Science has figured out that repeated thoughts actually carve neuro-pathways into the brain. The thought becomes hard-wired into your brain. Think about it -- when a self-limiting thought is carved in like that, it doesn't just affect your thinking. It affects your entire physiology and determines how you act and react to the situations in you life. 

The GOOD NEWS is that you can consciously re-wire your brain so that your conditioned beliefs and attitudes support you, embrace positive change, help you feel empowered in challenging times like these.  And when you feel empowered? You come up with brilliant ideas, effective strategies, innovative solutions.


Join me at Warwick's Books in La Jolla, California on October 14th at 7:30pm and hear me explain how you can get "Back in Charge!" and start living your life by choice, no longer by automatic reactions that keep you stuck unable to reach your goals.

As I sit in my therapy and coaching office in San Diego's Carmel Valley, I acknowledge that at the end of my journey of writing books and producing a TV show, I have successfully rewired the neuropathways of my brain--no longer am I the panic-stricken speaker I was when I first began to public speak while doing a post-doctoral fellowship at San Diego's Mercy Hospital; no longer am I the doubt-filled writer that needed to leave San Diego to write her book without any distractions; and, no longer am I the intimidated and tongue-tied TV & Radio guest that I was during the first media tour back in 2006.  In my acknowledgment of this, I feel grateful that I am now in the position to work individually with others and help them break free from the limiting beliefs and attitudes that are blocking their efforts at achieving their goals.

How many of you saw the moon-walking bear the first time through?
How does that relate to us right now? Well, if you’re conditioned to focus on how bad the economy is, how many businesses have closed in your industry, how many other people have lost money…well, that's what you are going to see. Your brain will not let you see the moon-walking bear or that unusual opportunity or that potential solution to your situation. But if you re-wire your brain—your internal authority—to start looking for the moon-walking bear, your brain will let you see it.  
Start confronting the limiting beliefs and attitudes that are holding you back from achieving all you want to have, do, and be in life!

I will be doing a radio interview tomorrow morning with “The Coaching Show with Christopher McAuliffe.” Find out more and listen to archives from the show.

As I think about the interview, I think about the most often asked question I get these days – about why I claim that affirmations, goal setting and positive thinking do not work?

I often get heat from clients when I say that repeating affirmations is a self-improvement tool that doesn’t work!   This is NOT because I believe affirmations and positive thinking can not be powerful tools in manifesting our dreams.  It is because I know that unless we acknowledge and release our underlying negative thought or belief that is currently directing our entire system – brain, heart-rate, perceptions, behavioral reactions, blood pressure, breathing, etc… -- we will continue fighting ourselves:  “I have all that it takes to be successful” vs. “I’m doomed to fail!”

There are ways, however, to make affirmative statements effective. But just plopping a happy, fluffy, shiny thought over grimy, nasty, negative one does not work.  The way to make affirmations effective is to unearth the negative belief that’s fighting it before attempting to rewire yourself with a new truth that you want to start living by.

Here is the way to make those affirmations start working for you!  

1) Acknowledge the negative thought

2) Breathe with attention directed toward the feeling.  Experience how that thought makes you feel—whether the feeling is physical (tight neck, jittery stomach) or emotional (frustrated, angry, panicy),

3) Cleanse that negative thought and it’s associated feeling from your brain and physiology. Breathe in – acknowledge the thought and its associated feeling.  Breathe out – release it from your system.

4) Rewire in a new truth that you want to start living your life by. 

Using these 4 steps you are paving the way for your affirmation to take root and start supporting all you want to have, do, or be.

Matt Liebowit, a journalist with the Rancho Santa Fe Review, the Del Mar Village Voice, and the Carmel Valley News, called me last week to interview me about my KPBS-TV Special and my recent return to full-time therapy and coaching private practice in Del Mar and Carmel Valley.  Matt's article came out today in all three papers.  I've copied a bit of it below and if you're interested, you click on the link at the bottom to read more!  I feel so grateful for the exposure to my work now that I am back home building my private practice.

Local psychologist Dr. Adrianne Ahern takes breakthrough ‘Snap out of it NOW!’ approach to national spotlight

By Matt Liebowitz


In matters of psychological health and well-being, often it’s the simple solution that warrants the most focus. Such is the case with the Dr. Adrianne Ahern, whose groundbreaking approach to psychology—simple and deeply scientific at once—is gaining widespread, national attention.


Ahern, a clinical psychologist who lives and practices locally, is the author of two books, Snap Out of it NOW! (2007), and Back in Charge, which came out in June 2009. Both books outline Ahern’s techniques of how to “rewire” the brain, as she puts it, to break out of conditioned habits and thought patterns and use the brain’s intrinsic physiology to achieve personal and professional success.


read more here....

I want to share a bit a feedback that I just received from a San Diego business woman about "Snap Out Of It NOW!" that aired in San Diego on KPBS August 8th:


"I was going through all the channels on Saturday evening and stopped when I saw your show on Channel 11 PBS.  I had not heard of you before.  I started Facebook about three weeks ago and started Twitter a couple of days ago and I signed up for both with you.  I would like to have a private session with you sometime in the future.  I sell real estate.  In this economic market, do you have room to schedule sessions for all 21,000 San Diego County real estate agents?  Ha, Ha.  Did you ever think of contacting SDAR--The San Diego Association of Realtors to put on a seminar.  Here is my psychological assessment of your program.  Assessment of you--I expected you to be intelligent so I will not mention that, but what came through on the television program and was most impressive was your "sincerity."  There is a new era coming soon in personal development and you are in the right place at the right time."

San Diego Psychology Practice

I am pleased to announce the opening of my therapy private practice’s new location in the Carmel Valley area of San Diego, CA. Click "play" on the image above and it will let you cruise around my office. You can even zoom in to check out the books I read and the artwork on the wall. 


I will be offering both in-person and telephone consultations (including via SKYPE). So now, no matter where you live, you can make an appointment and begin working with me on breaking free from negative conditioning NOW!  


To schedule an appointment, please call my office in San Diego, California at 858.764.2422 or toll-free at 1.800.753.1417.