Improving Goal Setting in Recovery Based on Temperament & Strengths

Foreign like to welcome everybody to this presentation on what I call SNAP T. Strengths, Needs, Attitudes, Preferences and temperament in goal setting and Recovery. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this presentation, I'm going to identify the characteristics of each dimension of temperament and how they can be used to tailor interventions. Help you identify and create effective goals, goals for recovery and relapse prevention. Then we'll explore the concept of SNAP T, kind of putting it all together, and discuss the importance of individualizing goals and interventions. And in there, we're also going to review the different learning styles. So we've got a lot to cover. Let's start out with temperament. A lot of us here use the word or hear the word temperament and it's tossed around with personality. And I'm going to make the argument that the two of them kind of go together. Temperament as measured by the MBTI or the Kirsi is generally comprised of four dimensions. The first one, extrovert versus introvert, I generally recognize as where the person derives their energy and the type of environment that they prefer and their social interactions. The next dimension, sensing versus Intuitive, is how they conceptualize information, whether it's bottom up or top down. The third dimension, thinking or feeling, describes people's motivation and how they assign meaning to things. Are they are thinkers tend to be motivated by facts. Feelers tend to be motivated more by compassion and harmony. We're going to get to that. And then the final dimension is what I call time management and structure. And this describes whether people are more spontaneous or more structured and what they need in order to feel energized. It's important to remember that temperament is an overarching concept that's on a continuum. One end of the continuum is not better than another. Being an extrovert is not necessarily better than being an introvert. It's just different. And that is the beauty of synergy. Because if everybody was extroverts, then we wouldn't have the people who really like doing deep dives and reflection and vice versa. So we can synergize. A lot of times people who are very opposite in their temperament can work very well together and even thrive in relationships together because they balance each other out. What one is weak in, the other one is strong in. Most people, however, are somewhere in the middle. Very few people are exclusively extroverted or exclusively introverted. They may have characteristics of both sides. So it's which do you lean to more? And recognizing that when people are stressed, they tend to become more polar, if you will, in their temperament. So if they tend to be introverted when they get stressed, they're going to probably embrace those characteristics more strongly than when they are not stressed. When we're stressed, we don't have a lot of flexibility. We are wanting to fight or flee when we're not stressed, we can deal with things that are not necessarily our preferred way of doing things, but we can get by. Hans Eising defined five dimensions of personality and in my view, people's temperament impacts their personality by affecting how they interact with the world and what causes them stress. And Eysenc defined one of those dimensions as neuroticism. So people tend to be more worried and more anxious about things that are not in line with their temperament. What motivates them, what, how agreeable and conscientious they are, is also affected by their temperament. And finally, how open they are to change, which is named openness. That's another dimension. For example, people who are J's, who are judgers, like myself, tend to have a really difficult time with change. We have a difficult time with exploring things outside of our comfort zone sometimes, especially if it's kind of sprung on us. We don't do spontaneity very well. We also don't make the best of all of the available options sometimes. So you can see how temperament is not the same as personality, but it does feed in people's strengths, needs, attitudes and preferences. Their snap are impacted by their temperament as well. For example, an extrovert will often prefer group activities, be motivated and energized by the presence of others and prefer to talk it out. So things like worksheets and independent activities may not be the best choice for somebody who is by nature a strong extrovert. So let's take a deeper dive into that when we're thinking about temperament. It can be used to help people improve their communication, identify and address individual needs, increase their motivation, which is always important for goal setting. Identify effective interventions. Like I said, you wouldn't probably give an extrovert a whole lot of journaling and bibliotherapy. They're going to prefer interactive sort of things. It can help with goal setting and relapse prevention planning so people can learn where their weaknesses are and they can be. They can plan for those, if you will. So let's start out with the first dimension, extrovert versus introvert. Extroverts tend to be expansive and less passionate. This is the person who is excited about like everything and I'm being, I'm exaggerating, of course they're generally really easy to get to know. Extroverts are wonderful at making small talk. They like meeting new people and have many close friends. These are the people that you can go anywhere in your town and they know somebody. They would rather figure things out while talking. This is important. People who are extroverts are going to want to talk it out, whereas people who are introverts want to sit down and think about it and then tell you the conclusions they came to. So in therapy, in problem solving, it's important for an extrovert to be able to talk it out, to bounce it off somebody. Now, sometimes they got to talk it out with