Today is officially Day #1 of the National Youth Workers Convention in Dallas, Texas. Yesterday I shared a bit about how I wanted to make sure and slow down and maybe go to some workshops I wouldn’t normally go to.
I started that right of the bat with a trip to “Counseling and Caring Skills for Youth Workers” by Tiger McLuen. For those that know me compassion is not one of my highest rated spiritual gifts. I thought this might be a good workshop for me to be able to maybe start working on that. In the workshop I learned a lot. Here are just a few thoughts”
“I am to counseling what Jiffy Lube is to auto maintenance” The idea here is that we are not counselors. We need to know our own boundaries and limitiations, and know when to refer someone we are talking with to a professional counselor.
Don’t focus on the behavior – Find a way to get over or under it to the actual Injury – So many times we want to, or are asked to fix a kid doing some sort of behavior. This could be acting out, cutting, hanging out with the wrong kids etc. We need to move past the behavior and help them to discover the real reason that they are doing that behavior, and help that to be addressed.
I can’t share everything I learned because the notes are too vast, information too much, and I am going to sleep. I still haven’t told you about the big group times, Starfield, Gungor, or the Family Groups. Maybe later.