Therapy

Counseling brain injured clients is so odd; I am never sure what to delve into and what to allow to fade into the recesses of their damaged brains. Sometimes I feel that all I am doing is trying to make them feel heard and worthy. Inside I fear that this isn’t therapy at all. I am learning relational skills, in a way I think that is deeper than found in most practicum experiences. And the therapeutic pace is slow, which I actually do appreciate. I can only hope that at some point my clients and I will move beyond relationship building, and together begin to explore something a little deeper.

How should I determine when to ask the client to discuss something that may bring them sadness? I feel like with brain injury, it’s a whole different ballgame.

I agree with no dirt on this one. I think that you are providing an important service to your patients, even if it doesn’t always feel like it. Just by listening to their stories and being supportive you are providing them with much needed compassion.

I think you will have to shift your focus a bit to provide this type of therapy. It’s not always about delving into the unknown here. Your mission is really to provide support.

Maybe, for example, you could bring something up and ask if they performed before their TBI? Maybe that would help to clarify for you what is caused by the TBI and what isn’t. Just an idea.

Also, try to become familiar with the results of a brain injury – this may involve some study of anatomy and/or neuroscience on your part. It varies significantly from person to person but just a basic understanding will surely help you.

Good luck. It’s a tough job but I think you will eventually find it quite rewarding.

The worlds first Sweat Therapy Sauna was completed on 8/6/07!

What the is a Sweat Therapy Sauna, you ask? The Sweat Therapy Sauna was designed specifically for group work. The design was influenced by the Finnish Sauna, the American Indian Sweat Lodge, and modern technology.

Like a common sauna, it was built with conventional wood-framed construction with insulation between vertical studs, the interior lined with cedar walls and benches. It is heated with an electric heater. Like an American Indian sweat lodge, the Sweat Therapy Sauna allows people to sit in a circle to promote group cohesion. The heating element is placed in the center. It is windowless to control lighting to promote intimacy and introspection and contains a stereo system to make use of the therapeutic benefits of music.

The dimensions of the Sweat Therapy Sauna are 10 x 10 x 7 and can accommodate about 12 people. The 15 KW electric heater is a stainless steel floor model purchased from Finlandia Sauna. Four recessed ceiling lights operate on a dimmer switch. The stereo is a waterproof marine audio system that includes an amplifier, MP3 connector, and four speakers purchased from Poly-Planar. A shower is installed on the outside of the right front wall.

This project was a long time in the planning. I completed my doctoral dissertation in 2005 – THE EFFECTS OF SWEAT THERAPY ON GROUP THERAPEUTIC FACTORS AND FEELING STATES. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of sweat therapy as a group counseling technique by investigating the effects of sweat therapy on group therapeutic factors with 85 college students. Overall, I found that participants in sweat groups had superior group cohesion and interpersonal interaction than participants in non-sweat groups (groups held in a standard office setting). It was clear that the sweat experience accelerated and intensified group dynamics. It seemed to me that the differences between the sweat and non-sweat groups would have been even greater if participants in the sweat groups were able to sit in a circle (a fundamental technique in any group work). One of the studys limitations I identified was that -

the seating arrangements in the saunas used were set in an L shape rather than a circle. Use of a sauna with circular seating would lend itself better to group processing.

Soon after I completed my dissertation, I began looking into obtaining a circular sauna and quickly found that . . .there was no such thing. Saunas are either built with one wall of seating or with two walls of seating in an L shape. At the very most, there are designs for 3-sided seating in a U shape.

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NEW YORK (CNN) — Ten years ago, teen Daniel Giddings shot a man during an attempted robbery and was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison. During his time behind bars, Giddings racked up almost 30 disciplinary infractions, was kicked out of two separate facilities for bad behavior and reportedly spent hundreds of days in the hole because of his conduct.After serving 10 years, Giddings was released last August. According to CNN affiliate WPVI, he allegedly assaulted several police officers days later. Then, in September, he allegedly killed a Philadelphia police officer before being fatally shot by another officer.

We see classic cases of repeat offenders like this all the time. A teen is thrown into the abyss of the corrections system and comes back out no better, if not worse. If we had the right intervention for troubled teens, could we reduce their chances of becoming repeat offenders?
According to the International Center for Prison Studies in London, England, the United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate, with one in 100 adults behind bars. In fact, the United States accounts for less than five percent of the world’s population, but almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

