residential counselor

Effective residential treatment for troubled children and youth depends upon teamwork among both staff and residents. The goal is to transform a group of struggling kids into a supportive team. Many kids in these programs crave friendship, which is often lacking due to their life challenges and the displacement of residential treatment. A major goal in treatment programs is to help the child and youth clients learn how to make and keep friends. 

Residential treatment does a lot of that teaching through various group activities, including recreational, therapy-based, and house meetings. These gatherings require active participation from staff, beyond just facilitating. Staff members play roles like maintaining order, offering support to individual kids, and helping resolve conflicts. They also assist in therapeutic activities, like group explanations, where kids take responsibility for their actions and receive feedback.

In recreational activities, staff involvement goes beyond observation. They engage as cheerleaders, referees, coaches, or announcers, aiming to boost kids' confidence and social skills. The concept of "therapeutic error" guides staff to adapt their participation level to the kids' abilities, fostering a positive experience for them.

In therapy-based groups, staff provide support and modeling, helping kids manage their emotions and engage in the therapeutic process. While therapists lead these sessions, staff contribute by creating a supportive environment and assisting kids in staying focused. The most effective groups combine the role of the therapist in uncovering emotional pain with the role of the counselor in helping clients tolerate that pain. 

Overall, effective residential treatment relies on staff members actively engaging in various group settings, contributing to the therapeutic process, and fostering a sense of teamwork and support among the residents. Staff involvement goes beyond facilitation; it involves actively participating in activities, providing support, and guiding kids towards positive interactions and growth.

This podcast mini-series aims to aid residential staff who find themselves supervising shifts and providing individual supervision for residential counselors. It explores various aspects of these roles through the Seven-Directions Meta-Compass Model.

Each episode focuses on a cardinal direction, representing different perspectives. Episode one emphasized supportive supervision (East) and the role of the supervisor as teacher (South).  Episode two focused on coaching (West) and focused on teamwork (North).

The current episode delves into the Upward perspective, addressing the relationship challenges of transitioning from peer to supervisor and maintaining professional boundaries.  The importance of refraining from participating in negative venting among staff and instead focusing on problem-solving and promoting teamwork is stressed. The supervisor must navigate new boundaries and ensure that relationships with colleagues remain professional.

The podcast then shifts to the Downward perspective of task responsibilities. It emphasizes the importance of checklists to keep track of various tasks, the importance of delegating effectively,  and potentially addressing personnel issues involving productivity, attendance, and conduct.

Next, it explores the Inward perspective, emphasizing self-care and professional development for both supervisors and supervisees. It highlights the role of the supervisor in supporting staff well-being and facilitating their growth.

Finally, it offers a model for conducting individual supervision meetings, incorporating elements from all cardinal directions. It suggests starting with emotional support, moving to teaching and coaching, and then addressing teamwork, engagement with clients, and any other issues specific to any one supervisee.

The series concludes by acknowledging the complexity of the supervisor role and the transformative impact it can have on both staff and clients in a residential treatment setting. It emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and growth in this role.

In this podcast episode, looking at the role of the Residential Supervisor shifts to the perspective of the West cardinal direction in the Meta-Compass Model.  The West is the direction of behaviors, physiology, and for this podcast, especially is concerned with setting behavioral goals for supervisees. 

It’s suggested that setting behavioral goals be based on encouraging Residential Counselors to develop their own executive skills.  Focusing on executive skills, and using the language of executive skills, helps separate out asking supervisees to develop their professional skills, versus language that makes supervisees feel like their supervisor is judging their character or personal development.

Thus the supervisor encourages specific behaviors in staff members that correspond with exercising executive skills such as reaction inhibition and stress tolerance, crucial for maintaining emotional control during challenging situations.  Likewise, the supervisor focuses on helping their supervisees improve their own planning, prioritizing, organizing, time management, initiation, and other cognitive executive skills. 

This focus on executive skills development, and really breaking it down to the behaviors that demonstrate an exercising of these skills, continues with helping supervisees with their goal-directed persistence (highly relevant to the reality that a lot of residential interventions only work after hundreds of repetitions), their self-awareness (which is the foundation of self-directed development), and meta-cognition (which corresponds with understanding the “thinking” of the program – its philosophy, treatment approaches, etc.).

