35. Residential Counselor 101 pt. 2 - The Aspect Compass

Becoming Centered

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 simply because the clients are children, regardless of whatever individual treatment issues a client presents. The Downward direction (Task Responsibilities) involves all the tasks involved in caring for the kids, caring for the facility, and being an employee. The Inward (Self) direction involves caring for oneself, so that you have the energy to care for the kids.

Although there’s an overlap between Care and Treatment; the horizontal plane of the compass represents four aspects of treatment involved in being a residential counselor.

The East cardinal position represents the domain of emotions. It’s symbolized by the aspect of The Artist. The Artist is made up of those parts of the brain and psyche that only process the world and communicate in terms of emotions. That’s how those parts of the brain work.

The South cardinal position represents the domain of cognitions. It’s symbolized by the aspect of The Scout. Unlike The Artist, The Scout possesses lots of words and engages in thinking, analysis, and has a purpose of exploring the world, interpreting what it finds, and reporting back to the rest of the brain.

The West cardinal position represents the domain of behaviors (both external actions and internal physiological actions). It’s symbolized by the aspect of The Warrior. The Warrior expresses all The Artist’s feelings and all the Scout’s thoughts as external and internal behaviors.

The North cardinal position represents the domain of executive skills that are used to regulate the rest of the brain. It’s symbolized by the aspect of The Chief. The Chief is concerned with centering The Artist, The Scout, and The Warrior. The Chief regulates the tribe (the different parts of the psyche) and also is concerned with a person’s relationships with other people (the external tribe).

The podcast delves into understanding the brain's functioning, emphasizing the practice effect wherein repeated actions reinforce neural pathways. It stresses the importance of fostering calm feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in children through positive experiences and repetition.

The discussion outlines the interconnectedness of different aspects of the psyche: emotions (East), cognitions (South), behaviors (West), and executive skills (North). It highlights the role of residential staff in creating a therapeutic milieu and inspiring internal changes in children's brains to manage problem behaviors effectively.

Respectful treatment is emphasized as essential for creating a therapeutic environment, contrasting coercive approaches that may yield short-term compliance but hinder long-term transformation. The episode concludes with a preview of forthcoming tools and techniques to help children achieve emotional centeredness, laying the foundation for further cognitive and behavioral growth.

Other Key Concepts

The Practice Effect: Feelings, moods, and even thinking, work the same way in the brain as behaviors. Whatever states-of-mind are practiced become easier to achieve. Practicing becoming emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally centered will transform a person’s brain.

The Intensity Effect: Intense feelings create lasting changes in the brain. This is why a single traumatic incident, let alone the multiple traumas that are common among kids in residential treatment, have a lasting effect on the kids’ brains (unless effective treatment occurs).

Respect Doesn’t Have to Be Earned: In a treatment environment it’s important that staff consistently treat the kids with respect. It is likely that many of the kids will not consistently treat staff respectfully. That makes being respectful to the kids a challenge that requires personal maturity and professionalism. Kids experiencing the adults consistently treating them with respect will, over time, be a key component to the clients feeling safe enough and trusting enough to try new behaviors. The Artist part of each child’s psyche has a primal fear that the world is too harsh to survive. Counselors will be most effective at treatment when they respect that fear and don’t add to it with harsh interactions.

Seeking Compliance is Behavior Management, not Treatment: Sometimes kids in residential treatment exhibit such outrageous and unsafe behaviors that managing those behaviors has to take priority over treatment. However, effective behavior management only trains kids in how to be successful within the artificial environment of an institutional setting. Treatment involves transformational change that carries over to when kids are living back in the community.