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November 2012
The Institute Insider
Keeping you connected ~ Nurturing your professional growth
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Meet our Faculty
Sabrina N'Diaye, LCSW-C
Sabrina N'Diaye began her career as a Social Worker almost 25 years ago in New York City's foster care system. Since that time, she has worked in residential psychiatric treatment, community mental health, addictions, and private practice. In addition to her clinical work, she has mastered the art of relationship marketing, and has assisted a number of programs and practices increase their referral base and bottom lines. For the past decade, she has served as a Regional Marketing Consultant for Marworth Treatment Center in Waverly, PA. In 2007, she opened founded the Heart Nest Wellness Center in Catonsville, where she specializes in her "calling" - healing work for trauma survivors, couples, and recovering addicts. She was an Adjunct Instructor at Howard County Community College, and serves as a part-time instructor for Casa Loma College, where she teaches courses in Psychology, Diversity, Critical Thinking, and Ethics. Sabrina is currently pursuing her PhD in Mind-Body Medicine from Saybrook university, where she is studying the use of guided imagery as a healing tool for women with chronic illness. Read more about Sabrina here. Sabrina will give an informative training entitled "Creating and Nurturing a Successful Practice: What They Didn't Teach You in Grad School" on November 12. Click here to learn more and register for Sabrina's training. She will also offer a training on December 3 entitled "The Enduring Trauma of Racism and Oppression: Ethical and Cultural Considerations for Authentic Therapists.
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Message from Lisa Ferentz LCSW-C, DAPA
Founder and President
This can be a wonderful and cozy time of year. We reconnect with those long forgotten warm, nubby sweaters that have waited patiently for us in the back of our closets. Everything we eat and drink is pumpkin flavored. We start to look longingly at our fireplaces. Neighborhood trees explode in a fireworks display of magenta, orange and brilliant yellow. And if you haven't tasted a Honey Crisp apple yet, run to your nearest market and buy some. Their juicy, spicy sweetness epitomizes the season! But for many people, the shift out of daylight savings and the other harbingers of fall and winter create feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and depression. Many clinicians report an upswing in referrals this time of year, and the focus is often on the difficult feelings that colder weather, less sunshine, and the approaching holiday season evokes.
With this in mind, we are dedicating this newsletter to an exploration of depression and seasonal affective disorder. It is not a coincidence that a chill in the air causes people to turn inward, disconnecting from others. Clients who have grown up in toxic or dysfunctional families begin to dread the "obligation" of family dinners and celebrations. Often, these are triggers for earlier memories that were tainted by parental discord, out of control drinking, financial stress, intergenerational grudges, etc. We need to be sensitive to these triggers and validate their impact, while still encouraging our clients to create new memories and new rituals with family surrogates that are loving and safe.
In this issue, we will look at a variety of resources that can help us better assess depression and then manage the debilitating symptoms in ways that both soothe and re-empower our clients. My wish for all of you, my extended Institute family, is that you make this holiday season a meaningful and joyful one. And that you tap into the warmth and comfort this time of year can bring!
Lisa Ferentz
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Re-Envisioning the Holidays
by Susan A. Osofsky, LCSW  I was standing in our popular shopping district today watching the annual Halloween Zombie Walk, delighted by the creativity of all the young people dressed as the "Walking Undead". There were elaborate, grotesque costumes on the serious faced actors as they literally dragged themselves down a mile long street and back up again, while onlookers stood with startled expressions. It's an event open to anyone who has the courage to make themselves look hideous and happily flaunt it. Although I look forward to this event each year, I can't help but wonder how many of the zombies were excited to participate and how many were displaying what they truly felt as they considered the upcoming holiday season. To read the rest of this article, click here.
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 Ain't No Cure for the Wintertime Blues?
In his new book, Spontaneous Happiness, Andrew Weil, MD shares his views on the epidemic of depression (seasonal or otherwise), the widespread vitamin D deficiencies, and out of whack serotonin and melatonin levels. It appears that our bodies have not genetically morphed as quickly as the technological induced cultural changes have required of us-the problem is beyond just "culture shock"; it's a problem of basic physiology. To read the rest of this article, click here.Howard will present "Ain't No Cure for the Wintertime Blues?" in a training on December 20. Click here to learn more and register. |
Clinician Resources for SAD and DepressionPublicationsVideo -
A great video that demonstrates the benefits of using EFT to acknowledge upset feelings and then begin to move beyond them
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Amy Weintraub Yoga
Easy breathwork, stretches, and movement that help us re-connect with the body and increase a sense of wellbeing.
Additional Resources
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Self-Care and Counseling Tips
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 SELF-CARE: As more of your clients experience depressive symptoms this time of year, you may find yourself working longer and later hours at work. This means more exposure to clients who are hypo-aroused, and given the way mirror neurons work, you may notice that you start to feel spacey, lethargic, blue or even hopeless after repeated sessions with this population. Make sure you are balancing your workload, setting limits with your hours, and taking breaks in between sessions to stretch, get some air, and "shake off" your interactions with clients. Engage in outside activities that are energizing, find ample opportunities to laugh, make sure you are getting enough sleep and eating properly. Make a deliberate effort to hold optimistic thoughts. Spend more time with friends who are fun to be with. Remember to take your own "emotional temperature" and notice how fewer daylight hours and the approaching holiday season is impacting you.
COUNSELING: One of the biggest byproducts of depression is a feeling of lethargy. Clients lack the physical energy and the emotional interest in doing even the simplest activities. Although this feels like a more comfortable state for the client who is experiencing depression, it actually feeds and fuels their disabled state. Try encouraging clients to mirror easy movement patterns with you during session. Start with three simple moves: hand clap, thigh slap and a snap, and have the client repeat it back. Incrementally increase the number of moves and expand the pattern: arms crossed over chest, touching the head, etc. This helps to "wake up" clients as they to need to focus and attend, it introduces something playful, which lifts their mood, and gives them a feeling of competence when they correctly mimic the patterns. And you can enhance their sense of control by switching roles!
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- Click here to see our Calendar of Classes and to register online.
- Don't miss our new Master Class Consultations: Working With Trauma and Dissociative Identity Disorder. This special series is designed to help you safely process difficult cases involving child, adolescent or adult trauma survivors that evoke feelings of 'being stuck,' angry, frustrated, anxious, overwhelmed or afraid. You are welcome to register for one or more of the various classes. Learn more here.
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The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, Inc. is an approved sponsor of the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners for continuing education credits for licensed social workers in Maryland. CEU approval for all trainings is also granted to Psychologists, LCPC's and MFT's. In addition, reciprocity has been granted for clinicians in Washington, D.C., Virginia,
and West Virginia.
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