You Are Not One Of Us

Posted by: Priya Senroy on May 6, 2011 8:54 am

A few years ago, I was trying to set up a focus group of lesbians for a counselling project and yes I did face many challenges in getting this project going. Working in a Scarborough community, after months of doing outreach, we finally got a group of four women interested. That number does not accurately reflect an estimated 450,000 gay or lesbian residents of the GTA. When trying to find out from this core group of women as to what was stopping the lesbians in Scarborough to take part in a focus group-my preconceived answer was met with the statement- “You are not one of us.”

Here I was thinking about society stigma, taboo being the reason but I had never thought my personal gender orientation would become a barrier in delivering a much needed service in the area.

Trained as a Creative Arts Therapist, we were taught about cultural diversity from a counselling perspective, but no one told me that I had to be of a specific group in order to work with them. And I know that at this point in time, I do not have the option to change my gender orientation or have a specific disability or have suffered a specific medical condition just to work as counsellor with any group.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

An Intimate Relationship

Posted by: Maritza Rodriguez on May 3, 2011 10:01 am

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The counsellor/client relationship might just be one of the most intimate connections you will ever experience. Counselling provides a safe space to discuss you inner most thoughts and secrets without judgment. It allows you to process, work through issues, and discuss fears and blocks with another human being. You can be vulnerable without the fear of being exposed. Not many relationships allow you to be who you are without demanding anything in return.

That being said, it is important to find the right counsellor for you. As with any other relationship, you must feel comfortable with your counsellor or psychotherapist and be aware of the connection with him or her. That is a very personal experience and every person has their own method of bonding with others. Much of that connection is intuitive in nature. You “feel” this relationship is right and/or you “feel” that you connect positively with the counsellor. The rapport is highly personal and you should follow your “gut instinct” when choosing a professional counsellor.

Some questions to ask yourself when choosing a psychotherapist or counsellor are: Does he or she empathize with what I am saying and experiencing? Do I feel he is really listening and hearing what I have to say? Does she care about me without being overly involved in my situation? Do I feel comfortable with this person?

The powerful relationship between the counsellor and the client involves responsibility on both sides. Thus, the client must be fully involved in choosing the counsellor that best suits him or her at the moment for the particular challenge or situation. Only the client can discern the best decision for himself. And when the decision has been made, the personal knowledge and transformation that can transpire during counselling can be awe inspiring.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

H.A.L.T!

Posted by: Victoria Lorient-Faibish on May 3, 2011 9:48 am

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Are you hungry, angry, lonely or tired? (Or all of the above?) If yes, know that it is time to halt; I mean stop everything as these are the beginning stages of burnout.

Watching out for the signs of burn out is so important to make sure that our job is one that is still enjoyable and helpful to our beloved clients.

Some signs you are starting to burn out and in need of HALTing everything are:

You begin to experience your empathy levels going down. Or in your mind you hear yourself saying “Could you get the point!” when working with your client.
You start sharing your own personal story in a way that is not helpful to your client. Boundaries are starting to fade as you are not cognizant that this is going on.
Being late often because you are going overtime with the clients.
You are exhausted at the end of your day in a way that does not seem to be solved by a good night’s sleep.
You are losing passion and you are bored frequently.
You have not done any personal work in a while and you are losing touch with self.
You bring home your clients problems in your mind.
You feel resentful of your clients.
You are happy when they cancel.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Anxious? Your Phone Can Help.

Posted by: Dawn Schell on April 29, 2011 10:41 am

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A friend sent me a link to an article in the Globe and Mail titled “Relief from anxiety may be as close as your BlackBerry.” http://tinyurl.com/4yerbpg Researchers have been experimenting with computer based “attention retraining” as a means of reducing anxiety. The results so far have been quite interesting. What they are doing now is even more interesting – running a trial to see if this treatment can work using an iPhone, iPod Touch or Android smartphone (http://www.handheldtrainingstudy.com/). Yes, you heard me correctly. Use your phone to reduce your anxiety. Anywhere, anytime.

I decided to do some further reading and research on this anxiety study. What I read indicated that these researchers are being conscientious and cautious [two thumbs up] which means it’s not on the market yet. If the results using the smartphones are as positive as earlier results it could be a boon to anxiety sufferers.

Spurred on by this research into the creation of a new therapy app I started to investigate smartphone apps designed for therapeutic use that are already on the market.

In amongst all the games, entertainment, education, music, podcasts and business apps you will find hundreds of ‘therapeutic’ applications. Apps topics include: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, mood logs, sleep disorders, anxiety, stress management, worry, smoking cessation, positive thinking, affirmations, relationship problems, and mental health self-diagnosis. Ranging from the highly questionable [which I won’t name!] to the highly reputable – for example, PTSD Coach (put out by the National Center for PTSD).

