Joyful, Authentic Living

Wayne Froggatt is a leader in the REBT community. He is the director of the New Zealand Centre for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and has devoted over thirty-five years to helping people bring more joy and more authenticity to their lives through REBT.

Among his many accomplishments are several books on the subject, training materials in Cognitive Behavior Therapy and REBT and a number of self-help materials to train average people in being their own counselors through REBT. In addition, he is the author of a questionnaire which helps people discover the underlying philosophies and habits that cause distress or problems of living and keep them from joyful, authentic living, so that they can be clearer what they must change to make their lives better.

(This questionnaire can be accessed from the home page menu of TurningPoint Counseling as can other resources from Wayne and the New Zealand Centre.)

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Jonathan von Breton is our guest on this episode of Joyful, Authentic Living. Jonathan is a licensed clinical mental health counselor, trainer and coach with over twenty years experience is a Rational Emotive Behavior therapist trained at the Albert Ellis Institutes. REBT is the original form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and is the CBT which get closest to the root of emotional health issues.

Jonathan is an REBT Clinical Supervisor, helping others learn this most powerful and original form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy.

Mr. Von Breton has worked in a variety of settings from private practice to residential and day treatment agencies. One of his interests and efforts is as a volunteer as a professional Advisor to the SMART Recovery Online community, training other SMART Recovery coodinators and advisors. For more information about Smart Recovery, please listen to my interview with Tom Horvath in this podcast series. SMART Recovery is a very successful abstinence based, scientific self-help program for overcoming addictions.

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Sex and Seniors. Our guest for this interview is Joan Price, who calls herself an advocate for ageless sexuality. At sixty-one Joan wrote Better Than I Ever Expected:Straight Talk about Sex after Sixty, celebrating the delights of older life sexuality. She has recently written Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sex. This was in response to hundreds of readers who sent her questions about improving their own senior sex lives. Joan went to forty-three experts in the field to find answers to their questions. Visit Joan's website at www.joanprice.com and her blog about sex and aging at www.NakedAtOurAge.com.

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With an overwhelming proliferation of therapy modes and a confusing alphabet soup of names, it is easy for Transactional Analysis to get lost in the mix. However TA as it is informally known, has proven one of the most effective forms of counseling or psychotherapy to have come forward in the last sixty years.

Originally developed by Eric Berne, his book, Games People Play, came a long way to describing and explaining many of the interactions people have where they walk away, shaking their heads and asking, "What just happened? Why do I feel bad? Where did we go wrong?" and giving us tools to analyze and improve our interactions. As TA developed it became a leading humanistic psychotherapy as well as a way for ordinary people to improve their lives. (This is a place for me to recommend what I consider one of the finest "self-help" books to ever come to market. Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward wrote Born To Win [Available on Amazon, but also at your local independent book seller] many years ago, and they have updated it since. It is still a wonderful helpful book.)

Transactional Analysis has been used in education, business, non-profit organizations, individual, group and marital and family counseling, and many more applications.

John Heath is the president of the International Transactional Analysis Association, the professional body of those who use TA either as their primary modality or in conjunction with other forms of counseling. The "Clinical Member" of ITAA is the certified practitioner.

For even more information you can go to the ITAA website, ITAAWorld.org .

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An increasing number of people identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious." Some call themselves "recovering" from their religious upbringing. A few say they are atheists or agnostics. "I don't believe in god or gods." Still, even they strive to base their lives on some purpose, some "ground of being;" a spirituality, in other words.

There is a group of people who help, coach, encourage, or  "companion" individuals and groups who are on their own spiritual quest, developing their own self-defined spirituality. These "spiritual directors" spend years learning about the variety of spiritual practices in ancient traditions: Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Wiccan and Pagan. In other words, they study the spiritual practices that, for thousands of years, have helped people in the spiritual quest. They also gain practice in spiritual listening, hearing the needs of clients, under the supervision of supervisors who have great experience in this endeavor. Spiritual directors are also called "teachers", "masters", and by a variety of other terms.

Counseling and psychotherapy skills are not indicative of skill in spiritual coaching/guidance/direction. (Of course, a mental health counselor may opt to get the training and skills of spiritual direction as well.)

In this interview, Liz Ellman, M.Div, Executive Director of Spiritual Directors International, will explain spiritual direction and give us hints to finding someone to fulfill that role, helping us develop and grow in our own spirituality.

