One of the social worker skills that I learned from yoga and meditation classes involved helping clients relax by using a slow calming breath that helps centering. I think this an essential skill to bring into sessions for anger management, family counseling , adhd problems and lots of areas. It can stop stress from escalating and creating a domino effect.
In the certification course I took in teacher’s training for kundalini yoga, there was a meditation where we breathed in slowly for 5 to 10 seconds. First we filled the abdomen area, then the ribs and finally the upper chest. We would then hold the breath for 5 to 10 seconds. Finally , slowly breathe it out and feel at the end like you are wringing out a towel , squeezing out every last drop before you inhale again. Most people do not exhale fully. I’ll do this with clients for 5 minutes of the session and I find it helps with listening as well. Watch your breathing and deepen the inhalation and exhalation. You can read other tips here Stress Reduction Tips
One thing I also tell people which I think should be in the social worker skills toolkit is to look during the week for the triggers that set off anxiety or depressed moods. What are the patterns that occur? Sometimes it is only a couple of types of situations that create the anxiety. For instance, a teen I saw yesterday was telling me that she can’t stand it if a friend she calls or texts doesn’t call her back in the same day. This has led to her blowing up at her mom (who was in the house) a couple of times. She realized her mom doesn’t have anything to do with the situation. But her mom seems “too available” to her and this makes her feel that maybe she is too needy and available herself.
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I am happy to see that in social work counseling training programs there is more in the courses dealing with alternative therapies and techniques for coping with daily stress. In the eighties, there wasn’t much in my social work graduate program on this. With the unemployment rate today, this is a wonderful tool to have.
Comment by admin — April 16, 2009 @ 2:53 pm