I could see that some of the apps would be useful adjuncts to therapy. Sorting through which ones might actually have merit is not an easy task. However, I think applying an ethical framework would help. Do the creators of the app provide enough information to fit the criteria of “informed consent”? Do they address the issues of confidentiality? What about the author’s competence in this area? Have they addressed risk management? I could go on about beneficence, fidelity, nonmaleficence, autonomy, justice, and societal interest but I think you get the idea.

This quotation from Goss & Anthony seems appropriate. “The question that remains to be addressed, of course, is of where these possibilities will take us next and what we all – practitioners and clients alike – should do about them once they are there”. [1]

In the meantime I had recommended an app to a client in need of anger management. Wait, what’s that you said? Angry Birds is not an anger management app? Hmmm, guess I should take a closer look next time.

Dawn Schell, MA, CCC is an affiliate of Therapy Online www.therapyonline.ca

The opinions expressed in this blog post are personal.

[1] Goss, S. & Anthony, K. (2009). Developments in the use of technology in counselling and psychotherapy. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 37:3, 223-230.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Helping – Doing It For Them Or For Me? Part 1

Posted by: Guest on April 29, 2011 10:29 am

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In my work with non-mainstream clients, I’ve often thought that being an immigrant is a crucial advantage in counselling other immigrants and refugees. But it is not enough. Although once being an immigrant has helped me understand common issues brought by this population, I don’t believe it provides automatic credentials to help other newcomers.

As counselors we need to have knowledge of ourselves and important issues in our own biography, so we can not only use our strengths in session but also navigate wisely through the muddy waters of our traumas. And it is particularly within such waters that we need to look closely when trying to figure why we decided to help in the first place.

I remember vividly Dr. Alfried Langle’s lecture in which he explained how help must come from a free place within ourselves. By ‘free’ he meant that help must be a conscious decision, one in which we are not feeling obligated or compelled to help. If I feel so overruled by impulse that I can’t resist (“I can’t help it”) but to throw myself into assisting someone, there is a great danger I am feeling triggered to fix it. When in a place of trigger, I am more susceptible to reacting automatically and not fully being there for my client.

I take every experience of being triggered as an opportunity for exploration of my muddy waters. These are usually clients that I feel either very compelled to help or that I feel tremendous difficulty in helping – the common factor being that I feel the work as extremely easy or difficult.

If I am unaware of my motivations to help newcomers, I could be perpetually triggered into helping, seeing only my suffering in the client and, in fact, treating my own. The impulse to help gains an element of compulsion: I must always offer my hand in order to avoid the greater task of healing myself first.

This posting will be continued…

Bianca Buteri, M.A., M.Ed., is a Child and Youth Mental Health counsellor, working with diverse and mainstream clients in Metro Vancouver, BC. She became a Canadian citizen and busy mom in 2010 and shares her time with her husband and 11-month-old daughter.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Bullying as Instinct: The Neufeld Paradigm

Posted by: Guest on April 29, 2011 10:25 am

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Leading researchers in the field of bullying appear to agree on the definition of bullying as deliberate, repeated aggression in which there is an imbalance of power between the child who bullies and the child who is victimized (Juvonen & Graham, 2001; Olweus, 1991; Pepler & Craig, 2000). But I’m wondering: is it correct, strictly speaking, to think of bullying as the result of a deliberate thought process? Or is it not more accurate to look deeper and think of bullying as having its roots in instinct?

Certainly, there are some compelling reasons for wanting to question the former view. Chief among them is the everyday experience teachers and administrators have when they interview students who have been caught bullying.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Children’s Self-Esteem and Parental Influence (Part Two of Three)

Posted by: Asa Don Brown on April 29, 2011 10:20 am

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As a clinician, I have spoken with countless parents who have indicated an inability to unconditionally love and accept themselves, but declare an unconditional love and acceptance of their children. My argument is this: if parents are incapable of unconditionally approving, loving, and accepting themselves, then the children will most likely adhere to parent’s negative view of themselves, rather than adhering to the positive strokes that have been granted. Yet, if children receive positives strokes from negative parents, this will help insulate the children from the profound effect of the parents’ negative viewpoints of themselves, but will not completely shelter them from this negative bondage that the parents carry within their own being.

