Best Russ Bloch Podcasts (2024)

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40. Residential Counselor 101 Pt. 7 - Resilience to Traumatic Stress 30:55

2d ago30:55

30:55

Psychological Debriefing is a technique for reducing the impact of traumatic stress after a neurologically intense experience. On a neuropsychological level that experience could be anything that triggers a release of certain hormones such as cortisol (known as “the stress hormone”) and adrenaline. On a behavioral level that typically includes situ…

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39. Residential Counselor 101 Pt. 6 - Empathy vs. Processing & Coping Activities 31:32

21d ago31:32

31:32

Coping Activities Diversions – any hobby or activity that engages your attention. Writing, drawing, painting, crafts Listening to music, playing an instrument, singing, dancing, acting Gardening Taking a walk, or going for a drive Watching television or a movie Guided Imagery Meditations Playing a game Shopping Reading Taking a break or vacation Te…

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38. Residential Counselor 101 Pt. 5 - Scout Skills & Processing 27:38

1M ago27:38

27:38

The Aspect Compass, part of the Meta-Compass Model, divides areas of the brain and aspects of the psyche into four parts called: The Artist, The Scout, The Warrior, and The Chief. The Artist represents those parts of the brain and psyche that understand the world in terms of emotions. The Artist communicates, in terms of feelings and moods, to the …

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37. Residential Counselor 101 Pt. 4 - Executive Skills & Labeling 28:35

1M ago28:35

28:35

Executive Skills are abilities that part of the brain can develop that used to regulate other parts of the brain. There’s two Executive Skills that describe ways that the emotional parts of the brain are regulated. Reaction Inhibition is the ability to stop yourself from automatically reacting. More specifically, it’s the ability to stop the action…

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36. Residential Counselor 101 pt. 3 - Co-Regulation & Empathic Listening 30:23

2M ago30:23

30:23

Posture: The parts of the brain that control the physical body (the inner Warrior) and the parts of the brain that operate in terms of emotions (the inner Artist) are tightly linked in the brain. Changes in one automatically trigger changes in the other. So, getting kids to become more aware of their posture, and to habitually adopt good posture, s…

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35. Residential Counselor 101 pt. 2 - The Aspect Compass 31:47

2M ago31:47

31:47

The vertical axis of the Seven-Directions Meta-Compass Model, represents the core functions involved in caring for children who are literally placed in the care of a residential treatment program. The Upward direction (Relationships) involves all the activities a Residential Counselor does to care for the kids. These are things that have to happen …

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34. Residential Counselor 101 pt. 1 - Science, Art, and Craft 30:07

3M ago30:07

30:07

The Role of a Residential Counselor: Care and Treatment CARE: Relationships: A core responsibility is to attend to the care, well-being, and safety of the clients. This requires caring and respectful relationships between staff and clients. Self: In order to take care of the clients, you have to be able to take care of yourself. This work is very s…

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33. Groups 28:35

4M ago28:35

28:35

Effective residential treatment for troubled children and youth depends upon teamwork among both staff and residents. The goal is to transform a group of struggling kids into a supportive team. Many kids in these programs crave friendship, which is often lacking due to their life challenges and the displacement of residential treatment. A major goa…

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32. Supervisor Orientation Pt. 3 27:42

4M ago27:42

27:42

This podcast mini-series aims to aid residential staff who find themselves supervising shifts and providing individual supervision for residential counselors. It explores various aspects of these roles through the Seven-Directions Meta-Compass Model. Each episode focuses on a cardinal direction, representing different perspectives. Episode one emph…

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31. Supervisor Orientation Pt. 2 30:15

4M ago30:15

30:15

In this podcast episode, looking at the role of the Residential Supervisor shifts to the perspective of the West cardinal direction in the Meta-Compass Model. The West is the direction of behaviors, physiology, and for this podcast, especially is concerned with setting behavioral goals for supervisees. It’s suggested that setting behavioral goals b…

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30. Supervisor Orientation Pt. 1 29:58

5M ago29:58

29:58

This podcast aims to guide residential staff taking on the role of supervising a shift, emphasizing the complexities involved in managing a group of kids and supporting a team of direct care staff. The role of a Residential Supervisor involves overseeing shifts, and in some agencies includes providing one-on-one office-based supervision, which incl…

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29. Managing Problem Behaviors 42:07

5M ago42:07

42:07

This podcast episode presents a system for managing behavior problems, utilizing a variety of interconnected tools and techniques. The concept of contagion is introduced, explaining how behaviors, feelings, and thoughts can spread among individuals. The importance of interrupting behavioral patterns is highlighted, particularly using a technique kn…

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28. Twelve Transformational Beliefs 30:26

