…to be on the same page as David Powlison and Mike Emlet! Check out CCEF’s home page. They have the audacity to put my mug up there (advertising next year’s annual conference) right next to David. That should never be!
Fun.
Category Archives: christian counseling
Physiology Phriday: Side Effects of Meds
In a perfect world, our medicines would fix our problems and not create additional ones. Sadly, we don’t live in that world. Antidepressants may induce weight gain, foggy-headedness, flatness, impotence–things that wouldn’t necessarily make one feel better. Stimulants create problems with weight loss, rebound agitation, even tics in some individuals. Pain meds may create dependency.
Some encounter the side effects of psychotropic drugs and decide to tough it out. Others play around with dosages (on their own). Still others keep trying to find that right compound. All of it creates work. As a counselor, it is wise to monitor med compliance, dosage changes (doctor approved or otherwise) and side effects. Given that most clients see their medical doctor or psychiatrist only once every 6-8 weeks, do not assume they’ve talked to anyone or are still on their medications. Make sure to also ask how they feel about the meds as this may change. Even though the counselor isn’t in charge of medications, counseling issues related to the medication and the feelings about it surely are our domain. One clear benefit to our “med checks” is that we can help them get the most out of their 15 minutes with the psychiatrist by zeroing in on what they should talk to the doc about.
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Podcasts for Pastoral Health
last March Biblical Seminary ran a daylong seminar for ministry leaders and their spouses. Podcasts of the plenary and break-out sessions are now available here for a very low price: http://www.biblical.edu/pages/connect/hazardoustoyourhealt0309podcasts.htm
Consider buying some and giving to your pastor and spouse. Other leaders like missionaries, elders, deacons, parachurch workers, etc. would likely benefit.
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Dialog between Christian Psychology and Biblical Counseling
Yesterday Robert Kelleman made a comment on an old blog post of mine about my model of counseling. In that comment he said the following:
Your readers might find of interest my summary of last week’s symposium on biblical counseling where Eric Johnsons (SCP), myself (BCSFN), David Powlison (CCEF), and Steve Viars (NANC, FBCM) discussed with Jeremy Lelek (ABC) the state of biblical counseling/Christian psychology:
To me, true biblical counseling and true Christian psychology should be the same thing. They use biblical psychology (understanding people, diagnosing problems, and prescribing solutions) theory to guide their biblical counseling (sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding) practice.
Bob Kellemen
The link takes you to Bob’s own site and has links to christiancounseling.com where DVDs of the dialogue will be available. It is good to hear of the unity among these cousin models of counseling.
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Thank you Biblical Seminary!
On July 1 this blog celebrates its third anniversary! Over the years We’ve talked about lots of topics that concern folk—everything from abuse to pornography addiction to forgiveness. I’ve enjoyed the chance to share my thoughts with you and you have been kind enough to respond.
For those of you who blog, you realize that it requires time and effort–more effort than I realized when I first started this! One of the blessings I’ve received is the encouragement to continue blogging by Biblical Seminary, where I am a faculty member and the director of the MA in counseling program. They give me the space to write what I think, without interference. For that I am thankful. I would like to return the favor and do something I’ve never done before—ask my readers to consider making a financial donation to the seminary. Many seminaries are tightly pressed during this recession and Biblical is no exception. There is no pressure—if you can help simply follow the link below. Thanks for considering a gift that supports what I do.
https://secure.mediafusiontech.com/biblical.edu/onlinegiving/index.asp
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Practicum Monday: Learning counseling skills from videos
Counseling education includes the usual academic exercises as well as hands-on practice. There is no substitute for the practice piece. But, videos can provide students with good illustrations of various counseling activities, styles, processes, etc.
But which videos to watch? The classics (masters in unstaged vignettes)? Training videos (usually staged with actors)? One of the first videos I ever saw was of Salvador Minuchin at the Child Guidance Clinic. There he was in a room, unashamedly smoking a cigarette, and manipulating (in the best sense of the word!) a family with an eating disordered girl. I was taken with his larger-than-life presence in the room and his ability to be irreverent. Needless to say, I could never emulate him. In fact this video that I loved made me wonder if I had what it took to be a therapist.
Last week and this week the practicum class has been viewing Mark McMinn’s christian counseling video produced by APA. One ought not expect the APA to be up on Christian counseling (and its many varieties) but this video is useful for many reasons. First, Mark illustrates a relational style of cognitive therapy and so what he does in this first session is usable in almost any method of counseling. Second, the counselee is not an actress. She is a real person with real concerns (which students relate well to!). Third, Mark doesn’t merely focus on her problems but does a great job highlighting her strengths and resources. Finally, Mark isn’t a big personality–meaning we can all see ourselves doing what he does.
