September marks eight years since I’ve started my private practice counseling endeavor. I want to start by thanking all my past and present clients who have shared their lives with me! It is a honor and privilege to do what I do. Over these eight years my practice has gone from part time to full time, private pay to accepting insurance and every thing in between. I’ve been able to hire an administrative assistant, utilize Insight Medical Billing for billing purposes, and I’ve hosted support groups for grief, young women’s empowerment, vision boards, and most recently a trip to the Demolition Zone (a great way to release frustrations). My office have moved from Country Club Road to Charnelton Street in Eugene, Oregon. I’ve been able to work with a professional production company, Blazing Heart Productions to create a video to help promote the work I do. More recently I’ve honed in my practice to specialize in adolescents and have been providing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy. Grateful to have stayed healthy during this pandemic so far and I have continued providing in person as well as telehealth sessions. Love that my office space offers enough room to stay socially distanced. With isolation as one of the major challenges of this pandemic, I find it even more essential to offer in person services for folks who feel comfortable to do that. As always, take good care. Jasmine
As I reflect on 2017 I’m looking forward to what 2018 will bring. I’m beyond honored to have welcomed new clients as well as continue to support some who have been with me since the start (September 2013 to be exact). What I’ve noticed this year is a deeper understanding of the complexities of grief. Grief has been one of my specialties – one of those topics I’ve always been comfortable thinking about and in my adult years have pursued looking at how to talk about when my own personal grief shook the very ground I was walking on. I find the research on healing and trauma fascinating and continue to learn about the neuroscience behind this work (which I fell in love with as I completed my last stent in school).
This last year I put on my first Young Women’s Empowerment Class where I introduced gratitude jars, vision boards, and journaling as ways to pay attention to hopes and dreams, as well as barriers and challenges that get in the way of those very same hopes and dreams. In February 2018 I’m putting on my first Young Women’s Retreat which will incorporate some of those same ideas however in a different setting~ at the coast in a cozy house where I find healing comes more naturally with the ocean air, the sound of the waves, the quiet, music, creations, and a whole lot of laughing.
So thank you, to everyone walking alongside me as we journey through this thing called life.
Creating healthy boundaries is important in every day activities including among family, friends, in social interactions, at work, at school, and in community settings. Watch this video to find out how to assess and create healthier boundaries.
Perhaps you know someone at work who continues to behave in a way that is causing distress. Maybe they talk very loudly when on the phone and you share an office space with them, or possibly they critique your work in a tone that is condescending. You might feel like you have given the person the benefit of the doubt, but it seems that this behavior is getting more and more troublesome for you. When do you decide to address this? Will talking to this person only make things more awkward and uncomfortable? Is there something you are doing that is contributing to this co-worker’s behavior?
My first recommendation is to take time to think this out and bounce it off someone you trust. Dealing with sticky situations in the heat of the moment can make them even more sticky.
Practice how you might approach this conversation. Find a way to create a private space to talk to this person. Start the conversation with an appreciation, such as “I really appreciate how much you help me.” When addressing the issue, provide example of what occurred and how it made you feel. Then allow the person to take in what you say. They may need to clarify some things and ask some questions. Finally, see if you both can find a way to try to resolve what hasn’t been working. If you don’t have time for that or need more time to consider what might work, make an agreement to check in again to see what either of you might come up with. Finally, agree to some time frame for seeing if new solution/plan is working for both of you. This will allow you time to tweak things in the future if needed, and it also keeps the conversation going.
*This post was previously published while I worked at The Prevention Researcher on September 30th, 2009; a journal on adolescent development.
“To own and wield the wisdom of leadership is to claim ourselves, to recognize the strong force that we already are, to stop falling into the traps of social conditioning that would keep us small, and to stand in full sovereignty over our own lives.” –Dede Henley in The Secret of Sovereignty
Personally I’ve always pushed myself hard, whether it is to do well in school, to become a more advanced soccer coach, a better pet owner, a more rounded person, or a stronger life partner and friend. During the spring of 2008 I went to a one-day conference on Women’s Leadership sponsored by the Dede Henley Group. Inspired by this one-day conference, I signed up for a 9-month course called “Women Leading Women.” Our entire class met once a month for a half day and once or twice a month in small groups to work on leadership building exercises and to process the curriculum with one another. I graduated from this course this past July, and I have continued to meet with members of my class once a month.
During the conference we had the opportunity to hear Dede Henley speak. Hearing her personal story and commitment to self-improvement was empowering. Some key points she touched on were the low level of self-care, extreme self-doubt, and lack of confidence women leaders have. Ms. Henley explained that while more and more women are in leadership roles, they are still are being paid unfair wages, are less likely to be CEOs and still undermine their importance in their organization. One piece of information that really stuck with me was the fact that corporations and businesses that are more equally lead by women AND men are the most successful (http://www.catalyst.org/publication/82/the-bottom-line-connecting-corporate-performance-and-gender-diversity). This got me thinking about the agency I work for, Integrated Research Services, Inc. One way I’ve see our company really progress over the three years I have been here, has been the strengthening of my working partnership with the Director, Dr. Steven Ungerleider. As an Administrator I’ve found, the better he and I communicate and work together the better our entire team works together, both with us and with one another.
This month I had the opportunity to read NASW’s “A Broader Vision for the Social Work Profession” by Elizabeth J. Clark, and I was struck by some of the similarities between Dede Henley’s course curriculum and the vision of the social work profession. The strongest similarities between the two were the messages of hope and calls to take action in life. Ms. Clark states “As a profession, we have the capacity to prevent hopelessness, to restore hope, and to change society for the better.” She further discusses how social workers impact social justice, advocacy, and change and describes them as “holders of hope.” Much of the Women Leading Women course focused on re-realizing the hopes and dreams of our childhood or younger adulthood, while hoping and dreaming more for our future starting with NOW.
As I look towards the latter part of 2009, with 2010 around the corner, I am reminded that finding hope in the challenges of the here and now is of utmost importance. I’m eager to utilize the resources I’ve been given and am committing myself to the calls to action that both the NASW and The Dede Henley Group have provided us, in particular to find ways to be that “holder of hope” and continue to find ways I can empower myself and others to create change.
*This blog post was first published on December 11th, 2010 in The Prevention Researcher blog, a journal on adolescent development that I worked for. The journal’s last issue is being published 9/2013.
Over the past month, I have been reading and thinking about this concept called familiness. “Familiness reminds us as individuals and as members of particular families to think always about possible alternate structures and sets of functions that constitute family for others” (Shriver, 2011, p. 274). This concept has been helpful when looking at the challenges of the holidays. Often there is a mixed bag of emotions as the holidays approach: who do we include in our holiday planning, how are members included or not included, which family members are no longer living, and how might we celebrate with our friends or others we consider family instead? These are just a few questions that come to mind.
In researching this topic and how we define family, thinking about the holidays and coping with those positive and negative stresses, I found a great book by Froma Walsh, titled Strengthening Family Resilience, 2nd Edition (Walsh, 2006). Using a systems view of resilience, as a foundation for a Family Resilience Approach, she defines three keys that are particularly important when looking at how families cope as a functional unit. Family resilience can be defined as a family’s ability to cope and adapt as a functional unit over time.
Here are her Keys to Family Resilience:
1. Family Belief System
-Making meaning of adversity
-Positive outlook
-Transcendence & spirituality
2. Organizational Patterns
-Flexibility
-Connectedness
-Social & economic resources
3. Communication Processes
-Clarity
-Open emotional expression
-Collaborative problem solving
As you prepare for the close of the year and the year to come, and continue your work with youth and families, I hope you find this definition of familiness and these keys to family resilience helpful.