Considering how much time, energy and money we spend locking people up, you’d expect to see a bigger payoff. But in the United States there are about 16,000 homicides per year, or roughly six per 100,000 people, based on Department of Justice statistics. Compare that to Canada and Britain, which don’t even tally 1,000 homicides per year each.
Our current system is too focused on tossing criminals behind bars and hoping they get the message instead of rehabilitating them. I’m not saying we need to stop punishing criminals. We just need to start peppering in prevention techniques and using creative solutions to identify red flags early.
Missouri’s groundbreaking juvenile justice system is the vanguard. It focuses on rehabilitation, therapeutic intervention and conflict resolution rather than force and punishment. Small groups of youths stay in dorms with a couple of adult facilitators to emphasize individual treatment. According to Harvard University’s Ash Institute, the youths attend daily meetings with peers, partake in educational and volunteer programs and serve as role models for each other.
So how will we get the remaining "tough against crime" politicians to implement similar systems? By showing them how it will fatten up the government’s coffers. The Missouri model has been shown to reduce recidivism, meaning states will have fewer repeat offenders to incarcerate. And the best way to reduce prison costs is to reduce incarceration.
After all, why should juvenile offenders be the only ones learning conflict resolution and peer counseling? We should offer similar tools — such as group therapy — in public high schools to help all troubled kids before a potential descent into criminality.In these school-based programs, no topic should be off limits. Alcohol, drugs, sex, money — whatever is bothering these children, they should have a place to share experiences, learn to cope with adversity and simply have someone willing to listen. Such a program would also enable children to discuss issues that they are unwilling or unable to share with their parents.

Charles Manson had his first incarceration as an offender at the age of 8. No one took the time to find out why this boy was so angry and try to help him. He obviously was abused. He just got angrier and angrier as he saw that the world didn’t care about what anyone had done to him, only what he had done. This country still basically stands by and tolerates child abuse. It only becomes thought of as a crime when the tormented child acts out on someone else. We have no respect for children.

This is no joke, I’m seriously looking for advice!

First of all, my standpoint is I believe it’s therapeutic and medically beneficial for some people when used responsibly.

Here goes:

I have a family member that has a passion for the leaf.
Is a very responsible person, has a good career, mentally, morally and ethically sound, etc.
This person does has anxiety issues, and I do not comment on their smoking habits much as I can see the benefits they gain from it. It does not change their personality, perception, etc. at all, just seems to take a good deal of the edge off.
The cons are: I see it’s a higher priority in their finances than other necessities, and also the times when they are "dry" they go through this intense mental withdrawal from it.

So I want to convince them that it may be a good idea to cut back, start using it only for occasional recreation – if at all. The last time I brought it up they looked at me as if I had just asked them to give me a vital organ or something! (was insulted by me suggesting there was possibly a problem)
I don’t want to refer them to any kind of counseling or a doctor, I mean this is already something they keep under tight raps, I’d like to be able to "coach" them myself if I can.

How did you kick (or lessen) the habit ON YOUR OWN FREE WILL? (meaning not because you HAD to do it for a job, a spouse, a child, etc.)
What did you use as your motivation?
How did you deal with the withdrawals, assuming you had any?
Is there anything I could do personally for them?

I am looking for friendly advice based on your personal experience.
I’m not really interested in replies that will be degrading or insulting – I will just report them, ok?

Thanks everyone!
Oh, is already on anxiety meds (as needed)
Thanks for the answers so far…
Chloe – they bug me to smoke with them all the time, it actually makes me sick to my stomach, so I don’t/can’t/won’t… that was a good idea though!

The best motivation to lessen the habit is when you do it too frequently you don’t have a good high.

http://www.nickdutch.co.uk providng free demonstration tarot readings here on youtube

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During pregnancy I have never experienced so much hell in my life, but I do not hate her, on the contrary it is her who hates me and refuses to say she loves me or will marry me. Now I, although struggled through the entire pregnancy with the way she treated me, learned quite a bit. She does have issues but things are improving with the right counseling and the right advice. Reaffirmations and awareness, daily Why would I deserve the best of who I believe my girlfriend can be as a person if I cannot deal with her worse and by far I have seen this. Our preganacy was shock and not a dream and didnt bring us closer together but further apart.
I have a responsibility to this woman and my child and myself and sometimes love doesnt come naturally but two have to work at it, and that is what i hope to do, is take care of those responsibilities, fear in myself and her and of any and all mental states, disorders or issues is a part of that, regardless of which party it is, I have connected on a deeper level through this bonding which is a postive, rather than the single desire I once felt for her body only (Like most men truly do) I am hoping to better myself and the situation as well as perhaps find a meaningful relationship beyond the lust I only ever had before, so in resonse this is why I care. Though it has been a train wreck, I am hopelessly romantic with the possibility of loving someone fully and accepting those differences as well as those similarities and these answers have been therapeutic in the process of my frustrations. Would you agree? or am I on the wrong path?

