ABCs of Mental Health: Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month

A: Advocacy

Advocacy is such an important part of Mental health. Without it, those who are in need of help, may not get it. Advocacy is when a mental health professional ensures that their clients are getting the support that they need. Advocacy takes many forms as counselors and other mental health professionals reach out to all stakeholders involved and communicate your needs to those who can help. School counselors act as advocates by connecting students to outside mental health agencies, provide in-house mental health counseling and act as an agent for change by developing a comprehensive school program that will aid the needs of students and the surrounding community. Sometimes people have a difficult time advocating for themselves, if they are experiencing some mental health distress. Counselors and mental health professionals are here to support you and your individual needs!

B: Breathe

Many people are not aware just how beneficial breathing is. When you take the time to focus on your breath, you are more in tune with your body and gain a better idea of what it needs. Focusing on the in and out of the breath helps to slow your body down, and restore it to a calm state. This is especially helpful when you feel overwhelmed or have a bout of anxiety. Slowing down the breath to calm the body, helps to reset your brain and take the time to return your body to its status quo.

C: Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a big fancy word for keeping whatever was shared during a counseling session or in a counseling office, between the counselor and the client/student. This helps to build a trusting relationship between the counselor and the client/student. Confidentiality needs to be broken only when at least 1 of the following 3 things occur: 1. A statement indicating self-harm is made 2. A statement of harming another is made. 3. Someone else is going to get hurt. This is simply to get the support you or someone else needs!

D: Diet and Nutrition

Believe or not, what you put in your body has a huge affect on your mood and how your mental health is that day. Anxiety and anxious feelings can stem from consuming foods and drinks that contain caffeine, alcohol, and added sugars just to name a few. Having too much sugar in your diet can lead to you feeling more sluggish and feel almost in a depressive-like state. Taking care of your mental health includes watching what you feed your body!

E: Empathy

Empathy is an integral part of counseling and therapy. Without the use of empathy, a deeper connection may not be made between the therapist/ counselor and the client/student. Empathy is when the therapist/ counselor is able to fully understand and feel the effect of life experiences of their client/student. Using the concept of empathy helps the therapist/counselor to better understand why the client/student makes the decisions they do, how they perceive the world, and why they feel the emotions they do. When a therapist/counselor approaches therapy empathetically and non-judgmentally, the client/student feels understood and accepted.

F: Fight or Flight Response

When the body is under stress and perceives a threat, it stimulates the nervous system which then activates certain hormones to help keep you protected when danger arises. During this heightened state, your body decides to either fight the threat, or run from it; both protective reactions. Although it sounds unpleasant or intimidating, without this hormonal response, you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself and would struggle to survive. By understanding the particular way in which your body responds to stress, you can develop the appropriate coping mechanisms to reduce this stress and prevent this response from being overwhelming in future situations.

G: Group Therapy

Group Therapy or counseling is when a small group of people or students who face similar life challenges, meet weekly with a therapist or counselor to learn how to overcome these challenges. Group counseling offers several unique benefits all while supporting your mental well-being!

1. Support sSystem: Group counseling helps you to meet others who have facing the same challenges as you, and who understand what you are going through, letting you know that you are not alone!

2. Multiple Perspectives: given being in a group setting, others may offer coping skills that you have not tried yet, that did not work for them, but could work for you! They can help you think of different ways of looking at your problem and the possible solutions!

3. Social skills and Healthy Relationships- Group counseling offers a safe space to build healthy relationships with the groups members and practice skills to bring into your everyday life.

H: H.O.P.E- Hold On Pain Ends

It is so easy to get caught up in an unpleasant situation and focus only on the negatives. Holding on to hope is so much more than trying to have a positive mindset. It’s the idea of knowing that pain does in fact eventually end. The sun will shine again after the storm! These tough situations we go through are meant to build us up and make us stronger! Next time you are in a difficult situation, think about the last time you were in a similar situation in which you were able to overcome. How did you do it? Use that as motivation to hold on to hope, and to hold on to the idea that pain will eventually come to an end!

I- Introspection:

Introspection is the concept of understanding your emotions and where they are coming from. It's the process of taking a deeper look at the emotions you are experiencing, where they are stemming from, and understanding that something had caused you to feel this emotion. This is a great concept for children to learn, because when they are younger, they tend to believe that emotions do not have identifiable causes. When teaching a child how to be introspective, they learn that the way they feel has to do with what happens around them, how they perceive the situation and how that is connected to how they choose to respond to what is happening around them. When children develop the skills of being introspective, they are able to see where their emotions are coming from, choose the appropriate coping mechanisms to help them, or find ways to avoid or prevent feeling uncomfortable.

