Mental Health Insights and Strategies
Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:46
Good morning Las Vegas. This is Dr. G. From it's where I am. And you're listening to 91.5 FM K UNV. I'm David JENICE, clinical and public relations director at great mind counseling and Wellness Center. And I'm excited to be here this morning to bring to you some questions, questions from listeners that have forwarded along some mental health questions. So this is a first for me as guest host on it's where I am having an opportunity to engage more with our listeners and to provide a response from me a licensed mental health therapist in the state of Nevada, as well as California to answer some of your questions. So my special guest today that is here with me is scooter who is the activities director at great mind counseling and Wellness Center. Good morning, Scooter.
Unknown Speaker 1:49
Good morning, Dr. G. Thank you for having me back. How are you today?
Unknown Speaker 1:52
I'm doing wonderful. I have had my cup of coffee this morning. And I have a little bit more energy and I'm ready to go. I'm prepared. My mind is prepared to answer these questions. All right. So go. So without further ado, if you wouldn't mind scooter reading the very first question.
Unknown Speaker 2:12
Okay. Very first question I have for you, Dr. G is how can we help with self esteem issues?
Unknown Speaker 2:18
Wow. Well, self esteem is something that I believe all of us endure so so self esteem, I want to take a moment to define it first, because I think that's really important. Self esteem is how we each view ourselves feel about ourselves. It's our confidence level and our ability. It represents and infuses so much of our attempt, I think to be able to attack certain tasks, and to feel like we have the confidence in executing something. And if in the event and our efforts in our attempt when when executing something, or trying to problem solve or complete something. If we fail, if we have higher belief in ourselves higher or more positive self esteem, we usually do better. So for those of us who might be challenging with some self esteem issues, I want to say and acknowledge you're certainly not alone. And I think all of us as human beings endure a process in which we all go through where we're working on ourselves, we're trying to to figure out who we are as an individual, and all that certainly impacts how we view ourself. So some of the things that I like to recommend to individuals that have lower self esteem, I feel we need to start at the basics. And what I mean by that, in regards to this question is that we need to work towards liking ourselves. And and one activity that I often do speak about with with patients is I will encourage patients to hopefully I'll be able to identify three to five positive attributes or values that that they like about themselves. And sometimes even identifying three positive attributes is an extreme challenge for some individuals, because their self esteem their their ideas of their own self worth, their self perception of who they are, is very low and negative. And so I really work with them hard at at identifying three to five positive things that they like about themselves. We write these positive attributes, values, characteristics on post it notes, and then I have the individuals put the five posted notes on The top of their mirror in the bathroom that they primarily use to use the bathroom or to get ready in the morning. So that my intention is that each time this individual utilizes their bathroom, when they go wash their hands, they're going to catch a glimpse of these posts that notes in the mirror. And each time they catch a glimpse of the posted note, I want them to either read out loud, or think, by mind reading what is said about themselves, so that eventually, it becomes more of an internalized belief, and that they start believing in themselves and, and believing the positive characteristic or value that they've identified about themselves. And then therefore, that's going to impact their self esteem in a positive way.