themselves, but a lot of times they will find that it's more effective and easier if they're in a place, you know, like home, by themselves, where they can actually articulate it instead of writing it down or just thinking about it quietly. They often enjoy background noise such as TV or radio. They know more about what's going on around them and the people around them than what's inside them. You can see how this would be potentially a relapse trap for people in recovery who are getting over depression or anxiety. If they're more in tune to everything around them, they may not notice those early warning signs of anxiety or depression. They often don't mind interruptions and are considered really good talkers. Most of us know an extrovert out there somewhere. And remember, people are not probably going to have every single one of these characteristics. And they may have some introvert characteristics too. That's okay. Most people are somewhere in the middle. But it's important to help people assess. Introverts are intense and passionate. They find something that they are interested in or passionate about and they will learn everything there is to know about it, whether it's gardening or history or psychology, whatever it is, they are passionate about that. And they don't want to just know the the highlights. They don't want the Cliffs Notes version. They want to do the deep dive, generally more difficult to get to know. And this isn't because they're antisocial. This is because they like to think before they talk. They really value their personal time, their down time, and they really dislike making small talk. So getting past that initial level of get to know you is very tedious and exhausting. For some people who are introverts, it's just like, oh my gosh, you know, can we get down to the substance? They have to exert effort to meet new people, be well, they only have a few close friends, prefer to figure things out before they talk. And they often prefer peace and quiet. They're are, they are more likely to know what's going on inside them than what, than what's going on around them. And we'll get back to this in a minute. They very much dislike being interrupted, but are often very good listeners. They want to engage with people. So exerting effort to meet new people. For an introvert, that means because they're more aware of what's going on inside them, they've actually got to get outside of themselves and try to tune in to what's going on to the people around them. And it's not that they don't like other people, it's just a different, they're just tuned differently. They pay more attention to what's going on inside. And for that reason and the fact that they like to do the deep dives instead of all the small talk, they often have only a few close friends and they tend to prefer it that way. They like environments with a couple of people where they can have really intense discussions or really meaningful situations as opposed to being, being in super large groups. And they prefer peace and quiet. Now, when we're talking about goal setting and people's needs, it's important to remember the introvert is going to need quiet time, it's going to need downtime, is going to get stressed out if they don't have those things or if they're interrupted a lot. If we're trying to decrease stress, decrease anxiety and help the person's HPA axis heal, for example, whether it's from anxiety or depression or traumatic stress or whatever it is, we need to recognize what kind of environments cause them stress and what kind of environments they prefer. An extrovert, if you give them too much time by themselves, on quarantine, lockdown, whatever, they are often going to start going a little bit stir crazy. We draw energy as an extrovert, I draw energy from being around other people, from communicating with other people. So it's important to be aware of that. In terms of relapse, warning signs or relapse traps for the introvert versus the extrovert, knowing what's going on around them for the extrovert means they may miss their inner cues until they're in a full blown depression or anxiety or addiction relapse. For introverts, they are very in tune with what's going on inside them sometimes, which can be overwhelming. And they also may fail to nurture social supports because they're not as aware of what's going on around them. So those are just some examples. You can go through each one of these and think in recovery, in treatment, in goal setting, how might each of these characteristics impact the way we go about it and what the person needs? Sensing versus Intuitive really refers in, in many ways to how people process information. Sensors tend to be fact based and they tend to be in the details and, and bottom up in terms of their rationalizing and their reasoning. But they can get caught up in the details and because they've got their head down in the weeds, they miss the bigger picture. Intuiters, on the other hand, tend to be big picture people. We miss the details. And it's important to recognize that because in recovery and, and I use recovery in general in, in change, let's talk say change. It's important to pick your head up and know where you're going, know what that rich and meaningful life looks like, know what the big picture is and not get too stuck in the weeds. But on the other hand, it's important to, for the intuitor to look down and figure out, okay, what are the details that I might miss? For example, in addiction recovery, we talk about doing 90 and 90. 