“Just the other day, I suddenly realized I was happier than I have been in a long time.
Home is a place I want to be again, there is peace there.
I barely have the words to tell Dr. Fairchild how different it is now. Many thanks.”
Robert’s dad
What is Counseling? If you are like millions of other parents, there are times when you seek information or guidance on issues related to raising your child. You may turn to friends or family members or to magazines and books. If things get really challenging, you go to a counseling professional who is trained to discuss feelings or problems without judgment, as an active listener, asking probing questions to get to the root of what is hurting. Counselors offer objectivity, caring, support and confidentiality in a manner and setting designed to promote desired change in these areas. Parents often seek out a counselor who can offer a new perspective on a struggle with a child in the family, from a non-judgmental, compassionate listener, who are very often seasoned parents themselves. Sometimes the problem can be managed in 2 or 3 visits, and at other times, more verbal encouragement is needed over a longer period, for the readjustment of the family after a remarriage, recombined family, or when new communication styles need to be modeled for everyone in the family.
Teens often need someone to talk to who is NOT associated with school or their peer group. A few of the reasons teens seek counseling are: ~ stress ~ family problems ~ boy friend/girl friend issues- exclusion from friends/groups - roommate conflicts ~ adjustment to college life ~ relationships ~ depression ~ addictions ~ anxiety ~ non-assertiveness ~ lack of concentration or motivation ~ inadequate study skills. Apart from specific issues, some students use counseling sessions as an opportunity for personal growth through learning more about their personal strengths and weaknesses and exploring new values. Teen Counseling is a process in which a counselor and a student work together to resolve issues that are of concern to the student. Issues addressed in counseling vary from adjustment to young-adult “post-puberty” life, study skills, relationship problems, and stress, to more serious problems. In order to get the most from this experience, the student must be an active participant in establishing what goals are important, exploring potential solutions and experimenting with new and potentially more effective ways of perceiving or behaving. There are all types of counselors, psychologists, therapists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists available, depending on the modality that is needed for the challenge at hand. Each type of practice requires its own accreditations and license. Some practitioners have academic backgrounds, and others have clinical backgrounds. Some require a Ph.D., others a Master’s degree. Psychiatrists are medical doctors which requires a Medical License, but may then write prescriptions for drugs and medicines. Among psychologists and other therapists, there is a range of philosophies they may abide: Freud, Jung, Skinner, Erickson, to name a few. Some practitioners focus on the root of the problem (psychoanalysts) and other pratitioners are somewhat unconcerned about the root of the problem, and focus mostly on outward behavior (such as B.F. Skinner) Often a counselor will begin with a client on a smaller, behavioral adjustment, and then refer a client to another type of practitioner for medical or mental health issues beyond the scope of counseling. Again, many practitioners specialize in a specific area, such as grief counseling; marriage counseling; play therapy, anger therapy, business coaching, etcetera
Coaching is different than almost all of the other help modalities available, because coaching focuses on a specific area at a time, and this area is determined by the client. There is coaching to finish a dissertation, coaching to land a job interview, coaching for the perfect golf swing, coaching for students, and coaching for parents. A coach is there to observe, support, and point out ways to reach goals. It is basically developing a strategy to attain a goal, and then building in accountability for making this goal happen. Coaches may co-write goal sheets, offer encouragement, advice and action plan strategies and feedback. Coaching is a partnership between a coach and client whose main purpose is your success and well-being. A coach's role is to bring out your best and to provide ongoing support.. Coaching often involves gaining insight into what is most important to you in terms of lifestyle, values and goals to develop a personalized plan of action to make your aspirations and dreams a reality Great athletes have traditionally used the power of coaching to heighten their performance levels.
Hypnotherapy is a state of relaxation to an alpha or “trance” state, similar to the “automatic pilot” effect we sometimes experience when we’re driving a familiar stretch of highway: we zone out and we’re suddenly home. In a hypnosis session, the client experiences very deep relaxation. During this gentle and relaxing process, the therapist assists the client with accessing his subconscious mind to locate the root cause of a problem, issue, addiction, trauma or behavior, and to create new, positive behaviors.
A trained hypnotherapist uses affirmative suggestion and visualization to help a client access their unconscious belief structures and transform the negative ones. In this state of focused, yet altered awareness, the client is more receptive to suggestion and change, and the person can heal, transform and release the barriers to their goals. The client has the opportunity to experience the root of the issue as well as the emotions related to it. The client is fully aware, focused, and in control at all times. The client controls how deeply he or she will experience this process and can stop it at any time. No one can hypnotize another person against their will, contrary to the staged “chicken clucking” circus trick magicians used to pull off in traveling shows” Hypnosis has a range of practical applications, from painless childbirth to clearing phobias, increasing self esteem, resolving relationship issues, improving health, and relief from stress, pain, and insomnia.
Guided Imagery is a relaxation technique aimed at easing stress and promoting a sense of peace and tranquility at a stressful or difficult time in a person's life. It can be used by young children all the way up through adulthood.
Through the practioner’s words, deeper breathing, and sometimes asking the tense muscles in the neck and face to let go, the client is relaxed to a point of deep relaxation. The client often follows along with a story, or a mentally guided walk along a path to a serene location. There, instructions for mental rehearsal of a new behavior is rehearsed. This simple and effective tool can be used for stress reduction, test anxiety, anger management, reduction of pain or symptoms, sports enhanced-performance rehearsal, weight loss perseverance, and many other behavior modifications.. Research has shown that stimulating the brain through imagery may have a direct effect on both the endocrine and nervous systems, which lead to changes in immune system function and improved health overall.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a behavioral technology, which simply means that it is a set of guiding principles and techniques about real-life behaviors that get in our way, but we are not sure why we are doing them. For example, you want to start a college class, but somehow you end up sabotaging yourself each time by missing the registration deadline, or losing the paperwork, or showing up on the wrong night. Through a series of questions about the goal you want, and reviewing the pictures, words, feelings, your mind is making deep inside that “talk you out of” being successful. Once you are able to look at the wide awake pictures and sounds you are showing yourself, we can begin to erase them or create new pictures or mental “tapes” for you to listen to instead, and modify that behavior to get what you really want. Often, a trained NLP practitioner will use metaphors or short stories to make specific points to you and your subconscious mind. NLP looks for patterns and one of the earliest patterns noticed in humans was a tendency for the eyes to look in a certain direction when thinking in a certain way. Practitioners also know that recognizing whether someone is seeing, hearing or feeling, allows you to match the sensory system they're using and communicate with them much more easily NLP was started in the early 1970’s by Grinder and Bandler, and is based on Milton Eriksonian psychology theories that behavior is based on deep seated and unconscious beliefs that can be changed over time. It allows you to change, adopt or eliminate behaviors, as you desire (feeling stressed, over eating, getting upset”, etcetera), and gives you the ability to choose your mental, emotional, and physical states of well-being.
The PMR procedure teaches you to relax your muscles through a two-step process. First you deliberately apply tension to certain muscle groups, and then you stop the tension and turn your attention to noticing how the muscles relax as the tension flows away. Through repetitive practice you quickly learn to recognize—and distinguish—the associated feelings of a tensed muscle and a completely relaxed muscle. With this simple knowledge, you can then induce physical muscular relaxation at the first signs of the tension that accompanies anxiety. And with physical relaxation comes mental calmness—in any situation.