Episode 76 of the Becoming Centered Podcast concludes the Milieu Counseling episode arc by considering the role of relationships in giving residential counselors leverage to transform their clients’ beliefs.  It takes a look at five categories of maladaptive beliefs that can start to emerge in childhood that drive a dysfunctional life.  Residential Counselors are uniquely positioned to form relationships with clients that challenge these negative beliefs and support healthier beliefs.

These negative beliefs frequently are formed when children and youth experience adverse childhood experiences, such as neglect, abuse, deprivation, trauma and dysfunctional family situations.  However, before adulthood, these beliefs are not yet ingrained in most clients.  There’s opportunity for these young people to experience an emotionally corrective environment that provides evidence that these damaging beliefs are not true.

That’s not going to happen through residential staff having a passive approach to forming relationships.  Instead, the effective residential counselor is frequently having purposeful interactions to plant seeds that alternative, positive, beliefs are a more powerful truth.