The Spiritual Exercises by St Ignatius Loyola is a classic for any Christian interested in spirituality. It delves deep into Christian meditation and creating a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The exercises are in themselves Christocentric and focus on the life of a Christ as a starting point into deeper reflection about oneself and one’s relationship with Christ. Choosing the banner of Christ is critical in the exercises.
St Ignatius uses many battle analogies in choosing this banner. The exercises are also important for spiritual development and also helping others guide others through difficult spiritual troubles.
Please also review AIHCP’s Christian Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Christian Counseling.
Many individuals deal with depression on a daily basis. They may not even know they are depressed and push through life. High functioning depression does not leave one bed ridden but parasitically wears the individual down on a daily basis. Like most depression, it may not have an acute reason or loss but merely manifests due to family history or past unresolved trauma. One however continues to function within society and fulfill social obligations.
Many individuals are depressed yet still high functioning. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Training
The article, “Understanding High-Functioning Depression” by Sean Glover takes a closer look at High Functioning Depression. He states,
“High-functioning depression, also referred to as dysthymia, can be hard to spot. It doesn’t look like stereotypical depression. Unlike major depressive episodes, which are intense, debilitating, and time-limited, high-functioning depression is low-level, chronic, and doesn’t have a clear trigger. Its very existence can feel maddening.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Training and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The courses and program are independent study and online and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.
Prolonged Grief Disorder is a complication in the grieving process that prevents the person from adjusting to the loss. It closely resembles depression but is slightly different and can cause as much mental and social turmoil in one’s life. Unlike depression, prolonged grief has a definite source.
Prolonged Grief disorder is a complication in the grief process. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification
The article, “The pain of prolonged grief disorder” by Allison McCook looks at what Prolonged Grief Disorder entails and the conditions that must be met to be diagnosed with it. She states,
“Every human being will experience grief at some point in their lives — it’s a fundamental human experience. “I think it’s important to underscore that people are equipped to grieve, and for the most part people do it OK,” says Anthony Mancini, a psychological researcher at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. But some mourners are not OK. When my mother died, I developed what’s known as prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a different sort of grief that psychologists are just beginning to acknowledge and understand. People with PGD — sometimes called “complicated grief” — aren’t just struggling to “get over it.” They have a defined disorder”
Complications in grief can occur and when they do, individuals sometimes need care and guidance from a licensed professional counselor.
Professional counselors can also become certified in Grief Counseling. AIHCP offers a four year certification in Grief Counseling for qualified professionals. The program is online and independent study.
Anxiety and depression can overlap but they by themselves are two independent different mental issues which can cause extreme distress. Anxiety is a alert state of stress when stressors are no longer present. Depression is an overlapping sadness that persists and exists usually without reason. Both can lead to mental states of distress and usually need treatment from a professional.
Anxiety and depression shares similar symptoms but are different. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
The article, “Anxiety vs. depression: Similarities and differences” by Zia Sherrell looks closer at the differences between anxiety and depression. She states,
“Both conditions can also cause physical symptoms. For instance, a person with anxiety may present with chest pain or dizziness, and someone with depression may experience changes in their appetite or sleep patterns. Despite the similarities between anxiety and depression, it is crucial to understand the key differences to ensure the best treatment and management approach. Keep reading to learn about the key similarities and differences between anxiety and depression, including the symptoms, causes, and treatment methods.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program as well as AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification. Both programs are online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking four year certifications. Please review and see if they meet your academic and professional goals.
Protecting one’s child and teen from drug abuse is a large concern in parenting. Drug abuse can not only harm one’s child academically but also potentially lead to premature death. With so many different type of substances and drugs available, parents need to educated and prepared to help their teens deal with the pressure and dangers of drugs.
It is important to help teach your teen how to stay drug free. Please also review AIHCP’s Substance Abuse Counseling Certification
The article, “10 tips to safeguard your teen against substance abuse” from High Way Mail lists ten things a parent can do to better protect teens. The article states,
“Teens need structure to stay safe. Setting clear rules about drugs and alcohol can help. You can’t guarantee that your rules won’t be broken but research shows that teens who have clear rules, even if they’re broken, are less likely to get into serious trouble than teens who don’t.”