5M ago30:26

30:26

This episode focuses on Beliefs as a powerful regulatory mechanism. Beliefs act as filters through which individuals perceive reality, and the host emphasizes the importance of consciously choosing beliefs. The key idea is that beliefs need not be evaluated based on their imagined truth, but on their usefulness and how well they serve an individual…

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27. The Aspect Compass & Self-Talk 27:40

5M ago27:40

27:40

This podcast episode is intended to increase your awareness of Self-Talk and how you can coach your clients to use more effective and healthier Self-Talk. It uses the Aspect Compass (part of the Meta-Compass Model) to present different qualities of Self-Talk that appeal to the four cardinal aspects of your psyche called The Artist, The Scout, The W…

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26. Developing Executive Skills 29:50

5M ago29:50

29:50

In this podcast episode, the focus is on aiding children and youth in residential treatment to develop executive skills, which are crucial for regulating emotions, thinking, and behavior. Developing residents executive skills is essential because it’s their deficits in being able to regulate their own feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that accounts…

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25. The Eight Gifts 31:02

6M ago31:02

31:02

This podcast presents a system of eight values and fits them within the Meta-Compass Model. This podcast explores the interplay between executive functions, values, and emotional, cognitive, and behavioral health, offering a practical framework for understanding and fostering these aspects in individuals, particularly children and youth. Values, se…

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24. Heroes, Courage, and Fear 26:10

6M ago26:10

26:10

This podcast builds off of the concept that, overall, our brains understand the totality of our life experiences as a story. It’s crucial for our mental health, and overall sense of becoming centered, to see ourselves as the hero of our own life-story. This is the situation for children and youth in residential treatment. Upon entering residential …

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23. Helping Kids Reason 28:37

6M ago28:37

28:37

This podcast episode builds off of the concept of four different types of reasoning simultaneously performed by distinct parts of the brain. The inner Artist engages in Emotional-Reasoning, associating experiences with emotions. The inner Scout employs Magical-Reasoning, finding patterns and correlations to make sense of the world. The inner Warrio…

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22. Understanding Reasoning 30:17

6M ago30:17

30:17

This podcast presents a way to understand the brain’s ability to use reasoning to become cognitively centered. Emotional centering involves regulating the intensity and switching between emotional states. Behavioral centering, particularly physiological centering, focuses on transitioning from extremes to a calm baseline. It’s a little harder to un…

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21. Becoming Physiologically Centered 32:15

7M ago32:15

32:15

This episode focuses on how to help child-clients become physiologically centered. Previous episodes have focused on helping children become emotionally and cognitively centered. Emotional centering involves regulating extremes of emotions, and developing reaction inhibition and stress tolerance. Various tools, such as the Check-in and Empathic Lis…

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20. Stories - The Bear Clan Origin pt. 1-3 28:35

7M ago28:35

28:35

This episode is a departure from the usual format by sharing original teaching stories. Storytelling and stories are a fundamental modality for learning. Our brains are wired to process experiences in the form of a narrative. Telling stories builds connections between adults and children, whether the adult is the storyteller or the child. Telling s…

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19. Management and Delegating 29:30

7M ago29:30

29:30

This podcast episode discusses the importance of management and delegation within residential treatment programs for children and youth. It highlights the different levels of management within such organizations, including Executive Management responsible for overall leadership, Senior Management overseeing major aspects of the agency's operations,…

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18. Processing Suicidal Ideation 27:04

7M ago27:04

27:04

This podcast episode is the second part of a series that addresses how to intervene when dealing with suicidal ideation in children and youth. It emphasizes the importance of training for counselors and aims to make discussing this sensitive subject more approachable. An important focus is for counselors is to help clients understand suicidal ideat…

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17. Suicidal Ideation 28:24

8M ago28:24

28:24

This podcast episode discusses the challenging issue of dealing with suicidal ideation among child-clients in residential treatment. The podcast offers insights into different scenarios where staff may encounter suicidal ideation in child-clients and explains the unique challenges residential staff face, such as having to be the front-line mental h…

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16. The Aspect Compass & Meeting Kids' Needs 31:43

8M ago31:43

31:43

This podcast presents a powerful perspective for helping your child-clients become centered. It’s based on understanding your kids’ needs through The Aspect Compass, a model representing four aspects of the psyche: The Artist (emotions), The Scout (cognitions), The Warrior (behaviors), and The Chief (executive skills). Each aspect has unique needs …

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15. Processing Feelings 25:10

8M ago25:10

25:10

This episode explores various techniques for helping children process their feelings and develop emotional regulation skills. The episode begins with a recap of previous discussions on physiological coregulation and processing aimed at helping kids become cognitively centered. The focus then shifts to processing feelings, which can be more difficul…