The podcast then shifts to the North cardinal position perspective on the Meta-Compass.  The North, the domain of the Chief, is very concerned with teamwork and the well-being of their team-mates.  Guidelines are presented for effectively encouraging the development of a high-functioning team. 

The Chief also has to, sometimes, set limits.  It falls on the supervisor to monitor staff interactions with both clients and colleagues to ensure safety and adherence to workplace laws and program policies, procedures, and practices.

This podcast aims to guide residential staff taking on the role of supervising a shift, emphasizing the complexities involved in managing a group of kids and supporting a team of direct care staff. The role of a Residential Supervisor involves overseeing shifts, and in some agencies includes providing one-on-one office-based supervision, which includes conducting performance appraisals, managing personnel issues, and facilitating communication between staff and management.

To organize this wide-ranging topic, the 7-Directions Meta-Compass Model, inspired by Native American concepts, is used as a framework to explore different aspects of the supervisor's role.

The East represents emotions, focusing on the importance of emotional support, resilience, and passion for leadership. Values associated with the East are Respect and Caring.  The Supervisor provides the staff team with executive functions, including Reaction Inhibition and Stress Tolerance.  This sets the tone for their using those same executive skills with the kids.  The importance of debriefing after intense experiences and fostering Stress Tolerance is highlighted.

Moving to the South, which represents cognitions, the podcast emphasizes the role of the supervisor in imparting knowledge about program structures, schedules, behavior management, and treatment components. The Values associated with the South are Truth and Honesty.

This episode delves into team-building, emphasizing the role of communication, feedback, appreciation, and celebration in developing a high-performing team. The Values associated with the South are Truth and Honesty.

The Supervisor is responsible for providing the team with cognitive executive functions like Planning, Prioritizing, Organizing, Sustained Attention, Working Memory, Time Management, Task Initiation, and Flexibility. These functions are crucial for effective shift supervision.

Upcoming episodes will explore the West, North, Upward, Downward, and Inward directions, covering behaviors, physiology, setting goals, relationships, tasks, and self-care. This mini-series provides guidance for Residential Supervisors, acknowledging the challenges and growth opportunities associated with the role.

This podcast episode presents a system for managing behavior problems, utilizing a variety of interconnected tools and techniques. 

The concept of contagion is introduced, explaining how behaviors, feelings, and thoughts can spread among individuals. The importance of interrupting behavioral patterns is highlighted, particularly using a technique known as "pattern interrupts." These interrupts aim to prevent escalation and promote a return to baseline functioning.  A detailed example of a structural pattern interrupt is provided, involving a campaign to reduce swearing among middle-school boys in a residential cottage.

The podcast suggests the use of three types of time-outs: Structured Centering Break, Independent Centering Break, and Resets. Each type serves as a therapeutic consequence for a lack of self-control, allowing individuals to practice coping activities and centering exercises. The importance of tailoring interventions to individual needs, avoiding shaming, and promoting consistency is emphasized.

Additionally, the establishment of a clear Code of Conduct based on values is recommended, with examples provided. The distinction between major and minor violations of the Code is discussed, along with a range of staff responses to minor violations. The goal is to intervene effectively while minimizing disruption to the group and the activity.

The podcast underscores the developmental importance of allowing individuals to progress from Structured Centering Breaks to Independent Centering Breaks and Resets. The ultimate aim is to empower clients to independently manage their behaviors and develop self-control, contributing to their growth and success outside the treatment program.

Structured Centering Breaks, which are used for all instances where major violations of the Code of Conduct have occurred, include a processing of the incident that focuses on taking responsibility for one's actions and feelings, followed by a discussion on relationship repair, restitution, fines, group explanations, and executive skills development as ways to achieve higher responsibility levels.

This episode also takes a look at the use of restrictions, differentiating between those related to safety concerns and those as direct consequences of problem behaviors. The goal is to frame restrictions in a way that aligns with program goals beyond punishment, connecting them to therapeutic and treatment-driven objectives.