We use mock vignettes as well. I participated in making some mock counseling videos at Regent in Virginia Beach. Mock sessions tend to focus on discrete skills and are better in 2-3 minute vignettes rather than full sessions, and for beginning students rather than those about to graduate.
If you ever took a counseling class that used videos, what counseling videos did you watch and were they helpful?
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Getting it or acting it?
There are some things I want my kids to learn. Typical stuff. Like not eating with their mouths open, picking up after themselves, that name-calling isn’t a form of “good fun” or excused if the other started it first. You know, simple things boys need help with.
Here’s a dilemma. My kids probably don’t really understand why these things are good to do. Do I really care? Sort of. I patiently tell (lecture, really) them why such and such behavior is a good idea and other behaviors are not. But, in the short run, I’d prefer them to just eat with their mouth closed and say only nice things–whether they get it or not.
I think we can relate this to our own lives. Sometimes we just don’t get WHY we need to do something (like put up with an annoying co-worker) but go about doing what is right. Insight may come later or it may not, but we can take comfort it knowing we honored God with our actions.
Here’s where it gets tougher. What if our loved one acted in a loving way to us but we knew they didn’t really get why it was important, just that we wanted them to do a particular thing (e.g., pick up clothes off the floor, wait to bring complaints up at an agreed upon time, etc.)? Would you care if they acted right but didn’t get they reasons why?
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Filed under christian counseling, christian psychology, Relationships
Rwanda!
My on again off again trip is now on. I have tickets and yesterday I got my shots! Our small group of psychologists (4) will be leaving on June 22 and returning July 1. We will be going as the guests of the Right Rev. Alexis Bilindabagbo, Anglican Bishop of the Gahini diocese. You can learn a bit about him here.
We will be meeting with pastors, government officials, victims, and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Our goal is to immerse ourselves into the culture to learn how best to provide trauma training and counseling education at the graduate level for pastors and key leaders of the church right in Rwanda. While we know quite a bit about trauma and counseling training, we wish to avoid the mistakes of assuming we know best what this particular people need and what works within their cultural milieu.
I hope to be able to give you more details as the time approaches and to blog from Rwanda when I have Internet access.
FYI, each of us are paying our own way. Some donors at Biblical Seminary gave generously to underwrite a small portion of the trip. Further, the American Association of Christian Counselors is helping to sponsor this trip. So, if someone wants to give to the trip, I’m sure we can find a way to provide you a receipt for tax purposes :). Email me at pmonroe[at] biblical [dot]com and we’ll figure it out.
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Practicum Monday: counseling mistakes?
I’d like to compile a list of mistakes mostly likely to be made by novicecounselors. In the past I’ve written on some of the mistakes or foolish behavior of counselors and some of you have helped contribute stories like the counselor who fell asleep during the session, the counselor who ate a meal, who tried to set the counselee up with a son or daughter, the counselor who took phone calls, etc. Most of these mistakes wouldn’t be made by the typical counselor, even one who had never counseled before.
So, what are the most common mistakes of the novice counselor? Not sure, here are some I’ve observed:
1. Failing to collect enough data during the first sessionto assess matters of suicidality or mental status. Novice counselors tend to either drill too deep on one topic (and so miss other important matters) or stay on the surface and fail to ask questions they think might embarrass the client
2. Promising too much. We want the client to have hope and we hope they don’t see us as novice, so we promise the world. Such temptations lead sometimes to offering our phone number to call at all hours, to agreeing to meet outside of sessions, too allowing sessions to go beyond the planned limit.
3. Encouraging. Beginning Christian counselors sometimes fail to let the counselee sit with their pain. Instead, they trot out verses to comfort and encourage. Often, these passages fall flat without their intended result.
4. Writing too much. Progress notes may look like novellas. When you don’t know what is important, everything is documented.
5. Going along with the parents. Novice counselors often seen kids and their parents. It is easy to become railroaded into allowing the parents to use the session to gang up on the kids. Novice counselors have a hard time managing the parents and the kids in the same session.
What mistakes did you make? Did you experience at the hands of a novice?
When I started, I hated the question about my age (I was 24 but looked younger). I tried all sorts of creative ways to illustrate my experience and to be vague about my actual age. I’m sure I never convinced anyone. They stayed because they didn’t want to start over. I should have just said (nicely), “your right, I’m young. We can either find you another client now or we can try the following intervention and if you don’t like what I’m doing, we can find you someone else then. What would you like to do?”
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Identified by your betrayals?
This past Sunday one of our pastors, Erik Larsen, asked this question:
Are you too identified by your betrayals?
He was asking whether we form our identity around the script of being betrayed and use our experiences of being betrayed as shaping our sense of all of life. I think we could also consider whether we shape our identity around our betrayals of others?
What forms your sense of self and the world? A serious violation of your trust?A major failure? How might you begin to reconstruct your sense of self around the whole picture of who you are?
Musings on Faith and Psychology 