Live Members Only Discussion

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today's or this week's regularly scheduled live presentation. I just wanted to stop by, see how everybody's doing, ask you how you're doing with coronavirus quarantine and everything that's been going on and see if there are any questions that I can answer for you. Hey there everybody. I see you logging in and I'm thrilled to have you. I am wondering how everyone's doing with the coronavirus quarantine and if there are any questions that you have that I can answer about counseling. I mean, we can talk about things that are not coronavirus too. Imagine that. Anything that I can do to be of service. One of the things that a lot of people have been asking lately is, you know, what should I expect in terms of getting back to normal? And is this a new normal? And I can't really answer that for you. I think part of it is figuring out what you want your new normal to look like. Some people may have figured out that, hey, this whole work from home thing is really pretty cool, or they may have figured out that not so much. You know, you're going to have a lot of different feelings about what's going on. This is a great time. Since a lot of people have more time than, than they normally would, this is a great time to explore things that, you know, maybe you didn't ever think that you would have time to do. And I'm wondering what that is for you. I know for me, I've started looking at pursuing a couple of new hobbies even though, you know, mental health counseling, just like medical services, really haven't gone down at all. I have been using this time to try to focus on some of the things that might interest me other than reading trade, trade journals because I kept saying that I needed to get a new hobby besides exploring PubMed. So I'm trying to do that. Hi Jennifer, welcome from New Hampshire. Tell me how are you doing today? What's going on in your world up there? My parents or my. My mother is actually from Laconia. I don't know if you know where that is. It's a little bitty town in New Hampshire. Hey Tina, welcome. Glad to see you. Hope all the kitties are well. Hi Shataj. I may have butchered your name but I'm trying. So tell me what is on yalls mind today? What is it that I can do in order to, you know, best be of service since, you know, a lovely Saturday morning here in Tennessee. It's actually pretty nice today. So that, that's been a blessing and, you know, it's been really nice. If a lot of people in our area are planning on having services this Sunday outside, you know, in their cars or in an outside venue. Our. Our restrictions end on Monday. So I think some people are planning on fudging it a little bit, but. And reading more is great. What types of psychology books are you interested in? Shataj? Are you. Are you interested more in, like, you know, general theories, or are you talking about acceptance and commitment therapy, or, you know, is there something that particularly interests you? I said, I see. Jennifer says she's been reading a lot about or learning a lot about mindfulness. And I love mindfulness activities. There are several that I really particularly enjoy. I enjoy the. You know, with my kids when they were younger, doing the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 can be a little bit overwhelming. So we would just, you know, go outside and I would have them identify as many things as they could find that were green. When my daughter got a little bit older, she got into photography, so I would have her go outside, and instead of writing down what she saw, she would take pictures of as many things as she saw that were green. So that is one mindfulness activity. Having people just focus on how they're feeling in the moment and identify what they are focusing on, feeling emotionally, what they're thinking, what they're feeling physically can be other things that can be very helpful. And mindfulness via phone counseling can be a little bit challenging. But, you know, ultimately, mindfulness is about the person being aware of what's going on in their particular reality right then and there. So having them figure out, do they want to focus on sightseeing, sounds, smells, what is it that they can focus on? Are you having them do more of a body scan type of mindfulness? And if you are, you know, maybe giving them, if you can email them a worksheet that they can fill out or maybe you can put it on your website that they can print out and they can fill out every single day or a couple of times a day. How, however often you're having them do that, those things can be helpful. Grounding exercises are super helpful. Even on phone counseling, you know, we can't see what's going on, but we can talk people through belly breathing that can help them get reoriented. I know a lot of people are struggling right now, especially those with trauma histories may be struggling with some dissociative experiences. And it's really important for them to be able to take a breath and spend a little bit of time. And yes, I find phone counseling to be extraordinarily frustrating. I really prefer video so I can see the other person. I can pick up on the, you know, 80% of communication that's non verbal. I all but require it. I know some people can't do video, but it's definitely one of those things that when I'm doing etherapy, I really prefer to be able to see the person as much as possible. I, I'm not sure how people do it. I know they do do etherapy via email and some via text chat, but I actually almost find text chat easier than phone conversations because you can, you see emojis and the rate of typing may differ and things like that. So. But it's up to each personal, each, each clinician's personal preferences for what's going on. Grounding and mindfulness overlap. If you want to do a Venn diagram, grounding can really help people be present in what's going on right now, in this very moment. Mindfulness is broader and it can be being aware of, you know, everything that's going on. Sometimes people use grounding activities to know where they are in the, in the moment. So the way I think of it is thinking of mindfulness as being more aware of, of everything that's going on. When I'm driving, for example, I'm not really working so much on being grounded and knowing where I am in the situation. But I am more focused on being mindful and being aware, especially in the morning when I'm driving to work. And there are, you know, 150 deer prancing around like supermodels across the road, you know, trying to be mindful of, you know, is there an animal that could dart out in front of me or, you know, you know, is there a hawk on the power line or birds flying or, you know, the things that I look for. We have groundhogs. I think that's what they're called around here. You'd think I live, living in Tennessee for five years now. I would know