This episode focuses on Beliefs as a powerful regulatory mechanism. Beliefs act as filters through which individuals perceive reality, and the host emphasizes the importance of consciously choosing beliefs. The key idea is that beliefs need not be evaluated based on their imagined truth, but on their usefulness and how well they serve an individual.

Empowering and healthy beliefs can be consciously cultivated through two main strategies:  tasking your brain to find evidence supporting the new belief, and taking action as if the belief were already true.

Twelve Transformational Beliefs are presented:

1.   People are not their behaviors.
2.   All behavior happens for a reason.
3. People are my most valuable resource.
4. Everything happens for a reason and somehow serves me.
5. There’s no such thing as failure, only unintended results.
6. I can take responsibility for everything I impact.
7. I don’t have to completely understand something to use it.
8. Work can be fun.
9. Commitment and hard work makes for a better product.
10. We’re all works in progress.
11. Intentions matter.
12. We’re all spiritual beings on a physical journey.

Overall, the podcast encourages listeners to adopt empowering beliefs, actively seek evidence supporting them, and act in alignment with these beliefs for personal and professional growth.

This podcast episode is intended to increase your awareness of Self-Talk and how you can coach your clients to use more effective and healthier Self-Talk.  It uses the Aspect Compass (part of the Meta-Compass Model) to present different qualities of Self-Talk that appeal to the four cardinal aspects of your psyche called The Artist, The Scout, The Warrior, and The Chief.

Using the Aspect Compass begins with the Artist (in the East), representing the domain of emotions.  As children explore the world, the Scout (in the South) emerges, making associations and developing thoughts. The Warrior (in the West) handles challenging behaviors, responding to emotional cues from the Artist and thoughts from the Scout.  Finally the Chief (in the North) emerges to coordinate and regulate the four aspects of your psyche. 

The Chief uses executive skills, like Reaction Inhibition and Stress Tolerance, to regulate the Artist.  The Chief uses other executive skills, like planning, prioritizing, time management, and sustained attention to regulate the Scout. The Chief also regulates the Warrior with skills like goal-directed persistence, self-awareness, and meta-cognition.

The Chief using Self-Talk, begins with caregiver messages early in life. The Chief internalizes this caregiver talk which turns into Self-Talk.  For the Artist, with its limited vocabulary, tone of voice and simple words work best.  On the other hand, The Scout responds best to coaching Self-Talk, which can be delivered in several different styles.  The Warrior parts of the brain and psyche also don’t have a lot of vocabulary.  The Warrior responds best to Self-Talk that is simple, direct, and directive.

Residential staff using the Labeling technique support the development of the clients’ Chief aspect, which has to learn to monitor the other aspects, in other words to be self-aware of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. 

Clients also benefit from increased awareness of negative Self-Talk.  The Scout parts of the brain are designed to come up with observations, theories, and beliefs that explain the world.  Asking yourself negative questions, like “Why am I so stupid?” will cause The Scout to look for explanations, evidence, and an answer.  That answer is not based on any kind of objective truth and is likely to be demoralizing, disempowering, and self-destructive.

The skilled residential counselor models empowering self-talk and uses it for personal stress management. The Chief's Self-Talk encouraging you to perceive others as whole beings, to act with integrity, and to encourage kindness teaches clients to develop their own Self-Talk to manage their own feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. 

In this podcast episode, the focus is on aiding children and youth in residential treatment to develop executive skills, which are crucial for regulating emotions, thinking, and behavior. Developing residents executive skills is essential because it’s their deficits in being able to regulate their own feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that accounts for why they need to live at a treatment program in order to receive services, instead of living in the community / with their families. 

Executive skills begin developing in childhood but can be delayed or overwhelmed by environmental challenges, trauma, deprivation, insufficient parenting, or neurological conditions. The key to improving executive skills lies in practice, with the brain becoming more adept at whatever skills it regularly engages in.

The podcast introduces 13 executive skills, two of which are primarily focused on regulating emotions, eight of which are primarily focused on regulating thinking, and 3 of which are focused on regulating behaviors. 

Strategies are presented for developing reaction inhibition and stress tolerance, crucial for emotional regulation, include labeling and check-ins. Stress tolerance is further fostered through empathic listening, creative arts, journaling, and coping activities.

