CH. 2. Ethics, Multicultural Competence, Neuroscience, and Positive Psychology/ Resilience

Question 1

Ethics & Morals

Answer 1

ETHICS – thoughtful professional lists of do’s and don’ts for our profession.

• They are rules, typically prescribed by social systems and, in counseling, as professional standards. They define how things are to be done.

ETHICAL CODES – can be summarized as “Do no harm to your clients; treat them responsibly with full awareness of the social responsibility of helping.” – a code to live by.

• As interviewers and counselors, we are morally responsible for our clients and for society as well.
• At times these responsibilities conflict, and you may need to seek guidance from documented ethical codes, your supervisor, or other professionals.

MORALS – are individual principles we live by that defines our beliefs about right and wrong.

• Morals are the way we apply ethics.

The anticipated client response to professional ethics is:

• Greater trust
• Acknowledgment that personal actions count
• Examination of his or her own moral and ethical decisions

Ethics and Responsibility: A Summary

• Maintain confidentiality – exceptions
• Recognize your limitations (boundaries).
• Remain in consultation with your professor, workshop leader, or mentor.
• Be aware of individual and cultural differences.
• Remember the golden and platinum rules:
  
  • (Treat your client as you would want to be treated).
• Give special attention to the ethical treatment of children and their rights.

Ethics Code (APA & ACA)

• INFORMED CONSENT – is an ongoing part of the counseling process, and counselors appropriately document discussions of informed consent throughout the counseling relationship.
  
  • When you work with children, the ethical issues around informed consent become especially important.
  • Obtain written parental permission before interviewing a child or before sharing information about the interview with others.
  • An essential part of informed consent is stating that both child and parents have the right to withdraw their permission at any point.
  • When you enter into role-plays and practice sessions, inform your volunteer “clients” about their rights, your own background, and what they can expect from the session
• ​​​​Justice – fairness, and equality in access to services
• Integrity – accuracy; honesty; no misrepresentation
• Fidelity – a relationship of trust; explain obligations and responsibility
• Autonomy – the client has independence; right to decisions
• Non-maleficence - do no harm; safeguard the welfare of clients
• Beneficence - action to help those you work with
• CONFIDENTIALITY:
  
  • Records
  • Limits to confidentiality
    
    • If the client is a threat to someone’s well-being, you must tell the authorities.
  • DUTY TO WARN
• Multiple (dual) relationships
• Assessment
• Scope of Practice (compliance)
• Cultural Competence

CORE OF ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY – do good and do nothing to harm the client or society.

• MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY – Counseling and psychotherapy rest on trust between counselor and client.
  
  • But, at the same time, you do not as a student have legal confidentiality. Those with whom you work should be aware of your student status.
  • Confidentiality is designed to protect clients (not counselors), and only the courts, in the final analysis, can provide a guarantee of confidentiality.

Question 2

Multicultural Competence

Answer 2

MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE – Awareness of our clients’ multicultural background enables us to understand their uniqueness more fully.

• The rise of the multicultural movement in the United States can be traced to the Civil Rights Act,
  
  • followed by the growth of awareness in activists from groups such as African Americans, those who are of mixed race, women, the disabled, war veterans, individuals who may identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA).
    
    • All these in different ways have identified and named oppression as a root cause of human distress.
• our field has become a central force in what is termed “PSYCHOLOGICAL LIBERATION.”

Question 3

RESPECTFUL Model, the Soul Wound

Answer 3

RESPECTFUL MODEL – shows us the multicultural background of both counselor and client. It enables us to discover the multiple voices that clients bring to us.

• In addition, it helps us identify the past and present voices (cultures, ethnicities, demographics) that affect our thoughts that determine our perceptions and result in our feelings, and behaviors.
• is framework is a basic AWARENESS** and **KNOWLEDGE
• View the RESPECTFUL model as a source of information about your own and your clients’ resilience.
  
  • Clients can draw strength from their religious or spiritual background, the positive pride associated with racial/ethnic identity, their family background, or the community in which they grew up.

The RESPECTFUL Model – look at each of the following categories for yourself AND for your client. When you take these background elements into consideration, you discover cultural elements in your and your client’s life that can be used to understand yourself and each other. You can also use this background information to find strengths and empowerment to help your client heal.