what they're called now. But they are great big little fuzzy. I can't even describe them if you haven't seen them. And they're, they're fat little blobs of cuteness. And I just love when I see one by the side of the road live, obviously, you know, on the edge of the road, you know, peering around. A lot of times you find them right next to the road and they'll be grazing and I don't know why it's so Much yummier there than, you know, in a safer place. But you know, I consider, consider it a bonus because I get to see them. What types of things. And to answer your question, Joe, no, I do not have any videos on risk assessments for children. Specifically there is the cans. If you Google it, it is a strength assessment. It's not really a risk assessment. But if you Google. Let me see if I can figure out how to switch screens here. Yep, there you go. You can see booboo and let me go here. Child and adolescent needs and strengths assessment and multiple different states have it where you can, where you can download the health assessment. That's where I would go. You can also go to. Child Welfare.gov and they have links that can take you to different assessment tools and things that you could use. Oh, that's a great question. I love working with the incarcerated or recently recently released population. So offenders who are getting ready to get out and in particular you're asking about men who are getting ready to get out. And I don't know whether my answer is really going to make that much of a difference when we're talking about gender. But helping them prepare. If you've got people who are, have been in the system for a while, you know, they may need to revisit some coping skills. They may need to figure out how to set a budget. Some people never develop the skill for setting a budget. Some people, you know, really basic life skills is one area that I would start and on the YouTube channel there is a video, it's a little on the longish side on different life skills that are really important for people to have. I would also help them focus on developing distress tolerance skills. A lot of offenders have a history of substance use and, or a history of anger issues or, and or trauma. You know, almost everybody, if not everybody falls into at least one of those three categories. So depending on distress tolerance skills can be really helpful at reducing recidivism. If they are clean and you know, in recovery from a substance use issue, making sure that they know where there are meetings that they can go to access some of the challenges that I see in people who are recently released from jail or prison is getting a job and right now, oh my gosh, getting a job is something that a lot of people, people have, are challenged with because of the coronavirus and everything. So people who are getting out of jail are even, even at a greater disadvantage than, than they normally would be because there is going to be some pretty significant job competition I think in the coming months now the other thing to remember is. Let me go back to that other screen. Ha. Much better. The federal bonding program. Bonds4jobs.com if you go there, it provides the offender would have to find a job. But once they have a potential job offer, the employer can apply for a bond on that particular employee. And you generally do this through your workforce development board, whoever that is in your, in your area. And it will provide a bond of, for six months at no cost to the job applicant or employer to help, you know, protect the employer if they're concerned about hiring somebody who has just gotten out of jail or is otherwise hard to employ. Now something that's important on this, these bonds can be used for justice. Involved citizens, people who are in recovery from substance use disorders, people who are on welfare or public assistance, individuals with poor credit records, which is a lot of people, economically disadvantaged youth and adults who lack worth, work histories and people who are dishonorably discharged from the military. So anyone who would be considered by a lot of employers as a high risk employee can often qualify to get a bond which will make it easier for them to secure an actual job offer. It's important that the offenders or the, the people know about this program when they're going into interview because a lot of employers and even a lot of workforce development people don't know about this program and all of the people that it can apply to. So if the person goes in and has a great interview and says, you know, okay, oh, by the way, you know, I know that, you know, I may be considered a higher risk employee because of my, because of my past, but you can, you know, get this protection. A lot of employers are willing to go with that. Other things that I think are really important in, for people who are getting out of, getting out of jail or prison is just your basic prevention skills. Making sure that they connect with people who are healthy and positive and forward moving. And a lot of times they can find those, if they're in recovery, they can find those at 12 step meetings. But if they're not in recovery, maybe, you know, they either haven't chosen to be or they didn't think they needed to be or whatever the case may be. They need to find some positive people to connect with that can encourage them because it is going to be tough. I mean, it is a whole change for a lot of those people. Encouraging them to, I mean a lot of people who are in prison already exercise. But encouraging them to maintain their health behaviors is also really important. Important. And making sure that they have, they know how to access resources. A lot of people who've been institutionalized, that is, you know, they've been in and out of jail all their life or prison all their life, they may, may not actually know how to access services and resources. So making sure that they know what's out there and developing as many positive relationship or interpersonal skills as possible, including boundary setting and communication. And like I said again, distress tolerance, because that'll help a lot with irritability and frustration. Are there any other questions? Switch back. Sorry. I'm still trying to figure out how to use all the technology. But I appreciate you guys showing up this morning. If you have questions. Oh, okay, great. Jennifer says that she's currently identifying many clients that are eating too much while in isolation. And that's true idle hands. When we eat, and a lot of times what we're eating is high fat, high carb, high processed food, which causes a higher release of dopamine and serotonin. So there are a lot of reasons people eat. It's habit, it's frustration, it's stress, it is self medicating a little bit to try to get some happy chemicals going. It is just plum availability. So some techniques that people can use, and this is a