To read the entire article, please click here
Please also review AIHCP’s Substance Abuse Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Substance Abuse Counseling.
Death and life are a cycle. Ironically, joy and grief also coincide with each other. The death of one loved one can be overlapped with the birth of another. Pets are also an overlap of death and life. Many individuals find new dogs or cats to love, while still grieving the loss of another. Many individuals feel they may be replacing a past dog or cat, but the reality is, one is loving another while never forgetting the other. It is like having multiple children. No child replaces another but only enhances one’s life.
For many the decision for a new puppy can be difficult. Please also review AIHCP’s Pet Loss Grief Support Program
The article, “What I’ve Learned from Loving a New Dog While Grieving Another” by Annette McGivney looks at her journey of caring for a new dog, while still in the acute process of grieving the loss of another. She states,
“Last April and May, I tried to live without a dog and focus entirely on grieving Sunny, but I soon found myself looking at puppies online at two in the morning. One thing led to another, and in early June I drove to Pueblo, Colorado, to pick up Trudy after a rescue organization reached out to me. My contact there knew I was planning to wait at least a year before bringing another dog into my life, but she convinced me to go for it. “This dog really needs someone who is active and can spend a lot of time with her,” she said. “You would be perfect.” Trudy’s elderly owner lived alone and had dementia. He had kept her isolated in a cement dog run for her entire young life.”
The late comedian George Carlin once said, “life is a series of dogs”, For many pet owners this is true. It is not a series of replacements but a series of sharing life with new faces and one day hoping to see all those faces again together.
Please also review AIHCP’s Pet Loss Grief Support Counseling Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Pet Loss Grief Support.
Guilt is a necessary emotion. When anchored with a good conscience, it provokes truth and justice when wrong is committed. It prevents future wrong doing in some cases and helps guide the person to proper moral outcome. It is hence sometimes good to feel guilt. If one lacks guilt in appropriate circumstances, it is a sign of a deeper and more sinister moral flaw. Sociopaths are incapable of guilt and can commit the most grievous offenses without any sense of emotional wrong doing.
Victims can carry disproportionate grief. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Certification
For the more tender hearted and as well as those who experience trauma, guilt can sometimes become excessive and over play its reach. It can become a pathological agent that prevents proper healing. When guilt is not properly processed and understood according to reality, it can then continue to haunt a person and prevent emotional healing. Guilt must be processed. If due to trauma it becomes part of dissociative material, then it can linger. It needs to find resolution, where appropriate sorrow is displayed and a chance for change and growth occur. When guilt is stunted, either not accepted or over felt, then it can keep a person stuck in the past.
With trauma, guilt is usually not proportionate and a variety of distortions exist. These distortions continue to exist when individuals keep trauma to themselves and do not face it. This is why dialogue is so critical to healing. It allows the wound to bleed and also the opportunity to discuss falsehoods regarding the traumatic event hence allowing integration of the memory.
Most distortions create an imbalance of guilt. Either the person blames oneself 100 percent or finds no blame at all. Associated with this are usually feelings that one does not deserve to live or survivor guilt. In addition, many individuals feel the guilt is critical to show they still care and that they must punish themselves and repeat the pain. Multiple reasons incur this guilt. Many believe they are guilty because they were afraid, or found relief. Others find guilt in having to kill, making a mistake, finding enjoyment in the event, wanting to die, or expressing extreme hatred. Others find guilt in their actions in not being able to save others, not taking precautions, freezing under pressure, not stopping the abuse, or not saying “I love you” one last time.
Many things can haunt a person who experienced trauma. Depending on the trauma and event, they can differ, but they all carry a haunting voice that judges what one felt, did not feel, did, or did not do. Distortions to the event can amplify the sorrow the person experiences.
Dialogue is obvious the first step in unlocking guilt. Various cognitive therapies look to identify guilt and then properly ascertain legitimacy of it. This involves discussing with a therapist the event itself and verbalizing the details. The patient then must attribute the level of what they think was their fault in a numerical percentage. Following this, the therapist challenges the events and asks probing questions of who else may be at fault. The guilt is then re-assessed and a recalculation occurs in which proportionate percentages of guilt are discovered to be less. This process can be repeated weekly to illustrate to the victim and patient that the guilt attributed is far from fair.