Unknown Speaker 5:52
It definitely will. So next question I have for you, how can you help someone that has a sad or anxious mood? Swing? Okay,
Unknown Speaker 6:07
that's a good question. So, you know, feelings in general, we all we all experience them. And, and for some individuals, they want to shy away from embracing and experiencing emotion, because it's too too raw, it's too uncomfortable. And I'm an individual, that I believe a life worth living is a life worth feeling. And I'm certainly an emotions guy. I feel very comfortable processing with patients and for myself, experiencing feeling emotion in a positive way. And and there are some uncomfortable emotions that can infuse a lot of thinking, thoughts that are uncomfortable for people. But feelings, I think is something that we all have to learn how to manage, and and how to hold. And so I'm a big encourager of individuals not shying away, or running away from feeling what it is that they're enduring, or experiencing in a conversation or an interaction. Because ultimately, if we can all learn how to manage our emotions, positive and negative emotions, we're going to have more success at fostering healthy relationships, and sustaining healthy relationships over a period of time. So mood management, okay, here is. So I feel that all of us can occasionally wake up on the wrong side of the bed, of course. And so what I mean by that is, is that maybe we, when we wake up in the morning, we're not feeling like ourself, right? You know, maybe we're already starting the day off feeling pretty down, feeling stressed, and just just not like our normal self. You know, I don't know how many of you listeners ever feel that way. But, you know, I think it's, it's an experience that we can relate to. And so when we wake up in the morning, we're already starting off at a deficit. Oh, we're starting off on a negative note. And so, I believe, though, that with perspective, taking with intention, right from the get go, we can start changing how we feel and our mindset as soon as we wake up,
Unknown Speaker 8:57
I agree. So
Unknown Speaker 8:59
so and what I mean by perspective taking, so it's, it's important to recognize and to do a self inventory or self assessment, what's going on with myself right now? Am I feeling stress? am I experiencing worry? Am I fatigued? Am I hungry? You know, there's all factors that can go in to impact our mood. You know, do we have a lot on our plate this week? are we feeling overwhelmed? And and so, you know, checking in with ourselves doing that self assessment to identify what it is that might be contributing to, to our mood to feeling down to feeling sad, to feeling overwhelmed. And though if we're not able to identify specifically, what's contributing to why we are feeling so down, that's okay. That's absolutely okay. You know, if you're aware of how are you feeling though, and with intention consciously, you're doing something to shift feeling down to maybe just feeling okay? About the day and being able to move throughout your day having a little bit more success at not feeling so down or so overwhelmed, then I feel like you're you're already halfway there in terms of making a positive change to manage one's mood, you know, a big proponent of self talk, and, and utilizing positive self talk, to influence our mood and to take control back, if you will, and how we're feeling and, and creating a shift and mindset so that we can be more successful at navigating throughout our day at feeling a little bit happier, and less sad, less down, less overwhelmed. So you know, perspective taking, I think, is so powerful. And it's something that I don't believe we talk about enough or as often because all of us really do have more control over our mood, and, and the ability all of us have the ability to shift our mood when we're feeling down to feeling more optimistic about life, maybe more upbeat, and general, just just more positive.
Unknown Speaker 11:31
Okay. Do you feel laughter and being positive is contagious?
Unknown Speaker 11:37
Oh, my goodness. So I personally love to laugh. And if you get me going, Scooter, I have sometimes a hard time to stop. I think laughter absolutely is contagious, and it's so healthy. And when I start laughing, I get into the belly. And it feels good in my body when I laugh, and and the the sounds that come out of me of joy, I think are contagious. And you know, listeners, I think if you have the opportunity to laugh more, and to few infuse that level of joy into your life, I think you'll feel in your body lighter and less stressed. And also, it does go back to what I was just saying about perspective taking because if we think more positively more often, we're a body, we're probably going to feel more optimistic and more positive about life. Yes, indeed.
Unknown Speaker 12:48
Okay. So my next question would be if a parent is raising an adolescent, how would a parent defuse challenges like behavioral issues that they might be having?