J- Journaling:

Journaling is a great tool used in mental health therapy that offers many benefits and is easy to do!

1. Relieves Stress: Journaling helps you to get all thoughts out on paper, instead of keeping them bottled up inside. Most people report they feel better after writing down what was bothering them!

2. Create and Reach Your Goals: Some people like to use journaling as a way to keep track of progress. Journaling doesn’t necessarily mean who need a whole bunch of words. Make a list of things you want to get done and see how many you can check off within a designated time frame!

3. Encourage Self-Reflection: No matter how you decide to use your journal, it is a great way to see how far you’ve come!! Whether its seeing how many tasks or goals you have crossed off your list, or re-reading old journal entries and see how much you have grown as a person, journaling makes self-reflection easier for you to do!

K: Keep Going!

It is so easy to let the negatives of a situation make you feel overwhelmed and discouraged. Remember that YOU are in control of YOU and how you feel. Never let a situation control your emotions! And always remember, it is OKAY to need help!!

L: Locus of Control:

Locus of control is a term used to describe how deeply people believe that external forces control them, their life situations, and their outcomes compared to how much control they personally have over each. If you have a external locus of control, you feel you have the power to control the situations and outcomes in your life, whereas if you have a internal locus of control, you feel that things “happen to you” with you having limited control over them.

This concept is important when it comes to dealing with a mental illness, because it helps you identify how you perceive life and its challenges, and how likely you are to overcome them. It also determines your level of resiliency and how successful the trajectory of your therapeutic progress will be.

M: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment. The ability to pay attention to what is going on around you and within you, such as your thoughts and feelings. Being mindful is being in the “here and now”.

Why is mindfulness important?

- Improves focus

- Helps you approach situations more calmly

- Be more present in the moment

- Builds patience

- Learn more about yourself and the world around you

- Helps reduce anxiety overtime

N: Needs

Needs are what your body physically, emotionally and mentally survive off of. They are a necessity, and how each need is being met benefits your overall well-being. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a great way to explain the importance of making sure your needs are met.

Physiological Needs: these are your basic needs such as food, water, a place to live, etc.

Safety Needs: this is the need to feel safe and taken care of.

Love and Belonging Needs: This is your need to relate to others and build trusting and loving relationships.

Esteem Needs: Your level of self-esteem and how you view yourself.

Self-Actualization: you reach this level when you feel you have reach your fullest potential, and are being the best version of yourself that you can be. All other needs must be met to reach this level.

These needs go in order, and you need to have your needs met to some capacity in order to reach the next level of needs. If any level is not met, it could lead to feeling uncomfortable, upset, or even help develop a mental illness, if these needs are not met over a long period of time. Understanding the Hierarchy of Needs helps you understand your body and what it needs to thrive!

O: Outpatient Therapy

Outpatient therapy is when a client seeks therapeutic treatment by visiting a mental health office, clinic, private practice, etc. For most, it is seeing a therapist or mental health professional at least once a week for typically 45-50 minutes. There are many different forms of outpatient therapy that are offered, and can benefit any age group!

Clients can seek outpatient therapy for any concentrated area such as Mental Health Counseling, Wellness & Recovery, Marriage and Family Therapy, just to name a few!

Can be offered as individual or group therapy.

P: Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a technique used to works the muscles in your body to help you physically ground yourself. People tend to use this technique when they are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or even uncomfortable. Over time, this technique helps to train your body to calm down faster, and remain calm longer. The technique involves you repeatedly tensing your muscles, followed by calming them down. Doing this over and over helps you to have more control over your body, and helps you to be more present in the moment, instead of thinking about your anxiety provoking thought! Anxiety tends to tense your muscles, so practicing this technique helps you to recognize when your body is getting tense, and makes it easier for you to calm these muscles. PMR helps to reduce the onset of anxiety.

Q: Quality of Life

Quality of life depends on how happy you are with yourself and your life, how you perceive life challenges with how you respond to them, and how often do you do things that you love and make you feel good? Sometimes unseen roadblocks get in the way, and prevent us from living our best version of life. Mental Health counseling and therapy aims to focus on bringing out the best aspects of your life, and making sure you are living life to the fullest!

R: Rapport

Rapport is the relationship a client or student builds with a Therapist/ School Counselor. This is one of the most important aspects of Mental Health Counseling. If there is not a positive relationship between the Therapist/ School Counselor and the client/ student, trust will not be built and therapeutic progress will be next to impossible!