90 meetings in 90 days. Well, that's great. A person can say I'm going to do 90 and 90, but they overlook the details of, oh well, I don't have a car, I don't live on a bus line, I've got to work and I've got three children at home. So how am I going to make this happen? Which meetings am I going to go to? When? How am I going to get there? Who's going to take care of the kids? Those are all the details that the intuitor may miss because they think 90 and 90, that's great, that sounds like a family fabulous idea. But then the actual actually putting it into motion may become difficult. The sensor, on the other hand, may be very literal, may spend too much time planning and plotting and considering all of the different options and considerations that they lose time. They don't have time to do things they enjoy because they're so. They get so caught up in the rabbit hole of the details that they forget that going to meetings is supposed to help you get social support. So sensors tend to be practical and realistic. They prefer facts and live in the real world. Their content in general would rather do than think. And that doesn't mean that they don't think. What it means is the. The intuitor likes to dream and hypothesize and talk about meta Concepts. The sensor says, okay, we have a problem, let's figure out how to solve it and let's get to it. They don't want to dream too much about the big, about all the different possibilities. They focus on practical, concrete problems and see the details, but may ignore the big picture. They want specifics and tend to be very literal. They may think that people preferring intuition are impractical and often believe, if it ain't broke it, don't fix it. The intuitor, on the other hand, tends to be the imaginative dreamer. They prefer abstraction, inspiration and insights. These intuitors tend to be more artists, more creative, but they can also be academically different in that they like to think about those meta concepts. They live in the world of possibilities and would rather think than do. They can, and I'm an intuitor. I can think about, oh my gosh, this is how I want to lay out my garden. And this is where I'm going to put different stuff and how much I need. And I can, you know, plan it out and I can see the possibilities, but actually getting up and doing all the planting, oh, that's harder. I've got to get a little pry bar to get off the sofa. They focus on complicated, abstract problems and may see the big picture but miss the details. They love word games and may think that those preferring practical things lack vision. They believe anything can be improved and focus on the future and possibilities. So when we're talking about goal setting, it's important, for example, for people to recognize what they're working toward. And really, once they've set that goal, not to tinker with it all the time and think, oh, well, I could improve it this way or improve it that way. Let's set the goal, let's work towards it, let's accomplish it, and then figure out which direction to go from there. People who are, who are sensing again need to really be able to define what that big goal is in order to figure out what facts. They need to focus on thinking and feeling. And thinkers get a bad rap because they are not unfeeling. They are very passionate about things, but they are motivated by principles, justice, facts. They respond most easily to people's thoughts instead of their feelings. They want to apply objective principles, and they value objectivity above sentiment. They can assess logical consequences, believe it's more, more important to be just than merciful. They assess reality with a true false lens and think those who are sentimental or feelers may take things too personally. Thinkers also may argue both sides of an issue from Mental stimulation. So your thinkers are often your attorneys, your CPAs, your people who like concrete facts and who are motivated by solving those fact based problems. Balancing budgets, for example. Feelers like words like care and compassion and mercy and intimacy and harmony and devotion. And they respond most easily to people's values. They want to apply values and ethics from multiple perspectives. They value sentiment above objectivity. They're good at assessing the human impact and believe it's more important to be caring or merciful. They assess reality with a good bad lens, think that those preferring objectivity may be insensitive and often prefer to agree with those around them. And it's important to recognize that in recovery as well, people who are really motivated by harmony and compassion and prefer to agree with those around them, if they're not in a good place, if they're not surrounded by people who have their best interests at heart or who are in a healthy place, then they may be agreeing to things that are actually destructive to them. So it's important to help them evaluate that. Even though it's uncomfortable to disagree, is it in your best interest and, and examining boundaries there. It's important to remember again that thinkers can be very passionate about the things that are important to them, but they're motivated by different things. A thinker might be motivated by the financial benefit or the financial cost of something, whereas a feeler might be motivated by the feeling of it. When we're talking about motivation, getting people to do things or getting yourself to do something, what motivates you to do it? Is it because it would make you happy or others happy? Or is it because it would make you money or save you money or it's the right thing to do based on XYZ principles, that's important. And different people that you interact with are going to be motivated by different things. So we need to explore what people are motivated by. And this can actually be pretty easily identified. When you talk to somebody, if they're talking using a lot of feeling words, guess what? They probably lean more towards the feeling side. And if they're talking more about facts and statistics and research, then they may lean more towards the thinking side. That is not a hundred percent guaranteed, but it is one easy way to kind of figure out when you're talking to somebody that you just met what might motivate them. And then you can explore that a little bit further. Judging versus perceiving. And this is another one, I don't like the term judging, but