Unknown Speaker 12:59
Oh, Scooter, that's, that's a great question. So fortunately, at the moment, I am out from as a parent, raising teenagers, because my boys are now 23 and 27. So but I went through this, and I remember sometimes, you know, I wanted to pull my hair out, oh, wait, I don't have any hair listeners. So but I felt that way, I felt like I wanted to pull my hair out sometimes because of the internalized stress or and frustration I was experiencing as a parent. You know, I think all of us do the best that we can, with the knowledge that we have access to with the life experience that we have got to endure. It's hard. It's so hard being a parent, I think it's one of the most rewarding jobs, but I think it's also for me, one of the most challenging jobs. And fortunately, when I would make a mistake parenting my boys, they would allow me opportunities to make it up and, and to repair, you know, the damage in regards to you know, maybe hurting their feelings because of how I provided direction or how I engaged with my boys. And so, you know, little people have feelings. Absolutely. And adolescents are extremely moody can be you know, they're they're managing lots of changes chemically in their bodies, their hormones. And, you know, they're also learning how to navigate through social peer interactions. They're trying to identify and create who they are as a young person who they want to be, who do they and they're trying to figure out who Who do they look up to? Right? And, and so they have all this stuff going on. And then they have to deal with us adults, right. And they're lovely parents. And, and so I know how frustrating it can be, sometimes when we come home after a long day at work, and we're already depleted because we just spent eight to 10 hours at work. And then our teenagers are coming at us. And they're asking for this, and they want to know, when dinner's ready, and we haven't even had a chance to, you know, take off our coat yet, we have to make dinner and and, and so we're still in that mindset of Go, go, go, yes. And so as a parent, our patients threshold may be really stretched, because we don't have too much to give at that point in the early evening, and our kids are coming at us, and they just want this and they want that, and they're asking for this. And, you know, it can, it can draw on our very last ounce of patience. So, you know, what I did was, is as I, I have family meetings, and so we would come together and we check in with each other as far as, you know, how was everybody's day and, and really make an investment in each other, and hearing what each one of us needed, in order to feel listened to and to feel validated. And so my boys understood that when dad came home, I needed 15 minutes, so I could go use the restroom, maybe change my clothes, and just have a little time reprieve from not focusing on driving home in my car. And, and, and just having an opportunity for myself to kind of transition if you will, from being in work mode, and then transitioning into parent slash family mode. And so that was something that was really pivotal for me in being more successful as a parent. So, you know, I and I talked to my boys, and they understood, you know, just like when they would come home from school, they would appreciate some quiet downtime themselves, so that they could maybe get a snack when they came home from school. Just to quiet their mind, they might want to have a little video game time to decompress from the day before they started doing their homework. And so we all were on the same page as far as learning about each other, and what each other needed in order to be successful when we all got home. And we're together as a family. And and you know, parents out there, for those of you that are actively overseeing and caring teenagers. Another parent once said to me, when my boys were first entering their teens, that aliens come down from out of space, and they suck the brains out of our adolescence, and they don't get their brains back until their 20s. And when I when I heard this, you know, I giggled, I laughed, and I took a minute I paused and I reflected, and I thought to myself, ah, this parent is so astute, because she's right. And, and so for those of you that are praying that your child is going to get a clue, and that they're going to figure out their life plan. I promise you, they will, but you gotta be patient because it doesn't happen overnight. And And truth be told, that their brain does not even fully developed until the time they turned 25 years old. So I encourage you now to identify what coping skills you that you have access to the tools that you need to re energize yourself to kind of re fuel your gas tank, so that you can continue to be more patient with your children and to be emotionally attune and listening to your kids and and providing the support the insight that they need in order to continue moving forward as little little people as I say, okay,
Unknown Speaker 19:38
so switching gears a little bit. How can we help patients that you know, are out of character from the normal character? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 19:51
that's a good question. Scooter. You You got some good questions from some of our listeners scooter. Okay, okay. So um, At great mine counseling and Wellness Center, we predominantly provide clinical services to adults today. Yes. And many of our adults have endured severe mental illness throughout much of their adult lifetime. Yes. And so, severe mental illness. This is typically diagnoses that are more intensive as far as the symptomology, in which one struggles with and learns to deal with and manage in their daily life. So these are individuals who may hear voices may have hallucinate hallucinations, may experience delusions, could have a history of homelessness of drug use, being exposed to trauma, horrible traumas, a lot of a lot of things go into what has contributed to these individuals having severe mental illness. So Skooter accurate mind counseling and Wellness Center, can you speak a little bit in regards to the services that that we provide there? And then, you know, I'm going to continue to speak after we kind of share a little bit about, you know, what we do to support our adults? Well,
Unknown Speaker 21:33
a great minds, we provide psychiatric medical care, family therapy, primary care, individual, individual therapy, wellness classes.