• Religion/Spirituality
• Economic/Class Background
• Sexual Identity
• Personal Style and Education
• Ethnic/Racial Identity
• Chronological/Lifespan Status
• Trauma/Crisis
• Family Background/History
• Unique Physical Characteristics
• Location of Residence/Language Models

RESPECTFUL Interviewing and Counseling

• RESPECTFUL interviewing and counseling enables us to discover the multiple cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints our clients bring to us that affect their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Identify what is meaningful in the way you think about yourself.
• Watch for the possibility of cultural and HISTORICAL TRAUMA in each of the RESPECTFUL dimensions.
  
  • HISTORICAL TRAUMA – the cumulative, multigenerational, collective experience of emotional and psychological injury in communities and in descendants – continues to negatively affect the health of the affected demographic.
  • INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA – a trauma that gets passed down from those who directly experience an incident to subsequent generations.
    
    • The trauma of severe abusive treatment can persist over generations. There is now clear neurobiological evidence that EPIGENETICS changes in the genome can be transferred from one generation to the next—and onward from that point to future generations.

CULTURAL and HISTORICAL TRAUMA – in each of the dimensions.

• Large historical events and daily MICROAGGRESSIONS in the form of insults to one’s color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or disability result in personal and group trauma, frustration, anger, hopelessness, and depression. Bullying is frequently part of these insults.
  
  • MICROAGGRESSIONS – commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental slights, (intentional or unintentional), that communicate negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups.
• Multiculturalism needs to consider present and past histories of oppression.

SOUL WOUND – The trauma of severe abusive treatment can persist over generations (INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA)

• EX: African Americans and slavery/racism or Jews and the Holocaust. Traumatic wounds do not disappear over time but remain “in the soul.” Survivors exhibit increased depression and psychiatric issues and may attempt or commit suicide. This Soul Wound is passed from generation to generation.

To address the Soul Wound:

• Counselors empower clients by building resilience and focusing on existing personal and family strengths.
  
  • A critical part of empowering clients is facilitating understanding of cultural pride, cultural health, and cultural identity.

PRIVILEGE – is the power given to people through cultural assumptions and stereotypes.

• Being in some RESPECTFUL categories offers immediate privilege.
  
  • EX: Male, rich, white
• Income inequality is now recognized as a central multicultural issue.
• We need to avoid stereotyping one group’s cultural identity.
• Increasing awareness of societal privilege is needed.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS – language intended not to offend, sensitive to demographics.

• Political correctness is controversial because it seems to go too far in its level of sensitivity
• Respect for others is essential.
• Interviewers and counselors are encouraged to use empathic (from the other’s point of vieew) language and terminology their clients prefer.
• Knowledge of the client’s language of nationalism and regional characteristics is helpful.

AWARENESS – Be Aware of Your Own Assumptions, Values, and Biases.

• Awareness of yourself as a cultural being is a vital beginning to authenticity. Unless you see yourself as a cultural being, you will have difficulty developing awareness of others.
• Oppression, discrimination, sexism, racism, and failure to recognize and take disability into account may deeply affect clients without their conscious awareness.
• Be aware of your own assumptions, values, and biases.
  
  • Is the problem “in the individual” or “in the environment”?
    
    • EX: you may need to help clients become aware that issues such as tension, headaches, and high blood pressure may be results of the stress caused by harassment and oppression. Many issues are not just client problems but also problems of a larger society.

KNOWLEDGE: Understanding the Worldview of the Culturally Different Client

• WORLDVIEW – formally defined as the way you and your client interpret humanity and the world
  
  • Because of varying multicultural backgrounds, we have different worldviews in the way we see and think about people.
  • Often central to differences in worldview are microaggressions, which mount over time, resulting in damage not only to the psyche but also to the body.
    
    • The name microaggressions is useeful in enabling your clients to name their experience in this way is part of the route toward psychological liberation.
  • Traditional approaches to counseling theory and skills may be inappropriate and/or ineffective with some clients.

Question 4

Privilege as a Multicultural Interviewing Issue

Answer 4

PRIVILEGE – power given to people through cultural assumptions and stereotypes.