Cognitive executive skills such as planning, prioritizing, organizing, sustained attention, time management, task initiation, working memory, and flexibility are explored. Practical techniques involve fostering autonomy in planning, using a choice model for prioritization, engaging in organizing tasks, and employing coping activities to enhance stress tolerance and several cognitive executive skills.

Coping activities are divided into eight categories, including diversions, tension releasers, organizing tasks, cognitive coping skills, social coping skills, physical maintenance strategies, limit setting, and spiritually fulfilling activities. The podcast emphasizes the importance of teaching children positive coping activities while being aware of negative coping actions.

Negative coping actions do work, in-the-moment, to help a person tolerate stress, however, they have longer-term self-destructive effects.  These are things such as drug use, self-injurious behaviors, over-eating, and blaming people and yourself.

Lastly, the podcast touches on additional executive skills such as goal-directed persistence, self-awareness, and meta-cognition. It highlights the role of residential staff in supporting children to stick to goals, improve self-awareness through labeling, and encourage meta-cognitive thinking by exploring motivations and intentions. Overall, the episode provides a comprehensive guide to helping children in residential treatment enhance their executive skills through intentional and practical interventions.

This podcast presents a system of eight values and fits them within the Meta-Compass Model.  This podcast explores the interplay between executive functions, values, and emotional, cognitive, and behavioral health, offering a practical framework for understanding and fostering these aspects in individuals, particularly children and youth.

Values, separate from Executive Skills, serve as a mechanism for your inner Chief to regulate the other cardinal aspects of your psyche, the Artist, the Scout, and especially the Warrior by providing boundaries for behaviors. 

A values system is presented that is inspired by Native American traditions, particularly the Seven Gifts of The Grandfathers, which include Respect, Love, Truth, Honesty, Bravery, Humility, and Wisdom.  An eight gift, Integrity, is added to represent the Eight Gifts of The Elders.

Each "gift" is associated with a specific direction on the Meta-Compass Model. For instance, the Gift of Respect, associated with the East, involves recognizing and attending to basic needs, fostering empathy, and countering the Fear-of-the-Cold. The Gift of Love, also in the East, is portrayed as a broad sense of caring, countering the Fear-of-Being-Alone.

Other gifts, such as Truth and Honesty, are linked to the South and counter the Fear-of-The-Woods and Fear-of-the-Dark, respectively. The West represents the Gifts of Bravery and Humility, countering Fear-of-Animals and Fear-of-Water. The North encompasses the Gifts of Integrity and Wisdom, countering the Fear-of-Rot.

A concrete code of conduct derived from the Eight Gifts, which turns each value into actionable behaviors, is available on the resources page of the website (www.BearClanllc.com).

The episode wraps up with an original story titled "Buffalo and The Eight Gifts of the Elders."

This podcast builds off of the concept that, overall, our brains understand the totality of our life experiences as a story.  It’s crucial for our mental health, and overall sense of becoming centered, to see ourselves as the hero of our own life-story.  This is the situation for children and youth in residential treatment. 

Upon entering residential treatment, kids often feel at a low point, viewing their challenges as insurmountable. They need to become part of a classic story-line in which our young central character faces personal tragedy, separates from parents, finds mentors and friends, and undergoes growth to become the hero.  The key quality for the hero needs is courage.

Actions in the face of dangerous situations can show bravery, with or without the significant presence of fear.  Courage, on the other hand, always involves facing fear.  There cannot be courage without fear. 

A way to gain power over one’s personal fears is to be able to talk about fear in a more generalized fashion.  This episode introduces the concept of the "Eight Fears of All Human Beings," placing them within the Meta-Compass Model used in other episodes of this podcast. These fears include the fear of the cold, being alone, the woods, the dark, animals, water, rot, and being judged.

The discussion delves into each fear, its metaphorical meaning, and how addressing these fears both requires courage and nurtures courage. These fears can also be understood in the context of the developmental stages of life, cognitive processes, and behavioral responses.

The goal is to empower clients in residential treatment to recognize their fears, recognize that they can face those fears with courage, and thus become more resilient.  By framing these fears as universal conditions, the counselor aims to create a non-judgmental space for kids to discuss their experiences and demonstrate courage in the face of adversity.