that's what they called it. Judgers tend to be very Structured. We love routine and if there's any dimension of temperament that I'm kind of all the way on one side, it's this one. They tend to plan ahead. They, they love their lists, they love their schedule books. They tend to be self disciplined and purpose they're doing. They know what they need to do and they're going to do it next. They thrive on order and tend to get things done planning ahead and working steadily. They define and work within their limits. They know that they have to get this done in a particular period of time. Unfortunately, they may be hasty in making decisions because they have that time pressure because they have those limits there. Instead of thinking, well you know, let me get a little bit more information, they're like, okay, this needs to be done by Friday. Close a business, got to get it done. They are time and deadline oriented and think those preferring spontaneity are too unpredictable. However, they are excellent planners. Unfortunately they may not appreciate or make use of things that are not planned or expected. So when something happens in a person's life, you know, for, for me as a judger, if something unexpected happens like I get a flat tire or you know, I wake up in the morning and I'm sick and I've got appointments scheduled all day, that throws me for a complete loop de loop. My husband on the other hand is much more perceiving. He is much more adapt as they go and he's like, okay, well let's figure out what to do next. I tend to have my HPA axis just go into overdrive and I'm like crap. My entire day is thrown out of whack and I get stuck there for a minute. And it's important to recognize again if we're talking about helping people heal their HPA axis so they feel safer and more empowered. They need to know what things bring them stress and how to adjust how to plan for it. Now back in the days before we had mobile phones, yes there was a time I would get really stressed when about things because if my car broke down then I wasn't able to call the office and let them know that I was going to be late and to reschedule my appointments or blah blah blah blah blah and I would just start spiraling. Now do what Can I predict when I'm gonna going to get a flat tire? No. However, I do know that if I get a flat tire I've got my phone so I can call ahead and make sure people know that I'm running late so they're not waiting on me and that reduces my stress level. So judgers tend to like to have a plan B and sometimes even a plan C for those unexpected events. And that's okay as long as they don't get so caught up trying to figure out alternate plans that they miss their life. Perceivers tend to adapt as they go. They're flexible and tolerant and thrive on spontaneity. If they are told to do the same thing every single day for 90 days, a lot of perceivers are going to want to pull their hair out. So we do need to recognize what is it that you need to do in order to stay motivated. Do you need the order or do you need a little flexibility so you can be more spontaneous instead of saying I'm going to go to this support group every morning at 6:30am saying I'm going to go to a support group at some point during the day that gives them a little bit more spontaneity. Perceivers tend to get things done at the last minute depending on a spurt of energy. So this can be really challenging for in recovery as well as in life for people who need to get things done because sometimes things just don't get done. They don't ever get that spurt of energy. Perceivers almost always want more information. There's like, there's more data that I can gather, Let me keep continue to gather data before I make a decision. Need to can see where that can be a problem. So somebody who's a perceiver as well as a, a sensor, somebody who thrives on facts and also wants more information, you can see how they might get stuck in that information gathering loop and never actually move on to action. They always think there's plenty of time and think that people who are not spontaneous are too rigid. However, they are excellent to have on your team if because they are good at handling plan of handling unplanned events. But they may not make effective choices among the possibilities. So it's good to have somebody when your world, if you're a judger, when your world starts to become chaotic that you can call and go okay, help me get grounded again. The perceiver can see all the options, whereas the judger is kind of in this spirally haze. So let's move on to talking about SNAP and then we're going to put all of this together. SNAP stands for strengths, needs for health and happiness. And this includes reasonable accommodations, attitudes and preferences which include people's learning style and their temperament. And why do I bring up learning style? Because when people are attempting a Change. When they are trying to change their cognitions, when they're trying to learn a new skill, they have to learn something often. And it's important that people know what their learning style is so they can get that information in and effectively use it. So strengths are the things that the person is good at. And in recovery, I often talk about transferability. When I was working in addiction recovery, you, I would work with people who may have been dealers, for example. All right, well, that's not a skill that you're going to be able to use in recovery. But what did you learn from that? They learned to be very good at communicating. They were good salespeople. They were, you know, what skills did they develop from that? So strengths encourages people to look at what do I do? And what am I good at? Strengths are also how the person learns best and has coped in the past. So we're going to start digging into those resources, because resources that people have are strengths. That stuff they have in their toolbox that they can use, that they know how