• “INVISIBILITY of WHITENESS.” European Americans tend to be unaware of the advantages they have because of the color of their skin.
  
  • The idea of special privilege has been extended to include men, those of middle- or upper-class economic status, and others in our society who have power and privilege.
• Sociologists speak of education and society producing social reproduction—the fact that over generations, class and income levels change very little.
• Societal structures are such that moving from one social class to another is quite challenging.
  
  • It is not true just in the United States. Researchers have found that the children of politicians, physicians, lawyers, and top businesspeople fill the universities of not only the United States but also France, Germany, Great Britain, and even socialist Sweden.
    
    • Moreover, even under full communism in Russia, the elite followed the same pattern as in capitalist countries.
    • These classic findings remain true today, not only for education but in virtually all other areas of privilege.
• Out of privilege comes stereotyping of less dominant groups, thus further reinforcing the privileged status.
• We need to avoid stereotyping anyone or any group’s cultural identities.
• Counseling challenges – If you are a middle-class European American heterosexual male and the client is a working-class female of a different ethnicity or race, it can become more difficult to gain trust and rapport.
  
  • If you are a young Person of Color and the client is older, White, and of a markedly different spiritual orientation, again it will take time to develop a relationship and working alliance.
• Remember that the issues the client brings to you are the ones he or she currently sees as most important.
  
  • Although these concerns often relate to multicultural identity, it is generally best to keep them in your awareness and only discuss them in the session if it seems potentially helpful to the client.
• They can also benefit from the awareness of societal privilege that works against them. It takes some of the stress of responsibility for their troubles off of them.

Question 5

Coping with discrimination

Answer 5

CULTURAL HEALTH – To maintain any sense of balance in the face of discrimination, the person needs to have an ATTENTIONAL NETWORK, a developed base of resilience and faith, trust, and pride in their family’s cultural background.

• The ATTENTIONAL NETWORK is key to how we attend to the world and then integrate internal and external perceptions.
• People with varying cultures and life experiences have different integrations of their lives.
  
  • Out of this comes a “BRAIN MAP” in memory which guides us in the future.
    
    • Solid memories of strength enable coping with these situations, but they still hurt.
  • Counseling seeks to strengthen these positive connections.
• If you encounter many good things in life, the brain map will take a positive turn. Good input generally results in good output.
  
  • On the other hand, less effective and damaging output comes from being raised in a family, community, and region (plus media) providing only prejudiced information.
• Negative beliefs about self or others easily become embodied and hard to change.

What do we do with instances of microaggressions and harassment in counseling?– Seek to move the perceptual frame and interpretations of life issues and concerns, and build resilience and build strength

• With individual clients, first watch for signs and stories that represent microaggressions.
• Enlightened use of the many available theoretical alternatives is important,
  
  • multicultural counseling and therapy (MCT) and social justice advocacy.
• Watch for teachers and other influential persons who may be problematic.
• Seek help from community leaders.
• Help clients name the issue and identify contextual/environmental factors.
• Educate clients to understand their goals, expectations, and legal rights—and
• Provide tools to address the situation.
• Apply advocacy skills and
• Exercise institutional intervention skills on behalf of clients if needed.
• Use the guidelines offered by the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC)
• Positive Psychology as a route to developing resilience.
  
  • Search for positive stories of strength; help the client remember the resources he or she has from family and friends; identify what the client has done right.
• Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLCs) provide a number of actions that clients can take to improve mental health.
  
  • exercise, drawing on spiritual and religious resources, building cultural identity through cultural health, relaxation and meditation training, and many others, including the counseling relationship itself.

Question 6

Positive Psychology and Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC)

Answer 6

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – Optimists literally don’t give up as easily and this links to greater success in life.

• First, discover the issues that brought the client to the counseling session in the first place.
• Discover where the client has done things right and succeeded in the past?
  
  • Listen for strengths that will eventually be part of the solution.
    
    • Note: Searching for the positive psychology/wellness story does not deny client concerns and serious challenges.

RESILIENCE and OPTIMISM** – **POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY’S central aim is to encourage and develop optimism and resilience.

• One of our Goals in Counseling is to increase resilience, and help clients become more optimistic.

OPTIMISM – a trust that things will work out and get better, a sense of personal power, and a belief in the future.

