A blog by Dr. Harry Henshaw
Posts tagged counseling
The Use of Therapeutic Relaxation Music in Counseling.
Aug 18th
Music has always been a very important part of our lives. As a part of our experience, music can have both a physiological and psychological affect upon us as human beings. Music also has many therapeutic qualities and has been utilized in promoting a variety of healings throughout the ages. As we know further, music can be a very powerful medium for altering our state, of changing how we actually feel. Music can be very effective in producing a very deep and healing state of relaxation and in the process, reduce stress and even promote sleep. Music can also be used to assist one in improving his or her self-esteem and furthering an individualís personal growth and development, transformation.
As a therapist I have always used relaxation music in my clinical and counseling work with others. I have found that when I use relaxation music during both an individual and group counseling session that my clients do more productive work, are able to focus more effectively on themselves and the issues that they are becoming present to because they are more relaxed, focused and centered and as a result, better able to concentrate. Being relaxed during the counseling process, at least initially always tends to generate more productive results for the individual being counseled. Relaxation music can be a very effective and powerful aid for assisting a client to reach resolution with respect to that which he or she is working on with their counselor.
Red Flags for someone in Recovery to consider and be present to.
Jun 5th
Besides the fact of someone just wanting to leave recovery or the treatment program he or she is in, there are a few Red Flags that a person should be present to and able to respond to adequately.
1. Being out of communication with his or her sponsor or counselor.
2. The person starts to have major upsets appearing in his or her life.
3. Missing or being late for an NA or AA meeting or group counseling.
4. Missing or being late for calls with his or her sponsor or counselor.
5. The person will start to have many emergencies happening in his or her life.
All of the above Red Flags are designed to take one away from his or her recovery, to distract them. Being aware of them, that one is doing them, can help them to talk about them with someone and eventually stop doing them>
The Transformation of Identity in Recovery
Apr 30th
It seems to me that the transformation of identity for an individual in recovery has essentially four stages. Stage one has the individual’s identity as fundamentally very negative in nature and the person not present to its existence. Most individuals in recovery are not aware of the fact that they do not like themselves much, a stage of denial. Stage two happens through the process of recovery and counseling, where the person becomes present to his negative self image, his negative identity. Stage three is where the individual has consciously reinvented himself and created a positive self image. The work of recovery and psychotherapy takes place between stage one and stage two and between stage two and stage three with the individual being resistant to the growth that is being presented. Stage four is where the individual has reinvented himself and now, unlike stage three is not conscious of his ontology but rather is being it.