ANTHONY QUINTILIANI Archives - Mindful Happiness

November 24, 2019 By Admin

Stress in America – 2019

Every year the American Psychological Association ( November, 2019) conducts an extensive survey to determine the levels of stress in America. The data below does NOT include children; therefore, the already high numbers would be much higher. Here are some highlights. Stress levels are quite high but stable. Increased concerns about the health status of Millennials and GenZ are noted.

71% of Americans are stressed about mass shooting in this country. This number is up from 62% in 2018. 75% of GenZ are stressed about this, while 62% of adults are.

74% of GenZ are stressed about work issues and 82% about money problems, while 64% of adults are.

69% are stressed about health care issues (insurance coverage, costs, etc.). 38% are stressed about the costs of health care. 75% of GenZ are stressed about health care issue.

62% of Americans are stressed about the last Presidential election and politics in general. This number was 53% in 2018.

62% of GenZ are stressed about suicides, while 44% of adults are.

64% of Americans are stressed about discrimination (especially LGBT issues).

60% of Americans are stressed about terrorism. The number is 2018 was 55%.

56% of Americans are stressed about climate change and global warming. In 2018 the number was 51%.

54% of Americans are stressed about news coverage and social media.

45% of Americans are stressed about sexual harassment. This number was 39% in 2018. For GenZ it is 53%.

Feeling that their personal mental health is good: 74% older Americans, 79% of Boomers, 56% of Millennials, 51% of GenX, and 45% of GenZ.

62% of Republicans feel America is on the right track. Only 25% of Democrats feel this way.

WebMD data (September, 2019) adds to this disturbing picture of stress in America.

68% of Americans feel burned out and fatigued.

48% feel burned out and depressed.

65% have job-related anxiety, while 53% have job-related anger.

55% of Americans feel stressed as a norm. This number is the highest in the entire world.

33% of children suffer from anxiety disorders.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon

November 18, 2019 By Admin

The Lotus Sutra and Meditation Practice

The Lotus Sutra and Meditatin Practice

The Lotus Sutra is one of the most important and sacred of Buddhist sutras. It is often considered a summary of The Buddha’s teaching, presented many years after he began to teach and share his experiences. The version considered here is the Kumarajiva translation, as translated by B. Watson; it may also be known as The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. I will not present the many core teaching noted in this sutra; instead I will focus on the end, about How to Practice Meditation. Since this is such an important sutra, you are strongly encouraged to look into the vast content in it on your own. One important thing I will note is that in this sutra The Buddha notes a unified, single path to enlightenment. In the past he noted that monastic practices, forest practices, and bodhisattva practices all held potential for all people to achieve enlightenment or awakening. Experts suspect that The Buddha taught this sutra in the 6th to 5th century BCE. Here, however, he emphasizes the bodhisattva path as the most important single path. Let us move now into the meditation instructions.

Stand in prayer pose and circle the teacher three times. Another option would be to circle each person in your group; this fits well within the Buddha’s view that we all are buddhas.
Bow, and kneel on one knee to signify readiness to pursue instructions on meditation practice.
Close your eyes and sit (cross-legged) quietly.
Remain in a dignified posture.
Re-commit to your vow to reduce the suffering of others.
Practice this meditation deeply. “Practice with…[your] entire mind…”(p. 370).
As you sit contemplate how meditation is helpful in reducing earthly desires, especially six-senses contact conditioning.
Imagine that your body holds 50 shades of white light.
Make a profound assumption that this white light has healing properties.
Now notice that the white healing light has taken on a golden-white shade.
Feel this healing light in your body and on your skin. Notice how it sparkles.
Imagine the golden white healing light coming to you from The Ten Directions (N, S, E, W, NE, SE, NW, SW, and UP and DOWN).
Allow! Allow! Allow! Stay out of simple thinking. Just be!
Feel inner joy, compassion for others/yourself, and tranquility.
Simply allow yourself to be bathed in the healing golden white light.
Now a big step: practice emitting the healing golden light from your inner body and into the room. This itself is a bodhisattva act.
Add your own loving kindness.
Do your best to detach from attachment, even attachment to this wonderful experience.
Give repentance for any wrongs you are connecting with at this time.
Improve your Karma by doing this as strongly as you can.
Take refuge in The Buddha, in The Dharma, and In The Sangha.
Now sit in utter silence for a longer period of time – just notice without any evaluation. Just be!
When you hear the sound of the singing bowl, gently and slowly open your eyes, orient yourself, and prepare to enter a full conscious state
The Buddha. (B. Watson, Trans.). (1993/1994). The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 369-396. Nichiren Buddhist Library.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

November 1, 2019 By Admin

Meditation for Managers and Helpers – Let Me Help Your Organization!

