introduction to gust contributing

hello everyone I hope you all are having a good time this week before Christmas. I wanted to talk to you about something new for on the profession. Every couple weeks, I will be getting someone to guest post on my blog. The idea behind this event's to give you guys adifferent perspective about the counseling profession. It is my hope to change the conversation about counseling. This will be a opportunity for some of my colleagues and friends to share a different perspective about the counseling profession.



I am really excited to have my very good friend and colleague Arlene to be the first guest contributor on my blog. She is a master student in the Department of rehabilitation and mental health counseling at the University of South Florida. She is also a journalist for the St. Pete Times. She tells me that she is very excited about being a contributor. This blog will be out on Wednesday. As always please let me know what you think

the complex issue of sexual attraction in the counseling relationship

Hello folks, I hope you all having a good day. I want to talk about the complex issue of sexual attraction in the counseling relationship. This is a issues that is often not told about for a variety of reasons. I will be getting into those reasons in a couple of paragraphs. The idea of this blog is coming from a conversation I had with a colleague and a friend of mine about the subject of sexual attraction is the counseling relationship.

So let me give you some ethical and legal guidelines about this subject. Some of this is pretty common sense. It is unethical to have sex with a active client. There is no way around this ethical principle. In the state of Florida, you can lose your license if you violate this ethical principle.As mental health professions we have a duty to take action if we know about professional that is doing this.

This is the ethical standard that we must follow. However the issue of sexual attraction is very complicated. because of the nature of the counseling relationship, attraction does take place. This is a natural. However, acting on those feelings is unethical.

So what should you do if a client says they are attracted to you? This is a topic that you should talk about it session. You as a professional have the duty to set appropriate boundaries with the client. You should explore the meaning behind the attraction. We always want to approach the subject like we do in all subjects, in a unconditional positive regard manner. We always want to be non-judgmental.

Okay so we know how to handle this issue, but what happens if the practitioner is attracted to the client? This does sometimes happen. However again , we can not violate this ethical standard above. So how do you handle a situation of attraction? There was not a lot of the literature on this, but the literature does have some recommendations. You should never discuss this with the client. By discussing it, you will bring your business into the counseling relationship. You should seek supervision on this issue. it is very appropriate to ask for help. You need to remember that, this is not relevant to the Relationship you have with the client. See a counselor your self if it is appropriate to discuss the underlying issue.

a response to Jeff

hello folks, I hope everyone is having a good day. As many of you know, I believe that a blog it's supposed to be a blog is supposed to be a ongoing dialogue between people. I forming believe that a blog, is about the free exchange of differing ideas. Going along with that, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to a friend of mine, who recently posted a comment on this blog.

This is what a friend of mine said on my last blog"its difficult to medically diagnose "some differences that must be addressed" . Iwould like to say thank you to my friend, Jeff from making this comment about my last blog. I agree with him, it is difficult to diagnose differences. However, I was not arguing that we don't need to diagnose people. Sometime, a diagnosis is a way to give people a name for finally what they have. A diagnosis will sometimes give people the supports and help then they need. So I diagnosis is a good thing.

What I was saying is that we need to be careful with labeling the diagnosis.I believe when we label people as having a complex mental health issue, that we do something to that individuals. Everyone dissolves the opportunity, to get the help that they need. Even if some people say that they have a complex and serious mental illness. Some people argued, that because a individual has a severe diagnosis, and they do not need help.

It is always not necessarily to provide treatment to individuals, and diagnose You can see a individual with out giving them a diagnosis.

I need help with a definition of something

yes everyone I am still alive. This semester is done, and I began my final semester of graduate school in rehabilitation and mental health counseling. I can't believe that I am about be done. It seems like only yesterday that I began my graduate studies. So I have been thinking a lot about something, and I need you guys help.

So right now I am a meeting of self advocates, will I am a speaker at this meeting. I am having a ball. I have listened to a lot of individuals that have a complex disabilities by societies standards. Some people might say that they have a severe disability. The question that I have been struggling with is, what is the definition of a complex disability? How do we define this?.

I have some more my friends that work with individuals that have a severe mental illness. I believe that we can define a disability by, the level of complexity. I'm believe that when we define a individual by the level of complexity, then we are treating them as a individual that needs to be taken care of. I believe that we need to treat people as people. We don't need to define them by the artificial level of disability that society has given them. This goes for individuals with all different types of disabilities.

My only advice, to my friends in the mental health profession is, instead of saying that an individual has a complex disability , say that individual has some differences that must be addressed. We need believe that we can help all individuals. All individuals, regardless of their differences should have access to the same level of services that we provide .

life does not have guarantees, neither does counseling.

So to this blog is about ethics. Ethics is something that I keep very seriously as a professional. I believe that you have to. Every class we talk about the ethical aspects of this profession. We even have a class on the legal and ethical implications of mental health counseling. I always believed that you need to have high ethical standards.