to use. Strengths can also be what gives the person hope. Hope is a great motivator. So whether, again, going back to thinking and feeling, whether they have hope for recovery because nine out of 10 people recover in the first six months, or they have hope for recovery because they have all of this support around them. Whatever their motivation, that hope is a strength because it makes them believe it can be done. And strengths also include what the person already knows about. Let's build on that knowledge instead of starting from, you know, square one. What do you know about your condition? If it's fibromyalgia, if it's depression, if it's addiction, what do you know about it? What do you know about the recovery methods? What do you know about what options are available to you? A lot of people are not aware of the options that are available. They think addiction recovery, they think 12 steps. Well, that is one method. But there are a lot of other approaches out there, including smart recovery, for example, that can be very effective for different people. And the person already knows what does and does not work for them. So we want to respect that. If they tell you. And, you know, I've mentioned this in other classes. I didn't keep a diary when I was 16. I'm not going to keep one now that I'm way older than 16. That's just not my thing. Uh, so I know that's not something I'm likely to be motivated to do. And going back to that extrovert versus introvert, remember I'm an extrovert. So sitting there and writing stuff down, I'm probably not going to do. Now, will I call my BFF and talk for 20 minutes about what happened that day? Certainly. Hmm. So what works for me would be having a person, ideally a person I could talk to in a pinch, my dog does. But in, you know, most of the time, communicating with somebody about what's going on works for me. Some people may recognize that the 12 step method does not work for them. They are not embracing of it. Okie dokie. What does work for you? And that's when I work with clients, I, I generally start out with, don't tell me what you're not going to do because you're not going to do it. Tell me what you're going to do instead. If you're not going to go to meetings. Okay, what are you going to do instead? If you're not going to get better, sleep. Okay. What are you going to do instead in order to help your body rest and relax? Needs. And this goes back to that whole pacer idea. We have physical needs, we have affective or emotional needs, we have cognitive needs, we have environmental needs and relationship needs. And it's important to recognize that these needs are going to be different for most people, or at least what they, what their current needs are. So accommodations. Some people will need accommodations. And I mistyped Ask Jan, but that's okay. If you want to find out about accommodations to help people deal with a particular condition, everything from anxiety to pain, you can go on Ask Jan and they have suggestions. Now, Ask Jan is a website that is designed mainly for employers to identify reasonable accommodations, but it doesn't mean that only employers can use it. It's a great place to go to figure out, okay, what things might be helpful for this person to function in daily living. A lot of times if you're not a rehabilitation counselor, you may not be aware of all the different assistive devices or, or things that are out there. Medications, you know, what medications does that particular person need? And that's obviously between them and their physician, but making sure that they can access those medications that can fall back on us. Helping them identify patient assistance programs, Nutrition, sleep and pain management. Now, we know that everybody needs these things, but how much they need and what they need is going to differ for different people. Not everybody needs the same nutrition. You know, some people need more protein or more vitamin D or more this or more that. Okay, so what do they need? People with Crohn's disease, people who have GLUTEN intolerance are going to have different nutritional needs than people who don't have those issues. But nutrition is important. Why? Because those are the building blocks that our body uses to make the neurotransmitters and hormones and everything else that helps us feel happy, that helps keep us healthy. Sleep is another thing that everybody needs. But how much sleep they need is going to be different for different people. And when they sleep may be different. If you're working with somebody who is a night shift worker, you know, okay, so they work during the night shift. You're not going to want to have them switch to day shift on their days off. So what do they need in terms of tailoring their treatment program to accommodate the most effective, efficient sleep that they can get and pain management? Different for different people, different for different conditions. But we know that pain is going to keep that HPA axis activated. So for each person, we need to evaluate in what way does pain contribute to your current issue? Or maybe pain is the current issue and what is most helpful for you to address it, to prevent it. If they've got carpal tunnel, they may need go back up to those accommodations. They may need splints for their carpal tunnel. They may need different tens units or, or what have you. But all of those things can be very helpful. And a person who is go back to Maslow's hierarchy, a person who is malnourished, exhausted and in pain is not going to be able to do much in, in the way of achieving their goals because their energy is going to be low. Their HPA axis is going to be all over the freaking place. So we need to figure out for this individual what are their physical needs in order to help them best achieve their goals, affectively or emotionally, people need emotional intelligence. That's the ability to identify, tolerate and modulate our own feelings, as well as