I imagine it is like you just bought a frame from the Salvation Army. You love the picture and want to add it to your house, but the frame is a light salmon color and someone crafty got carried away with the glitter. It definitely does not fit your vibe, at all. So, of course, you reframe the picture so it fits your house and makes sense for you.

Sometimes, though, you find a picture at Goodwill in a big, bold, golden frame. It looks okay. In fact, maybe someone shopping with you or passing by even remarked it looked nice. You start to justify that if it would look nice in someone else’s house, surely I can make it look nice in mine, surely you can make it fit.

However, your house is rustic farmhouse themed and you made the dedicated choice to only have furniture in brown tones. Everything in your house is in the color brown or wooden. So, this frame is not really going to fit, but you still love the picture. It might have taken you longer to decide or you may have needed the nudge of someone who knows you well, but eventually you realize you need to reframe the picture.

Note this is a careful process. It may be a helpful choice to approach in the presence of a trusted friend or therapist. You are about to remove the picture from the original frame. [“The first thing you have to do is carefully remove your art from the existing frame.”(Re-Framing Art Made Easy: Tips on How to Make the Old New, 2025)]

Remove any “Framer’s Tape” [“pull any framer’s tape that might be present off”(Re-Framing Art Made Easy: Tips on How to Make the Old New, 2025)]

This is often removed by applying heat for a few seconds (Leanne Bishop, 2024). In other words, this is going to be a mental work out. You are putting the heat on that thought and what has helped it stay so in place for this long.

Start to identify the reasoning behind this thought. This will often be unhelpful, unhealthy, bs reasoning created by anxiety, the amygdala, or words of someone else. “Then bend back the ‘framing points’ which are usually metal away from the backing.” (Re-Framing Art Made Easy: Tips on How to Make the Old New, 2025)

Once identified, begin to bend them back by identifying:

• Who taught you that?
• Does this suit you right now?
• Have you outgrown this [in time, experience, or knowledge]?
• Would I say this to a friend in my situation?

I know, behind some pictures, you might find the previous picture that was in that frame or bits of paper someone put in to make the frame fit better. You of course remove these. Unfortunately it is easier to remove those than removing the memories and emotional ties we have had to this frame. In this case, we are at least separating the two. You don’t have to throw them away.

When you have found the new frame, you will complete the un-framing process but in reverse. [Certified not an expert as I have only seen other people do this, in person, but have not done it myself]

You will need to bend down the new frame’s framing points.

You are remembering:

• I tell myself this.
• This fits me now.
• This is a kind thought towards myself.

Put some paper over the back and add your own framer’s tape. Framer’s tape is a gentle tape made for easier removal, leaving little to no damage to the picture, and keeping everything secure (Re-Framing Art Made Easy: Tips on How to Make the Old New, 2025). Your framer’s tape is a bit of gentle parenting of yourself towards believing and following this reframe. It is you putting boundaries in place to protect yourself and your reframe

Parting Thought:

As a legal sidenote, I am not a therapist or physician. My writing is not meant as a diagnosis or treatment plan. I wish for this to help reframing click for another as it has started to click for me. Since I have crafty hobbies, this made so much more sense then how it was explained to me. I was taught it is about a perspective shift, as if I could just stand up on a stepstool and suddenly see it all clearer. When you think about all the work that goes into each reframed thought, I found this an easier mental image of what my brain is being tasked to do. With love.