Author: Dominick Flarey

Become A Certified Health Care Life Coach

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

    What Does a Certified Health Care Life Coach Do?

With busy schedules, conflicting issues and unrelenting stress many professionals are turning to life coaching. Life coaching involves helping others achieve goals via good health in all aspects of life. Life coaching pertains to counseling, diet, goal setting, physical education, and stress management. In many ways a life coach becomes a mentor and guide to his or her patient pointing out the path to a healthy life style. If you fulfill the necessary pre-requisites in health and counseling, you can become a certified health care life coach. As a life care health coach, you can assist gyms, businesses and individuals in their personal goals of health. Certified Health Care coaches are first health professionals who specialize in coaching techniques to assist clients in making positive changes in their life styles to enhance wellness and prevent illness. AICHP offers the certification in health care life coach. By taking the required courses, you can become eligible to become certified in this field.

Certified Health Care Life Coach
Certified Health Care Life Coach

Managing Stress For A Successful Life

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

 How to manage stress for a successful life?

Managing stress is key to a successful life. Stress attacks everyone on all fronts. Whether it is personal, financial, or professional, one must be able to cope with stress in a healthy way. If one cannot develop the necessary coping strategies in life to deal with stress, then one’s life will   

become a disorganized and emotional struggle. Stress managers help people with stress and aide them in better ways to cope with it. While individual professionals seek stress management, one is beginning to see a large demand also by corporations. Corporations want their employees to be as stress free as possible to maximize their talents in the work place. AICHP offers certifications in stress management for qualified individuals who would like to learn more about stress management and utilize their skills in helping others. If you feel you are qualified and have a strong understanding of stress and stress management, feel free to apply at AIHCP, take the ceu courses, and become certified in Stress Management.

Hypnotherapy Can Help You

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

How Can Hypnotherapy Help You?

Are you obsessed with quitting smoking? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you preoccupied with stress? Are you afraid to go the dentist? Do you have a phobia that is out of control? If you answered yes to any of these questions and conventional methods are proving futile, then you 

may wish to consider hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy calms the mind and opens the subconscious to new suggestions. When employed with meditation, it can help the person overcome a variety of mental obstacles. Those who have clinical hypnosis or hypnotherapy certification can be a professional who can really help with behavior and habit control. If you are interested in hypnotherapy or wish to learn how to become a hypnotherapist, contact AIHCP. AICHP offers a variety of courses in hypnotherapy for certification. If you fulfill the pre-requisites, you may be eligible to become a certified hypnotherapist and begin helping other people and start a career.

Training in Grief Counseling: Suicide Intervention Strategies in Grief and Christian Counseling

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Suicide Intervention Strategies in Grief and Christian Counseling

In the previous article, we discussed assessment. The final element of assessment is types of intervention required to prevent suicide that Grief and Christian Counselors can use.
There are two types of intervention. The first is Low-Risk Intervention and the second is High-Risk Intervention. High and Low is determined by level of depression, amount of risk factors and number of suicidal thoughts.
 Low level intervention requires first and foremost a no suicide contract. This removes stress from the spiritual child and allows them to be free of a dangerous and impulsive decision. The second requires follow up meetings as you nurse the person out of the situation. This may also involve other LPC assistance. Finally, family and friends are needed to lift the spirits of the person. Faith is also key here.
Higher risk symptoms involve more drastic interventions. The plan is very identifiable, doable and even has a possible time frame. Obviously a no suicide contract should be made but the extent of family and friend intervention is much higher. Sometimes an intervention circle may be needed where family and friends form a vigil around their the person. In other cases, police should be called at times or admittance. However, sometimes emergency responses can only do so much or hospitals can only hold someone so long due to observance rules or insurance issues. In these cases, family is most key. The one thing to remember is as a counselor you should never put yourself in harms way especially if a weapon is involved.
It is the hope after help has arrived that post counseling and medicines can alleviate the suicidal thoughts. Ultimately the greatest healing comes from God and this in some cases takes the most time, especially since only the person can open himself to God’s grace. However, is this not the role of the Christian counselor? To shower the love of God on those who suffer?
Hopefully with proper assessment and correct intervention methodologies, a  grief counselor can prevent the death of a person.

