Compass Ventura

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https://artsandculture.google.com/story/hgURK27kXuoYng

Psychotherapy Sessions Available Compass and rEvolution Psychotherapy are pleased to announce a joint project to offer psychotherapy sessions with an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, supervised by Micheal Frances Smith, LMFT. If you are interested in starting therapy, please private message us to get the ball rolling. ... We are offering sessions to cash-paying clients, and we have a sliding scale for our fee structure. What is an Associate? In January 2018, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, (the body that's responsible for licensing for Marriage and Family Therapists) changed the term Intern to "Associate". The word intern, conjures the idea of a student volunteering, with little or no education, or someone just starting in a job position without any experience. An Associate MFT ("AMFT") already has a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, along with 300-500 clinical hours that are required before graduation. The Associate Marriage and Family Therapist must be vetted by the Board of Behavioral Sciences and are required to have weekly supervision meetings. During clinical supervision, the MFT Associate will review each case with their supervisor. During these sessions, the AMFT will gain education and training from their supervisor, and discuss the ethics and legal issues of our profession. The advantage of working with an Associate MFT is that you not only get help from that therapist, but your case is reviewed by the more experienced clinical supervisor. In addition to the weekly supervision meetings, MFT Associates attend training and learn while they work. PM us today for more information and to get the ball rolling.

The Vocabulary of Praise. Have fun using these words of praise to describe people. Don't be fake, of course. Express your appreciation and applause only if you ...sincerely mean them. . From "Catch the Fire: An Art-full Guide to Unleashing the Creative Power of Youth, Adults and Communities" by Peggy Taylor and Charlie Murphy . .

"Trauma is not your fault. (Full stop) (Take all the time you need for that to sink in) Over the past several years, the following phrase/meme has made its roun...ds: Trauma is not your fault, but healing is your responsibility" Folks who’ve experienced trauma are familiar with the dismissive but that often follows, trauma is not your fault, but... ...but I should have fought back. ...but I shouldn’t have gone to that party. ...but I should have seen the red flags. ...but what were you wearing? ...but healing is your responsibility. This last but appears well-intentioned while still carrying a similar weight of individual responsibility for a process that is rarely possible on one’s own. It has that familiar individualist ring to it that has folks grabbing for their bootstraps while standing alone in their suffering. Trauma is not your fault. Period. *long pause* I can’t begin to describe the importance of that full stop or the healing potential contained within the space that follows. As soon as we add a but... we knock some of the air out of this realization. It feels like a punch in the gut or that sinking feeling that accompanies ...but I should be over it by now. While the idea of personal responsibility comes with a bit of hope, it also comes with pressure. In my experience, this burden outweighs the hope for many trauma survivors. When pressure outweighs hope, it’s no longer empowering. Embodied hope has the potential to be a resource for a survivor’s nervous system. Pressure, on the other hand, comes with the risk of overwhelming one’s nervous system or keeping it stuck in freeze/collapse physiology. Trauma is already an isolated place, and making healing your responsibility remains limited to one person. Trauma already feels like a personal failing or weakness, and your responsibility adds one more shortcoming to your list, that of not yet healing. Something happens when we add a well-placed full stop at the end of, Trauma is not your fault [full stop] This pause creates some much-needed space. A space that is frequently punctuated with a sigh of relief. It’s a place without a dismissive but... or added pressure of any kind. This pause may be the first time a survivor feels heard and understood. It’s important to hang out here for a while. There’s a great deal of healing potential here if we’re willing to sit with survivors without giving in to our impulse to fix it, solve it, make it go away, or in this example, ascribe responsibility. To be clear, I believe in survivors’ capacity for healing, which is why I’m passionate about helping to create a supportive and empowering context. I’m not convinced that saying, ...,but you’re responsible for your healing creates a supportive context. We don’t heal alone. We’re social mammals who require the presence of another nervous system for critical developmental tasks, and our ability to co-regulate is vital for healing trauma. Humans need to feel safe, strong, and connected, and we’d be well-served to keep these in mind as we search for what to say next. So, what do we say to a trauma survivor after they’ve had the space and time to acknowledge trauma is not their fault? Here are a few possibilities: ...and healing is possible. ...and you have the capacity to heal within safe and supportive relationships. ...and I’m committed to being here with you as a resource for your nervous system. Again, I assume the original idea is offered with the best intention. However, language is powerful and but is often dismissive and may do more to reinforce trauma physiology than to create a context for healing." -Brian Peck (The author of the words quoted above is Brian Peck)