So I want to bring a real life ethical scenario to you. So one of my colleagues, who is someone that I have a lot of respect for is a professional was talking about a article that was published in a community news paper. This article was written by 2 mental health professional. One of them is a license psychologist, and one of them is a license mental health counselor. The article stated that they do advertising for mental health coaching services. They will also making some guarantees about the services that they provide. I have a couple problems with this article. One of the people that was featured in this article is a colleague, that I have a lot of respect for. He also has some different perspectives on the nature of counseling. So this is why I was taken back on the article. I am not saying that he is not a competent professional. What I am saying is that the article, made some statements that should not have been made. We can never guarantee anything in this profession. It all depends on a lot of other things. Second, I am a mental health counselor professional. I am not a mental health coach. I don't even know what a mental health coach is. We always need to be careful to say the right thing about what we do to the general public. I don't believe that my colleague was trying to be unethical. What I am saying is statements should have been made.

The use of psychodrama:

So like I promisedI said that I would give you some information on the use of psychodrama. I w introduced to the concept of psychodrama by one of my clinical supervisoat Metropolitan ministries. Below is a document that I created about psychodrama from my group psychotherapy class.

What is psychodrama?

Psychodrama what was founded by J.L. Moreno in the 1930. Psychodrama is a action approach to group therapy. Psychodrama involves having clients explore issues utilizing action Techniques such as role-playing, and utilizing various dramatic techniques. Utilizing psychodrama as a technique creativity, and spontaneity. It focuses on working in the present. The technique of psychodrama is really action focus.

It should be mentioned that, psychodrama emphasizes both creativity and spontaneity. As stated before, psychodrama it is a technique that is very action focus.

Who is involved in a psychodrama?

Psychodrama involves a unique set of vocabulary describing the group therapy process. Psychodrama utilizes specific language to describe the participants of inner psychodrama. Some of these participants include.

·                     The protagonists: is the one that is the focus of the psychodrama. This person is the one that is doing the work for the day.

·                     The director: is the main group therapists that is doing the work for the day.

·                     Auxiliaries: a auxiliary is a individual that is a supporting these psychodrama. Auxiliaries support the psychodrama. They could be individuals that the protagonist needs to talk to, such as relatives.

·                     The audience: they are the individuals that are not participating directly in the psychodrama. In the audience provides support and feedback to the individual that is the protagonists.

What is classical psychodrama?

Classical psychodrama is a very complex, and intense process. Classical psychodrama is normally broken out in three distinct phases. These phases include.

·                     The warm-up: the warm-up is the beginning of the psychodrama. Warm-up exercises can vary depending on what the purpose of the psychodrama is. Warm-up exercises include the director giving a brief explanation about what psychodrama is. Also group members could go around and make a comment about what they'll are experiencing in the moment.

·                     The action phase: the action phase of the psychodrama involves the enactment of various situations. The action phase could utilize various psychodrama techniques.

·                     The sharing and discussion phase: this phase involves the processing of the psychodrama. The sharing and discussion phase involves the reactions of the reactions of the group about what just took place in the psychodrama. This phase is about creating a nonjudgmental environment for sharing.

The implementation of classical psychodrama is a complex process. If you plan to utilize classical psychodrama, you should seek additional training.

Techniques utilized in psychodrama.

Psychodrama utilizes a variety of techniques. Below are some techniques that can be utilized

·                     doubling: doubling is the reflection of the protagonists inner voice. This is reflected by a auxiliary.

·                     The empty chair: this technique is often utilized in Gestalt therapy, but it was actually developed specifically for psychodrama.

References:  Corey, G. (2008)  Theory and practice of group counseling. 8^th edition-

Life is busy but good

Hello folks, yes I am still alive. I am discovering that I am busy graduate student, and that is not had time to blog. I'm going to try to get back into blogging. It has been a very exciting, but yet busy semester. I have discovered some stuff about the counseling profession, that is challenging me to grow as a professional. I am still amazed at the counseling profession. I would like to give you some updates about what I have discovered.

. Group psychotherapy is absolutely amazing. This is probably one of my favorite classes of the semester. I see group psychotherapy as a dynamic technique to provide therapy to clients. I am a lot more passionate about group therapy now. I have definitely decided that I wanted to get more training in group psychotherapy. This will hopefully be a area of specialization from me. I would like to facilitate a couple of ongoing therapy groups when I get out into building a practice.

This next one, will probably make Stephanie proud. Since I am getting into group psychotherapy, I have decided that I would like to get my certification in psychodrama. Psychodrama is a technique that uses actions, instead of talking about issues. I will be devoting my next blog to psychodrama. This will be a ongoing training process.

　

I have also decided that I may want to receive additional training in working with addictions. Addictions is a area that I didn't think I would like very much. This is probably my second favorite class this semester.

I have signed up to the CRC. The CRC is a very big exam for rehabilitation counselors. I will be taking the exam in March.

I finally bought a upgrade Dragon 11. Dragon 11 is my voice-activated software that I used to dictate. I will say that Dragon 11 is a voice-activated software.

My family is doing great. Everyone is good. Love you all, and I will talk to you later.