effectively identify and, and respond to feelings in others. Different people will have different levels of needs for that. What do they need to feel content and effective in life? And that's going to differ for different people. But if people don't feel efficacious, if they don't feel like they are competent to do what they need to do, then guess what, they're probably not going to be very motivated. So we need to find, figure out what can we do to help you feel confident in your competence, especially as it pertains to the goals we want them to achieve or they want to achieve. And then distress tolerance. Change causes crisis and crisis causes change. When people are learning a New skill when they are trying to change, when they're in recovery, there's a period there where it's uncomfortable. And a lot of people don't have very strong distress tolerance skills. So when they hit a roadblock or things start getting tough, they may start to spiral with anxiety or depression or frustration. They may give up. So distress tolerance skills are really important for people. We need to make sure that they have them. If they don't have them, it's going to undermine their progress toward their goals cognitively. We need to know about their learning preferences and needs and what information they need to understand their condition and the interventions that will work for them. If I meet somebody and I say, okay, I think you've got major depressive disorder and this is the intervention that you need to do, they cognitive behavioral therapy would be the best rec course of treatment for you. They may look at me and go, okay, doc, but they're agreeing with me. That doesn't mean they understand what I want them to do. Heck, when I work with new counselors and I say, have you tried cognitive behavioral therapy with them? They a lot of times new counselors look at me and go, that's this meta concept, cognitive behavioral therapy. Exactly what do you want me to do? Exactly what would that look like in a session with a particular individual? So it's important to recognize whether the person has all the information they need in order to achieve their goals. Socially, friendships are important. People need social supports. Now, the introvert may not want to have 15 besties. They may want to have two or three. Okay, that's fine. But it is important to have some social support, especially when trying to make changes. Now, the therapist may be one of this social supports, but you're not there 24, 7, 365. Who else could they lean on? And sometimes these are online friendships in online support groups. Sometimes they're irl. What works for the person is what works for the person. What relationship skills do they need? If they are extroverts? Recognizing that introverts communicate differently, an introvert does not talk, does not talk it out while they think. They need to go think and then come back. So if they are in a relationship with an introvert, cool. Just recognizing that they're going to need some time to reflect before they engage, that can be really important. Same thing with motivation. When we're talking about people with different motivations, understanding what makes each other tick and tailoring our communication to that. So we appeal to their preferences instead of thinking of ours. Assuming that what motivates us, will motivate them environmentally. We also need to consider safety. What do they need to feel safe in their environment? What do they need in terms of temperature? Now, I tend to run really, really hot. So I've always got the heat cranked way down. And that makes me happy because when I get hot, I get very, very cranky. People who don't run quite as hot as I do need to remember to, you know, bring a jacket to the office. Or during the winter, you know, we have portable heaters so people can keep their space in the temperature that they prefer it. But if you're not feeling safe, if you are uncomfortable, guess what? Both of those things trigger the HPA axis, trigger that fight ORF flight response. So you're going to switch from wise mind and cognition and higher order thinking and following your treatment plan to how can I feel better? Fight or flee. Get make this discomfort stop. We also need to recognize that people have different needs for ergonomics. What one person prefers to sit at or stand at or whatever the time of day that they do things. If we are putting people in intensive outpatient, for example, and they are not morning people, but IOP starts at 8am that's probably not going to be very effective for them. They would do better with an evening IOP or going to meetings in the evening and then transportation and child care, among other things. But it's important to consider, consider what are all of the things that may serve as obstacles to this person achieving their goals, to this person following through to this person's motivation. Now, I've mentioned learning styles a couple of times, and it's important to recognize that we learn differently. Some people learn by hearing, which hopefully is y', all, because you're in a lecture right now. I don't learn by hearing. I would rather die than sit in a lecture. College was painful for me, but when I was in those lecture halls, I just took copious notes because I am a visual learner. So I learned by what I wrote down and by what I was reading, by what I was seeing, both in my notes and on the board. Kinesthetic learners need to manipulate information. They need to apply it, whether it is actually doing something or participating in scenarios or group discussions. And then as I mentioned, visual learners prefer to learn by reading, and that's okay. But not everything is going to be visual. If you're an auditory learner and you're in an environment where everything is visual, then recording what you need to learn and listening to it after you've recorded it can be one way of, you know, circumventing the less preferable learning situation. But