Also, the therapist can help the victim distinguish between the emotion of concern versus guilt, as well as shame and guilt. Many equate these emotions with guilt. The sexual victim may equate shame with guilt. In doing so, one can then start to attack the various distortions of guilt.
It is also important to help the patient understand their decision under pressure. Normal decision making under peaceful situations are quite different than decisions under duress. Fight or flight mechanisms can erupt and many lose rationality. So it is good to point out that one does not think the same way under trauma as if not. A therapist can also help the patient look at the choices that were available, the time constraints, all the information at the time and the intent of the outcome.
Another important way to help one see the past is to have the person play the role of two. As if an advisor or friend, to respond to one’s own criticism. By separating oneself from the event, and counseling one as if a friend, one can then begin to see the overall picture. So many therapists recommend patients play a two role therapy of talking and then responding as two different individuals.
It is important to properly process guilt in trauma. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
In addition, various rituals can help. Spiritual visualization of healing, as well as finding forgiveness through a higher power.
Through this, one is better able to properly rank their guilt and true proportionate role in the traumatic event. The person can then understand the situation, move on from it and process it. Through this, the victim can be better prepared for the future and understand the role he or she played.
Of course, various therapies help individuals with PTSD and trauma better recollect the situation and process any negative emotions. EFT, Rewind Techniques, TIR and EMOR are all way therapists can better help an individual relate to the emotions and events of a particular trauma. They can also help the person cognitively restructure the event appropriately to reality. Removing inappropriate guilt is obviously an important step.
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Program, as well as Stress Management Program and Crisis Intervention Program. All programs are helpful in teaching professionals to guide others through trauma. The programs are online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification.
Sources:
“The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook: A Guide to Healing, Recovery and Growth” by Glenn Schiraldi, PhD
An important skill for children is meditation. Meditation and spiritual and emotional health are many times overlooked in parenting. It is important for parents to help their children develop spiritual skills with their faith and mental overall health.. Meditation is an excellent way to help develop a child’s faith but also as a way to deal with stress and anger in life. Whether the techniques are Eastern or Western, instilling in a child the ability to look inward is an important skill. The idea of meditation for children is gaining more and more acceptance also in schools where it can be utilized in a secular way to help calm and quiet children.
Children can benefit from meditation too. Please also review AIHCP’s Meditation Instructor Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals
The article, “Meditation for Kids: The Basics and the Benefits ” by healthessentials from the Cleveland Clinic takes a look at the importance and basics of meditation for children. The article discusses the numerous benefits children can receive from meditation. It discusses the types of meditation that work best with children as well as proper ways to work with kids learning meditation. Also importantly, the article discusses how meditation can form bonds within the family. Overall, meditation carries enormous benefits for children. The article states,
“Kids can benefit from meditation at any age. However, it’s important to adjust the form based on how old they are. For instance, if you struggle to make it through a five-minute seated meditation session, don’t expect your little one to cruise through it.”
“Meditation for Kids”. March 25th, 2022. Healthessentials. Cleveland Clinic.
Meditation is a commonly used mental health intervention that has been shown to be effective in a variety of settings and for a variety of populations. Meditation is a mindfulness-based intervention that can be used to increase awareness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. Research on meditation has shown that it can be an effective intervention for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. The health benefits of meditation have been well-documented. Meditation has been shown to lower blood pressure, improve cardiovascular health, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve symptoms of conditions like insomnia and chronic pain.
Meditation for Children
There are many benefits to meditation, especially for children. Meditation can help children focus and concentrate, while also teaching them how to control their emotions and impulses. Additionally, meditation can help reduce stress and anxiety levels, and can promote a sense of calm and wellbeing. All of these benefits can help children in school and in their personal lives. Hence children who are struggling in school may benefit from meditation training at home or from another mental health professional.
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that meditation can have a number of benefits for students, including reducing stress and anxiety, improving focus and concentration, and increasing self-awareness and empathy. Given these potential benefits, it makes sense to incorporate meditation into the school day, either in the form of a brief class period devoted to mindfulness or as part of the curriculum in other subjects such as health or history.
