This Is What Spiritual Psychology Is All About!
When I first got into the industry and observed how other professionals handled clients, one mentor of mine stands out – Albert Saparoff. Albert was the innovator of the Get High on Life Program and would go into the inner city to teach self-esteem to high school students. Albert had been retired for 20 years when I met him, and we had interesting conversations about alternative methods of...Learn More
How to Climb Out of the Rut
The picture a client painted of their current situation really impacted me. They felt like they didn’t match up to others, that people were judging them harshly, that they couldn’t meet their own expectations, that they were stuck in a nowhere job, and why did they always feel a sense of doom? When you are in such a rut as this, how can you get out of it? The motto of my graduate school...Learn More
Assessments for the Courts – My Battle
It was inevitable that I’d write about the legal system. Doing Mental Health and Substance Use Evaluations for court proceedings pits one genre against another. The courts try to decide what is right or wrong, but according to Spiritual Psychology, there is no right or wrong—only learning. How do I survive my interactions with the legal system when I tend to lean toward the learning side?...Learn More
Using Problems to Heal
Before I begin, I would just like to thank all of the patrons who have trusted our facility and continue to do so. This is the second week in a row that all of our time slots have been filled, and we appreciate not only your attendance but also your efforts in the sessions. Today’s topic is on using negative judgments towards other people and oneself to heal. Each person has 20,000 to...Learn More
Trauma Treatment
Trauma treatment needs to be handled carefully, or a person can be re-traumatized again and again. This has been happening to a person I am treating in family therapy, by their personal counselor. The old models of healing trauma can cause more trauma because, in an approach named Gestalt therapy, a patient is asked to relive the situation from as many angles as possible. Regression is a...Learn More
Substance Treatment
I was asked to write a note to a lawyer ensuring I was providing substance treatment to their client, so I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to draft something that I could have on my website. My approach is different than 98% of the approaches out there because we focus on the core wounds underneath substance and mental health treatment. Ours is a program of empowerment, where people...Learn More
Am I Burning Out?
I had a first-of-its-kind week — every session was filled! In fact, even our IOP program was at maximum capacity. Because of this, I am exhausted. Running a facility is interesting. I am, first and foremost, a counselor and have done this for 30 years. I know what I am doing in this regard and feel I am very good at it. But running a company? That’s where I am a novice. I have surrounded...Learn More
Music Therapy
Years ago, I learned the value of music in therapy when I was working at an independent living facility. This placement was for young adults with learning disabilities, and when I realized I wasn’t able to make any progress with them, I opted to have some fun singing karaoke. So, I set up the machine, began to sing, and one by one, all of the clients showed up, sang, and had the time of...Learn More
Is Boredom a Problem?
We do a fun exercise in our Intensive Outpatient Program called “The Wall.” Taken from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, our participants are asked to tell the group what stops them from living a happy and prosperous life. After each participant tells us their problem, we have them bring their chair to the front of the room, and it is stacked onto the others—soon a large wall is formed, thus walling...Learn More