it doesn't stop there. You know, that's how people take in information. But then how do they process it? It some people, like the extrovert tends to be an active processor. We think and talk and take in information and talk all at the same time. Reflective learners are the ones who will sit there and take in information and then have this aha moment. And reflective learners can be visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. But they're people who, instead of following the math problem the whole way, they see the math problem from beginning to end. And then they're like, okay, that makes sense. Introverts do tend to be more reflective in how they process information, but that's not always true. Sometimes they are very active. They're reading and processing all at the same time. It's important for us, if we're facilitating groups, for example, to not assume that someone is not paying attention or not getting it because they are not actively participating. Reflective learners are sucking that information in and then they're going to have that light bulb moment. So frequent breaks can also be very helpful in the classroom or when the person's studying or trying new information. Conceptualization is the final area, and this loosely correlates with sensing versus intuitive. Think about when you get a new piece of electronic equipment. Do you get the manual out and read it and then plug it in and start working with it? Or do you get it out and go, okay, it's supposed to play a movie or it's supposed to do this, so let me just start poking buttons? I'm the button poker. I'm the big picture person. I have difficulty or I get frustrated or bored with details. And in recovery, that's not a good thing. We need people to be able to take in the information in a way that's meaningful to them. But even the big picture people need the details. And even the detail people need the big picture when, which is why when I do these presentations, I start out with an objective slide. And that's because the, the person who conceptualizes from the top down, they need to know what is it that I'm in for. The person who is a global conceptualizer, if you will, they want to see the big picture. They're the one who reads the wiki before they go to the movies because they have to know what the movie is about. They're not okay just having a title and going, hey, throw caution to the wind. The sequential conceptualizer is the one who wants to read the manuals, is the one who will just go to a movie. And as they get more information, watching the movie, they're happy. They're like, oh, I see what this is about now. Another test, if you will, is puzzles. If you're the per one of the people who needs to look at the box and have the frame done. When you're putting together a puzzle, you're more likely a global conceptualizer. You want to see the big picture and then figure out where things fit. The sequential person doesn't want any of that stuff. They're just going to start putting colors together, matching pieces together, and then they'll smoosh it all together eventually and it'll make a puzzle, it'll make the picture. But they are working from the ground up, if you will. We also need to pay attention to people's attitudes about themselves. If they feel competent and confident in their abilities to do things, if they feel like they deserve to be happy, if they feel like they are, well, you, you get where I'm going here. That's going to be very different. And the way we set goals with that person is going to be very different than the person who is apprehensive, who feels anxious about everything, who doesn't feel confident. If somebody doesn't feel confident, then we're going to want to make sure to set small goals to provide successes. Attitudes about others are also going to impact goal setting and interventions. If they don't trust other people, if they don't feel safe around other people, then plopping them in the middle of group therapy may not be the ideal first intervention. On the other hand, if they like being around people and hearing other people's perspectives, group work may be great. Their attitude about the condition or the target issue. If they are in recovery for depression, for example, if they think that depression is shameful, if they think it's something they can't recover from, then the information they need and the approach that is taken is going to be different than somebody who says, all right, you know, this is kind of like the flu. It's something I've got and I've got to deal with and figure out how to address it. Their attitudes about learning and trying new things. People with low self esteem often have lower openness to try new things because they fear rejection, they fear abandonment. So if we're asking somebody in recovery to turn their world upside down and quote, change people, places and things, that is going to be really overwhelming and that may send some people running for the hills. So we want to explore what are you willing to change. I'm not going to tell you what to change. I'm going to tell you what some, what I see are some options. But then you tell me what you are willing to change and let's talk about what that's going to look like and then their attitudes about different interventions and recovery. Some people are very, have very passionate feelings about things like meditation and yoga and group therapy and EMDR and hypnosis, and the list goes on. If there's an intervention out there, people probably have a. Pretty many people may have a strong opinion about it one way or the other, and that's okay. It's important that we acknowledge that. And instead of trying to violate their boundaries and tell them they're wrong, they need to, for example, refer to themselves as an addict every day. Okay, if you're not going to call yourself an addict every day, I can respect that. What would you prefer to, how would you prefer to say it? A person with an addiction. What