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Ask Mike The Counselor

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So You Are Curious About Counseling?

This is the place for all things counseling, from anger management to zoophilia, from anxiety to Solution Oriented Brief Therapy, from nutritional to mental health to credit/debt counseling to maritial to depression to domestic violence to PTSD to attachment to couples counseling to experiential to mindfulness to biofeedback to mythology (love that Michael Meade and Joseph Campbell) to archetypal work to 12 Step models for addiction to career counseling to career change to Chi Gong to psychodrama to breathwork. Whew.

And those are the things I have experience with personally.

I am Michael S. Logan, M.S. and I want to demystify counseling for you. It is actually a great way to cultivate joy.

Contents at a Glance

Perceptions
Brain Games-Quick Simple Effective
Nutrition....A Must for Physical and Men...
Want a quick and easy tool to track your...
New CafePress
The Attitude is Gratitude

Where Do You See Me?

Many of my court ordered domestic violence clients and anger management clients will begin their work with me by reporting that someone else made them do what they did, which is a convenient way to avoid responsiblility for their actions.

When my clients resort to that tactic, I begin by asking them where they see me? Most are flummoxed or respond condescendingly, "Right over there." My response would be, "No, that is incorrect." And we would repeat this line of inquiry for awhile, until I explained that the only place we experience vision is in the visual cortex, which is inside the skull, at the back of the brain.

I then go through all the senses, and their location for processing, in order to establish that our experience of reality exists only inside our heads, that the eyes have photons pass through the lens, ear drums vibrate to sound waves, touch is pressure, ect. and that all that is done inside each of our heads, and the interpretations or words we apply to perception or sensory experience is up to us.

I can make my interpretation of sensory experience helpful to my goals or unhelpful.

And all that happens in 1/18th second, about twice as fast as I can blink my eyes. Not much time to remember my mission or passion, is it?

But it turns out that 1/18th second is more than enough time to manage your thinking and feelings, and you can get very efficient at managing your cognitions.

How do I know that you can manage thoughts in 1/18th second?

I have utilized EEG Biofeedback, which works with delta, theta, alpha, or beta brainwaves which can cycle, for beta waves, between 15 and 42 cycles per second. And clients can learn to stabilize in one brain wave pattern or another given the correct biofeedback.

I have utilized HeartMath or heart rate variability biofeedback for about 8 years now, and I know that my internal chemistry changes in a heart beat, even faster, and that no matter what is going on outside of me, I can still feel good inside, heart beat by
heart beat.

Do you like e-books? Then you will love this.

Brain Games-Quick Simple Effective

Illuminate Your Brain

Nutrition....A Must for Physical and Mental Health

Phytochemicals, Fiber, Minerals, Vitamins are Mandatory!

Not too many years ago, I began to look at the kinds of food I was eating and began a half-hearted attempt to eat "healthy food., so I went to my local grocery store and bought some packaged rice cakes, which tasted like card board and took them back to my office, where I already had some cashews, from a local health food store, to snack on while I was working at my desk. I would munch on one or the other, not paying any attention really and managed to dribble some crumbs onto the floor beneath my desk.

One fine spring morning, I opened my office to find a line of ants coming in from the foundation, which was irritating, but what they were doing was stunning to me.

The ants were marching right over the rice cakes and going to the cashews.

Let me repeat that. Bugs were ignoring the packaged processed food from the health food section and going directly to the cashews!

What that told me is that the processed food had no food value left in it.

Since then I have taken a look at what is done to processed food in order to give it a long shelf life. Long story short, all the food, which will rot if left in the package, is taken out and replaced with appetite stimulants like msg, which cross the blood-brain barrier and act in the pleasure center of the brain, makes you want to eat more, more, more, and preservatives. (Did you know that even your kid's toothpaste and maybe his vitamins have high fructose corn syrup in it?)

So we buy off the shelf packages and get no food. No wonder we get sick.

The antidote to your malady?

Lots of fresh green leafy stuff directly from the vine or ground, ripened locally.

Hard to do, isn't it? So I look for short cuts which I can work into my and my family's schedule.

A tool we use often to create sweet treats is the Vita-Mix for smoothies. I can get my kids to drink smoothies with strawberries, peaches, oranges, bananas, blue berries, and maybe even some whole grain cereal mixed in if I blend it up in a Vita-Mix.

While it can be a headache to clean up, I think getting my children's brains the nutrition they need is much more important than cleaning around the bottom of the Vita-Mix carafe.

Want a quick and easy tool to track your counseling sessions? Or to do case notes?

Of course, you want a quick and easy tool for that. See below for freemind, and ....

and the Bob Jenkins, aka Bob the Teacher, tutorial.

New CafePress

The Attitude is Gratitude

I would be grateful for your response.

Your thoughts here help me build me site. Thanks.

submit

Reply

Brian LeBaron Oct 3, 2008 @ 9:44 am | delete

I am a private practice LCPC in Freeport, IL and am interested in your website. What have you found to be the most effective marketing techniques for bringing referrals? How do you integrate the web based articles with your work with clients? Is there a group that meets for private practioners for mutual support, education and perhaps even CEUs in Rockford? I am also looking for someone to aid me in putting up a website. You can write back at brianbaron@aol.com Thank you.

Reply

qlcoach Aug 30, 2008 @ 1:13 pm | delete

Nice to meet your Mike. Great lens! I also believe in the importance of finding that healthy balance between mind, body, and spirit. Please see how I try to help others in new ways too:
http://www.squidoo.com/ebyway
Sincerely; Gary Eby, author and therapist

Reply

BethErickson Aug 27, 2008 @ 9:54 am | delete

Hi Michael. You did a great job of your lens. Love it. Very neat and informative. :)5 stars for you!

http://www.squidoo.com/personal_coach
http://www.squidoo.com/choose_marriage_counselor

Reply

Toni May 1, 2008 @ 3:24 pm | delete

I don't know if I am posting in the right place or not. I am 47 years old and I have just gone back to school to get my pachelors degree in Psychology then I plan to go on for my masters. I have been having a hard time lately keeping up my schedule and you know all the self talk we do. I found your site and it was like the words I needed to hear to keep me going. I just wanted to say thank you!!!!

Reply

John Riley Feb 6, 2008 @ 7:26 am | delete

Great lens Michael. especially liked the tip of the day.

Regards, John Riley
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I have enjoyed the work of Stan Grof, Elmer Green, Candace Pert, Fred Allen Wolff, Sigfried and Sue Othmer, Carl Jung, Robert Bly, Robert Moore, Dr. Bob, Bill W., among others. How about you?

Ask Mike The Counselor

So You Are Curious About Counseling?

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Perceptions

Where Do You See Me?

Brain Games-Quick Simple Effective

Illuminate Your Brain

Nutrition....A Must for Physical and Mental Health

Phytochemicals, Fiber, Minerals, Vitamins are Mandatory!

Want a quick and easy tool to track your counseling sessions? Or to do case notes?

Of course, you want a quick and easy tool for that. See below for freemind, and ....

New CafePress

The Attitude is Gratitude

I would be grateful for your response.

Let Me Know Whose Work has Impacted Your Life the Most

Books and Research

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