• Optimism is a key dimension of RESILIENCE – the ability to recover and learn from one’s difficulties and challenges.

RESILIENCE – ability to bounce back from setbacks, temporary failure, and traumas of many types.

• People who are more optimistic have an increased ability to manage stressors and negative emotions.
• They are better able to face their difficulties.
• Optimists tend to live healthier lives and feel better about themselves and their abilities.
  
  • Out of this research has come an effective Six-Point Scale to measure optimism

In Summary:

• POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY is a STRENGTH-BASED APPROACH that seeks to build RESILIENCE and OPTIMISM
• By discovering client STRENGTHS and SUCCESSES to focus on rather than the negative aspects of the problems and issues.
  
  • Clients who are aware of their strengths and resources can face their difficulties and resolve issues from a positive foundation.
    
    • Psychology has too often placed a self-defeating focus on difficulties, ignoring the client’s own strengths in the resolution of issues.
• So, in addition to drawing out the problematic negative stories, we also need to perform a POSITIVE ASSET SEARCH, finding things the client is doing right, and discovering the client’s resources and supports. We then use these strengths and positive assets as a foundation for personal growth and resolving issues.
• Finally, we must ensure that the client is fully ENGAGED in life.
  
  • ENGAGEMENT, the full immersion in life’s opportunities and experiences is basic to positive psychology.
    
    • In terms of life satisfaction, engagement was found to be more central than happiness.
      
      • Find areas in which your clients have been involved, activities that they care about.
      • Often they have stopped exercising, meditating, or playing tennis or golf. ey may have cut themselves off from friends, church, or other groups that provide interest and support.

THERAPEUTIC LIFESTYLE CHANGES (TLC) – are a key route to identifying and encouraging an ENGAGED lifestyle.

• An engaged lifestyle creates MEANING determined to be the most essential aspect of a satisfying life.
  
  • Meaning and a life vision carry many people through the most difficult times in their lives.
• EX: of lifestyle changes include increased exercise, better nutrition, meditation, and helping others, which in turn helps us feel better about ourselves.
  
  • Help the engagement process and lead the client to greater resilience by encouraging THERAPEUTIC LIFESTYLE CHANGES.

PHYSICAL EXERCISE – strongly recommend regular exercise!

• It is key to stress management and behavioral health is getting blood flowing to the brain and body.
• Exercise increases brain volume
• Facilitative:
  
  • Enhances Sleep
  • Increases dopamine, gray matter
  • Reduces depression, anxiety
  • Increases lifespan
• Potential activities in the session:
  
  • check on the physical activities of each client.
  • point out that exercise has positive benefits for physical and mental health.
  • Follow up regularly to see if an exercise plan has been implemented.
  • Recommendations for clients who are beginning to exercise for the first time require a visit to a health provider.

NUTRITION – Avoid the whites (pasta, sugar, salt) and snack only on healthy food.

• Supplements can be valuable, but encourage clients to consult their physician before taking supplements
• Those who are concerned about prejudice against weight need special attention and support.
• We suggest initiating a brief discussion of one of the issues mentioned here and observing client response. Too much information may overwhelm the client and result in no action.
• Facilitative:
  
  • Organic Food
  • Healthy Snacks
  • Low-fat, complex carbs
  • Olive oil
  • Richly colored fruits/vegetables
  • Wild salmon, fish oil, flaxseed
  • Walnuts, other nuts
  • Pure water
• Destructive:
  
  • Junk food causing inflammation
  • Sugar/pasta/white bread
  • Palm oil, cottonseed oil, etc
  • “Dirty dozen” fruits and vegetables (with most pesticide residue)
  • Meat hormones and antibiotics
  • Processed foods/snacks
  • Walnuts and other nuts
  • BHP plastic water bottles

SOCIAL RELATIONS – Being with people in a positive way makes a significant difference in wellness.

• Love, sex
• Joyful relationships
• Extended lifespan
• Higher levels of oxytocin (“love hormone”)
• Helping others
• Interpersonal relationships, of course, are often the central issue in interviewing and counseling.
• We want our clients to engage socially as fully as possible, as this not only builds mental health but also builds the brain and body. Love and close relationships build health.
• Potential activities in the session – careful listening skills become essential but in addition to negative stories.
  