Please also consider training in grief counseling.

Grief and Christian Counseling Suicide Assessment Questions

Posted on by Dominick Flarey

Grief Counseling Training Program: Suicide Assessment for Christian and Grief Counseling

In grief and Christian counseling it is important to identify high risk factors that can lead to suicide. Below is an assessment guide in diagnosing possible people at risk.

The first assessment is identifying symptoms of depression. According to medical professionals, depression manifests itself in these ways. 1. Intense sadness. 2. lost of interest in normal activities 3. loss of energy and strength 4. loss of self confidence 5. excessive guilt 6. expressions that reflect lack of worth or living 7. loss of concentration 8. extreme restlessness 9. frequent insomnia 10. loss of appetite. One should rank these on a scale of one to ten. If two or more symptoms exist with a level of three, a counselor should refer his patient to a medical professional for possible depression treatment.
The second assessment for suicide prevention is the risk factors. Among the most common are 1. loss of job 2. loss of social status 3. financial loss. 4. Gender–male. 5. family history of suicide 6. drug use 7. mental illness. These issues or combination of these issues can lead to a potential suicide
The third and final assessment is assessing he lethality of a threat or plan. Questions such as “Have you considered harming yourself?” or “How many times have you considered harming yourself?” are good starting points in questioning. The second set of questions involve the depth of the plan. They include “Have you considered how you will kill yourself?” The third set of questions hopes to identify a time table. Through this one can identify the intent, lethality and immediacy of the threat.
With good assessment skills, a counselor can prevent a catastrophic event that will not only end an individual life but hurt an entire family. For more information, please review our Grief Counseling training program.
By Mark Moran, MA

Christian Grief and the Effects of Traumatic Grief on Society

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Courses in Christian Grief Counseling: Effects of Traumatic Grief on Society

In the previous article we discussed what traumatic grief is and how it affects the survivor. We utilized Lifton’s five major themes that correspond with traumatic grief. In this segment, we will analyze the recovery procedures for people of traumatic grief. We will also include Christian principles that can heal the wounds of traumatic loss and grief.

The first step involves understanding the nature of the trauma. The trauma is so severe that it has  
brought one to the jaws of death. The realization that death is inevitable and was so close can negatively affect a survivor. Lifton’s first rule is to manage the symptoms of anxiety that correlate with the trauma. 
It is the goal of counselor to help the patient identify and face the pain associated with the trauma. Only then can the counselor help the patient feel less alone and push them towards a sign of hope. Strategies for symptom management help the patient realize they have control and hope. Some strategies include cognitive and behavioral therapies such as relaxation, or techniques for interpersonal skills. Medication is also an option to ease the emotional anxiety so the person can focus and heal. Support groups of people who share similar stories of trauma are also encouraged.
The second step involves reconstructing meaning. In this element, the person begins to find a place for the traumatic event in their life narrative. They face the trauma and then reconstruct their life story with the trauma of the past. This is the very definition of metaconstruction which integrates one’s past and future self conceptions into a new story.
The final element involves finding new spiritual wholeness. This is the final step of healing. In this step, the survivor must recover a new meaningful sense of purpose, return to society, and move towards a healthy self-acceptance of who one is. Some create survivor missions which give them a sense of destiny and ultimate value. Some find this value in God as its source, while others find non theistic means such a good of community or justice. In many ways this final step is a self acceptance and forgiveness of the past that eliminates the negative energy and produces good energy via praxis.
Obviously, God as the source produces the greatest recovery. However, some may remain bitter towards God for the evil that befell. These are signs that a full recovery is not there yet. The bitterness is negative and only until they are able to remove that darkness from their soul will they be healed. The saints and 
mystics focused their energy on Christ who suffered the most traumatic death. They focus on the trauma the Blessed Virgin faced seeing her son brutally murdered before her eyes. In that grief, they find love, support, and healing. They realize in this fallen world, they are not alone. No matter how traumatic the event, the end is resurrection in Christ. If survivors are able to go through the three steps of recovery, they will then be able to unify with Christ their sufferings and elevate it to a higher and supernatural level that the world cannot comprehend. This is the great mystery of Christian grief: through suffering comes redemption.
While traumatic grief and the pains of survivors are immense and require long periods of recovery, it is possible through good counseling, therapies, and God that one can again find meaning, wholeness, hope and love. This does not entail that the healing process eliminates the scar or the memory, but it does allow the person to accept those scars in a healthy manner and continue to carry their cross with dignity, hope, happiness and Christian charity.
Please review our courses in Christian Grief Counseling.
By Mark Moran, MA