Liz Ellmann was featured in a 2010 PBS documentary on this subject. As a former Vice President of Global Markets for a major corporation, she has a keen appreciation of the challenges of spirituality in the real world.

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Group psychotherapy is sometimes dismissed as "second class" or "therapy on the cheap" because it may cost less financially than individual counseling. However, group psychotherapy often has advantages. It provides a more real-life context for feelings and behaviors. It gives the clients a chance to practice new learnings with real people. The group itself elicits feelings, relationships and behaviors that are difficult to get to in individual counseling. Also clients learn by others experience and are able to apply some of those learnings to their own lives, even if their primary issue seems different. So while the financial cost may be lower, the payoff can frequently be higher for many people.

With the facilitation and interventions of a qualified group therapist--and not everyone who leads groups is qualified--it may be the best option for many clients. What is a "qualified group therapist?" In this interview, Dr. Haim Weinberg, a national and international leader in the field, explains the advantages and kinds of group therapy as well as how to discern a qualified therapist.

Dr. Weinberg is president of the Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society, a member of the board of the International association, and on the faculty of both Alliant International University and Wright Institute. He is an internationally acclaimed leader in this field.

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SMART Recovery--Tom Horvath, Ph.D. Many people believe that for those who are addicted to alcohol, there is only one treatment program, Alcoholics Anonymous. Not so. There are a number of alternatives to AA. Some of them are science and evidence based but others are not. Some are residence programs like the famous Betty Ford Center, while others are, like AA, community-based.

The premier alternative to AA is SMART Recovery which comes with a history of helping many people overcome their addictions to substances like alcohol and  behaviors like sex addiction.

My guest for this program is Dr. Tom Horvath, president of SMART Recovery. Dr. Horvath has many years of experience and has held several important positions at state, national and international organizations dedicated to treating addictions and substance abuse. Dr. Horvath's excellent workbook Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions is published by Impact Publishers and available through Amazon.

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IFS recognizes that our psyches are made up of different parts, sometimes called subpersonalities. You can think of them as little people inside us. Each has its own perspective, feelings, memories, goals, and motivations. For example, one part of you might be trying to lose weight and another part might want to eat whatever you want. We all have parts like the inner critic, the abandoned child, the pleaser, the angry part, and the loving caretaker.

IFS has discovered that every part has a positive intent for you, no matter how problematic it might be.

For example, Sally has a part that says, “You couldn’t be successful at your ambitious goals. Who do you think you are?” This is hurtful to her and prevents her from taking action in her life, but when she got to know this part in her IFS work, she discovered that it was actually afraid she would be punished if she stuck her neck out, and it was trying to stop her to protect her from that pain.

Jay Earley has written very valuable popular books to help individuals apply IFS to their own lives.

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In the 21st century we are seeing a resurgence of interest in the spiritual unpinning of life. That certainly doesn't mean a resurgence of traditional religion, but many more people are asking not just the general "Why?" but "Why me?" and "Why am I?" Those questions are a part of emotional and mental health. Without a purpose, life loses meaning. The quest for purpose is the spiritual quest.

Pastoral counselors are particularly trained to be coaches on the path of their client's spiritual quest. A pastoral counselor is herself on the same quest, but by training is self-conscious about that quest. Thus she or he has some insight into possible dead-ends and useful or useless detours. She is careful never to impose her own purpose on the client, but to aid the client's own pursuit.

Of course pastoral counselors, are also call pastoral psychotherapists because they have all completed the same kinds of training that other therapists either do or should. And they usually call on the same tools in their work. But they go beyond this, having a second masters or doctorate degree in spiritual studies. Their spiritual training adds another dimension which serves the client well.

John Carr is among the most experienced and well-considered practioners of this art and science of pastoral counseling. In this podcast he shares some of his wisdom with us.

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In this fascinating and informative broadcast we are speaking with Cheryl Cohen Greene, a Surrogate Partner Therapist.

Surrogate partner therapy is a part of sex therapy pioneered by Masters and Johnson in the 1960's and '70s. Surrogates work with clients under direction of sex counselors/therapists to help women and men overcome their sexual problems. Unlike the sex therapists, who are themselves limited by their licenses, the surrogate partner therapist does hands on practice and coaching. He or she sometimes, though not always, may become sexually intimate with the client.

Cheryl is one of the founders of the Bay area surrogates association. In addition to being certified by the International Professional Surrogates Association, She holds a doctoral degree in human sexuality as well as several other certifications in the field. She lectures at local universities and with various professional groups.

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