This podcast episode builds off of the concept of four different types of reasoning simultaneously performed by distinct parts of the brain.

The inner Artist engages in Emotional-Reasoning, associating experiences with emotions.

The inner Scout employs Magical-Reasoning, finding patterns and correlations to make sense of the world.

The inner Warrior relies on Logical-Reasoning, basing actions on evidence and logic.

The inner Chief, responsible for regulating the brain, uses Influencer-Reasoning, considering factors like relationships, authority, power, charisma, expertise, and fame.

Despite the common perception of Logical-Reasoning's superiority, it’s Emotional-Reasoning that often determines choices after weighing the different types of reasoning.

The skilled residential counselor can help child-clients become more skilled at each of the four types of reasoning, and at blending the four types together to arrive at a richer understanding of how the world works. 

Emotional-Reasoning can be improved by assisting clients with Affect-Labeling, which involves clients using words to describe their emotions, contributing to a calming effect on the brain. Other tools, such as Feelings Maps, Feelings Word Banks, and the Feelings Thermometer can help clients with Affect-Labeling. 

Residential Counselors can nurture Magical-Reasoning in children, especially those on the autism spectrum, through copying games and pretend play. Magical-Reasoning is often times the basis of social principles and friendships.

Logical-Reasoning can be helped along by teaching the use of pro-con lists, the scientific method, and activities that exercise executive functions such as planning, prioritizing, organizing, working memory, and flexibility.

Influencer-Reasoning is addressed through positive role modeling and awareness of peer influence.

The episode concludes by highlighting the importance of cognitive flexibility and practicing all four reasoning types for the developmental growth of children.

This podcast presents a way to understand the brain’s ability to use reasoning to become cognitively centered.  Emotional centering involves regulating the intensity and switching between emotional states. Behavioral centering, particularly physiological centering, focuses on transitioning from extremes to a calm baseline. It’s a little harder to understand the concept of becoming cognitively centered, but a good place to start is with a look at how the brain employs reasoning.

A traditional dictionary definition of reasoning states that it has to be logical in nature.  However, reasoning is better understood as a broader action of figuring out reasons why the world is the way it is.  Early in life, before the parts of your brain that are capable of logical reasoning have sufficiently developed, parts of your brain understand the world in terms of emotions.  The Artist parts of your brain process sensory information as feelings and find patterns and associations between your experiences and your feelings.

Your feelings and your Emotional-Reasoning evolve as you mature, accommodating more nuanced and contradictory feelings.  Emotional-Reasoning doesn’t go away as your mature.  It’s the only kind of reasoning that some sections of your brain are capable of doing. 

Other parts of your brain, the more cognitively sophisticated parts I call The Scout, develop the ability to do Magical-Reasoning.  This develops out of experiencing correlations and connections between people, objects, and places, often based on imitation and symbolism. Magical-Reasoning also persists into adulthood, coexisting with Logical-Reasoning.  Magical-Reasoning becomes the basis for much of how you make sense of social situations and social rules.

As your frontal cortex develops, Logical-Reasoning becomes better at moving beyond correlation and predicting cause and effect.  Logical-Reasoning takes more energy.  It doesn’t take the place of Emotional- and Magical-Reasoning; instead it exists simultaneously in different parts of your brain. 

The Chief parts of your brain, that specialize in regulating the rest of your brain and body, use yet a fourth type of reasoning that I call Influencer-Reasoning.  This type of reasoning guides you in who to copy and follow.  There’s six sources of influence: Relationship, Authority, Power-Broker, Charismatic, Expert, and Fame influences.

By blending the four types of reasoning, you’ll become more centered.  You can also help your child-clients to become more skilled at using each of the four types of reasoning.  That’s the focus of the next episode. 

This episode focuses on how to help child-clients become physiologically centered.  Previous episodes have focused on helping children become emotionally and  cognitively centered.

Emotional centering involves regulating extremes of emotions, and developing reaction inhibition and stress tolerance. Various tools, such as the Check-in and Empathic Listening can be really useful for helping kids become emotionally centered. 