There are many types of meditation for children. Some common ones include mindfulness meditation, concentration meditation, and visualization meditation.
Mindfulness meditation is a type of meditation where children focus on their breath and being present in the moment. This type of meditation can help children to become more aware of their thoughts and emotions. Concentration meditation is a type of meditation where children focus on a specific object or sound.
There is also growing body of research indicating that meditation can be an effective intervention for anxiety in children. Meditation involves the practice of mindfulness, or moment-to-moment awareness, which can help children to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings and better able to manage them. A number of studies have found that meditation can decrease anxiety levels and improve coping skills in children.
Finally, meditation can strengthen bonds with the family. When it comes to finding inner peace, many people turn to meditation. By focusing on the breath and letting go of thoughts, meditators can achieve a sense of calm. In addition to providing individuals with a sense of peace, meditation can also help improve relationships within families. By teaching family members how to meditate, they can learn how to better communicate and connect with one another.
Conclusion
In conclusion, meditation can be a very beneficial tool for children. It can help them to focus and concentrate in school, to control their emotions, and to deal with stress. The benefits of meditation for children are numerous. Meditation can help children to cope with stress, anxiety and depression. It can also improve their concentration, memory and sleep quality. Moreover, meditation can boost the immune system and help children to develop a positive outlook on life. There are many types of meditation that can be beneficial for children. With so many different ways to meditate, there is sure to be a method that is perfect for every child. Try out a few different types of meditation with your child and see which ones they enjoy the most. Meditation can help children to relax, focus, and feel more calm.
If you are interested in teaching your child how to meditate, there are many resources available to help you get started.
Please also review AIHCP’s Meditation Instructor Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking to become a Meditation Instructor.
Additional Resources
“Mindfulness-Oriented Meditation for Primary School Children: Effects on Attention and Psychological Well-Being”. Cristiano Crescentini, et.al. Front. Psychol., 07 June 2016
Sec. Developmental Psychology. Access here
“Teaching Meditation to Children and Beginners” . Sumi Loundon. Insight Journal. Spring 2004. Access here
“The Basics of Meditation for Kids of Any Age”. Sarah Lindberg. September 29th, 2020. Healthline. Access here
“Science Shows Meditation Benefits Children’s Brains And Behavior”. Alice Walton. October 18th, 2016. Forbes. Access here
ADHD looks different in adults and may be difficult to spot, especially for individuals who have lived their whole life thinking their behavior is normal. It is important to discover if one has ADHD in order to improve one’s life style in every venue of life. This is especially true with work and relationships.
It is important to identify if you have adult ADHD. Please also review AIHCP’s ADHD Consulting Program
The article, “ADHD looks different in adults. Here are 4 signs to watch for” by Tamara May looks closer at signs of ADHD in adults and what one can do. She states,
“Many people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may not receive a diagnosis until adulthood. Adult symptoms can look a little different to those of childhood. Knowing what to look for is important, so people can get support to help them better understand themselves and meet their full potential. People, including some clinicians, may not be aware of adult ADHD and how symptoms may change as a person develops and grows. We aim to change this through the development of an Australian ADHD guideline, which is based on evidence and now open for feedback.”
Please also review AIHCP’s ADHD Consulting Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification as an ADHD Consultant.
Prescription drug abuse is a chronic problem in the United States. Misuse and illegal transfer of prescriptions, especially pain pills and ADHD medications are a big problem for many people. Addiction, especially to opioids are on the rise and physicians are becoming more reluctant to prescribe addictive medications. There is hope to overcome this addiction but it involves determination and desire to move away from these types of drugs.
Prescription drugs when misused can cause serious addiction problems. Please also review AIHCP’s Substance Abuse Counseling Certification
The article, “How Prescription Drug Addiction Is Treated” by Michelle Brooten-Brooks looks closer at how these types of addictions are treated. She states,
“In 2020, 1.2 million people in the U.S. misused prescription pain relievers.1 Prescription drug addiction often starts with medically-prescribed needed use, such as following surgery or injury. Gradually, use becomes misuse, resulting in substance use disorder or addiction. When that occurs, prescription drug addiction treatment is necessary.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Substance Abuse Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Substance Abuse Counseling.