If parents see themselves in a negative light, the children learn that it is okay to defame their own being, while positively stroking the life of another. “For what I say unto you, is not what I accept for myself.” Furthermore, if I have little love for myself, then how am I assured that I am unconditionally loving, accepting, and approving of another? For if we place conditions upon our own life, then we can be assured that we have placed conditions upon the lives of others.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Looking Beyond Academic Results

Posted by: Lori Walls on April 29, 2011 10:17 am

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As part of my PhD school psychology program I was placed at a practicum site which conducts neuropsychological testing. During this experience I was given a student’s file to look over for the purpose of making recommendations to assist with classroom and academic difficulties. The file contained the student’s background family information, academic testing results, and neuropsychological test results. What was interesting about this experience was that I was given the file to examine in pieces. First I was given the academic testing results, which combined with various types of background information are the results most school psychologist have to work with when making recommendations. I was then given the neuropsychological testing results, followed by the student’s family and developmental history.

Based on the results of the academic testing alone it was clear that the student had a math learning disability. His overall IQ result was in the above average range and his math scores were 2 standard deviations below. At this point, my recommendations centered on additional math supports to address the specific areas of mathematical difficulty. When I was given the results of the neuropsychological tests a very different picture began to emerge that revealed a young man with many areas of the brain that were not functioning well. These results are not typically evident on the standard academic tests used by school psychologists. The final piece of the puzzle was an overview of the student’s developmental and family history. When the file information was put together in its entirety a very different diagnosis emerged. In the end, the student was given a diagnosis of a non- verbal learning disability.

What was important about this experience was the realization that as school psychologists we often rely on academic testing and background information to make our recommendations when we may not be getting the complete picture. This may result in the implementation of recommendations that are not in the best interest of the student. In the above noted case, the student had not yet begun to experience many of the secondary disabilities or adaptive functioning deficits that are likely to accompany this type of diagnosis, so the referral was to address the obvious math difficulty. Although school psychologists typically do not receive training in neuropsychological testing, it is clear that having a base knowledge in neuropsychological testing and assessment can help us to look beyond academic testing results to better understand the needs of our students.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

The Second City interview: “I get to laugh every day” and three more ways to thrive in your career

Posted by: Mark Franklin on April 29, 2011 10:11 am

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Klaus Schuller is Executive Director of The Second City Toronto. I interviewed him on Career Buzz on Good Friday. He shared a wealth of career insights, and the 20-minute interview is worth a listen. Here are four of Klaus’s ideas for thriving in your career, accompanied by questions to trigger your own thriving. Leave a comment with your responses!

“I get to laugh every day.” That’s what Klaus said when I asked him what he liked about his career. How many of your clients can say that? Can you?

“Passion for excellence is my strength.” We know what career happiness happens when you get to use your strengths, daily. So when I asked Klaus what strengths he uses on a daily basis, he said, “my passion for excellence.” Surprising answer! Often people name their practical skills like project management or people skills. I thought this was apt and a unique way to describe one’s strength. If a client asked you if this were okay for a job interview response, what would you say?

“I promised myself I’d never do anything that sucked.” Klaus shared with his career story with listeners and identified that promise to himself as a guiding principle. My reaction was that it’s tilted toward the negative, but, hey, it’s been working for Klaus all his life. It’s like a thought test he can use every so often. I imagine him saying to himself, “Does this suck?” If no, continue. If yes, change. What thought test do you have for your career?

“What else are you passionate about?” Klaus hires a lot of people in his leadership position, therefore, he conducts a lot of interviews too. Instead of the usual questions, Klaus targets passion. He’d rather hear people talk about their passion about say, bicycle advocacy, because he knows passion is transferable. If your next prospective employer asks that interview question, what’ll you say?

Let’s get a discussion going! Leave a comment or a question.

–Mark Franklin www.careercycles.com

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Practically Yours: Self-care tips for Counsellors – Physical Health

Posted by: Derrick Shirley on April 26, 2011 9:57 am

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“The basis for medicine in the 21^st Century will be self-care.” Robert Ivker, D.O.

This is a very powerful statement. The purpose of the “Practically Yours: Self-care tips for Counsellors” posts are to provide useful, applicable, and indeed practical tips and suggestions on self-care for counselling practitioners. In my previous post, I discussed the importance of proper self-care. We know the theories and benefits of it, we talk to our clients about it, and we have been doing it all of our lives.

But what are the links between self-care and good health? To begin, we must first define what it means to be healthy.

In this post I will introduce six components of health as outlined in the book, “The Self-Care Guide to Holistic Medicine: Creating Optimal Health” (Ivker, Anderson, & Trivieri, 2000), and discuss practical activities related to the first component, physical health. Being healthy is not just the absence of illness. “I am healthy because I am not sick,” is only a partial truth. The word health in itself means “to make whole.” Having a feeling of wholeness connotes elements of ourselves converging in balance and harmony. The Guide’s six components of health include: physical, environmental, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social (Ivker et al., 2000). In aboriginal cultures, this is akin to the concept of the medicine wheel and its four components: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Proper holistic self-care then, involves actions that seek to achieve and maintain balance between these various components of health.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA