Breaking Bad (Habits): Interview with GOOD

Changing habits—especially those tied to stress, mood, or long-standing patterns in daily life—can be frustratingly difficult. Even with the best intentions, many find themselves reverting to behaviors that no longer serve them, caught in a cycle that feels both familiar and resistant to change. Recognizing how common and challenging this struggle can be, GOOD recently reached out to Jordan Conrad, PhD, LCSW, founder and clinical director of Lexington Park Psychotherapy in New York City. In "Got a bad habit? Experts say making it inconvenient is the easy way to break it", Jordan discussed evidence-based ways to stop unhelpful habits and start ones that serve you better.

Jordan presents a dual strategy: first, increase the friction on a habit that is unwanted; second, introduce a replacement behavior that meets the same functional need but supports wellbeing. For example, if stress or anxiety leads to a comfortable but maladaptive habit, the “make it harder” step might involve taking the lighter or snack out of reach, while the “make it easier” step involves placing a healthier comfort option within reach: "If you want to stop a bad habit, making it 1% harder to do and 1% easier to do something else can be very helpful. If you want to stop smoking, not having a pack or a lighter on you is helpful; if you want to stop eating out so often, keeping food at home makes it just a bit easier to do.”

Crucially, Jordan explains, it isn't enough to simply restrict access to the negative habit. If you want the change to be lasting, you also need to provide what mental health professionals call a "differential reinforcement":

“You should also have a replacement behavior–something that might serve the same purpose but in a positive way. This is called differential reinforcement. So, if you eat junk food to de-stress, find something good for you (or at least neutral) that also relaxes you, and do that every time you would normally eat junk food.”

This perspective is particularly relevant for clients experiencing transitions like pregnancy or the shift into motherhood, which often involve new routines, changing identity, and heightened stress. The habit‑breaking strategy can help anchor new supportive patterns at a moment when the old safety‑net behaviors no longer serve. As one moves from high-school, to college, into adult responsibilities, or navigates unresolved trauma that resurfaces as habitual self‑soothing (or self‑harming) behaviors, the principle of “1 % harder / 1 % easier” can serve as a practical adjunct to deeper work.

From a therapeutic lens, this dovetails with established core strategies in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and internal family systems (IFS) approaches, both of which help unpack why habits persist, what function they serve (often an emotional or regulatory one), and how to construct alternative mechanisms of support rather than mere suppression. These ideas reinforce the value of scaffolding habit change within the larger therapeutic process. Beginning with environmental or behavioral tweaks (making the bad habit inconvenient / making the good habit convenient) while simultaneously exploring the internal landscape of parts, beliefs and emotional regulation (via IFS) and cognitive reframing (via CBT), allows for layered and sustainable change.