Adolescents Coping with Depression Group

Adolescents Coping with Depression Group

A 12 week group for depressed adolescents between 14-18 years old. The group will consist of lectures, discussions, role-plays, and activities surrounding relaxation techniques, identification of irrational/negative thoughts, social skills, communication, and problem solving.

Initial group meeting will be Tuesday September 9, 2014 from 4:00-6:00 pm. The cost of the group is $80 per 2-hour group meeting. To register call Dr. Camelford at 504-390-9538 or email her at kcamelford@thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

Click here for a flyer.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

How to Avoid Misunderstandings

Ever felt misunderstood?  Misunderstandings are a failure to clearly communicate and are pretty common in today's society.  We misunderstand others in conversations, emails, text messages, and social media. Personal and relationship problems often come from a lack of communication and understanding.  Effective communication is a two-way street in which we must be effective in sending messages, as well as we must be effective in receiving messages to avoid misunderstandings.

Conversation Misunderstandings can be cleared up with a few common tips:

• As the listener, utilize Active Listening
• Be engaged in conversations as the listener by using "following" words such as "ye, uh-huh, really"
• Think about your body language...make eye contact, nod, lean slightly forward towards the speaker
• Pay attention and ask follow up questions or clarity questions
• Paraphrase the message
• As the speaker, send clear and accurate messages by
• Be specific 
• Consider how your body language matches your words
• Look for non-verbal cues from the listener to see if they are understanding the message
• Say what you mean

For written communication, such as email, text messages, etc., misunderstandings may increase due to the lack of tone of voice and body language cues provided in the conversation.  In some ways, that is why emoticons are becoming increasingly popular because they can provide a visual cue to the written words.  Whether you approve of emoticons or not, here are some types for avoiding written misunderstandings:

• Read your message out-loud before sending the message
• Have a co-worker/friend read the message before sending as a tester
• Don't use all caps as it is considered yelling
• Use emoticons
• If the message sounds to harsh upon reading, don't send it! Maybe a phone call or in-person conversation would be more gentle
• Always re-read your work, especially with auto-correct

Hopefully these are easy tips (or most likely reminders) for you to consider and re-incorporate into your communicate skills.  With more mindfulness awareness misunderstandings should be limited!

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

Stages of Change

Change is about mixing it up and doing something different or becoming someone different from the past. Sometimes change is forced upon a person, where other times a person may willingly change something. When one thinks about change, here are some general questions that come to mind: What did I do in the past when I made a change? What is it that I want to do differently? What kind of person will I become? etc. Depending on the type of change, different emotional responses may occur such as happiness, anger, fear, and even doubt.  The goal of this blog is to discuss change, locus of control, and then the stages of change to help anyone identify where he or she may be in the cycle of change.

First off, change can be internal or external.  Internal change is a change that one make's within oneself.  For example, "I am going to start waking up an hour early to work out in the morning."  Whereas, external change is change that is forced upon a person who has little-to-no control over the change.  For example, "My work establishment has changed my hours from 9-5 to 7:30-3:30."  Often times people cope better with internal change since they are intrinsically motivated, where as external change can cause concerns and resistance to change.

Secondly, everyone has a locus of control based on their personality and upbringing.  Locus of control can be defined as whether or not individuals believe that they can control events in their lives.  A person with an internal locus of control believes that they control their own destiny and are in charge of their fate.  A person with an external locus of control believes that others (people, environmental factors, etc.) control their destiny and that life is often left up to chance.  It is important for people to identify what type of locus of control they have because that will help them identify how they will approach change and if they might need more support to make changes than others.  Sometimes, people may identify that something is wrong, but they are not interested in change which is an important piece of awareness.

As a counselor, I like to view change in stages because it gives people the opportunity to make small steps to larger goals and allows for setbacks/slip-ups to occur with the gentle kindness to keep pursuing change.

• Pre-contemplation: Problematic behaviors may not be harmful in this stage, Individual may be in denial of problem, Not really interested in change, Thinking about change
• Contemplation: Problematic behaviors continue, Ambivalence occurs about a potential change, Individual can recognize motives for change, Thinking about change 
• Preparation: Minor adjustments in problematic behaviors may be viewed based on internal or external change, Individual decides to make a change and struggles with how to make change, Determination and planning take place
• Action: Action is taken to address problematic behaviors, Individual may avoid triggers, seek support, or find other ways to cope
• Maintenance: Changes made in action stage are maintained, Individual still faces challenges
• Relapse: Most individuals after making a change return to the problematic behaviors, Individual slips and has self-doubt of change

The stages of change could be viewed in a cycle, where after the relapse occurs, the individual faces pre-contemplation again.  It may take several cycles with the same problematic behavior in order to permanently end the problematic behavior.

So if you are looking to make a change in your life, first consider what type of change it is, then consider your personality traits and your locus of control, and then cater the cycle's of change to your specific need.  If you feel that you are still struggling, then I encourage you to reach out for support from family, friends, or a certified counselor.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

Adolescents Coping with Depression Group

Dr. Camelford will lead a 12-week group for adolescents coping with depression this fall.  For more information click here.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

Thought Stopping Technique

Thought stopping is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique that can help anyone break free of continuous thoughts that may cause anxiety by using awareness and practice to change these thoughts.  Thought stopping can be a quick and effective method to distract yourself from your own anxiety by thinking about something else. One can practice thought stopping whenever anxious thoughts start to ruminate in one's mind. Once mastered, you will fill more in control of your thoughts and be able to stop anxious thoughts on command.

Here are some steps to practice thought stopping:

1. Think about what anxious thoughts you have struggled with or are currently struggling with and identify them so that you can have more awareness regarding your own anxiety.
2. Prepare a calming thought ahead of time that you will be able to use in times of anxiety.  For example, "I am peaceful and safe," "I'm on a beach and feel the sand under my feet," or "I am confident."
3. Be aware of your anxious thought.
4. Immediately tell yourself "STOP" in your mind.  For visual thinkers, you may want to visualize a stop sign and for kinesthetic thinkers, you may want to wear a rubber band and gently snap it on your wrist.
5. Exchange your anxious thought for a neutral/ calming thought.  The new thought can either be a general pre-planned thought or you can replace your current thought with something more accepting. For example, if you are anxious on a flight with turbulance and are thinking the plane is going down, a replacement thought could be "That was a bump in the road, we are in good hands with the pilot."
6. Continue to repeat your new thought in your mind, or even out loud if you need, until the anxious thought is extinguished.

Remember for this technique to work, you need to practice the technique! Also, if one visual or statement is not working for you, you may need to try different ones until you find what works best for you.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.