  • we need to search for the positive stories and strengths that can lead to better relationships.
  • There is a long history in counseling and psychotherapy of searching for the “problem,” identifying weaknesses that need to be corrected, and diagnosing and labeling before searching out what the client “can do” rather than what he or she “can’t do.”
  • clients don’t come to us looking for what they did right. Rather, they want solutions to alleviate their issuesand as soon as possible.
  • Thus, we need to draw out the problematic story and the issues behind it, but simultaneously listen for strengths and supports, then use these as a foundation for positive change.
  • One of your tasks is to listen to their stories and, working with them, to find new ways of relating. One of these is role-playing social tasks that your client finds challenging.
• Cognitive Challenge – do something different for growth and the creation of new neural networks.
  
  • Uncertainty can be growth-producing,
• Potential activities in the session:
  
  • encourage and support more
  • overly active schedule, both cognitively and socially, can lead to anxiety and sleeplessness.
  • Our goal is to find cognitive/ emotional balance.
  • SLEEP – A full rest is critical for brain functioning and development of new neural networks.
    
    • Lack of sleep is one of the indications for depression or anxiety.
  • Your task in the session is to follow through and learn more. If clients are not sleeping well, you need to make frequent contact with them and follow their sleep patterns.
  • If you sense serious problems, referral to medical professionals

​“3-F” FRAMEWORK – “forks, fingers, and feet.” (“forks” = nutrition, “Fingers” refer to the importance of not smoking, “Feet” = exercise.)

MEDITATION AND RELAXATION – If you meditate 10–20 minutes or more each day, it will make a significant difference and calm you throughout the day.

• assess what areas of stress management, meditation, and relaxation may be relevant to your client.
• You can teach many basic forms of meditation as you talk with a client in almost any situation.

Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes:** **Sleep:

Facilitative –

• 7–9 hours of sleep
• Reading, meditating, quiet, no TV
• Increases metabolism, hormones
• Consolidates learning/memory
• Positive mood, increase in motivation
• Critical for physical health

Facilitative –

• 20 minutes meditation (or more)
• 10 minutes systematic muscle relaxation
• Yoga
• Tai Chi
• Prayer
• Spiritual meditation
• Listening to soft or culturally appropriate music
• Focus on a mountain, hill, or stream
• Deep breathing

CULTURAL HEALTH/IDENTITY – Our personal identity as multicultural beings affects both our mental and physical health

Facilitative –

• Loud and proud about one’s multicultural identity, its full RESPECTFUL dimensions
• Awareness of family strengths
• Awareness of positives in one’s school, community, region, or nation, but also able to identify and seek to correct weaknesses
• Free and able to change self and work toward involvement

ADDITIONAL TLC’s

Drugs and Alcohol –

• Drugs can harm or destroy brain cells.
• Drugs are especially dangerous for the critical ages 13–18.
• Teen marijuana use increases the risk of psychosis by 8%–10% and causes cognitive decline

Medication and Supplements –

• More than one antidepressant is no better than one
• exercise and meditation are often as good as meds.
• strong data linking omega-3 with mental and physical health

Positive Thinking/Optimism/Happiness –

• Positive thoughts and emotions rest primarily in the executive frontal cortex,
• negative emotions of sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise lie in the deeper limbic parts of the brain.
• Research shows that positive thinking and therapy can build new neural structures and actually reduce the power and influence of negative neural nets.

Beliefs, Values, and Spirituality –

• those with a strong spiritual orientation recovered more quickly and left the hospital sooner.
• Your belief system and spiritual orientation contribute to healthy, positive thinking and an optimistic attitude.

Take a Nature Break, Rather Than a Coffee Break –

• memory, attention, and mood increase by 20% if one goes for a 10-minute quiet walk in nature, or even spends time viewing nature scenes in a quiet room.
• Small breaks can be an important part of stress management—and even improve studying and grades.

No Smoking –

• It is our primary addictive drug and most dangerous drug in terms of early death.

Control Screen Time –

• As a result, they go to bed later and have more difficulty getting up.

Art, Music, Dance, Literature –

• What is the client’s passion? Returning to and becoming involved with the arts can be life-changing. e relaxation and here-and-now emotions of music and dance bring satisfaction and a needed break in routine.