Sure

Explain what transactional analysis (TA) is, identify the founder of TA, and include a description of the four life positions that constitute the relationship perceived between the self and others.
Transactional analysis is a social psychology developed by Eric Berne, MD (d.1970). TA is a theory of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change. As a theory of personality, TA describes how people are structured psychologically. It uses what is perhaps its best known model, the ego-state (Parent-Adult-Child) model to do this. This same model helps understand how people function and express themselves in their behaviors. As a theory of communication it extends to a method of analysing systems and organisations. It offers a theory for child development, where it ties in very neatly with the Freudian developmental stages -oral, anal, phallic.
It introduces the idea of a "Life (or Childhood) Script", that is, a story one perceives about ones own life, to answer questions such as "What matters", "How do I get along in life" and "What kind of person am I". This story, TA says, is often stuck to no matter the consequences, to "prove" one is right, even at the cost of pain, compulsion, self-defeating behaviour and other dysfunction. Thus TA offers a theory of a broad range of psychopathology. In practical application, it can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of many types of psychological disorders, and provides a method of therapy for individuals, couples, families and groups. Outside the therapeutic field, it has been used in education, to help teachers remain in clear communication at an appropriate level, in counseling and consultancy, in management and communications training, and by other bodies.

Four life positions:
Position of the normal that healthy individual who starts on the assumption that others are emotionally well adjusted to life.
Position reflects a neurotic that depressed outlook on life.
Position of autistic children and schizophrenics, produces severe individual problems in relating to the world and to the people in it.
Position of observed in the delinquent and the sociopath, individual believes that justified in gratifying to own immediate impulses.

Ok… what exactly are you asking for?

The Jesus Christ Security Foundation was formed to fight the menace and effects of social exclusion. The purpose of the Foundation is, among others, the re-socialization of homeless individuals who have addictions not only to psychoactive drugs, but also to behaviors and people.

The method used by the Foundation is comprehensive in character. The entire process of re-adaptation consists of successive steps such as: motivation for treatment and healing, counselling and therapeutic interaction as well as on-going assistance and strengthening of those re-socialization effects that have been achieved.

Separate institutions which form The Jesus Christ Security Foundation are called upon to realize these goals. They may be considered as elements of the Foundations counseling system. The Foundation bases its work on the voluntary payment of room and board. The Foundation already has several branches in Poland; in Boguszowie- Gorcach, Cieszynie, Krotoszynie, Jarocinie, Kamiennej Górze, Świebodzicach, Wałbrzychu, Stargardzie Szczecińskim, Strzelinie and Wierzchowicach. The Foundation works together with local town and city councils to realize the goal of co-operation and action against social exclusion. We want to create respectable and dignified conditions for those under our care in which they may be able to obtain not just physical help but first and foremost psychological and therapeutic help.

We want to provide help to those in need. We do not want to passively watch the progressive impoverishment and degeneration of our local society. We want to create a real home for those under our care so that they may know they are needed in society and that they can function normally in it. Todays reality is that almost every Polish family is touched by addiction, co-dependency, unemployment and even homelessness.

The people under our care are individuals with various kinds of problems and do not have any income. Because of this we try to find resources to support them. We ask for help which can allow us to broaden our ministry and at the same time limit the progressive impoverishment of that part of society touched by unemployment and the inability to adjust in society. On behalf of those in our care and in the name of our Foundation we are extremely thankful for all help we receive.

Marian Rogowski – Founder

CONTACT: Jesus Christ Security Foundation (Fundacja Jesus Christ Security)
ul. Kołłątaja 6; 58-370 Boguszów Gorce POLAND
E-mail: marro725@wp.pl ; Tel. 4874 8449325; cell phone: 48519179438

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Bad argument. I did some things in the heat of the moment I’m not proud of. Not proud at all. No I didn’t hit her or cheat on her. Our past financial stress has come back again to haunt me. How could a woman go loving me, caring for me, excited about her recent successes one second and scream divorce and the word hate the next? Yes I screwed up in the past, but is she not also a part of this? Does she accept any responsibility for her action in making the mess we were in? She says I don’t try to help, but I do, I really really do. I work two jobs, I cut down my hour on my part time job because It was wearing me down. I do try so hard to make her happy, but She says she has been nothing but miserable since we’ve been married. It’s not true, At least I hope it’s not true. She sure acted as if she really was getting happier. Can financial stress, the root of all of this, really kill an relationship that has as world of potential? Potential that just now is being tapped into? She just graduated from school this past weekend, our lives are just about to start, but she doesn’t see it that way. she still sees it as our lives together being over. Could there be someone else? No, stupid, there could be no one else but the thought sticks in my mind because it seems like she is looking for an out. Can I really be a terrible husband even if time and time again over the past year even after our arguments she continues to tell me she loves me, and has never loved anyone like this before? I try to be so good to her. I do anything for her. Could she just not be a team player in this? Has she been hiding her true feelings for me and lying to me this whole time? How can I make her see that we, I stress WE need to go to counseling? It can’t hurt right? We have so much to look forward to, so much love for each other. I can’t let money troubles be the end of us but what more can I really do? I’m lost without her. My heart breaks.

Writing this has been very therapeutic.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

You MUST go or you will shatter. BOTH of you

Affiliated Counseling
http://www.localedge.com/listing/142046/62946/Affiliated+Counseling/8148357043/3800+W+12th/Erie/ZZ/16506
Erie
cognitive therapy,counseling, marriage counseling, behavioral therapy, psychology, psychotherapy

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