A Trainee Counselor

When I first began this blog, I was really unsure as far as how much I would be interested or willing to use technology when counseling others. Then, I started a class on technology in Counseling and I learned about so many resources, technologies and ways in which technology can be integrated into the counseling world.

I didn’t understand things like how Blogging can be really helpful for those who are looking for more information on counseling or other related topics; Websites can help clinicians to give information as well as advertise themselves, their practice, their specialties and even allow clients to make appointments online; tools such as Skype, Telephones, Email and even texting help people provide counseling form afar; there are technologies such as Jing that help to put presentations online for a large population to hear information or provide psycho-education; telephone application to provide further support or reinforcement of skills learned in therapy; tools such as Periscope and Twitter to communicate with anyone and everyone around the world, LIVE; and finally, virtual reality platforms to help provide distance counseling, but also protecting the client’s privacy or difficulty when interacting with people in person.

I didn’t think I was going to like technology in counseling, now I am almost having a hard time imagining counseling without some form of technology in the future.

As, Marsha M. Linehan just mentioned during the American Association of Suicidology Conference this year: “We need to accept technology for what it is and help it to progress to a place where none of us counselors are going to be able to do counseling without some sort of technology….what we really should do is start accepting a future in which technology replaces us, and we can do that now by doing more research about these new innovations and how to improve them.”

Everyone deserves a chance to receive some form of mental health like a physical or a gynecological visit. If technology can assist with that…well, I’m thinking I may be ready for a little more technology in my life.

Hello fellow Trainees!

This past week, I basically had something so stupid happen to me in a session, I HAD to write about it!!!

I am currently in my last couple of weeks in my Masters internship and I have been learning how to run a DBT skills group. In this group counseling setting, I do not have any of my own individual clients, so basically I am seeing an entirely new group of 8 clients, once a week. While I have never been prouder of myself for managing somehow to learn all of these DBT skills as well as learning to manage a group and paying attention to process and not just the content, I have been making a very serious faux-pas in my training group. I have no idea how I was supposed to know this because it literally has never come up in this skills group, but turns out of my clients identifies as Transgender and I am a total idiot and have been using the wrong pronouns when talking to them and when writing my notes.

I am full of excuses, but really, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. So, I thought I would learn some about different gender neutral pronoun options and how to use them.

A gender neutral or gender inclusive pronoun is a pronoun which does not associate a gender with the individual who is being discussed.

So, I included a chart on this post to give you ideas of different common pronouns used, gendered and gender neutral pronouns.

What I have learned after talking to Senior Clinicians, transgender people in the community and reading the internet, the best thing you can do is to learn to ASK which pronouns people want you to use. That pretty much the extent of what I learned so I hope this helps!! If anything, just remember how embarrassed I feel right now and then you will never forget to ask….

Mind Over Mood is pretty much my favorite CBT workbook. I really wanted to learn how to apply Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to my clients and one of my professors recommend this book. I read the entire thing cover to cover and I’m not going to lie, this was pretty much insanely helpful thing I read during my first practicum. It gives information on how to treat anxiety, depression, anger guilt and shame.

This book really breaks these treatments down and how to do a thought record. I really enjoyed this book and if you are looking for something to help you with learning how to apply a theory to your clients consider picking this book up and reading it.

Have a good night guys!

Recently I (humble brag) had the honor of presenting at the American Association of Suicidology. I loved it and I was happy that I received that opportunity, but it was a crazy stressful situation. As counselors we are sometimes expected/encouraged to be able to give professional presentations. I am not sure about you but I know that I get extremely nervous when I have to prepare and complete a professional presentation. I especially get nervous when I realize that I am mostly going to be presenting to licensed clinicians, tendered professors and (possibly) influential therapists in the field. For this reason, I decided to create a quick checklist of how I got my presentation at this National Conference together in order to possibly help out clinicians that maybe need more guidance than their major professors give them.

1. Make sure to create your presentation about a month before your presentation date
   1. Only use 5 bullet points per slide
   2. Smart Art is your friend on Microsoft Powerpoint
   3. Using too many Animations is generally frowned upon
2. Have someone outside of your research lab proof read the presentation
   1. This makes sure that you explain all of the parts of your presentation
3. Time your presentation in order to make sure you don’t go over your time limit
4. Print out a paper copy of your presentation
5. Put your slides on your computer as well as a couple of flash drives
6. Bring your computer to the presentation
7. Bring an adaptor to the conference (you never know)
8. Practice your presentation the morning before your presentation
9. Make sure you know all of the parts of the presentation in case you have multiple presenters
10. Have Fun!!

I have given a couple of presentations but never one as big as I just gave. I was so happy to be done but I hope that this list is helpful for counselors…as well as myself in the future.