Christian Suffering and Survivor Grief

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Christian Suffering and Facing Traumatic Events

The deep emotional scars of survival from a traumatic event of terrorism, plague, natural disaster, or war can be devastating to the human soul. Such evil and mass death can cripple the person from properly healing and continuing one’s life story. While Christian grief looks at such events within the prism of God’s love and how his love can shine through the evils of men and the natural sufferings of the world, one cannot elevate this suffering to new heights until the human psyche is healed. Traumatic and   

complicated grief is the end result in these cases and the person is unable to recover. The natural grief recovery is stifled by the severity of the grief inflicted upon the person. In these cases, grief counseling is only the start. In many cases, professional licensed counselors are called upon to administer grief therapy and supply medication when needed.

A pioneer grief specialist in survivors of traumatic grief is Robert Lifton. Lifton defines a survivor as someone who has faced death and has remained alive. As a survivor who faces death, or mass death, Lifton listed five characteristics. These five characteristics are critical to understanding the nature and mindset of a survivor.

The Five Themes

The first psychological theme is the death print. The death print is the images or memories of the death event. They can cause death anxiety and can be recalled with clarity many years later. Many survivors are haunted by the desire to replay the image of death over and over until they can find a more acceptable outcome.
The second theme is death guilt. Many survivors are tormented by survival guilt. This guilt manifests from the fact that others died and they did not. This is especially the case with parents who may lose a child. In other cases, death guilt can also manifest due to lack of proper performance in stressful situations. Some people will feel extreme guilt because they did not do this or that and due to inability failed to save someone.
The third theme is psychic numbing which can accompany chronic depression. Due to this phenomenon, someone’s crucial components of self are disassociated with the ego. This numbing in some cases is a self defense mechanism. Recovery from this involves intensive therapy to feel again.
The fourth theme according to Lifton is “suspicion of counterfeit nurturance”. This deals with the feelings that survivors have with interpersonal relationships. For the most part it manifests when survivors are reluctant to receive support because they refuse to admit to the damage the trauma has caused his or her soul.
The final theme is formulation. This is the struggle the survivor has to find meaning out of life after a traumatic ordeal . How does the traumatic event fit into the life story of the person? How does the person bridge the past to the future?
These five common themes of survivors are all elements a grief counselor will have to deal with as they rebuild the psyche of a person who has experienced a traumatic event of any type. In the end, the essential task of a survivor is to find meaning of the trauma and connect the loss to their life story. One must find a way to assert continuity of life while remaining true to the past traumatic event. After identifying these themes in a person who has experienced traumatic grief, a counselor needs to work on each aspect and gradually rebuild the person and open the door to creating and reconstructing 
meaning in the person’s life. We will in future blogs review this process, but it is important to note, a Christian counselor of grief should also integrate the sufferings of Christ and point to Christ as a paradigm. Christ’s suffering ultimately is the most traumatic event in human history. One must unify his or her suffering under his cross to finally rise from the ashes as Christ did. Through hope in Christ, all wounds can be healed, even the most traumatic.
Please review the Christian Grief Counseling Program