Cognitive centering techniques include the use of tools like the Feelings Thermometer and Feelings Maps to help kids describe their feelings.  A complimentary approach focuses on leveraging clients’ physiology to help them become centered.  Afterall, every emotion is expressed in various ways throughout a person’s body. 

Co-regulation, achieved through shared activities and physical engagement, is a basic way in which a counselor can help a client become centered on a physiological level.  Changing a child's physiology is a powerful way to influence regulate their emotions and thoughts.  Techniques such as sitting down, drinking water, engaging in physical activities, and going on walks are explored.

Food also powerfully impacts physiology but in many ways it’s too powerful and overusing it as a way to change a kids mood or attitude can cause unwanted negative consequences. Likewise, touch, hugs, and hand-holding can be very physiological centering, but again there’s a need for judgment and clear program guidelines.

Various techniques, including sensory meditation, breathing exercises, and mindfulness, are recommended to help children become physiologically centered. The challenges of implementing these techniques are explored, including the need for months of daily practice and potential boredom of some exercises.

This episode concludes by introducing the Owl Eyes technique, a form of sensory walking meditation involving maintaining peripheral vision.

This episode is a departure from the usual format by sharing original teaching stories.  Storytelling and stories are a fundamental modality for learning.  Our brains are wired to process experiences in the form of a narrative.

Telling stories builds connections between adults and children, whether the adult is the storyteller or the child. Telling stories, or listening to stories together, fosters a sense of shared experience and strengthens the therapeutic alliance. Stories engage various parts of the brain, both verbal and nonverbal, conscious and unconscious, effecting every part of the psyche. 

Several Bear Clan stories illustrate coping skills, teach relaxation techniques, address problem-solving, and explore character development. Some stories aim to facilitate discussions about traumatic issues, acknowledging the challenge many children face in expressing emotions associated with negative events.

A central theme in the Bear Clan stories revolves around courage and the importance of finding balance for transformation. The values portrayed in this episode’s stories draw from Native American teachings, specifically The Seven Gifts of the Grandfathers.

The episode introduces the Bear Clan Origin Story arc, drawing inspiration from a traditional Native American story called "The Boy Who Lived With the Bears." The narrative involves a child being adopted by bears after being mistreated by an uncle, emphasizing the importance of treating children with respect and love.

This episode shares the first three parts of the Bear Clan Origin Story.  It is built around the Native American parable of two wolves existing within every person.  In the Bear Clan version these wolves are “good” and “bad” but rather "courageous" and "fearsome."

Overall, the episode highlights the therapeutic benefits of storytelling in connecting with clients, addressing trauma, and imparting valuable life lessons.

This podcast episode discusses the importance of management and delegation within residential treatment programs for children and youth. It highlights the different levels of management within such organizations, including Executive Management responsible for overall leadership, Senior Management overseeing major aspects of the agency's operations, Middle Managers handling specific service units, and Frontline Managers leading shifts. It emphasizes that effective management is essential to provide quality care to the clients.

The episode explores various roles within residential programs, such as coordinators responsible for specific tasks like organizing activities or managing facility supplies. It also delves into the role of Key Staff, who work directly with clients, helping with activities of daily living, treatment programming, and more.

Delegation is a central theme in the podcast, and it stresses the importance of role clarity, administrative infrastructure, and a strong process for successful delegation and for program development. A five-step model for a delegation process is explained, involving (1) task explanation, including clarification of deliverables, (2) checking the person’s understanding of the delegated task or project, (3) reviewing what resources the person can use to achieve the task or project, (4) collaboratively establish a deadline and understanding around asking for an extension if needed, and (5) feedback afterwards on how the project or task delegation went. 

The episode underscores the need for management to empower staff by clearly defining roles and responsibilities and creating a shared vision for the organization. It also touches on different sources of influences beyond the Authority-Influence that comes from having any particular position within the organization.  Additional sources of influence, and power to achieve one’s responsibilities, include Relationship-Influence, Power Broker-Influence, Charismatic-Influence, Expert-Influence, and Fame-Influence. 

Ultimately, this podcast provides insights into the challenges and best practices of managing residential treatment programs, with an emphasis on effective delegation as a key tool for success. It encourages a collaborative and organized approach to improve the quality of care and empower staff at all levels of management.

