Mental Health

4/22/2016 Article reflection

 

Today is Earth day, and I wanted to share some important information about how our human behavior impacts the environment.

The article  by Berenguer, 2010, The Effect of Empathy in Environmental Moral Reasoning begins by listing ways in which our daily lifestyle choices may impact the environment on a regular basis, including:

1. Public transportation vs. driving a car

2. Quick shower vs. a Long bath

3. Low energy light bulbs vs. ordinary light bulbs

 

(Berenguer, 2010) states that collective choices and the responsible decisions of multiple people towards being sustainable is necessary in order to make a community and society that operates on a sustainable level. The article also mentions that many models have been applied to further explain the relationship between us and the environment, including the model of how altruistic behavior explains environmental behavior. (Berenguer, 2010) also states that research has shown that models on altruism and empathetic processes better explain our attitudes, behavior, and individual norms in relation to the environment.

 

The article also introduces the value-belief-norm theory, which explains that environment helping behaviors in an individual are more likely to occur when they feel that their beliefs are being put in danger. For example, lets say that an individual strongly believes in organic food, therefore their behavioral actions will be towards keeping organic food, and they will prevent anything that might harm their organic food. So if you have enough people that share this belief, than a community will be created, leading to a movement.  The components needed to create a strong enough movement that will eventually create a environmental friendly society are:

 

1. Egoism- Being aware of Self perspectives

2. Altruistic- Being aware of the perspectives of other people with same beliefs.

3. Biospheric- perspective of the earth and environment as a whole

 

 

 

Citations:

Berenguer, J. January 2010. The Effect of Empathy in Environmental Moral Reasoning. Journal of Environment and behavior, 42, 110-134. http://eab.sagepub.com/content/42/1/110.full.pdf+html

 

03/25/2016

According to The National Domestic Violence , about 24 people per ever minute are impacted by acts of violence perpetrated by a partner. In this section, a power and control wheel is compared to a healthy relationship wheel. 



Some early warning signs or red flags that you may think are caring, attentive, or romantic behaviors are actually acts of power and control that may lead to acts of violence by your partner throughout your relationship. These including:

INTRUSIVE AND CONTROLLING: Partner consistently wants to know where you go, who you were with, where you were going, when you were coming home.

Examples: Your partner calls constantly and gets mad if you do not answer. He shows up at work or house of friends and family.

 

ISOLATION: Partner insists on spending all or the majority of your time together, cutting you off from friends and family, making fun of your interests in other activities. Your partner gets mad when you go see your friends and family. Your partner wants you to be with them all of the time.

Examples: Discouraging you from keeping in touch with family or friends. These action cut down your resources (family, friends), so when you need them, they may not be there for you.

 

POSSESSIVENESS AND JEALOUSY: Partner constantly accuses you of flirting with other people, or other people flirting with you. Therefore they use that as an excuse to control what you're wearing, and to decide for you on what you should wear. Your partner accuses you of sexual interactions with anyone in your life (friends, teachers, bosses, counselors, etc.).

 

PRONE TO ANGER: Partner gets angry easily, and sometimes for no reason, has rapid mood swings, unpredictable behavior; anger is out of proportion to the incident.

Example: Partner’s anger is directed toward a pet, possessions, objects. Partner may kick other objects or pets, destroy something of yours, rage at you if you’re late.

 

DOUBLE STANDARDS: Partner expects others (and you) to live by their standards, but they do not live by them.

Examples: Buys an expensive items, but criticizes you when you spend money on something that you like. Calls you names and blames you for sleep with other people, yet they have slept with many partners. They blame you for not being religious and following religious rules, but they themselves are not respecting religious beliefs or values and others.

 

SELF-CENTERED: Partner always focuses on their own wants and needs. They ignore your wishes.

          Examples: They spend money on their needs only, but do not contribute to house needs, groceries, and bills. They ignore to contribute to your basic needs.

 

BLAMES OTHERS: Partner doesn’t accept responsibility for their actions.

         Examples: Partner blames you constantly for their anger. They blame you or others for their acts of violence towards you and your family

 

INAPPROPRIATE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OR DEMANDS: Partner pushes you to engage in behavior that is uncomfortable or painful.

        Examples: Gets angry when you do not engage in sexual behaviors

 

 

ALCOHOL & DRUG USE: While alcohol and drug abuse doesn’t cause a person to be abusive, these problems often coexist.

       Examples: Uses alcohol as an excuse to engage in acts of violence. Makes statements like "I am sorry, I was drunk and didn't know what I was doing", or uses his alcoholism to manipulate you or others in the family.

 

 

Citations:
http://www.novabucks.org/powerwheel/
http://www.safespaceonline.org/healthy-relationships.html
http://www.thehotline.org/resources/statistics/



12/20/2014

Play therapy; Understanding life

In one case: A child had set the counseling room up similar to a real setting (a grocery store) and asked the therapist that their role was to come by them and ask them out for coffee; the child then wrote down a number on a piece of paper.  Later the mother told the therapist that she had been asked out on a date.

In play therapy a child will usually role play what they have experienced in real life; this is a way that they process what is going on around them. If something happened that they didn't understand or were not sure about, then they will use different scenarios in their play to make better sense of their experience.  In this case, the child had seen their mother being asked for her number and out on a date, and without the therapist being aware of this information until after the session, the child had mimicked this real life situation in play therapy.



Assessing Suicide

After the devastating news of the death of Robin Williams, which was the cause of suicide, we were reminded of the reasons why individuals with and without a mental illness find suicide as their last hope, but most importantly the ways that mental health professionals can play a role in these situations.

Suicide can be the result of many individual hardships including: Depression, Bipolar disorder, Anxiety, Psychosis, Substance abuse, Neglect, Stress from situations like Domestic Violence, etc. Therefore, as counselors and mental health professionals we need to asses the risk of suicide by identifying changes in behavior. But how do we ask someone if they are thinking of committing suicide? When an individual is in the middle of a crisis or their behavior has changed dramatically because they express extreme emotional distress; it is important to ask these initial questions: How are you doing today? How can I help you? Do you feel safe? These questions can show empathy for an individual who has suicidal thoughts, and can open up a conversation about any suicidal plans that they may have.

Remembering Robin Williams