StepsToLivingInJoy.com » Counseling

Structuring Your Time: Exercise to Help Your Addicted Client

onlineceucredit.com — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 18:10:58 +0000

Do you have a client who is dealing with a cocaine addiction? Here is an exercise that your client may benefit from.

Some clients fall into using too much cocaine because they don’t structure their time. They find themselves with unplanned hours to kill, and cocaine- searching for it, arranging for it, bargaining, buying, setting it up, and using- supplies a structure to their time. They continue using it because they have no other structure to compete with the seeking-and-using cycle. Seeking and using replaces productive work, or productive, or both. To quit cocaine, your client may have to impose a structure on their time that shuts out the seek-and-use cycle.

Here are some questions you can ask your lceint to help them analyze and arrange their leisure time:
– How do you spend your spare time?
– What activities do you enjoy of look forward too?
– Are you an indoor person or an outdoor person ? A day person or a night person?
– How much time do you spend alone? Do you like being alone or is it a source of unhappiness? Do you use cocaine alone?
– What sports or other physical activities have you excelled in? Would you like to pick these up again now as a way of structuring leisure time?
– What do you do for exercise now? If you don’t do anything, what do you think you’d like to do?
– What hobbies or pastimes have you had or think you might like to try?
– When do you feel bored? Be aware that these are probably the most important spots to fill activities.
– Before you started using cocaine, what did you do when you were bored of had nothing else to occupy you?

Here are some general suggestions that you can share with your cocaine addicted client to help them structure their leisure time:
– Find a buddy to plan activities with, or find several, for each planned activity.
– Take a class. Classes are good scheduled activities. An aerobics or exercise class, for example, will kill two birds with one stone: schedule your time and give you the anti-cocaine benefits of exercise. Take singing lessons, dancing lessons, or piano lessons. Take a drawing or painting course. Take a cooking or sewing class. Audition for a play. Go back to school, start working on another degree, or if you never started, begin working toward one.
– Plan to do all the things you’ve been meaning to do for a while: refinish a piece of furniture, learn to use a computer, plant a garden, start spring cleaning now even if it’s still January.

Adapted from the book Cocaine: Seduction and Solution.

The post Structuring Your Time: Exercise to Help Your Addicted Client appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

Tips on Anger Management

onlineceucredit.com — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:59:05 +0000

It’s normal to feel angry at times, but the way you handle this natural emotion can be harmful. Lashing out at others or holding your feelings in are destructive ways of dealing with anger. They can have a serious negative impact on you mentally and physically when they become habitual responses. If you’re having a lot of trouble coping with anger, taking steps to manage it is highly important.

Relax
When you feel angry, resist the urge to react as you normally would. Instead, count to 10 to give yourself time to calm down. Take deep breaths before responding to the person who made you angry or taking any other action. This pause allows you to gather your thoughts and relax your body and mind. Doing this can help reduce feelings of anger and weaken the impulse to handle it in a destructive manner.

Be Assertive, Not Aggressive
Keeping your anger in check doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to disagree with someone or stand up for yourself. You can work on being assertive instead of aggressive. This involves speaking to others tactfully while keeping your emotions under control. Learning how to be assertive gives you a safe and healthy way to deal with your anger. Keep in mind that this skill requires a lot of practice and patience to master.

Change Your Thoughts
You might not be able to control angry thoughts that arise, but you can change them. When certain events trigger angry responses, pay close attention to the thoughts that go through your head. Get into the habit of replacing them with positive or neutral ones. When you’re angry, your thoughts tend to be exaggerated. Try to think about the event that caused your anger in a more realistic, objective way. This helps you keep things in perspective and reduces the chance that the same or similar situation will make you angry in the future.

Find Solutions
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when you deal with anger on a regular basis. Instead of reacting in a negative way when certain things trigger your anger, look for solutions. For example, try to minimize the amount of time you interact with a co-worker who frequently tests your patience. Focusing on finding solutions takes the emphasis of off the person or situation that causes you to feel angry and helps you deal it with more constructively.

Let It Go
If you’re dealing with an issue or problem that you can’t control, you might need to just let it go. In order to do this, you’ll need to recognize and accept your own limitations. This way of handling anger can prove to be much more difficult than any others since it requires a considerable amount of self-control. You shouldn’t be ignoring or burying your anger in this case. You’ll need to accept the fact that you can’t deal with the issue or problem and move on.

The post Tips on Anger Management appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

Adoption: How to Tell Your Child He or She Is Adopted

onlineceucredit.com — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:25:12 +0000

Telling your child that he or she is adopted is an important step in your relationship. It’s not an easy thing to do, but there are ways to make this experience a positive one. The way your child reacts will depend on his or her age. Knowing what to expect and how to deal with it beforehand can help make this situation less stressful for you and your child.

Be Prepared
Before telling your child that he or she is adopted, gather as much information as possible about the birth parents. Your child will likely be curious and ask several questions about who his or her birth mother and father are. Having this information available will allow you to satisfy your child’s natural curiosity. If your child is too young to fully understand what it means to be adopted, you should still work on gathering this information. This way, you will be prepared for when your child does begin asking questions.