By Mark Moran,MA

Grief Counseling Certification Program: Grief Supportand Attachment

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Grief Support

Past psychological misconceptions on grief portrayed grief as an irregular element of human experience that needed to be avoided at all costs.In some cases, it was even classified as a pathology that needed cleansed from the system.  Freud insisted that energy devoted to what was lost, must be reinvested into new things or new relationships. This materialistic concept of the “now” and “here”, swept away the spiritual needs of the soul and attachment to the lost object or person.While complicated grief can become a pathology, it is dangerous within grief counseling, especially within Theistic theology, to quickly dismiss the grief process from regular mourning.   Grief, even from a non religious standpoint, is now beginning to be seen as an important element of human existence and an emotion that should not be surgically removed from the consciousness at first diagnosis. While from a theological standpoint, one can say grief is unnatural to man from an eschatological view, one cannot dismiss grief an integral part of the fallen state of historical man.  While the secular view would dismiss the fallen state, it would agree that historical man’s feelings of grief are integral to his overall existence and should not be spurned but properly utilized within the healing process.Most importantly, contemporary grief analysis would concur that attachment to the lost should never be swept into the abyss of the subconscious, but should be reshaped and reformulated to fit the new meaning of the person’s life.

     In analyzing the new ways grief is properly seen within the light of psychology, two things are apparent. First, grief is a natural element in the life of historical man and cannot be dismissed but worked through, and second, the losses of grief are always part of the particular person’s psyche and cannot be eliminated, but must be accommodated in a healthy fashion into the person’s life story. Accommodation in this way becomes an important element in contemporary grief theory. In the past it sits in the background and replacement became the key. Freud insisted one must remove all psychic energy from the deceased or lost and emphasize one’s new energy into new enterprises. Grief was seen as a sickness or unnatural state. This misconception prevents true healing. It creates a “robot” response to death or loss which is unnatural and

realistically impossible. Only a true sociopath could remove himself from the loss of a loved one, granted selfish interest was not affected. With such separation from human emotion, infusing energy elsewhere and replacing the lost with something new, drew a sharp dichotomy of the person “past” and the person “present”. It broke the story line and failed to connect the two persons of past and present for the healthy person of the future. Accommodation in this respect takes the energy and reinvests it into the lost person in a healthy fashion. It does not hope to change the past, but insert it into the story line of the existing person. It hopes to find value and new meaning within the loss. This involves creating a new chapter or a change of the plot, but it does not underestimate the importance of the previous chapters of the person’s story. The story remains uncut from its past and continues to build new chapters. If one adds a theological perspective, it also understands, that future chapters will again, reintroduce this character back into their life story. In fact, within a theological perspective, the lost character never leaves the story, but is involved at a different spiritual level, ready to be introduced physically in an eschatological era. This is the power of accommodation of loss and the importance of meaning making in one’s historical narrative. The lesson: the present and future need the past to exist and one should not try to escape it or surgically remove it, but allow it to become part of what one is today.

Attachment and Grief Support

     Attachment is the other key. Attachment theory is the basis of all human interaction. From the cradle to the grave, people experience attachments at some level. The highest bonds are usually between parents and their children, but throughout life, attachment varies in extreme and intensity. The primary principle revolves around this intensity. The strength of the bond depends on dependency and intimacy. The reaction to loss is hence based upon the strength of these things. Hence when dealing with the grieving, a counselor should be aware of the bond that has been broken. Is one dealing with an attachment involving a simple three month break up or a divorce of a ten year marriage? Is one dealing with the death of a distant aunt or the death of a mother or father? These subjective elements will play large roles in grief support due to the attachment applied to that person. In the same regards, a woman who was somewhat interdependent may recover quicker than a woman who was completely dependent upon her husband.
     From a theological standpoint, theists can take these attachments to another level with God. While in the temporal reality, one must accept, even the greatest joys of this world will one day be taken away, one can with assurance of faith believe God’s love can never fade. Many studies have shown that those who experience loss find meaning and reconstruction quicker by their faith in God. God represents the most stable and perfect attachment; an attachment that can never disappoint or cease to exist. However, one of the most reassuring aspects of attachment with God is that all the good attachments that have been lost, will again be shared in the eschatological state. Even a materialist, who denies the existence of God, cannot deny the  emotional benefits of hope from a purely psychological state. For this reason, attachment that goes beyond the mere human attachments presents a very powerful tool for coping during grief.
     From these perspectives, attachments should not be seen as possible pathologies, but are important social links to human existence. Everyone forms bonds and attachments to people. These attachments should not be seen as horrible ghosts when they are severed but should be revered and respected and reformatted into one’s future narrative. It is true as the poet once said, “It is better to have loved and lost, than never loved at all”.  To review the Grief counseling certification program, click here.
By: Mark D. Moran, MA, GC-C

Christian Coaching and Christian Counseling

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What is the difference between Christian Counseling and Christian Coaching?

