Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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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 –

  1. Expanded self-understanding
  2. Improved attentional focus
  3. Better focused awareness
  4. The personal experience of being present in mind and body
  5. Adjustments to silence and being without all electronic/digital devices (highly addictive)
  6. The possibility of noticed clarity
  7. Experienced forms of inner energy
  8. More centered calmness or activation
  9. Flowing with, complying or rejecting gentle meditation instructions
  10. Discovery of the many benefits of pure silence
  11. Letting go of day-to-day stressors and torments and simply settling into the “being” process – “choiceness awareness”
  12. Being open to unexpected emotions – could be joy, could be sadness, could be new, could be old, etc.
  13. Experience of staying with the arising emotions without attempts to flee them if unpleasant
  14. Ultimately improved emotional self-regulation
  15. With practice, improvements in anxiety, depression, trauma, and addictions (mainly emotion regulation)
  16. Noticing the phases:
  17. 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) –

  1. People arrive at 1 Pm for a brief social period and tea.
  2. At the sound of the singing bowl, we enter the living room and sit in a circle and listen to the day’s plan.
  3. Then we check in – voluntary. Do you wish to share your hopes for the day or share anything else with the group?
  4. 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.
  5. Loving Kindness Meditation follows the Nine Bells.
  6. We now do kinkin, or slower and silent walking meditation (outside weather permitting, inside if not).
  7. In warmer weather, we may add outside yoga, tai chi or qigong practices.
  8. We move back into the meditation room, where I lead meditations I have designed for your specific needs or retreat request.
  9. We do kinkin again.
  10. We sit in the circle in the living room again and write in our journals – voluntary. We are still silent. Bring a journal.
  11. We check out in our circle – voluntary sharing.
  12. You decide if you wish to take written copies of the meditation you experienced.
  13. 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 SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Conferences, Featured, Workshops Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, CONFERENCES, RETREATS, WORKSHOPS

October 30, 2019 By Admin

Core Elements in Clinical Supervision

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.

  1. DO NO HARM in all supervision modalities (individual, group, education/training)!
  2. Know your code of ethics, especially sections relating to clinical supervision, education/training, clinical relationship, and the role of technology.
  3. Understand how the past becomes the present – your own attachment and developmental history and experience. Your own “dragons.”
  4. Know how to use strong empathy and therapeutic alliance/relationship skills.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Recognize that the EBTXs are the science behind the art of therapy. Client and supervisee  progress require both art and science.
  8. Experiment with creativity – but do no harm.
  9. Know how to use restructuring and reframing.
  10. Understand the science behind client-matching variables. Recognize the impact of anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions, etc.
  11. Do your best to use a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model. Pay attention to preferences of people you supervise. Never impose a narrow focus.
  12. 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.
  13. Study more neuroscience and how it relates to cognitive and behavior change and the human mind-body system.
  14. Learn and use effective emotion regulation skills and practices.
  15. 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.
  16. Observe! Observe! Observe! (direct observation of the work) and Respect! Respect! Respect!
  17. Remain fully aware of possible transference and countertransference processes, especially projective identification.
  18. Know that context, personal aspiration, and personal values matter.
  19. Recognize parallel process from therapy to supervision and back again.
  20. 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.
  21. Know how to use compassion in practical ways, especially with defensive ego-protective patterns in people.
  22. Never make identifications of the whole person as their clinical condition of diagnosis. In fact, add much more to the individualized interventions.
  23. 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.
  24. Know your roles: hire, fire, oversight, evaluate, train, support, organize, coordinate, and DOCUMENT. Know abut all HIPAA and 42 CFR Pt 2 requirements.
  25. Always use a written supervision contract/agreement, and recognize informed consent aspects as well as due process in it.
  26. In co-occurring work, seek a role for 12 Steps and/or peer recovery support.
  27. Keep strong BOUNDARIES in all aspect of this work.
  28. Pay attention to learning styles.
  29. 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.
  30. Know about duty to warn and protect – and its various implications.
  31. Supervision (like therapy) needs to be structured but not rigid.
  32. Recognize that generic “talking” has very little empirical support for supporting change in serious co-occurring disorders.
  33. Be capable in dealing with conditions of potential suicide, self-harm, and harm to others.
  34. 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.
  35. Look after your own self-development as lead clinicians and supervisors.
  36. 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 SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Clinical Practice, Clinical Supervison, Featured, Quintiliani's Neurotherapy Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, CLINICAL SUPERVISION, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, QUINTILIAN'S NEUROTHERAPY

October 18, 2019 By Admin

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

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.

