34. Residential Counselor 101 pt. 1 - Science, Art, and Craft

The Role of a Residential Counselor:  Care and Treatment

CARE:

Relationships:  A core responsibility is to attend to the care, well-being, and safety of the clients.  This requires caring and respectful relationships between staff and clients.

Self:  In order to take care of the clients, you have to be able to take care of yourself.  This work is very stressful and your ability to become centered will strongly effect your ability to help the kids become centered.

Task Responsibilities:  A Residential Counselor has numerous core tasks related to the implementation of program structures, care of the facility, and reporting requirements.

TREATMENT:

Emotions:  In the East cardinal position of the treatment compass, this domain represents the parts of the brain, and the parts of the mind or psyche, that understand the world and communicate in terms of emotions.  Part of a counselor’s treatment role is to help clients become emotionally centered when their feelings and moods become too extreme, too intense, too unstable, or too restricted. 

Cognitions:  In the South, this domain represents the parts of the brain and psyche that understand the world and communicate in terms of thinking.  Part of a counselor’s treatment role is to help clients become cognitively centered when their thinking is disorganized.

Behaviors:   In the West, this domain represents the parts of the brain and psyche that understand the world and communicate in terms of both external actions and internal physiological activity.  Part of a counselor’s treatment role is to help clients become behaviorally and physiologically centered when their actions and bodies become too extreme or chaotic. 

Executive Skills:  In the North, this domain represents the parts of the brain and psyche that regulate the other parts of the brain and body.  Part of a counselor’s treatment role is to serve as the kids’ executive skills, support their emerging skills, and inspire the development of their executive skills so that they can successfully self-regulate and no longer need residential treatment.    

Self:  At the center of the treatment compass is the self.  In addition to needing to take care of themselves, so that they can care effectively for the kids, from a treatment perspective residential counselors need to be skilled at becoming centered themselves.  Those abilities, to be highly resilient and to set the tone, will help the kids learn how to become centered. 

Other Key Concepts

Counseling:  Where therapy is has a strong interest in helping people make connections between their past and present, and tends to directly focus on issues related to grief and trauma; counseling tends to be more focused on the present – on how the client is functioning in-the-moment.

Neuropsychology:  Neurology is the study of the brain and nervous system.  Psychology is the study of the mind or psyche.  Neuropsychology studies and explains the connections between neurology and psychology. 

The Human Brain:  This complex organ is made up of different parts that have unique shapes, functions, and ways of processing sensory data.  Likewise, different parts of the brain have different ways of communicating to rest of the brain.  Via the spine, nerve pathways, and blood vessels, the brain is connected to all the other parts of the body.  There are glands throughout the body that produce various chemicals that change how the brain functions.  Although only a metaphor, you can think of these chemicals as corresponding with feelings and moods, while the electrical system of the brain corresponds with thinking.

The Practice Effect:  Anything you practice, your brain gets better at doing.  This not only applies to actions, like bouncing a ball, but to feelings and moods.  Practice getting angry and you’ll more easily be able to get into that state-of-mind.  Practice being happy and you’ll ore easily be able to get into that state-of-mind. 

Co-Regulating:  This term refers to how two people who are doing the same activity, side-by-side, will start to synchronize their nervous systems.  Human Beings start out life dependent on co-regulation to manage their infant feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.  As those parts of the brain get used, the practice effect kicks in, and a person starts being able to better self-regulate.

The Artist:  This is what I call the parts of the brain, and the parts of the psyche, that only understand the world and communicate in terms of emotions.  The Artist wants to be seen, and the artist wants to be heard.  The Artist communicates, via feelings and moods, to get its needs met, using the only “language” it has – emotions.