This podcast episode is the second part of a series that addresses how to intervene when dealing with suicidal ideation in children and youth.

It emphasizes the importance of training for counselors and aims to make discussing this sensitive subject more approachable. An important focus is for counselors is to help clients understand suicidal ideation as a symptom rather than delving into the "why" behind it, which is a task for therapists. The episode emphasizes the need to distance clients from these thoughts and work on developing their executive skills, especially stress tolerance.

The counselor's role involves empathetic listening, establishing a sense of belonging, and helping the client tolerate their negative feelings and thoughts without using harmful behaviors.  If suicidal ideation includes gestures, attempts, or plans, the counselor should assess the situation in terms of risk and rescue factors and consult with an on-call clinician.

After a check-in around suicidal ideation, there are important communications and documentation to the rest of the team.  There may also be structural interventions put in place such as Scheduled Check-Ins, Increased Structure, Staff Shadowing, Re-entry Plans, and various restrictions that can be documented on a Safety Watch form.  That documentation helps everyone on the immediate team, and involved in follow up the next day, to work as a team to help keep the client feeling and acting safe.

Another powerful intervention is the creation of a Safety Contract, which serves as a formal agreement between the at-risk client and staff to ensure safety and offers personalized support.

The episode also underscores the partnership between therapy and counseling, with therapy addressing the "why" and counseling addressing the "how" of maladaptive behaviors.

Lastly, the podcast reminds listeners of the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988) as a resource for those needing guidance and emotional support outside of their work lives.

This podcast episode discusses the challenging issue of dealing with suicidal ideation among child-clients in residential treatment.

The podcast offers insights into different scenarios where staff may encounter suicidal ideation in child-clients and explains the unique challenges residential staff face, such as having to be the front-line mental health professionals, despite formal training.

The episode introduces the Columbia Protocol, a set of questions used to assess suicidal ideation, and discusses the importance of empathetic listening and creating a safe space for clients to express their thoughts and emotions.

The speaker emphasizes that the goal is not to uncover why clients have suicidal thoughts but to understand when, how often, in what situations, and what triggers these thoughts. Additionally, the podcast highlights the importance of assessing risk and rescue factors associated with suicidal plans and gestures.

The episode also touches on the role of different aspects of a client's psyche, such as the Artist, Scout, Warrior, and Chief, in processing suicidal ideation and emphasizes the importance of strengthening the client's stress tolerance and sense of belonging.

In conclusion, the podcast offers valuable insights and guidance for residential staff on how to approach and respond to suicidal ideation among child-clients, emphasizing empathy, assessment, and creating a supportive environment. It also encourages seeking professional help when needed through resources like the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988).

This podcast presents a powerful perspective for helping your child-clients become centered.  It’s based on understanding your kids’ needs through The Aspect Compass, a model representing four aspects of the psyche: The Artist (emotions), The Scout (cognitions), The Warrior (behaviors), and The Chief (executive skills). Each aspect has unique needs that, when addressed, can help children become centered and balanced:

For the inner Artist:

•         Getting sufficient attention.
•         Experiencing a full range of feelings.
•         Achieving emotional stability.
•         Expressing feelings.
•         Facing fears.
•         Grieving.

Attention and validation are essential for children's emotional well-being. Offering appropriate outlets for expressing emotions through words or art is encouraged. Support in facing fears and containing grief, while directing processing of grief to a therapist, are all important ways residentials staff support The Artist feeling centered. 

For the inner Scout:

•          Developing awareness.
•          Observing skills.
•          Acquiring knowledge.
•          Navigating effectively.
•          Reporting skills.

Engaging in activities that focus on sensory perception and cognitive exploration helps children become cognitively centered.  Physically exploring and navigating an environment will help kids experience behaving like a scout.  Encouraging accurate reporting will develop their abilities to be an effective scout, and will help their inner Scout feel centered. 

For the inner Warrior:

•          Having a mission and plan.
•          Feeling a sense of agency, achievement, and accomplishment.
•          Sense that one’s behaviors are meaningful.
•          Meeting basic physical and psychological safety needs.
•          Maintaining physical health.
•          Relaxation.