  1. It is estimated that the U.S. government spends approximately $47,000,000,000  a year on the “war on drug.”
  2. 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.
  3. Nearly 660,000 people were arrested in 2017 for marijuana law violations, with about 90% being for simple possession.
  4. 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.
  5. In 2017 72,000 American died from a drug overdose. We are out-of-control!
  6. It may be possible to obtain $58,000,000,000 in tax revenue from the taxation and control of currently illegal drugs.
  7. 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 SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: Addiction, ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Featured, War on Drugs Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE, WAR ON DRUGS

October 18, 2019 By Admin

Spirit Wars and “Spiritual Warfare”

Spirit Wars and “Spiritual Warfare”

This post will discuss the topic and personal strategies.  Most content will relate to both physical realities and metaphorical meanings and categories. Since a person viewing their self as fighting a spiritual war most likely holds onto certain parts of self in this endeavor, it is highly unlikely that the actual adversaries are authentic entities outside/inside the self. It is more likely that personal experience has conditioned the person to understand these variable processes as quite serious and sometimes dangerous. To maintain a clear boundary, this post is not presenting a way to treat people suffering from any form of identity disorder; rather, this post offer some ideas about how one might go about becoming healthier via less targeted clinical interventions. The remaining part of the post will offer comments and suggestions for personal consideration of the reader. Most content deals with realistic natural phenomena in life. I hope I am making myself clear here. I hope you find the content helpful.

  1. Since pure white/golden healing light has been noted in almost all major spiritual traditions, you might wish to experiment with the experiences noted below.  Do your best to see the light as a potential healing ally. Allow yourself to feel the light. Do not block!
  2. Experiment with observing  the rising and setting sun. Allow the light to penetrate you; use kinesthetic awareness to do so.  Do your best to feel the light and experience its healing power. Enjoy this! Do not look directly into the intense light energy of the sun.
  3. Study basic astrophysics to learn how gravity (one of the main constants in the universe) has direct effects on dark/black energies.
  4. On a clear night, look deeply into the starlit sky and allow the star energies to enter you. Feel it; use it. Enjoy this!
  5.  On a clear day, look into the blue sky with moving clouds. Allow the light to penetrate you and feel its power. Enjoy this!
  6. Go for a silent walk in nature. Notice! Use all your senses to encounter all that is there. Gently gaze at a mountain, pond, lake, or stream. Notice the transparency off the clear water as it moves downstream. Send your troubles (like a leaf) downstream with the current. Make the best of your attention and intention here. Notice! Relax! Enjoy this!
  7. You may wish to try the Ten Directions experiment. Discern carefully what directions are helpful. What directions bring you into your deep inner self ally? Stand silently and notice the healing air/wind coming from the North, South, East, and West. Notice the effects! Now stand there and bring your attention to everything inside of you. And next – to everything outside of you. Look up and look down; notice. Now use your natural ability to project and send your troubles far, far, far away. Notice! Now move your body slowly and notice; now move your body with more vigorous energy, and notice. You have completed your Ten Directions experiment. Hope it was helpful. Thank our indigenous First Nation Peoples and Buddhist concepts for this process.
  8. Relax and begin to breathe deeply, slowly. Notice the ease and the difficulty. Continue to breathe. Allow the deeper, slower breath to calm you. Notice how the freshness of the committed breath restores your airflow in your throat, heart, soul, etc. Allow the clean flow of healing breath to cleanse you- in your throat, heart, soul.
  9. Now do your best to engage your helpful beliefs and helpful behaviors to support your internal healing. Engage in activities/behaviors that you find helpful.  Do not engage in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are unhelpful. Be strong.
  10. Examine your personal space-time continuum, and pay close attention to when your time and space are safe for you. Spend much more time in this aspect of time and space. Do the same for being happier.
  11. Practice paying more attention to the silent, still space between your breaths, between your thoughts, between your heartbeats, and between your periods of suffering. Use the energy of your attention to enhance the space, silence, peace, and tranquility.
  12. Use your personal, natural wisdom to disempower any obstacles that hinder your progress to improved health and happiness.
  13. Use all of the above as metaphors of self-protection against all sources of suffering.
  14. Know that emotional dysregulation, anger, fear all feed your inner dragons. Best to starve them!
  15. Lastly, if you are a religious person, pray more.
  16. If you read spiritual books, you may want to try the Lectio Divina approach. In this Latin Christian Church method one reads a spiritual passage over and over and over again, each time going more deeply into the self and core religious beliefs. This form of meditation tends to enhance the power of the spiritual information being read as well as the power of the belief.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC  

