Episode 40 concludes the 7-part Residential Counselor 101 series. The focus of this session moves to the center of the treatment compass – representing yourself, the residential counselor. Just as caring for the kids requires attending to your own self-care needs, providing treatment to traumatized children and youth requires attending to your own resilience to traumatic-stress. The consistent use of Psychological Debriefing is an effective way to reduce the impact of traumatic-stress on yourself and on your colleagues. Likewise, various physiologically-centering techniques such as Relaxation Exercises, Meditation, and Mindfulness Exercises can greatly enhance your resilience to the stress caused by counseling traumatized children and youth.

Session 5, Episode 38 of the Becoming Centered podcast, moves the focus from helping kids become emotionally centered to helping kids become cognitively centered. Listening Checks are used to teach Accurate Listening. Helping kids report on various situations in a calm fashion, and recounting things in the proper chronological sequence, teaches kids to be Accurate Reporters. Identifying More Than One Possible Explanation for other people’s actions teaches them to be more Flexible thinkers. Processing after kids have calmed down from displaying problem behaviors further develops their ability to take Responsibility for their own actions. This develops the parts of their brain and psyche that are tasked with regulating their behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. There are different steps to Processing, depending on the developmental abilities of the client.

Session 6, Episode 39, goes a bit deeper into understanding the similarities and differences between Empathic Listening and Cognitive Processing. It clarifies the counselors role in exploring the “how” of feelings and leaving the “why” for therapists to explore. In other words, counselors focus on helping their child-clients to understand their feelings, especially feelings that drive problem-behaviors, as a symptom. “How often do your feel that way? How powerful is that feeling? How do you experience that feeling in your body? How do you think those feelings impact your life?” In contrast, questions like “Why do you feel that way?” make it harder for kids to think, to talk, and to learn strategies for coping with overwhelming feelings. Those “why” questions can also trigger trauma-reactions that are best addressed in a therapist’s office, not during residential hours. Eight categories of Coping Activities and seven categories of Negative Coping Actions are then presented as ways that children and youth can use various behaviors to help them tolerate their overwhelming feelings.

This episode expands on the treatment perspective behind the Empathic Listening technique. It challenges direct care staff to avoid the trap of trying to “fix” or “change” kids’ feelings, rather than providing child-clients with the treatment experience of feeling heard and understood. This episode also introduces the single most used tool for a residential counselor – Labeling. Although the most common use of Labeling is to increase clients’ awareness of their own behaviors, it can be combined with praise, can be used to promote social skills and character development, and can also be used to increase kids’ awareness of their own feelings. Finally, Labeling can be used in place of giving directives to inspire thoughtful cooperation rather than mindless compliance.

The Residential Counselor 101 Series is designed for direct care staff working in a residential treatment program. It approaches the material from the perspective that listeners don’t have a formal education in psychology, social work, early education, or some related field. Rather, it focuses on the training needs of people who are new to the field of residential treatment. It provides some grounding in the science behind the tools and techniques that make up the craft of providing a treatment experience to troubled children and youth. However, the stronger focus, over the course of the entire series, is on the practical tools and techniques that are the craft behind the art of providing kids with a positive transformational experience.

Less than one year ago I launched the Becoming Centered Podcast to share with others the understanding of residential treatment for children and youth that I’ve acquired over the past 40+ years of working as a residential counselor, supervisor, director, and therapist. This week the podcast has passed the 1000 mark for downloads! This week I also begin working directly with a second residential treatment program to assist with program development. That means that I’m now engaged in improving the treatment experience for over 200 kids! I hope you’ll help spread the word about the Becoming Centered Podcast to other residential treatment professionals and help spread the use of respectful, caring, and effective techniques for transforming the lives of kids who face heroic challenges in their lives. A sincere thank you to all my listeners!

Episodes 30, 31, and 32 of The Becoming Centered Podcast present a three-part mini-series that provides a basic orientation for new Residential Supervisors. These are direct care staff who serve as shift supervisors and as individual supervisors for residential counselors. These three episodes look at the supervisor role from Seven different perspectives. The Eastern perspective focuses on the importance of supportive supervision. The Southern perspective shifts to the supervisor’s role as a teacher. The Western perspective captures the supervisor’s role as a coach, focusing on the professional development of their supervisees. The Northern perspective emphasizes the importance of focusing on teamwork and team development. The Upward perspective explores the relationship between supervisor and supervisee, especially on professional boundaries. The Downward perspective looks at all the tasks involved in being a supervisor, the importance of effective delegating, and the importance of recognizing and appropriately addressing any personnel issues. The Inward perspective looks at the supervisor’s role in supporting self-care and self-management, for both supervisees and for themselves.

Three more episodes of the Becoming Centered Podcast are now available on the www.BearClanllc.com website and, throughout this month, on major podcasting platforms.  Episode 27 returns to the concept of the Aspect Compass and explores how to use it to look at, and work with, the phenomenon of Self-Talk.

Episode 28 presents Twelve Transformational Beliefs that empower people to
lead successful lives of self-determination. A method for how to adopt these
beliefs is presented.  This episode, more than most, really applies to all people, not only folks who work with troubled kids.

Episode 29 presents a system for managing problem behaviors that uses a series of interconnected tools and techniques such that unbalanced behavior results in having to practice becoming centered. This system uses Pattern Interrupts, a Code of Conduct, clear Major and Minor Code Violations, Structured Centering Breaks, Independent Centering Breaks, Resets, and Processing and Privilege Restrictions designed to help clients take responsibility for their own actions and for how those behaviors impact their peers and staff team.

One of the most powerful way to become centered, and to help kids in residential treatment become centered, is to use a clear system of Values to set bounds on behavior. Episode 25 of The Becoming Centered podcast presents a system called the Eight Gifts of The Elders (largely derived from traditional Native American teachings). Episode 26 presents a different way to help children and youth in residential treatment by developing their executive skills. The podcast explores how to encourage kids to practice 13 executive skills, two of which are primarily focused on regulating emotions, eight of which are primarily focused on regulating thinking, and three of which are focused on regulating behaviors. 

Episode 21 of the Becoming Centered Podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms. It focuses on tools and techniques for helping kids become physiologically centered.

This week’s Episodes 22 focuses on a way to understand four different styles of reasoning that different parts of the brain use to make sense of the world. Part of your brain only understands the world in terms of emotions and relies on Emotional-Reasoning to try and make sense of associations between experiences and feelings. Another part of your brain understands the world in terms of correlation among events, which it tends to interpret as set rules. While these rules do describe a lot of social situations they’re not based on logic but on Magical-Reasoning. Different parts of the brain develop the ability to use Logical-Reasoning to discover cause and effect. Yet other parts of the brain rely more on Influencer-Reasoning in which one looks to others for leadership and copying. All four types of reasoning occur simultaneously. Episode 23 explores how to help develop each type in child and youth clients and how to better integrate the four types.

Episode 24 takes a more wholistic view and discusses how kids in residential treatment need to see themselves as the hero of their own life story. The crucial quality to nurture is courage, which can only exist in the face of fear. The Eight-Fears-of-All-Human-Beings is presented.

Episode 19 of The Becoming Centered podcast is now available. It addresses a different issue in residential treatment programs than past episodes – the need for management training. It presents some management basics and a structured approach to delegating.

Episode 20 drops during Thanksgiving week and is another departure from the more typical episodes. After presenting the power of storytelling as a transformational technique, it presents parts 1 – 3 of the Bear Clan origin story. I hope everyone enjoys the stories!