remove distractions. When you have a setback, learn from it, and get back on track.
Lastly, Embrace discomfort as a part of growth, rather than avoiding it.

Remember, motivation is overrated. The key to achieving your goals and consistency is discipline.

drlisa.says

04/20/2026

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