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

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: Activities, ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Breathing, Featured, Interoception, MIndfulness Activities, Mindfulness Training, Practices, Self Care, Self Compassion, Spiritual Warfare Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, INNER PEACE, OUTER PEACE, SPIRIT WARS, SPIRITUAL WARFARE

September 29, 2019 By Admin

Self-Care to Reduce Compassion Fatigue

Self-Care to Reduce Compassion Fatigue

First let’s begin with what some people do to counteract the stressors of living in a hurried,“over-technologized” world. Technically, “technologize” is not a popularly accepted word, but it is a sad  reality. We live in a time when texting while driving may become the new addiction-based cause for many, many deaths. This addiction is so strong people do it in situations that could case their injury or death, or the injury or death of others. Sound familiar! It should. Cellphone “abuse” is not so different from the plans of cigarette producers to “hook” us on something we will pay for during many years. So here is a partial list of what people tend to do when faced with severe stressors.

What people tend to do that does NOT improve their stress reactivity long-term:

  1. “Smoke and Coke” – a phrase referring to smoking nicotine and drinking sugary soft-drinks when you cannot cope well and feel dragged down with your stressful life and want to feel stimulated.
  2. Of course there is always excessive alcohol and/or drug use as self-medication.
  3. Sleeping – too little or too much, including late onset and too early awakening.
  4. Eating – too little or too much, and may include binging and purging.
  5. Hoarding for whatever security it brings.
  6. Obsessive compulsive  behaviors – as behaviors for security actions to make us feel better.
  7. Being aggressive when it is not necessary to defend yourself.
  8. Insulating yourself from contact with others.
  9. Living under a “victimhood” self-identification. This can change everything!
  10. Participating in self-harming behaviors to activate neurologic, chemical and hormonal changes in your brain and body.
  11. Engagement in unsafe sexual activities to feel “excitement” and/or “loved.”
  12. Spending too much time online or on my “I-Smart” phone. The phone becomes your life!
  13. Doing too much exercise, especially when injuries occur.
  14. Being a person of uncontrollable empathy – a clear boundary issue that wares you out.
  15. Making your job too much of your life – workaholism or compensation for poor self-esteem?
  16. Making do with professional, work stagnation.
  17. Remaining stuck in impaired practices – the most common one being emotional dysregulation.

What people can do that does improve stress reactivity and may even increase joy in life:

  1. Taking brief breaks from the “grind” of work.
  2. Recognizing and contemplating personal gratitude for what you DO have.
  3. Noticing and correcting unhelpful thoughts, emotions, behaviors and communications.
  4. Learning to hold a positive, optimistic mindset and attitude.
  5. Liberating yourself from “stuckness” in anxiety, depression, addictions, and trauma. This most often requires professional help and/or self-help.
  6. Cutting way back on your online time. Researchers suggest anything beyond 3-4 hours/day is a habitual pattern. What do our jobs, schools and parents contribute to the habitual tendencies of habit-forming digital/electronic devices?
  7. Ignoring FOMO!
  8. Spending time reading, writing,  journaling about helpful things.
  9. Spending time listening and/or playing music.
  10. Spending time dancing and/or doing regular exercise.
  11. Spending time doing regular practice of meditation, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, mindful walking.
  12. Petting your dog or cat – or horse. Looking into their eyes when they allow it.
  13. Spending time walking in nature.
  14. Learning to give/get social-emotional support.
  15. Learning to leave work at work – learn to build emotional boundaries.
  16. Practice limit-setting regarding your boundaries and what you do to help others.
  17. Making a firm commitment to improve your wellness.
  18. Taking part in constructive self-reflection.
  19. Paying more attention to positives ( natural for the brain to do the opposite).
  20. Helpful nutrition, sleep and exercise practices.
  21. Learn to play more; learn to be active in creative expression.
  22. Participating in regular spiritual practices.
  23. Spending more quality time with loved ones and good friends when helpful.
  24. Leaving some time to just be in quiet, silent solitude.
  25. Seeking professional help as soon as you “feel” you MAY need it, or when others who care about you “think” you need it.

You will notice that the helpful list is longer than the unhelpful list. However, the unhelpful behaviors are often more automatic, and the helpful behaviors REQUIRE considerable effort to carry out. Your wellness must be a priority for you.

For more information refer to Bray, B. (2019). Counselors as human beings not superheroes. Counseling Today (October, 2019), 18-25

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC  

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

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

 

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Calming, Compassion Fatigue, Destructive Emotions, Emotions, Featured, Inner Peace, Interventions, Mindful Awareness, MIndfulness, Recovery, Self -Kindness, Self Care, Self Compassion, Stress Reduction, Success, Tools, True Self, Well Being Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, COMPASSION, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, MINDFULNESS, STRESS REDUCTION

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