Helping children establish goals, fostering a sense of agency, and recognizing their achievements are essential for their behavioral well-being. Ensuring physical safety, health, and relaxation are also key components of centering the inner Warrior.  Structured time for relaxing is an important part of helping the inner Warrior feel centered.

For the inner Chief:

•          Enhancing self-awareness.
•          Maintaining integrity.
•          Cultivating wisdom.
•          Fostering a state of appreciation.
•          Building a sense of tribe/community.
•          Encouraging service to others.

The Chief plays a crucial role in coordinating the other aspects and needs self-awareness, integrity, and wisdom. Developing a sense of appreciation, belonging to a community, and engaging in service to others are vital for the Chief to feel centered.

This podcast emphasizes that understanding and addressing these needs can help residential staff design therapeutic programs and create environments that promote positive learning and growth for child clients, ultimately helping them become emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally, and physiologically centered while fostering a sense of community and belonging.

This episode explores various techniques for helping children process their feelings and develop emotional regulation skills. The episode begins with a recap of previous discussions on physiological coregulation and processing aimed at helping kids become cognitively centered. The focus then shifts to processing feelings, which can be more difficult, because emotions are challenging for children to articulate.

Check-in’s are a basic tool for helping kids express their emotions. These check-in’s involve asking children about their current emotional state. It often times is a good practice to focus on basic needs like hunger, thirst, and fatigue as potential sources of emotional distress.  Helping children monitor these needs is also developing their executive skill of self-monitoring.  

The episode also introduces two valuable tools: the Emotional Intensity Thermometer and the Feelings Map. The Emotional Intensity Thermometer is used to assess and rate the strength of different emotions, allowing children to better understand and express their feelings. The Feelings Map helps children identify and separate complex, simultaneous emotions, providing a visual aid for discussing their feelings.

Empathic Listening is presented as a powerful technique for counselors to connect with children on an emotional level. The importance of mirroring body language and tone, asking clarifying questions, and avoiding problem-solving during empathic listening sessions is emphasized.

Some cautions include anticipating the potential for disclosures of abuse or trauma during empathic listening and the importance of communicating such disclosures to the child's therapist.  There is also a risk that Empathic Listening will lead a child to assume that you agree with all of their framing, including negative views of other people.  Ways to address that possibility are addressed.

The episode concludes with guidance on transitioning from Empathic Listening back to structured activities and routines, highlighting the role of the counselor in providing emotional support and fostering a sense of belonging in children.

Throughout the episode, there’s a focus on the development of executive skills, self-monitoring, and stress tolerance as crucial components of helping children process their feelings and achieve emotional centeredness.

This podcast episode discusses the use of timeouts as a common and effective technique in residential treatment programs working with children and adolescents. Timeouts are employed to manage disruptive behaviors and prevent the spread of problematic behaviors and emotions within a group, similar to containing a fire's spread.

The episode emphasizes the importance of setting limits in a firm but non-harsh manner to encourage cooperation and internalization. While timeouts can be used as a purely behavioral intervention, their effectiveness can be enhanced by targeting cognitive development.

Warnings and timeouts can be combined, encouraging self-awareness and self-control while providing specific advice for calming down. Time Outs can also be effectively used without warning.  These Automatic Time Outs are based on written rules that are regularly reviewed with the group.

Processing timeouts with children is discussed, focusing on helping them take responsibility for their actions, consider the impact on others, and engage in relationship repair or restitution when necessary. The episode also highlights the benefits of group explanations, where clients review their timeouts with the group, fostering accountability and constructive feedback.

The concept of "chaining" or "linking" is introduced as a technique to help children map out the sequence of events leading to a timeout, identify thoughts and feelings associated with each step, and recognize choice points where alternative actions could have been taken.

Different approaches to determining timeout duration are explored, emphasizing the goal of reintegrating the child when they are calm and the group is ready. Techniques for aiding children in calming down, including organizing tasks and physiological centering exercises, are mentioned.

Lastly, the concept of "resets" is introduced, which are self-timeouts that allow children to regain control and rejoin the group, promoting self-control and self-determination. Overall, timeouts are seen as a versatile tool that can serve both as a behavioral management technique and as a means of teaching children to become centered and self-regulated.