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14. Time Outs 31:07

8M ago31:07

31:07

This podcast episode discusses the use of timeouts as a common and effective technique in residential treatment programs working with children and adolescents. Timeouts are employed to manage disruptive behaviors and prevent the spread of problematic behaviors and emotions within a group, similar to containing a fire's spread. The episode emphasize…

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13. Setting Firm Limits 32:06

9M ago32:06

32:06

This podcast episode explores the crucial role of structure and firm, yet respectful, limit-setting in residential care for troubled children. Structures and external boundaries are essential for creating order in a group environment, especially when dealing with children facing various challenges such as trauma, ADHD, developmental delays, and men…

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12. Structure and Structural Interventions 32:01

9M ago32:01

32:01

This podcast delves into the fundamental structures of residential treatment programs and the concept of structural interventions. While theoretically residential treatment could customize programs for each individual, practicality dictates the need for a standardized framework designed to meet the overall needs of a group of kids. The concept of p…

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11. Neurological Coregulation 29:40

9M ago29:40

29:40

This podcast discusses the importance of coregulation in residential treatment settings for children who are emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally disorganized. Coregulation refers to the process where an adult's nervous system synchronizes with a child's, helping the child learn self-control and emotional regulation. Coregulation starts from …

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10. After Physical Restraints 29:18

9M ago29:18

29:18

This podcast episode is part four of a series addressing the use of physical restraints and interventions in response to extreme client behaviors, particularly in residential treatment settings. The previous episodes discussed the uncomfortable nature of these interventions and the necessity of their use for the safety of both staff and clients. Th…

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9. Trauma Protection with Physical Restraints 30:48

9M ago30:48

30:48

Physical Restraints tend to be in response to intense, often times violent, situations and will have some degree of traumatizing effect on both the staff and the client. The neurochemical changes in the brain that are caused by traumatic incidents don’t automatically reset. Instead, memories of the incident are stored in your brain with the emotion…

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8. Physical Restraints 28:36

10M ago28:36

28:36

Physical Restraints are, in my opinion, the best option for safely dealing with violent behaviors among children and youth in residential treatment. Self-injurious behaviors need to be stopped before they lead to permanent, or at least significant, damage. Assaultive behaviors need to be stopped before they lead to harm. Runaway behavior is a more …

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7. Physical Interventions 30:51

10M ago30:51

30:51

Physical Restraints are a complex and controversial subject that might be triggering for some people. There are scholarly articles on this subject and many national organizations have expressed opinions on the use of physical restraint. My perspective is primarily driven by my professional experiences participating in physical restraints, mechanica…

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6. The Aspect Compass and Setting Limits 33:40

10M ago33:40

33:40

This episode uses The Aspect Compass to frame the role of a Residential Counselor as serving as The Chief function with the clients to set limits, to help regulate, the kids’ emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. When residential staff don’t set enough limits, you’ll see a phenomenon called contagion. This comes from firefighting and describes how a…

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5. The Domain Compass and Labeling 19:06

10M ago19:06

19:06

This episode reviews The Domain Compass, which is a way to visualize four domains of psychological functioning. In the East, there’s the domain of emotions, consisting of feelings and moods. In the South, there’s the domain of cognitions, consisting of thoughts and beliefs. In the West, there’s the domain of behaviors. That’s includes both external…

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4. Team Building 24:54

11M ago24:54

24:54

High level team work is an absolutely essential aspect of being an effective Residential Counselor. There’s a classic way to think about the formation of effective teams. It breaks team development into 5 over-lapping phases: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning. (1) Forming refers to all the dynamics that happen between team-mates wh…

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3. Therapeutic Relationships 29:30

11M ago29:30

29:30

Therapeutic relationships help your clients become centered in four domains of psychological functioning. This can be visualized using The Domain Compass: · In the East, there’s the domain of emotions, consisting of feeling and moods. · In the South, there’s the domain of cognitions, consisting of thoughts and beliefs. · In the West, there’s the do…

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2. Professional Boundaries for Residential Counselors 34:38

11M ago34:38

34:38

Professional boundaries includes: 1. the schedule of when you’ll have contact with the kids, 2. limits on physical touch, 3. limits on personal disclosure, and 4. the general tone of the professional relationship. 1. Your contact with clients is during scheduled hours. Be polite but minimize any accidental contact with clients outside of work. Don’…

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1. The Role of Residential Counselor 21:48

11M ago21:48

21:48

Welcome to the first episode of Becoming Centered. This episode begins the Residential Counselor Orientation series, designed for the new Residential Counselor. It introduces a way to understand your role, your relationship with clients and other counselors, and introduces some basic tools for becoming a skilled Residential Counselor. Episode 1 foc…

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Russ Bloch Podcasts

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