Hello fellow trainees! This week’s post is dedicated to a website I recently learned about from another trainee called Therapist aid. This website has a lot of information and resources to utilize with clients, but like, an inordinate amount of resources, laid out in a clear and helpful manner. I found out about this website from a fellow trainee and have never regretted learning about since then.

As you all know by know, I am currently a Masters Level Intern, and I see about 10 clients a week, outside of a group that I help to facilitate. Let me just tell you right now, if you are having a difficult time getting ahold of your supervisor or they have a different theoretical orientation base than you and you were hoping to find something different, check out Therapist aid.

Thanks and have a great day Fellow Trainees! 🙂

Hello trainees!

I made a video explaining how to do feeling reflections in counseling. I’m not going to lie though, I can’t figure out how to embed it, so click here to watch it.

Thanks and have a great day!

Hello Fellow Trainees!

I’ve been writing this blog for a couple of months and so I thought i’d make a survey about what YOU (the readers) would like to know more about!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VPYHQQF

Here is the link to a super nifty survey I made! Do me a favor and fill it out? I take your requests very seriously.

Thanks and keep at it!

Hello Counseling Trainees!

So, for context and and because it happens to be very late in my neck of the woods I’m going to tell you that I am currently on Spring Break. What that should mean is that I am writing to you from a sandy beach or a nice snowy mountain, on vacation, relaxing and enjoying myself. Instead what I am actually doing is interning through this break, catching up on a heck of a lot of paperwork (no not documentation, I mean termination notes, reports, etc.) and finally getting to properly treatment plan for some of my more complex clients.

It is on this note that I write at 10:48 pm when I should be asleep and taking advantage of my quiet apartment about Wellcast.

Now what is Wellcast? Here is this picture that I took a snapshot of on my phone of their YouTube page:

And so yes, I really did that because that is how excited I was for you to read this….and also I’m blogging from a smart phone so don’t always expect everything to look beautiful.

Their videos and suggestions are right on the money! My supervisor suggested I look at their video about automatic thoughts and how to treat them and honestly I don’t think that I have seen a better explanation of a thought record by anyone. Not even in one of my favorite workbooks, mind over mood, is it explained this clearly. I’m attaching the video to this post, but there are so many more about embarrassment, how to survive school, how to meditate and a lot of other topics. If you like technology or are always looking for another resource for your clients or yourself or whatever, give these videos a chance? Thanks and good luck!

 

Hello readers! So i’ve decided that I am going to try and do a monthly blog post to talk about basic counseling skills. This months blog post is about SOLER. Here is a picture that explains what each of these letters mean:

SOLER is mainly focusing on your attending skills in a counseling session. Gerard Egan created this theory and acronym to assist new counselors in a therapeutic setting, understand how to put their clients at ease through their body language.

SOLER theory 1: Squarely

The first important part is how you posture yourself in relationship to your client. Your face facing the clients face shows that you are engaging, interested and actively listening. You can have your shoulders turned a little away to dispel any feelings of intimidation, but your face should be square onto the clients face.

SOLER theory 2: Open

This openness refers again to posture. Ensuring that arms and legs are not crossed will convey a sense of ease to your client. As mentioned above, this openness in body posture will stop feelings of intimidation from occurring.

SOLER theory 3: Lean

By leaning towards your client, a sense of care and genuine interest will be conveyed to the other party. Simply leaning forward will automatically make them feel that their concerns are being heard and understood and this will instill further ease and facilitate openess.

SOLER theory 4: Eye

This interest is further enhanced by eye contact. Maintaining eye contact shows interest and concern. However, it is important to vary the eye contact so that the other party does not feel threatened or intimidated.

SOLER theory 5: Relax

This is an obvious, but sometimes forgotten aspect. One must relax before your client. If you are fidgeting or showing any anxiety that this will be conveyed. They will either think you are not interested in them., or they will take on your tension; or possible both!

Soler theory then is a simple way to remember these core listening skills to enable anyone to become a better listener and carer.

I hope this has been helpful for you my fellow trainee counselors.

Hello again!

So I wanted to take a quick minute to talk about something that….well takes less than a minute. I have recently had a multitude of clients with anxiety come into my office, looking for some magical cure that can help them. At the beginning of my internship I was horrified at the possibility that someone would ask me such a direct question and I asked my supervisor what I should do. She looked and laughed and then said, tell them about the 4-square breathing technique.

At first, I was very confused by this conversation. Do we look at squares? Is this a game that I need to draw a square with chalk on the ground? And then she told me to look it up and shuck her head as though she was quite concerned at her new intern.

But either way, I listened and now this is pretty much one of my go-to’s for when a client is experiencing. Here is the picture that I found that clarified things for me: 

Yes, that is a square. But this is what I love about this technique, even people who have the worst sort of anxiety temple and is technique is so significant in the literature. In case you were wondering how to explain/implement this technique, here is a video for your viewing pleasure.