great point, that people who are on lockdown, quarantine, whatever you're calling it in your area, encourage them to put food away. If it's on the counter, people are more likely to snack on it. Out of sight, out of mind. Do things like cleaning up the kitchen after a meal. Clean everything, get it all looking spic and span and get all the dishes, you know, done. And then you're less likely to go in and mess it up again. Especially if everybody's responsible for cleaning up their own dishes. Stay busy. Sometimes idle time is the worst time because you start thinking, oh, that would be nice. Or if you're watching TV and you see a commercial for something yummy, it triggers that desire to eat and you start thinking, what do I have in the refrigerator? So staying busy, even if you're watching TV if you can, I'm one of those multitaskers. I will be, you know, surfing Pinterest or something on my mobile device while I have the TV on. Because the TV rarely holds my full attention for more than about three minutes, that can be helpful. Getting out in the morning and getting those circadian rhythms set can also help because when your circadian rhythms are out of whack, your hunger and satiation hormones are also out of whack. So you're going to not know when you're hungry or you're going to be hungry at weird times. So it's really important to encourage people. And that's another thing a lot of people are doing is they have just let their schedule go all to crap. And that is going to affect your hunger and satiation. It's going to affect your circadian rhythms, your cortisol levels, everything. So it's really important, even on quarantine to keep that, keep your schedule relatively constant so you're not having these weird random cravings. And finally, another tip would be hydrate. A lot of times we mistake hunger or we, we mist mistake dehydration for hunger. We start getting this craving for something and we think, oh, I must be hungry. And encouraging people to be really mindful of whether they're really hungry or whether they're thirsty. Also trying to drink, you know, 4, 8 ounces of water when they get that craving. And if it goes away after they drink the water, then lo and behold, they were thirsty. But a lot of times people's will crave different things when they're dehydrated. Interestingly, sometimes we crave salty foods when we're dehydrated because salt helps us retain water. And some people I crave iceberg lettuce. I know if I'm craving iceberg lettuce, I haven't had enough actual water in my system. So those are things to take a look at to help people try to get control of their eating. Journaling is helpful. A lot of times if you have to write in a food journal before you eat, you're going to go and you're going to open your food journal and you're going to be like, you know what, I'm not really that hungry, or maybe it's me and I'm just too lazy to write in the journal. But I do find that, that, that does tend to help some people. So staying busy, keeping your circadian rhythms, you know, in sync, drinking enough water, putting away food so you're less likely to just grab and snack are all things that you can do during this time. And also just being mindful of why you're eating, if you're eating because you're bored or you're stressed, trying to find alternate ways to deal with that distress and recognizing that food cravings, like any other craving, they're going to crest and start to dissipate within 10 to 20 minutes if you're not sitting there feeding them, forgive the pun, trying to think about, you know, what should I eat or could I Eat, move your thoughts to something completely different for 10 to 15 minutes. And then if it keeps coming back to that craving, then maybe there's something to it. But a lot of times when you start thinking about something else, start doing something else, that craving will just pass. And yes, infusing, infusing water with fruit or cucumbers, lemon juice, if you can get it. Even if you can't get the real lemons, if you can get the real lemon juice, I find that's helpful. Another thing that I found, interestingly enough, chlorine does not like air. So when chlorine is exposed to air over a period of time, or when water is exposed to air over a period of time, the chlorine dissipates and it tastes a lot better. One thing we've done at our house because we go through a lot of water is I have two 32 ounce jugs on the counter and I got one of those really inexpensive bubblers that you use in fish tanks. You know, it's just this little 8 watt thing and it has two little bubblers that come out of it and I put it in the water and bubble it and within 20 to 30 minutes instead of 24 hours, the majority of the chlorine taste is gone. It actually, it actually does taste a lot better. It makes coffee taste a lot better. So that's another thing that people might try is adding that bubbler to the water to help. You know, I guess it just brings more the chlorinated bubbles to the surface so they're exposed to air and it makes the chlorine dissipate. That's way more chemistry than I really care about. But I do know they've done studies that have found that exposure to air does reduce chlorine and you can speed the process up with the bubblers. So those are a couple of other things. Websites for psychological manuals, for treatment manuals. I would go and. All right, I'm going to switch screens on y' all again. Let me see here. Yay. You can go to samhsa. Okay. Somstad.gov okay, that's not what I wanted. And if you go to publications. And professional publications, the easiest ones to use are your tips, your treatment improvement protocols. But there are a lot of different publications out there you can also go to. Whoops. Guidelines for practitioners. APA.org provides you downloadable PDFs on a variety of different issues. Professional practice guidelines for practice with girls and women, for occupationally mandated psychological evaluations, prevention, pretty much forensic psychology. Anything that you could want to address for the most part. I found that there is a best practice guideline on apa.org as well as samsa.gov and those are free. Those are available in PDF that you can download. So. Oops. I hope I didn't just crash you guys. There you are. Okay, I have way too many windows open. Those were all great questions. If you have other questions you know please feel free to email me. You can email me@supportlce.com I'll put it in the chat window. And you know stay tuned. I will be available for and I will be going live at the first Saturday of every month for certain for everybody and then for paid members I go live Every Saturday at 11am CST Noon EST. Alrighty everybody. Have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day and an awesome weekend. I hope it is beautiful outside so you can take advantage of the fresh air and the sunshine and I will see y' all on the flip side.