term would you like to use if a person says I will not go to those meetings? Heard that a bunch of times. As I said before. Okay, I don't want to know what you're not going to do. I want to know what you are going to do. But let's talk about, you know, tell me a little bit more about why you are so put off about your attitude about those meetings. That way I can help you find an alternative that fits better and decisional balance exercises. Decisional balance is a motivational enhancement tool, but it is based on people's temperament, strengths, needs, attitudes and preferences. A decisional balance looks at the old way. So let's say anxiety, feeling anxious. The benefits to feeling anxious, reasons I want to stay the same, or positive attitudes about the old way. Some people are afraid that if they let go of fear that they're going to be harmed. Okay. So being anxious actually protects you in some way. So we're going to put that down there. May, maybe my belief may not be my belief, but it doesn't matter. It's the person's belief. So we go through the benefits to staying the same and then we go through the drawbacks to staying the same. The drawbacks are usually pretty much on the person, the tip of the person's tongue. But in order to identify alternatives for the person, we need to know the function that current behavior or issue is serving. What is it about anxiety that is working for you, if you will? And then the new way. What are the benefits to the new way you Know, this is something that people, if they're in therapy, for example, have already identified. They need to change. And these are the reasons why. Okay, and then we need to look at what concerns do you have about change? What are you worried will be, will go wrong if you do change? So we can address that. When people change, there's always the possibility of relapse. So that is often a big drawback to change. It's like I tried it before and I relapsed. So, you know, if I try again, it's going to be a futile effort eventually. So we want to explore those things with the person. But then we also want to recognize for different activities that we have them. Do you know what are the benefits and drawbacks to that activity and how can we modify that to meet the person's preferences? So think about, think about how a thinker would be motivated differently than a feeler. So the benefits of the old way, you know, what are the facts here and what are the benefits to the new way? What are the actual facts the research indicates now a feeler, the benefits to the old way. In what way did this help you feel accepted, loved, in harmony with those around you? And in what way will the new. Will the new way enhance your relationships and increase your feelings of acceptance and belonging and harmony? So you're just approaching it from a slightly different perspective. Treatment involves helping people learn what is causing their distress and tools to manage it. However, effective change involves helping people identify their resources. What is it that you already have? What tools do you have in your toolbox? What knowledge do you already have about yourself in this issue? And what works. We need to help people maximize their strengths. If you tend to be great at meeting people and participating in groups, and you tend to be great at identifying all of the details and, and adhering to a very rigid structure, well, great. That would be your, your ET ETJ person. But if they are an ifp, that approach is not going to work with them. So we need to help them identify. What are your strengths? Just your, your inherent. The way you're wired. What strengths do you have and how can you mitigate those weaknesses if you know that you're more aware of what's going on around you than inside you? All right. What can you do to become more mindful of what's going on inside you? To identify relapse warning signs earlier, we need to consider their needs and their motivations, address their attitudes and help them develop a, if you will, can do attitude about the change process and help them figure out how to work in harmony with their own preferences. As a coach or a clinician, it's important to pay attention to the potential pitfalls of treatment or discharge planning based on the person's strengths, needs, attitudes, preferences, and temperament. Okay, I got you all in in just under an hour. I am available to answer questions if you have any questions. I know I just dumped a whole bunch of information at you. I do have other videos on the YouTube channel that you go through each of these topics more in depth. I actually have individual videos on, for example Extroversion and Introversion and Sensing and Intuitive if you want to do a deeper dive into temperament. Additionally, goal setting, we have other other videos and increasing motivation. So there's a lot of stuff that we went over today and there's a lot of additional stuff related to it that I do have videos on. If you have any questions, feel free to email us@support doc snipes.com I will be posting the replay of this on the YouTube channel probably later today, so you can also ask questions in the comment section there. Oh and remember, tomorrow at 3:00pm CST 4:00pm EST, I will be doing the last live Q A probably of the year. We are moving out of our office and back into a home office and so that's going to involve a whole lot of turmoil with technology for a little bit of time. So I may not be doing the actual live Q&As in the month of December. Alrighty everybody have a fabulous day. I hope I will see you tomorrow for the live Q A because I really do enjoying enjoy doing those. Really appreciate everybody who came in. I saw the chat room streaming as I was teaching, so I'm going to copy that and you know, take a look. If there are any questions that I didn't answer. I will post responses in the comments section of the video once I post it back on YouTube. So everybody have a fabulous day.