S: School Counseling

School Counselors wear many hats when it comes to their roles within a school system. Our main focus is the mental, physical, and the emotional safety of our students and their families! This could look like many different things: individual counseling, group counseling, connected the student and/or family to outside resources, classroom guidance lessons, support with getting into high school or college, getting a job, advocating for students and their families, and making sure students have a safe home to go to, just to name a few!!

T: Thought Stopping

The Thought Stopping Technique is an intervention created by G. Patterson, R. Liberman, and R. Stuart used to simply stop negative thoughts! There are many different ways to stop thoughts, each very easy to try out and over time can help reduce the occurrence of negative thoughts! Here are a few ways you can use thought stopping to help reduce anxiety

1. Verbal Interruption: the original technique used for thought stopping. Simply scream out loud “STOP” or scream it in your head, every time you think a negative thought.

2. Scattered Counting: instead of counting to 10 to try and calm down, try counting in random numbers ex. 89, 2, 12,106… The randomization causes you to think more about what number should come next and less on your negative thought!

3. Most popular: Meditation: Meditation is a great way to learn how to calm your body when thinking of a negative thought, and helps to reduce your anxiety over time.

U: Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional Positive Regard is a technique Therapists and School Counselors use when they are involved in therapy with a client or student. It is when the Therapist/ School Counselor fully accepts the client/student for who they are- the good and the bad. It is when they create a safe space with their clients/students that is respectful and judgement free. Instead of putting their client/student down for making a “negative choice”, they explore why the client/student wants to make that choice and help them to determine if that is the best course of action or not. The Therapist/ School Counselor is never mad at the client/student and helps them talk through the thought process behind their decisions.

V: Virtual Counseling

The Mental Health world is doing something incredible during these uncertain times, and Mental Health Counseling is now being offered virtually! Virtual Counseling, or Telehealth is a great way to maintain your therapy sessions, or even start therapy all while being safe and following state safety guidelines! Counselors are offering individual and group sessions through phone, video call, and even immediate crisis support through text! Don’t let this quarantine stop you from reaching out for the support you need!

Please reach out to me if you feel like you can benefit from talking to someone and setting up therapeutic services! We can work together to find an organization that will work with your specific needs!

Bsiegman@philasd.org, 267-564-5160

W: Wellness

We all have mental health, just like we all have physical health. Both are just as important to manage and take care of. Wellness is being able to take care of your physical and mental health in which you are self-aware of things you need to work on to improve your overall wellness, and to be able to lean on your strengths to maintain your wellness. Great ways to improve your mental wellness include but are not limited to:

X: Xenophobia

Xenophobia is an example of a phobia. Phobias are when people experience an extreme aversion to, or intense anxiety and fit of panic in the presence of something they do not like. Xenophobia is the fear of strangers and people you are unfamiliar with. When a person suffers from a phobia, mental health counseling is the best course of action to help reduce the negative effects a phobia can have on their quality of life.

A proven way to help with phobias is called Systematic Desensitization. This is when a person is gradually exposed to either pictures, videos, or actual situation in which they have a phobia of. By providing gradual exposure, it helps to reduce the anxious and panic feelings associated with that object, person, or event.

Y: YOU! Take Care of YOU First!

“You cannot pour from an empty glass. Take care of yourself first”. This quote is so important when it comes to your mental health. If you are not taking care of yourself, loving yourself, understanding yourself and your body, how can you expect to be at your best to be able to help, love or understand another? Practicing self-love and self-care are two very huge steps in managing your mental wellness!

Z: Zones of Regulation

This is a technique used to help elementary students understand the emotions they feel and how they affect their bodies. There are 4 Zones of Regulation; each with their own color, emotions, and effects on the body. Understanding what Zone you are in, helps you to figure out what type of coping skill you need!

Red: Emotion: Anger, Frustration, Ready to “explode”. Effects on the body: feeling hot, heart beats fast, sweaty palms, headache, clenching fists and teeth, etc.

Blue: Emotion: Sadness, tired, feeling lazy, sick. Effects on body: feeling sluggish, not wanting to move, sleeping, crying, runny nose.

Yellow: Emotion: Excited, Overwhelmed, Worried, Scared. Effects on the body: feeling uncomfortable, heart rate beats faster, jumping up and down, feeling jittery, shaking.

Green: Emotion: Happy, Calm, Focused. Effects on the body: good eye contact, smiling, feeling relaxed.

Disclaimer: All statements made on this blog posts are reflections of Brittany Siegman, and not those of the School District of Philadelphia.