Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

July 29, 2019 By Admin

Quintiliani’s Brief Life Experience Screening

Quintiliani’s Brief Life Experience Screening

Years ago, when I received a rather large number of managed care referrals for  adolescent “treatment failures” and their families, I soon realized that typical screening, assessment and therapy was NOT working well. I tried so, so hard to reach these young people – all experiencing extreme psychological suffering with little hope for relief. Suicide risk was high, uncomfortably high! Nothing seemed to work very well; cognitive, behavioral, and mindfulness interventions fell short of the goals. My alliance building skills did work, but other than a meaningful and emotional relationship there was very little positive change in their cognition, emotion, or behavior. For the most part my young clients did show up, so I guess the therapeutic relationship was a motivating factor. For some, legal consequences may have been a factor. After ample frustration, I decided to start fresh; I decided to break things down into logical, sequenced patterns in their lives. Behavioral task analysis was helpful, but insufficient for success. Then in a meditation, it came to me as clear as a Vermont summer sky. There were some fluffy clouds. Below I will share what worked much better, and how to use it as a transitional screening and treatment strategy. Ok, get ready for a lot of letters!

Hx – Mp – CEB – VAKGO – I-S – Rels:  This represents what I came up with to  reach these young clients, and how we collaboratively discovered deficits/problems and more than a few solutions. The administration format is quite simple: Simply move through the letters (and their meanings), and as you do ask for the major negative/unhelpful memory/characteristic/experience the person remembers.  After each entry, asks for the major positive/helpful memory/characteristic/experience the person remembers. When you complete the screening you will have highly significant self-report about core live processes and major life experiences – both unhelpful and helpful. Allow me to clarify each step. The process is voluntary, and the client may stop at any time. Be sure to obtain informed consent. Stick with the dyadic formula – both negative and positive experiences. The negatives are problems to be resolved via relationship and skills; the positives are sources of personal strengths to help resolve problems. Obtain information up to the present; this wide window of time will allow the person to include all significant experiences they are willing to share with you.

Hx (History):   involves early attachment, object relations, educational experiences, medical and psychological issues. Simply ask for a significant problem and a significant benefit for each area noted.

Mp (Mind Perception):   involves personal reflections about significant life events and emotional responses/reactions to them. Emphasize how the person utilized perceptual processes in these experiences. Are they anxious and/or depressed? Are they open to change? Are they at all optimistic? Are they pessimistic?

CEB (Cognition, Emotion and Behavior):   involves highly significant unhelpful and helpful experiences in thinking, feeling, and acting. What are the dominant negative and positive repeating thoughts, emotions, and behaviors? Keep behavioral reinforcement and conditioning in mind for the behavioral area. Special attention may be required for addictions (substances, processes, eating, cellphone, self-harming, etc.).

VAKGO (Sensory – Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Gustatory, Olfactory):  involves the past experiences of sensory processing. What are the most unhelpful and helpful recalled sensory experiences the person has had? Be sure to ask about negatives and positives for each sensory category. Interoception may be important: they ability to perceive and interpret internal body sensations is a special sensory attribute. Caution: Since serious traumatic experiences are processed and recalled most often via the CEB and VAKGO categories, be sensitive to client readiness to share. Be prepared to stop and become more psychodynamically supportive.

I-S (Intuition and Spirituality):  involves the person’s history of negative and positive experiences regarding their intuition and their spirituality. Since some people are not at all spiritual, go easy on this category. Some people, however, are highly spiritual with and without formal religious practice. This may be an area of primary strength for some people.

Rels (Relationships):   involves the negative and positive nature of significant relationships in the person’s life.This is also the core area where all of the above categories may become quite integrated. Most people experience pain and suffering as well as joy and happiness via their interpersonal relationships – the more significant, the more powerful.

Summary: Now you have a sheet of paper that notes significant aspects of a client’s history (up to the present), as well as significant areas of suffering and happiness. Work on working through and witnessing the suffering, and be sure to help your client improve their ability to use mindful skills to improve their future. Feel free to integrate other evidence-based therapies into the process. The process is trans-theoretical, but one that fits common human experiences across various domains. Good luck on this. Hope it is helpful to you and your clients.

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, Behavior, Featured, Screening Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTLIANI, PERCEPTION, SCREENING

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

Safety:  Mindful Candle Gazing Meditation Practices Candle light and candle gazing are common in many spiritual and religious practices.  After many fire-related losses, religious organizations have found ways to maintain the practice and reduce liability related to accidental fires.  The National Candle Association is also quite aware that their products include some risk.  Therefore, the […]

Three Meditation Practices to Further Your Expansion Based on the ongoing “bad news” about various domestic and world events, and the knowledge that people DO NEED more compassion and self-compassion in their hectic and challenging lives, I am writing three brief meditation practices on different aspects on compassion-wisdom as noted on my site.  Hopefully, these […]

A Dark Night with Saint John of the Cross The writings of Saint John of the Cross offer a special viewpoint about the suffering of souls, suffering souls on their way to unity with the divine.  What follows stands in contrast to the Buddha’s views in The Dhammapada about ultimate happiness without any form of union […]

Using Your Compassionate Mind in Psychotherapy For you to become a more compassionate therapist, follow the details noted below. These preconditions, skills, and practices are required as a baseline for  compassionate practice. You need the ability to access calmness in an environment of emotional suffering, chaos, or conflict.  Most people do this by breathing in […]

