Episode 44 of the Becoming Centered podcast presents the third installment of the Processing Pathway, covering the technique known as “chaining.”  Chaining is a great way to add a visual element to cognitive processing.  It lays out a series of links representing a chain of behaviors and feelings that led to a child or youth having to be separated from their peers.  Once the sequence of links has been clarified, the key link that represents a realistic “choice point” is identified.  This link represents the point in the sequence where the client could have made a different choice that likely would have resulted in a better outcome.  Typical choice point behaviors include things like, asking for a check-in, asking to take space, or using some established coping mechanism.  An explanatory handout and illustration is available at https://www.bearclanllc.com/podcasts/the-processing-pathway/.

Episode 43 of The Becoming Centered Podcast is the second episode in the Processing Pathway series.  This episode introduces a 4-question outline for formal cognitive processing.  Basically, the four parts include helping the child or youth to take responsibility for the behaviors that resulted in their being separated from their peers; identify at least some of the feelings that drove the probelm-behaviors; identify how those behaviors might have impacted peers and staff around them; and identify a possible plan for how to handle things better in the future. 

One size doesn’t fit all, and there are several factors covered that will change how much detail and how much time a counselor should devote to processing with a client.  There are also some general goals of processing presented to the listener, that also apply for informal cognitive processing (that doesn’t use a written form and likely only covers some of the outline of formal processing).

Perhaps the most over-arching goal of cognitive processing is to help kids become more thoughtful human beings (who think before simply reacting to their own emotional states).  There are several supporting goals of processing that are covered in this episode that can also be found in handouts available at https://www.bearclanllc.com/podcasts/the-processing-pathway/.

Episode 42 of the Becoming Centered Podcast is now available. This is the first episode on the Processing Pathway. Processing involves a structured approach to helping children and youth to mentally process their incidents of problem-behaviors.

This episode introduces the concept of there being different ways that different parts of the brain process sensory data, personal experience, and the communications received from the other parts of the brain. This can result in various parts of the brain experiencing different types of confusion after a significant incident of problem-behaviors. Processing is intended to clear up that confusion. It’s intended to help kids become more thoughtful people who think before they automatically react to their own strong feelings with extreme behaviors.

This is achieved through leading kids, once they are generally calm, through a structured process of analyzing their own incidents. In formal processing, there’s typically a written form that guides children and youth through a meaningful way to understand an episode of problem-behaviors. The formal approach focuses on four goals: having kids own their own problem-behaviors, identifying feelings that drove those behaviors, identifying how those behaviors may have impacted people around them, and developing a plan for handling themselves better in the future. Residential Treatment Programs are encouraged to require formal processing, at a level appropriate for each individual child, for incidents involving serious problem-behaviors such as violence, major threats, and major disruptions.

Informal processing typically doesn’t use a form but has the same general goals. Informal processing makes sense for less significant problem-behaviors like instigating and refusing to follow basic program expectations. Informal processing is likely to be conducted only on a verbal level, and the counselor uses their judgement to decide how many of the four processing goals will be a focus of the conversation.

Episode 41 of the Becoming Centered Podcast kicks off season 2 of this effort to spread knowledge about professional residential treatment of children and youth. This season is organized into two different educational pathways, mirroring consulting work being done.

The Processing pathway is all about how to help kids process their own use of problem-behaviors. With structured guidance from staff, they can learn how to understand their own patterns of behaviors in a way that leads to increased self-control and self-regulation of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

The Unit Supervision pathway starts with a focus on how to create the time for all direct-care staff to receive several hours of individual supervision each month. It then moves on to how to structure the supervision time and then what content to cover in supervision. It presents a combination of management training and techniques, tools, and perspectives for how to teach counseling skills.

This episode also presents a couple concepts for residential staff to consider. The first is the distinction between providing Care and providing Treatment. The second is a way to distinguish between providing Counseling and providing Therapy.

While the podcast episodes will continue to be available on most podcast hosting sites, this season’s episodes will tend to have more written support materials that listeners can download from the www.BearClanllc.com website Podcast page.

The www.BearClanllc.com website has added a new page, MEDITATION, where you’ll find instructions and audio recordings from a weekly course taught by Caroline Durr. After participating in different meditation techniques for years Caroline came upon a different meditation that connects you with your body and your body’s sensations. Through this connection and the practice of accepting what is, you become more of a participant in the unfolding of your life, going from feeling like life is happening to you to life is happening with you.

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!