Meditation for Managers and Helpers

Let’s Talk – Contact Me – Click Here

I am a Licensed Psychologist-Doctorate and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor with 35 years of clinical experience in community clinics, schools, professional organizations, and universities (OSU, UVM, etc.). I have been the past Clinical Director of Howard Center, and Past President of the Vermont Psychological Association. I have provided clinical training on various clinical topics to therapists from all over New England, and as far south at Alexandria, VA and as far west as SanDiego, CA. I serve as the head teacher at The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont, home of the Monkton Sangha. I have published numerous clinical articles, books and workbook. The most recent being Mindful Happiness… I provide various posts for my blog, mindfulhappiness.org. For many years I have served as a State of Vermont (DMH, ADAP, AHS) trainer in co-occurring disorders. I also train for NEIAS and AdCare New England. I have been practicing meditation since 1982.

This piece serves as an advertisement for local Vermont managers and therapists as well as a regular post on the blog. Below I will list the proven benefits ( now thousands of studies on these) for managers and therapists who complete repeated meditation retreats and how the retreat process works. Managers and therapists who complete meditation retreats often report the following benefits. My own short retreats occur on a scheduled Saturday afternoon from 1 to 5/6 PM. Longer retreat periods are also available upon request. Participation is by invitation or you contacting me at anthony1@gmavt.net. My retreat costs are extremely affordable! More on retreat details after we review the benefits.

Common Benefits of Meditation Retreats and Personal Practice –

Expanded self-understanding
Improved attentional focus
Better focused awareness
The personal experience of being present in mind and body
Adjustments to silence and being without all electronic/digital devices (highly addictive)
The possibility of noticed clarity
Experienced forms of inner energy
More centered calmness or activation
Flowing with, complying or rejecting gentle meditation instructions
Discovery of the many benefits of pure silence
Letting go of day-to-day stressors and torments and simply settling into the “being” process – “choiceness awareness”
Being open to unexpected emotions – could be joy, could be sadness, could be new, could be old, etc.
Experience of staying with the arising emotions without attempts to flee them if unpleasant
Ultimately improved emotional self-regulation
With practice, improvements in anxiety, depression, trauma, and addictions (mainly emotion regulation)
Noticing the phases:
A) – Settling into the process and being at surface levels of awareness and experience; B) – Deepening into emotional realities of just BEING – deeper opening up to personal realities of past-present-future and not trying to escape anything positive or negative; C) – Slow re-adjustment to non-meditative experiences, and a readiness to enter into more typical personal experiences.

How I Manage My Own Silent Retreats (Typical Saturday Afternoon or for Longer Periods) –

People arrive at 1 Pm for a brief social period and tea.
At the sound of the singing bowl, we enter the living room and sit in a circle and listen to the day’s plan.
Then we check in – voluntary. Do you wish to share your hopes for the day or share anything else with the group?
We enter the retreat center for the Nine Bells Meditation, a brief meditation focused on any important person/s or relationship/s you have lost. It may also focus on something inside of yourself you feel you have lost.
Loving Kindness Meditation follows the Nine Bells.
We now do kinkin, or slower and silent walking meditation (outside weather permitting, inside if not).
In warmer weather, we may add outside yoga, tai chi or qigong practices.
We move back into the meditation room, where I lead meditations I have designed for your specific needs or retreat request.
We do kinkin again.
We sit in the circle in the living room again and write in our journals – voluntary. We are still silent. Bring a journal.
We check out in our circle – voluntary sharing.
You decide if you wish to take written copies of the meditation you experienced.
You decide if you want meditation coaching from me at an agreed-upon, low cost.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 30, 2019 By Admin

Core Elements in Clinical Supervision

In addition to what supervisors bring into group supervision and clinical training, the list below will be used for discussion about YOUR supervisory role. The order of content below is generally random. The content noted applies to clinical supervision; it could also apply to doing effective therapy. The skills and knowledges here make up a toolbox for effective clinical supervision. That said, it cannot include everything.