Using Lectio Divina to Enhance Your Happiness Lectio Divina is an ancient Christian (Benedictine) meditation; it is a form of meditative prayer called “sacred  seeing.”   We  will use a modified version of the process here.   Follow the steps noted below. Sit  quietly  in meditative form, calmly abiding yourself here now.   After a […]

Basic Self-Compassion Process Practice: To practice self-compassion as needed, follow these specific self-compassion steps. Sensitize your mindfulness skills to become aware of your immediate experience of suffering. Hold a strong intention to respond with self-kindness. Use self-talk to be kind to yourself. Begin by softening your body. Relax your muscles, tendons, joints. Hold a natural […]

Equanimity, Suffering, and Resilience It is said that equanimity (Pali – upekkha), the seventh factor of enlightenment and the tenth perfection, is an end-product of life-long personal practice in meditation and/or meditative yoga. It is about “walking the walk.” Some practitioners note that equanimity is the foundation for other helpful states of mind and body. […]

Loving Kindness Meditation – More Thoughts Some less experienced meditators complain about how easily the mind’s wandering thoughts distract them from paying attention and deepening concentration.  This is a very common problem in meditation practice, and not always just for novices.  Here is a solution for you to try.  In Loving Kindness Meditation, you focus […]

Improving Your Self-Esteem – An Action Contemplation The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute’s surveys and V. Mamgain’s ideas about neoclassical economics of happiness help provide a means to deconstruct improved learning in higher education and also personal happiness in the process. According to the UCLA research surveys, higher education students want more spirituality and personal […]

Practice Approaches to for Mindful and  Enhanced Emotion Regulation Brought to us by way of  The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Mindful Approaches for Enhanced Emotion Regulation; here are some approaches to practice. 1)In some ways you could understand the progression from auto-pilot mind to greater stability and equanimity of […]

Strategies to Cool Your Hot Emotions: Using Mind and Body First, let me note that one of the best sets of mind-body approaches to cooling down hot emotional reactions can be found in the various emotion regulation skills and practices in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (created by Marsha M. Lineman, a practicing Buddhist).  These skills may […]

Forms of Happiness from Buddhist Psychology Given the season “to be jolly” I plan to write several posts on the topic of happiness. The following information notes five stages or levels of happiness.  Read them over and see what stage/level may be appropriate for you at this time in your practice. Note that some meditation […]

Interoceptive Practices for Generic  Tai Chi  & Chi Kung  Postures By Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D. From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center  for  the  Study  of  Secular  Meditation  in  Monkton,  Vermont These practices will require either knowledge of Tai Chi/Chi Kung postures or following pictures of the same postures.  Be prepared before you begin to practice. […]

Psychological Research on the Dangers of Smartphone Abuse There is no doubt that smartphone technology bring us a great deal of advanced technological access to a world of information and communication. There is a downside. Recent research published by The American Psychological Association in March, 2017, and opinions in The Atlantic warn of potential and actual biopsychosocial […]

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 […]

 Poem on the Wind   I am quite pleased with my experience on BEING in the wind today.  This poem will suggest that you allow the wind to be a metaphor – even a fantasy – that allows your pain and suffering to be swept away by the endless, gentle, blowing wind of nature. We […]

Liberate Yourself with Spiritual Energy Cultivating authentic inner and outer peace is the only way to a happy and good future. Learn to use your spiritual higher self to let go of self-centerednesss, greed, and entitlement. Work to free yourself from the endless grasping for material “things.”  Does it really matter what kind of car […]

Mindfulness, Movement, and Meditation Practices Meditation Master Thich Nhat Hanh offers some of the most helpful mindfulness, movement, and meditation instructions available today.  His themes here are about reducing your suffering, increasing your satisfactions, and expanding your happiness as a result. Please do not note that “I do not have time to do these things!” […]

COVID-19 Brings Higher Stress and Emotion Dysregulation The Book of Job notes “Man is born unto troubles as the sparks fly upward.” Current stress surveys indicate Americans are stressed out due to COVID-19 concerns, work stress (money needs), imbalance in life-work experience, and lack of support (social, emotional, financial).  The 2020 American Psychological Association national survey […]

“Ignorance” of Requirements Could End Your Clinical Career Recently various insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare fraud cases have been in the national headlines. Although these fraud cases grab headlines, the truth is that many clinically licensed helpers still do not understand clinical/legal documentation requirements.  In Buddhism, “ignorance” gets in our way; we never approach true liberation […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

ENLIGHTENMENT DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI WALKING MEDITATION CONSCIOUSNESS MEDITATION SELF CARE COMPASSION SELF COMPASSION SUFFERING WISE MIND TRAUMA ACTIVITY EMPTINESS VERMONT SELF ESTEEM PRACTICES TRAINING BREATHING SELF MEDICATION VIPASSANA ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER THERAPY. ANTHONY QUINTILIANI ACTIVITIES MINDFUL TRAINING CLINICAL SUPERVISION BUDDHISM VIPASSANA MEDITATION MINDFUL HAPPINESS MBSR BRAIN JOURNALING COVID-19 MINDFUL MEDITATION THICH NHAT HANH EXERCISES MINDFULNESS TRAINING MINDFUL HAPPINESS MINDFULNESS PSYCHOTHERAPY PRACTICE SELF ADDICTION MEDITATION PRACTICE

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness