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!

Podcast Episode 16: The Aspect Compass & Meeting Kids’ Needs drops on the last Wednesday in October. It presents a powerful, and innovative, perspective on how to meet kids’ psychological needs. The first half of November will deliver a two-part podcast that switches from the Residential Tools & Techniques Series back to the Residential Issues Series. Episodes 17 and 18 explore how to counsel residents who experience suicidal ideation. Residential children and youth are part of a high-risk group for having thoughts of suicide and, often times, it will fall upon residential staff to provide effective counseling, typically late at night. Learn how to effectively process suicidal ideation with your clients and what sort of follow-up interventions can help keep your clients safe.

On a separate note, a number of resources have been added to the Resources Page of the Bear Clan, llc website. These include tools you can use with clients, mini-trainings on concrete subjects (such as how to write a shift note), and other model forms that can be modified to fit your program.

Download a copy of The Becoming Centered Podcast flyer to email and post for colleagues:

You can already access, on all major podcasting platforms, episodes 11 and 12 of The Becoming Centered Podcast. In episode 11, you’ll learn about the central role of neurological co-regulation in powering your efforts to teach child-clients how to better manage their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors; while developing the executive skills to become more independent. Episode 12 explores the importance of setting firm limits in a consistent and predictable fashion. Discussion includes powerful techniques for being an effective limit setter and holder of program structures. Episodes 14 and 15 will become available in the first half of October (although you can listen in advance from the Residential Tools & Techniques page on the website). These episodes discuss how to use Time Outs in a sophisticated and effective fashion, and three tools / techniques for helping kids process feelings: the Feelings Intensity Thermometer, Feelings Maps, and Empathic Listening.

Episodes 7 -10 of The Becoming Centered Podcast explore issues surrounding physical interventions and especially physical restraints. The focus is on how to minimize and be resilient to the stress of having to perform this type of work. Learn about some of the core dynamics involved in all physical interventions and how they produce stress hormones and neurotransmitters that stay in your body and brain. Prior to physical interventions, anticipation and training can reduce the impact of these harmful chemicals. During physical restraints, body awareness can help you begin to flush your system of stress chemicals. Afterwards, debriefing, processing, relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness exercises can help your brain and body return to a healthy baseline.

Episode 4 of The Becoming Centered Podcast is now available on major streaming channels. This episode focuses on teamwork, an essential aspect of operating an effective residential treatment program. Since teamwork is also a key component of all sorts of endeavors, this episode has wide applicability.

If you don’t want to wait for future episodes of The Becoming Centered Podcast to be released (every Wednesday), you can preview episodes on the www.BearClanllc.com website. In addition to Episodes 5 and 6 which complete the Residential Counselor Orientation series, you can access the first podcasts in the Residential Treatment Issues series that focus on physical interventions. These podcasts present listeners with a framing for understanding the use of physical restraints (and other physical interventions), and how to reduce the traumatic impact on your nervous system of having to perform restraints.

It’s rewarding to see that some people have been checking out the Becoming Centered Podcast! The first six episodes make up an orientation course for Residential Counselors and really anyone who works with children and youth to help them learn how to become centered. Episode 1 presented a particular way to understand the role of people who teach kids how to become centered. Episode 2 lays out the basic professional boundaries associated with such work. Episode 3 will drop this Wednesday and focuses on powerful ways to form a therapeutic relationship with kids. It introduces the concept of the Domain Compass and presents:

3 relationship qualities that support kids’ emotional life,

2 relationship qualities that support kids’ cognitive development,

3 relationship qualities that support kids’ learning how to regulate their behaviors, and

1 key relationship quality to support kids’ executive skills and social skills development.

I’m pleased to announce that the Becoming Centered Podcast is now available on all major podcasting channels!  While the Becoming Centered Book (available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback) is a field guide to self-counseling, the podcast is more focused on people who work in residential treatment of children and youth.  Since that work requires being personally centered, there’s certainly an overlap between the book and podcast; however, the podcast is more focused on how to help other people become centered.

If you’ve enjoyed the Becoming Centered book, you can be a big help by leaving a book review at Amazon.  That sort of social proof is key to getting more people to check out my work!

If you’re interested in the podcast, you can find it and subscribe at all major podcast listing services and all episodes are available at my website (along with supporting materials):  www.BearClanllc.com. 

The first six episodes are an orientation course for new residential staff.  The next episodes will focus on understanding and reducing the use of and need for physical restraints.  Thanks for your continued support and interest!

A lot’s been going on behind the scenes at Bear Clan, llc and this is the first of what will be several exciting announcements!

For the past two years, I’ve been retired from 40+ years of directing residential treatment programs, social service programs, and serving as a therapist for children and parents. I’ve focused instead on fully developing my integrated approach to therapy and counseling so that it can be more effectively shared with others.

One result is the publication of my first book, Becoming Centered: A Field Guide to Self-Counseling. It shares a powerful way to understand your own personal psychology, and tools and techniques for navigating your way through life’s challenges.

Integrating ancient traditional practices, multiple approaches to psychotherapy, principles of wilderness awareness, and perspectives from modern neuro-psychology, Becoming Centered teaches you how to use conscious and unconscious aspects of your brain to find your balance and find your path toward being the best version of yourself.

Through stories, concrete exercises, and eye-opening perspectives, you’ll learn effective ways to return to center when you become emotionally unbalanced; to become cognitively organized when you become confused; to walk the path of behavioral health; and to effectively tap into the conscious and unconscious abilities of your brain to manage your own life.

Becoming Centered: A Field Guide to Self-Counseling has just become available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle formats. I hope you’ll check it out and I hope it helps you see that you can be, and are, the hero of your own life-story!

Especially as a new author, if you find value in this book, I hope you’ll leave a review at Amazon and share its release with your network and tribe of people!