Start Early
You don’t have to wait until your child reaches a certain age before telling him or her about being adopted. You can introduce the concept of adoption when your child is a toddler or preschooler, even though he or she might not have a firm grasp of what it means. Bringing this topic up at such a young age helps your child adjust to it and helps him or her gradually understand it. Tell your child about the day you brought him or her home for the first time. Show pictures of that day and mention how happy your child made you feel.

Give an Honest Explanation
Be ready to explain who your child’s birth parents are and why they decided to give him or her up for adoption. You can decide how much to tell your child depending on his or her age. Basic details are fine for very young children, but older children might want a more detailed explanation. It’s important to be honest yet tactful. Focus on the positive aspects of your child’s adoption and avoid providing negative details about his or her birth parents. You might need to reassure your child that being put up for adoption wasn’t his or her fault.

Be Reassuring
Young children might become worried that their adoptive parents will decide to find a new home and new parents for them. After losing one set of parents, they might need to be reassured that they will not be losing another. Let your child know that this is his or her permanent home and family.

Encourage Discussion
Children generally begin understanding the concept of adoption by the time they’re 7 or 8 years old. You should expect your child to go through several emotions that are similar to the natural grieving process. At first, your child might refuse to accept that he or she was adopted. This might turn into a feeling of regret or sadness that stems from not knowing his or her birth parents and wondering what life might have been like. Your child might also feel ashamed about being given up for adoption. It’s important to encourage your child to discuss his or her feelings with you. Talking about these feelings will help your child adjust and learn to accept the fact that he or she was adopted.

The post Adoption: How to Tell Your Child He or She Is Adopted appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

Techniques to Overcome Addiction

onlineceucredit.com — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:54:32 +0000

Dealing with any type of addiction is a challenging experience. Finding the strength and motivation to overcome it doesn’t have to be difficult though. There are a few ways for you to get the help you need and take steps toward making a full recovery.

If your therapist’s methods aren’t working for you, ask for specific information on how your addiction is physically affecting you at your next session. This approach works very well for people who are used to dealing with concrete facts and figures as part of their job, such as accountants and computer programmers. You might not be aware of just how much damage an addiction can cause to your nervous system, digestive tract and other parts of your body. Knowing exactly what is going on inside you can provide you with the motivation you need to overcome your problem.Keeping a log of the physical symptoms you experience is a good way to determine the effects of addiction on your body. You can either write the symptoms down or make a mental note of them. Discuss the log with your therapist at your next appointment.

If you are looking for an alternative to traditional therapy for addiction, approaching the problem from a different angle can make a big difference. Instead of focusing on the addiction, you might benefit from getting some education on a related problem. This can help you see how your addiction can affect your life. For example, learning about cirrhosis if you have an addiction to alcohol can convince you to work toward overcoming your problem. The other component that often goes along with this technique is the emphasis on rewards and compassion instead of trying to force people to take action. Letting people decide on their own to get help for an addiction can be very successful.

Attending an intervention is a good way to get the help you need. Being surrounded by your loved ones can encourage you to listen to their advice and seek treatment. Having your friends and family provide a loving and supportive environment also serves as a reminder of how many people care about you and want to see you get better.

The post Techniques to Overcome Addiction appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

Advice for Elevator Phobia

onlineceucredit.com — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:19:48 +0000

A phobia is an overwhelming irrational fear of an object or a situation. Most people have at least one phobia that they simply choose to live with. Phobias don’t become a problem unless they interfere with your everyday life.

If you live in a small town where the biggest building is two stories tall, for instance, having an elevator phobia probably won’t cause you any unpleasant complications. Suppose, however, that you live in New York City and work on the 46th floor of a skyscraper? That makes a fear of elevators a more immediate problem, one that needs to be dealt with.

Fortunately, most phobias can be easily resolved using relaxation techniques to decrease anxiety and graded exposure to slowly get you used to being around the thing that you fear.

The first step in overcoming a phobia is learning to relax your body. Sit or lie in a comfortable position and, starting with your toes, tense and release each muscle group until all of your muscles are completely relaxed. If you have trouble achieving this state on your own, it may help to play soft music or sounds of nature in the background. There are also several CDs available that can guide you through the relaxation process.

Now that you know how to relax and let go of your anxiety, the next step is addressing the elevator phobia. Make a list of five situations involving elevators and number the list from the least threatening thought to the most threatening thought. For instance, being in a lobby with a bank of elevators might be least threatening. Actually riding an elevator up a floor or two might arouse more anxiety, and staying in the elevator all the way to the top of the building might be the most frightening thought.

Once you have your list, start with the first item, in this case walking into a lobby with a bank of elevators. You may feel your muscles tense; take time to consciously relax them. Do this for a few days until you are able to remain relaxed while looking at the elevators. Then move on to the next step on your list and so forth.

If you take your time and make sure you are able to remain completely calm through one task before going onto the next, you’ll soon find yourself able to enter an elevator without fear and ride it up to the floor where your office is located.

The post Advice for Elevator Phobia appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.