Relaxing and Having Fun –

• is will increase dopamine release to the nucleus accumbens. Dance, tennis, enjoying a sunset,
• it is good for the brain.

More Education –

• the farther you go in the educational system, the less your chance of Alzheimer’s and the better your health
• Continuing education as we age helps develop new neural networks. Take courses; learn a musical instrument or a new language.

Money and Privilege –

• White privilege brings consequential benefits to this group. Coming into the world with privilege also brings responsibility.

Helping Others and Social Justice Action –

• Working for justice and volunteering makes a positive difference to both helper and helpee.
• Stress hormones are reduced, and telomeres lengthen.

Joy, humor, zest for living, and KEEP IT SIMPLE –

Client: Doctor, I can’t sleep. I keep thinking someone is under my bed and I get up several times a night to look.

Psychiatrist: I can fix that. Four years of therapy twice a week.

Client: How much will it cost?

Psychiatrist: $100. An hour.

Client: I can’t afford it, sorry.

Two years later, they meet on the street.

Psychiatrist: Nice to see you. How are things going?

Client: Great, no more problems. I told my neighbor, and he came over and cut off the legs of the bed.

• We often make things too complex with fancy theorizing. TLCs are a shortcut to health that will change our practice.
• Learned optimism heals and can change a life. Focus on strengths and what clients can do rather than on what they can’t.

Question 7

Summary

Answer 7

Ethics** and the **Counseling and Psychotherapy Process. Helping professionals must practice within boundaries of their competence, based on education, training, supervised experience, state and national credentials, and appropriate professional experience.

• Their main goal is to do good and avoid harm. Their actions are regulated by their helping profession’s code of ethics. Confidentiality provides the basis for trust and relationship building.
• Informed consent requires telling clients of their rights. When recording sessions, we need permission from the client.
• Helping professionals are asked to work outside the interview to improve society and are called upon to act on social justice issues.

Multicultural Competence. – ethical imperative that interviewers and counselors be multiculturally competent and continually increase their awareness, knowledge, skills, and action in multicultural areas.

The RESPECTFUL Model. – lists 10 key multicultural dimensions, thus showing that cultural issues will inevitably be part of the interviewing and client relationship.

Privilege is close related to race and ethnicity.

We need to be aware that being White, male, and economically advantaged often puts a person in a privileged group.

The interviewer needs to be client centered rather than directed by “politically correct” terminology. is is an issue of respect, and clients need to say what is comfortable and appropriate for them.

Soul Wound and Historical Trauma. – Soul Wound occurs with and from historical trauma.

Traumatic wounds like the ones suffered by Native Americans do not disappear; they remain “in the soul” and are passed from generation to generation.

The concept of the Soul Wound has relevance to all minority groups, including young people and women, who may experience bullying and/or abuse.

Privilege – power given to people through cultural assumptions and stereotypes.

Look for individual uniqueness, strength, and openness to change

Microaggressions. are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color” (Sue, 2010).

Microaggressors are often unaware that they are harming another person.

Repeated racial harassment (or bullying) can literally result in posttraumatic stress. What seems small at first is damaging through repetition.

Multicultural Competence. – Learn about your own and other worldviews. Use a culturally and diversity sensitive approach to interviewing and counseling. Adapt your strategies in a culturally respectful manner.

Political Correctness. Political correctness (PC) is a term used to describe language that is calculated to provide a minimum of offense,

Bias and Prejudice – The way we see the world depends on past learning.

Bias and prejudice are almost locked in the brain. Prejudice is not just a way of thinking; it becomes a way of being and reinforces itself by interpreting people different from ourselves in negative ways. We should actively seek to unlock ourselves from biases.

Positive Psychology – promotes the development of optimism and resilience.

Optimism can be measured with scales such as the Six-Point Optimism Scale.

Search for positive assets, which are the resources and strengths that clients bring with them. Clients aware of their strengths and resources are more resilient and can face challenges in a more effective manner.

Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes – therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLCs)

An effective plan to implement the TLCs can improve the quality of your life and work. You can use the TLCs in every interview to help clients increase well-being and effective coping.

it does little good to change all the TLCs at once. e client can select those that are most immediately meaningful.