Carl Sagan – ‘A Glorious Dawn’

“We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.” – Carl Sagan

Shopping for a Cause

Would you be more likely to buy a product if a portion of the cost went to a charity? I was listening to MPR this morning and they said that one of the marketing strategies that companies are using more than ever this year is linking product purchase, or even just entering the store, to a donation to a charitable organization. Is it really charitable if it it’s a marketing ploy? Does it matter what the motivation is?

Thankful 2009

This year I am thankful for a great many things, experiences and people.  Here are a few of the tops.

1. Jonathon A Bohlinger – the best man-spouse I could ask for
2. My family – thanks for always being there
3. His family – this year has been full of ups and downs and I am so thankful for all of you
4. Holcomb House – I learned so much while working there from my coworkers, the program, and most of all, the kids.
5. CRTC – I am learning a lot here too, looking forward to becoming a better counselor and therapist everyday!
6. UW Stout’s MFT program and cohort – you guys are great!  I’m looking forward to learning how to be a great therapist with all of you!
7. Our newly adopted cat, Stella – she’s a stinker, but she’s also very cute.
8. Good friends – enough said

I could go on, but it would eventually get boring.  Thanks for reading and I hope your Thanksgivings are beautiful.

Porn – Not that Bad!

I have often heard people say that pornography is a terrible thing, that damages to men and women, while stunting its users’ ability to develop healthy relationships.  Research put out by the University of Monteral found that this just doesn’t seem to be true.  Most men have consumed pornography and most men are not sexually violent, deviant or devaluing towards women.  If watching pornographic materials could make an individual deviant, watching a heterosexual movie could make a homosexual switch their orientation.  When researchers first started looking into the effect pornography had on male sexuality, they looked for men who hadn’t consumed any.  None could be found.  Maybe pornography isn’t that bad of a thing to consume.  What do you think?

University of Montreal (2009, December 1). Are the effects of pornography negligible?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/12/091201111202.htm

The Real Me – on Facebook!

According to a recent study put out by the University of Texas at Austin, Facebook users profiles coincide fairly accurately with their actual personalities. A questionnaire given to a variety of Facebook users evaluated them on the five factor personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Users who did not know the original set evaluated them on the basis of their Facebook profile only using the same criteria. The most stable trait was extraversion and the least stable trait was neuroticism, which makes sense because it is difficult to tell how neurotic someone is until you actually meet them.

This finding flies in the face of the idea that social media is all about promoting only a fake or idealized version of the self. The article, in fact, points out that mediums like Facebook and Twitter have now become synomonous with the phone for genuineness of social interaction. Basically, it is as genuine as the user makes it out to be.

Feel free to check me out on either Facebook or Twitter. My Twitter username is stonea3 and my Facebook account is under Anna Bohlinger. See you on the internet!

University of Texas at Austin (2009, December 1). Facebook profiles capture true personality, according to new psychology research. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 2, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/12/091201111154.htm

Mary Roach: Ten Things you Didn’t Know about the Orgasm

Reading my Papers

If you have any interest in reading some of the papers I have been working on over the semester, please check out my “Papers” page under the headings at the top.  I just posted a couple of papers there for your perusal.  Let me know if you have any questions!

The Pillars of Treatment

Effective residential treatment involves four major pillars or tenants. They are: Structure, Nurture, Engage, and Challenge. All four of these pillars are used at the same time throughout treatment and without one the whole system fails.  That being said, at different points throughout the individual’s phases of treatment, different pillars may be emphasized at different intensities.

Structure involves creating, teaching and maintaining safe and logical limits or rules.  For instance, depending on the population of the treatment center, certain types of violent literature may not be allowed.  Although censorship is generally frowned upon, if a child has been a victim of rape, exposing them to literature involving rape may re-traumatize the child, thus slowing down the whole treatment process.  Therefore, literature involving rape may not be allowed at a treatment center because of the danger of re-traumatization.  That rule is created and taught to clients with reasonable and logical consequences for breaking the rule.

Nurture is another important pillar of treatment.  Giving clients positive messages in ways that are receivable is a prime responsibility of the therapist and counselor.  Nurturance should be appropriate to the client’s developmental level, treatment plan and culture, among other qualifiers.  For some clients, sitting on the ground playing legos (ie: parallel play) is nurturing and developmentally appropriate, while for other clients having a conversation about some item of pop culture may be nurturing.  Know your client population and work to serve them, not a pre-conceived conceptualization of them.

Engaging clients is very similiar to nurturing them.  An area where this may differ from nurturing is that engaging clients seems to be more of a group, than individual process.  Engaging with clients means sitting in psychoeducational groups or community meetings.  It means participating in recreational activities with the client.

Challenge is all about not only the specific behavioral and cognitive changes the client should experience for success, but also believing that clients can be successful.  As a counselor or therapist, we must believe that our clients can change.  It is out of this belief that we issue questions and challenges to our clients and hold hope, even when they may feel it slipping out of their fingers.

Again, without any of these pillars, the whole structure falls down.  Effective therapists and counselors, especially in residential treatment settings, remember these pillars work to use them effectively within the therapeutic environment.

Structure, Nurture, Engage & Challenge: Without one, the whole thing falls down

TED Talk – Redefining Disability

Update

As you probably have noticed, I have not been blogging as much lately.  I started grad school about two weeks ago and my time is pretty solidly split between working, being in class, doing homework or spending time with my husband.  Due to time constraints, I will not be updating as regularly as normally.  Every now and then I will try to post an interesting article or link.  For instance, I suggest that you check out this link.  It’s a comic a man wrote about dealing with schizophrenia.  Again, check it out.  Peace,

Anna B