Unknown Speaker 21:46
So we do a lot. And though I think, Why, great mind counseling and Wellness Center is as successful as as the provider is, is not just because we provide all those things, that's great. But I really do believe though, it's, it's the services that we don't get reimbursed for, that we provide to our patients, to our community members, so that we can help them have access to care. And so what I'm referring to is that, at, at great minds, we do a lot of case management work, right. And so we work with individuals from the perspective though, that we are going to help them meet their basic needs first, so that then they can transition into a mental health and emotional space to focus then on clinical services. So if an individual comes to us and doesn't have consistent sustainable housing, this is an issue that we're going to attack and try to figure out how we can get this person housed. If they, you know, need assistance with food, at great mind counseling, we provide meals, all throughout the day, we have different tracks and with in which patients come and participate in the clinical services, and, and we feed our people all day long. Because we believe that if people are hungry, they're not going to be able to focus and, and really work on their clinical stuff that we're providing so that they can be successful. In this day, and age, individuals need to have identification. And it's not uncommon that those that come to us for clinical help, don't come with identification. So we help them then obtain their IDs. If they don't have a social security card, we will help them attain, you know, a social security card. So part of the work that we do is work that's not reimbursable. We don't get paid to do that some of the things that we do, but it's very important to us, and we hold it near and dear because we really want to set up individuals to be successful at accessing then the services that they need to be healthy. And so it's a whole it's a whole process that we focus on at great mind counseling and Wellness Center. So going back, though, to this listeners question, can you read the question again? Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. So if an individual is experiencing active psychosis, if they're not presenting at their baseline, so use the word normal of the listener use the word scooter normal. So, you know, we are going to assess the individual's level of safety because even though Oh, someone may be experiencing psychosis or may be experiencing internal stimuli. So they're they could be hearing voices, they could be seeing something that we're not hearing or seeing, right, it does not necessarily mean that they're unsafe, but they are experiencing some psychosis. Correct. And, and so typically individuals that we treat at great mind, they are also receiving medication management services, whether through us or through another provider. And medication is really helpful for those individuals that are experiencing psychosis or delusions, because it helps quiet down the intensity of the psychosis in which the individual is experiencing. So you know, we really work hard at great mind counseling to build and foster and sustain an environment where people feel safe. And this is particularly important to us. And it also applies to our team members. So for me, you know, I'm committed to fostering an environment of inclusive inclusivity, where people feel welcome, and and that they feel heard, where employees such as scooter, I hope, feel empowered to have an opinion and to share their voice, and that they look forward to coming to great minds counseling, to help our community and to help community members. And so it's a dual process, because how we strive to treat our patients with respect and with dignity, and integrity. I hope that I'm doing a good job scooter at treating all of you, my teammates, with the same level of respect and dignity and integrity.
Unknown Speaker 27:10
Back to my questions about medicine. How can we help clients or our patients, if we noticed them being over medicated?
Unknown Speaker 27:19
Okay, that's a good question, too. So. All right, so working from a trauma informed care perspective, maybe, you know, I could do a whole show on trauma informed care. So I'm going to speak really succinctly. And and and just go into trauma informed care is is approaching the delivery of Clinical Services, from the perspective from the lens that everybody has, has experienced trauma. So that therefore by acknowledging that the service providers or the individual is mindful of how to engage with a person and so that we are not saying or interacting in a way that could trigger a patient. You know, I think it's hopefully you enjoyed the show. So I think scooter wants to say one more thing, though, we have something coming up.
Unknown Speaker 28:13
We have an event coming up. Next Thursday, March 28, great mind community event, and DJ Russian Roulette, we'll be there. We're going to be given out karaoke prizes. First plays $100 Second prize, $50 third prize $25. We're going to give our bingo went up to $200. In cash prizes. Play some horse racing games, went up to about $200 as well. And it's at 1600, East desert enrolled in Las Vegas. And again, that's next Thursday, March 28.
Unknown Speaker 28:50
And what time does this event start? Oh, it starts about 12 o'clock. Okay, so for those of you listening, if you are out and about and you enjoy karaoke and you want to, and you're interested in maybe throwing your name in the hat and singing a song, please feel welcome to join us at great mind counseling and Wellness Center. Again, we are located at 1600 East desert and road and the fun is going to begin around noon. So please feel welcome. We we enjoy providing the safe event for community members to have a little fun. And for listeners this morning. I want to say that, you know, I look forward to when we have the opportunity to talk next time. And I'm Dr G en que un V 91.5 FM and this is it's where I
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