The need for good Christian guidance has led to ministry based counseling with biblical foundations and morals. Christian Counseling is one such ministry that hopes to help others in need from a Christian perspective with Christian solutions. Another ministry is Christian Coaching.

Christian Coaching is an offspin of Christian Counseling. Counseling deals more with repairing and guiding in times of doubt while coaching is strengthening and helping one reach potential. In many ways, coaching coincides with mentorship or spiritual direction.
While many people look to live healthier lives and hope to organize everything via a health coach, Christian Coaching is more spiritual. As a Spiritual Director, the focus is on improving one’s spiritual life via prayer advice, spiritual exercises, and spiritual goal making.

Someone who is interested in Christian Coaching or Spiritual Direction should already be adept at Christian Counseling but also have a strong understanding of one’s faith and the relationship that will exist between the spiritual father and spiritual child. A Christian Coach should also be well versed in Moral Theology and Apologetics.
If you are interested in spiritual Christian counseling courses, then please review.

Mark Moran, MA

Near Death Experiences and Christian Counseling

Posted on by Dominick Flarey
While far from a scientist but always a philosopher and theologian first, I would like to attempt to open dialogue and raise questions regarding the purpose of the brain and its relation to the body and the soul. I would also like to discuss issues of Near Death Experience as legitimate functions of the soul or merely physical reactions within the brain.  While this is not completely a discussion found in Christian Counseling Courses, it still nevertheless  an interesting theological subject relevant to Christian theology.
Secularists have attacked the nature of the soul, memory, and feelings as natural chemical reactions that can be interpreted as “abstract” but in reality exist within the material. Within the complex nature of the brain, emotions and memories arise but are merely an evolutionary adaptation from matter and nothing beyond the material. They further contend that the brain creates illusions of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) where the person actually believes his or her “soul” has left the confines of the body. The idea of depersonalization concerns the loss of emotion and the detached feelings people have upon the approach of death. This is why some explain why the person feels they are away from his or her body. The other element is hyperaltertness that deals with sharper hearing or vision and either dull or more vivid thoughts at the approach of death. Both these states help the person face dangerous situations. In times of crisis, if action is available, the natural defense mechanism is to act, however, according to secularists if no physical action is available the brain merely utilizes neural and spiritual imaging resources. In conclusion, the argument rests that the brain is merely a physical organ that via chemical processes can create altered states of consciousness and mimic spiritual existence beyond death.
Atheistic motivated psychology attempts to remove memory and abstract concepts as separate realities from the material world. It wants to divorce the idea that abstract ideals are beyond the physical and enforce a concept that through evolution, abstract concepts have sprung from the matter and clay of the brain. This is a huge jump without any empirical evidence. The reality is Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all view the ideas of the abstract as superior and separate to the material world. Concepts cannot be sensed via touch, sight, scent, taste or audio, but are ideas that transcend the temporal sphere. Concepts of justice cannot be dissected on an operating table, but only understood via manifestation. They do not exist within nature physically. Furthermore concepts of love, ideas, or shapes all exist outside the actual object. For instance, the idea of “squareness” exists within itself without material representation. Again, the concept that one plus one equals two exists without representation. Plato referred to these ideas as the universals. The universals exist as abstract concepts that cannot be understood via the senses but only via the intellect. He concluded independent spiritual abstract ideals that are beyond the touch of one’s senses can only be comprehended by the same spiritual “stuff” of the soul. Aristotle tied these two elements together when he took basic “matter” and” form” concepts and found the forms or universals within matter and individualized; the physical world reflected the spiritual forms. Hence emotion, spiritual sight, or any other abstract notion that escapes the lens of science is real and is manifested via the material world. These ideas do not originate from matter but are expressed via matter. This is a very different concept than what atheistic psychology proposes in its attempt to put science and theology at odds.
 On the contrary, science is not at odds with theology for both claim the same source which is God. Biologically these chemicals are trace elements for the existence of emotion. They are not the origins of the emotion but the physical correlation of it. The idea that the body affects the mind and the mind affects the body is an undeniable principle that stems from the dualistic nature of man. Man is both body and spirit and in that combination and complicated fusion there lies interaction. Could one not deny the abstract concept of worry and its effect via ulcer? Or can one not deny the physical pain that can also cause emotional pain? An example would be the physical pain of surgery and also the psychological pain of the loss that correlates with that surgery? While hyperalertness and detachment may very well be biological evolutionary devices for the body to prepare for death or accept death, one cannot claim that they are solely biological. And if so, who is to claim that in some cases the mental state produced is biological and in other cases spiritual? Not everyone who experiences the close breath of the reaper claim NDE. With such conclusions, the Christian or theist will not dismiss these chemical reactions within the brain or possible natural explanations for NDE visions, but instead will accept them and incorporate them relevantly to theology. In the end, scientific investigation and theology cannot be at odds, but in this case how do both find credence with each other?