DO NO HARM in all supervision modalities (individual, group, education/training)!
Know your code of ethics, especially sections relating to clinical supervision, education/training, clinical relationship, and the role of technology.
Understand how the past becomes the present – your own attachment and developmental history and experience. Your own “dragons.”
Know how to use strong empathy and therapeutic alliance/relationship skills.
Face the reality of co-occurring conditions in clinical practice. Even if your role is dealing with “the walking well,” there are most likely co-occurring conditions if not diagnoses.
Know how to use and supervise 2-3 evidence-based therapies ( BT, CT, CBT, CBT-M, Process-Based CBT, DBT, DBT-S, MBSR, MBCT, MBRP, ACT, Narrative and Solutions-Oriented approaches, etc.
Recognize that the EBTXs are the science behind the art of therapy. Client and supervisee progress require both art and science.
Experiment with creativity – but do no harm.
Know how to use restructuring and reframing.
Understand the science behind client-matching variables. Recognize the impact of anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions, etc.
Do your best to use a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model. Pay attention to preferences of people you supervise. Never impose a narrow focus.
Consider Quintiliani’s “neurotherapy” by using cognition, affect, behavior, sensory experiences (see, hear, feel,, etc.) as well as intuition, spirituality and relational variables and conditions. Refer to the Attachment-CABS-VAKGO-IS-Rels model.
Study more neuroscience and how it relates to cognitive and behavior change and the human mind-body system.
Learn and use effective emotion regulation skills and practices.
Focus on the impact of cognition (thoughts and deep structures), emotion, behavioral conditioning, social justice, marginalization, trauma (especially pre-verbal), addictions (include pesky cellphones), and mindfulness.
Observe! Observe! Observe! (direct observation of the work) and Respect! Respect! Respect!
Remain fully aware of possible transference and countertransference processes, especially projective identification.
Know that context, personal aspiration, and personal values matter.
Recognize parallel process from therapy to supervision and back again.
Know that in most states the supervisor is 100% responsible for the actions of the people they supervise, even if those actions were not recommended or are unknown to you.
Know how to use compassion in practical ways, especially with defensive ego-protective patterns in people.
Never make identifications of the whole person as their clinical condition of diagnosis. In fact, add much more to the individualized interventions.
As you observe and respect be a good mentor to motivate, but never forget client protection is the first priority. Their progress is a second priority.
Know your roles: hire, fire, oversight, evaluate, train, support, organize, coordinate, and DOCUMENT. Know abut all HIPAA and 42 CFR Pt 2 requirements.
Always use a written supervision contract/agreement, and recognize informed consent aspects as well as due process in it.
In co-occurring work, seek a role for 12 Steps and/or peer recovery support.
Keep strong BOUNDARIES in all aspect of this work.
Pay attention to learning styles.
Some of the work is a form of palliative care, in that counseling and therapy sometimes deal with life-or-death issues. It is a form of sacred work.
Know about duty to warn and protect – and its various implications.
Supervision (like therapy) needs to be structured but not rigid.
Recognize that generic “talking” has very little empirical support for supporting change in serious co-occurring disorders.
Be capable in dealing with conditions of potential suicide, self-harm, and harm to others.
Supervision needs to be based on an agreement, a professional development plan, and change-oriented interventions, techniques, and processes. In the final analysis, the supervisor is in charge – final decision making re. competence of supervisees and protection of others.
Look after your own self-development as lead clinicians and supervisors.
All may fail if you do not attend to your own SELF-CARE and the self-care of the people you supervise. Etc.!

Be well and reduce suffering!

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

October 18, 2019 By Admin

The Failed “War on Drugs” – Let’s Try Treatment On Demand and Fund It

The New York based Drug Policy Alliance (drugpolicy.org) and other sources have provided some important information about our failed drug and alcohol policies. Here are a few astounding facts. The United Stares has about 5% of the world’s population, but it uses approximately 70% of the worlds illicit drug. In Mexico, our drug-users demand may be responsible for the decay of governmental control – the rise of powerful drug cartels. We incarcerate the highest level of people in the world, nearly 25% of the world’s prison population. With the highest incarceration rate in the world, in 2016 we incarcerated 2,205,300 people. Our population, especially the young, appear to have a “death wish” regarding the consumption of mind-altering substances. Are we Americans so, so emotional empty inside and lacking of all capacities for emotion regulation? Why do we need to self-medicate at such dangerous levels? We just experienced a medically-led nation-wide opioid crisis. Our alcohol industry, worse than the losses due to Opioids, lobbies very hard so very little interference occurs in their Big Profit Game. One might suggest the government does not wish to improve the substance-consumption problem. Now we may legalize various uses of marijuana; there are public health consequences here. At this time 33 states allow medical use of marijuana. And, of course we have, vaping! Who profits?

Our current strong addiction to electronic and digital devices is our new epidemic. Addiction to “I-Smart” phones and tablets fuel texting-while-driving, with recent increase in highway deaths and injury. How utterly stupid! We are addicted to these devices (like the nicotine, alcohol, opioid, and vaping problems); the goal of electronic/digital engineers and behavioral psychologists hired by the industry to make sure we never put the device down and stay on it – even when driving. We empty Americans will do almost anything to “connect” to something. Our emotional emptiness and poor self-regulation skills make us vulnerable to unmet emotional needs. We must “feel” connected – because we are NOT. D. W. Winnicott and S. Freud had something to say about these neurotic tendencies of emptiness. So, how many “likes” did you get today? Time to wake up.

It is estimated that the U.S. government spends approximately $47,000,000,000 a year on the “war on drug.”
In 2017 1,632,921 Americans were arrested for drug related violations of law. In 2016 the number was 456,000, with 21% due to substance use problems.
Nearly 660,000 people were arrested in 2017 for marijuana law violations, with about 90% being for simple possession.
Even if the Black and Latino population makes up less than 32% off our total population, we arrested nearly 47% of those populations in our total drug-related arrests.
In 2017 72,000 American died from a drug overdose. We are out-of-control!
It may be possible to obtain $58,000,000,000 in tax revenue from the taxation and control of currently illegal drugs.
President Barack Obama, William Buckley, Milton Friedman, and Noam Chomsky have publicly noted that our “war on drug” is a total failure.

Here is an idea. Let’s get serious about stopping the total deterioration of our nation due to drug and alcohol addictions. Let’s try complete treatment on demand – and fund it at realistic levels. Hopefully, such a change would include evidence-based interventions and recovery-oriented cooperation. Let’s see what the next administration does about our self-destructing, nation-wide problem.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness