Tag Archives: Marriage Counseling

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ADHD, Counseling, Fear, Mindful Parenting, Mindfull Parenting, Parenting, Parenting Skills, Therapy, , , , , ,

 

IMG_3103I spoke with a man outside of my office while at a local place of business.  He asked what I did for work.  After telling him, he was very interested on my take about a personal situation.  This is not uncommon for people in my field.

This man shared with me the issues he’s been facing with his young son who has a lot of energy.  He said a lot of people have labeled his son ADHD.  So naturally, he was very interested in my take on ADHD.  He commented, “It’s kind of a fad isn’t it”.  I don’t really have a lot to say to that statement.  Is it a fad?  I do remember a time when it seemed like it was the go to diagnosis for kids who had a difficult time with focus, but I was just getting into the field at that time.

Heck, I had to ward off people who would haphazardly diagnose me with ADHD… (Admittedly, it’s taken a long time to write this post).

He told me that his kid’s teachers have told him he’s got ADHD and friends have done internet ADHD checklists on his behalf.  In all honesty, with what he was sharing it seemed his son was a strong candidate for a psychiatric visit.  “What?”  “Meds??” “People are always going to medication as the answer?”  HA! There’s a can of worms I don’t want to open.  Listen, I could tell he was not open to hearing that and I bet he had heard it enough times before.  So this brings us to the point of my post today.

Taking the Lame out of the Name

I got a sense from this man that he was suspicious of the label, ADHD.  It appeared to me his suspicions was keeping him from seeking professional help.  How many of you are/or have been guarded yourselves with a diagnosis label?  Labels in itself have good and bad effects on people.  Any diagnosis given to a child has a risk of being “type cast”.   Ask kids in Special Ed classes.  However, what if you did find out there was a problem and it had a name?  Would it matter all the same if this label had a solution that decreased the severity of the problem?

This is what is important, getting the best possible assistance for your family.

PS- If it will help, stop calling diagnosis’ a problem and call it a challenge.

 

Weekly Wisdom

Pride is deaf to wisdom

From a Child’s mouth

“I haven’t lied because there hasn’t been anything to lie about”

My First Blog

Counseling, Mindfull Parenting, Parenting, Therapy, , , ,

Daniel Bolg 1

Like all of my sessions I will begin with personalities.  It is fundamentally important to know who you are involved with.  The function of the personality isn’t to label a person or disable a person.  It is used to help recognize the viewpoint they hold.  A person’s personality can be described like a well of which a person draws water.  Its water, but it may have a different taste.   At this point I will have to disclose that I tend to use a lot of word pictures to describe what I’m saying and not all of them will be an accurate use of the analogy.  As I was saying, I typically use the first 2 to 3 sessions teaching on personality.  There have been some cases when doing this made the difference that corrected the problem.  However, that is not always the case.  I recommend doing your own research on personalities.  The most accepted one is Myers Briggs Type Indicator.  There is the oldest one called “The Four Temperaments”: Choleric, Sanguine, Melancholy, and Phlegmatic. 

The one I use, which was developed by Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent using animal characteristics: Lion, Otter, Beaver, Golden Retriever.  I have created a template that takes all four into account.

Weekly Wisdom

Accept your past, Accept your present, Dream your Future.

Analogy

Progress can be like a pinball, you have to be pulled back before you can be launched.

From a child’s mouth

Me: “I love your honesty”

K: “I hate it…being honest and nice is disgusting”

This blog will be a weekly installment of my work in my sessions without breaking confidentiality, exploiting my clients, or knowingly using another person’s intellectual property.