The Brain is a Metaphysical Organ

The answer to this question is simple because the brain is the gateway to the soul. The brain is a metaphysical organ in many ways. It is capable of channeling the spiritual essence of man into physical or material coherence. In many ways it is an adapter that translates and shares the ideas of the soul into praxis with the body. This organ is metaphysical because it exists in both planes. No other organ can boast of such an ability. No other organ carries its responsibilities beyond the physical. While cliché phrases unite love with the heart, one cannot deny that the heart plays no spiritual or emotional role. The reality is the brain or the mind meets the soul half way and articulates its desires to the world. It is in this complex fusion of mind and body where the intellect and will of the soul shout to the world, “I am here”.

In this regard, the psychology of the mind is better understood within a prism of faith. Instead of proclaiming that certain chemical reactions in the brain create emotion, faith dictates that these abstract emotions are manifested via the brain through these chemical reactions. In pure sacramental form, the body manifests the soul, so why would it be any different at a more micro level? For science to proclaim that chemicals cause the emotion instead of vice versa is merely atheistic philosophy infused into science.

Rebutal of Atheistic Claims

With this deeper understanding of the brain as a metaphysical organ we can answer a few challenges posed by secularists. First, as noted, we can dismiss the notion that chemical reactions in the brain are the cause for human emotion. Second, we can challenge ideas of brain death. Secularists contend that if a piece of the brain is removed or a part of it is damaged then the emotion and memories associated with that part is forever loss. With the image of the brain as a metaphysical organ and gatekeeper of the soul one can easily contend with equal reason and intelligence that the memory is merely inaccessible to the physical element of man. The reality is that it still exists within the intellect of the soul, awaiting 
healing or the final resurrection of the broken body with the soul. Finally, in regards to NDE, one can accept that not every vision is spiritual, but if the brain is seen as a metaphysical organ with such capabilities, then one cannot dismiss NDE on all counts within reasonable grounds. Who is to say what vision is a true manifestation of near death and a mere evolutionary coping device. One cannot empirically prove this. Unlike science, theology can speculate via hope and faith, science must empirically show evidence. There is no physical evidence to disprove that these numerous and diverse experiences stem from a spiritual reality.
With these ideals in place the Christian or theist can with good reason accept scientific findings regarding the functions of the brain without fear that science is posing a threat to their faith. The reality is both the spiritual and the physical are in harmony with one another. This is the case especially with the brain which acts as a perfect gateway that reflects the harmony of the soul and body. In many ways, one could speculate that this proposes a Trinitarian design that reflects the image of God and his inner-workings of Father, Son and Holy Spirit via body, soul and mind; three units working as one.
During Christian Counseling sessions, a counselor should not dismiss the experiences that the brain and the soul experience during near death but instead be open to these ideas because they are part of the Christian faith and the reality of the soul and a metaphysical plane of existence.
If you would like to take courses in Christian counseling, then please review.
By Mark Moran , MA