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2.28.2014

Guide and Parent Project

Greater Understanding through Intervention, Diversion and Education

GUIDE is a prevention and intervention counseling program for elementary and middle schools students in the Carlsbad Unified School District.  Masters level counseling interns meet with students individually or in groups and offer supportive listening, help students to identify and use their personal strengths.  GUIDE counselors offer psycho-education focusing on coping skills and techniques to manage emotions.  Some of the topics covered in the GUIDE program are:
  • Peer Relationships:  social, networking and relationship pressure
  • Family relationships: getting along at home with parents and siblings
  • Loss and grief:  death, divorce, deployment, moving
  • Personal growth:  managing feelings and stress and improving communication skills
This unique program is a collaborative effort between the Carlsbad Police Department and the Carlsbad Unified School District which supports families and therefore benefits community members.
For more information, contact City of Carlsbad Police Department’s GUIDE (Greater Understanding through Intervention Diversion, and Education) office at 760-931-2167.

Parent Project

The Parent Project is a series of classes designed to help parents successfully manage children who display difficult to manage behavior.  These children may be strong willed, argumentative, test and break house rules.  They may also engage in dangerous and self-destructive behavior.
Parent Project for parents of teens ages 11 to18  is a ten week course which is offered twice a year, in the fall and spring.  This program offers step by step solutions for parents to improve relationships with their children and helps support them in using consistent and effective consequences when children break the house rules.
Loving Solutions is an additional course for parents of strong willed children ages 5 to 10 and is offered once a year. The next Loving Solutions class will be offered beginning in February 2013. 
To learn more about on the Parent Project visit their Web site.
For more information or to register for the next Parent Project class in Carlsbad, e-mail Penny Velazquez  or contact the office at 760-931-2161.

2.25.2014

Accupuncture and Massage - Try It Before Pharmacology!

Catching very little of the Olympics - it was cool to actually watch and see Steven Holcomb, US Bobsledder and overall VERY TOUGH GUY...getting acupuncture and massage to repair a torn calf muscle. 
The guy could barely walk...and went on to win two bronze medals.

2.21.2014


Two Wonderful Hidden Gems in North San Diego County

2.18.2014

Do it Yourself Divorce Mistakes - Second Saturday Divorce Workshop

"Don't assume that just because you and your spouse are amicable with one another, that it will be easy to settle your own divorce without the help of a professional."

While I almost always refer clients  to a local mediator over a divorce attorney for the first-line of resolution, there are some mistakes that must be avoided. 

Also, be sure to attend a local workshop on divorce, mediation, and resolution conflict before hiring a lawyer on retainer. In San Diego, we have Mira Costa College offering the Second Saturday Workshop and Parenting After Divorce. These are nationally respected presentations from an un-biased perspective, with neutral divorce and custody facts.

2.16.2014



For years now, studies have proven that less food decisions lead to better food choices. People who eat the same thing every day live longer and are healthier.
Try to have the same thing for lunch over the next five days. The goal is not weight loss. And, remember, most of the world subsists on beans and rice.
If you find yourself “bored,” tolerate the boredom. Examine this experience.
Choose to mentally focus on more meaningful endeavors than what you will consume throughout the day. In many ways, narrowing food allowance is a discipline. A religious vow of poverty is simply about reducing options; frivolous thoughts are the brain’s way of distracting us from us. Initially, fewer choices create frustration, but tolerance increases, acceptance begins. And eventually - appreciation.
Read more about Decision Fatigue.

 



chance favors the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur


2.12.2014

NPR: Perfume Scents of Subversion (Podcast)



Fabulous NPR report on how perfume scents change  (listen) with the cultural trends and gender shifting roles.

 "Lore has it that in New York there were signs put up at fancy restaurants that said, "Please, no wearers of Passion, Giorgio or Poison," which were the perfumes of the day with huge floral notes, and had great sillage, which means if you walked into a room people would smell you like 45 minutes later."
 

2.09.2014

Oh, those beautiful teen years! Yes, really!


     I heard Daniel Siegel, Psychiatrist, Lecturer, and Author of “WholeBrain Child” and "Brainstorm” speak to a packed conference this weekend at Paradise Point.
     With his topic of the “teen brain,” he challenged us, culturally, to view the adolescent, and those years, as the source of all innovation.  We often speak about young adults as if they were stupid, irrelevant, brainless.

     How wonderful if we could embrace their “pushing back” as healthy and vibrant - citizens with meaning and importance.  They are interesting, creative, and making the world their own, as their generalizing brain moves from childhood (0-12) to specializing, (13-adult). Myelination lays track for a lifetime now... skill building.   

Siegel also discussed the myths of those dreaded (socially feared?) years. The one that stayed with me was the urban legend of teen impulsivity. He says, quite the contrary! Teenagers plan out their misdeeds in great detail. Their mistake is in estimating the consequences....the young brain under appreciates the negative aspects, but this risk taking is critical to new development and species-adaptation.

     Every mammal has an adolescent stage; parental launching preserves the gene-pool. Yong adults compel and propel our species forward. If advancement was left to the middle-aged, we’d die off, preferring status quo over change and risk taking. 


Thank you, Tom, for the above graphic.

2.07.2014

"He that has a why to live for can can beat almost any how."

 "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~Plato

2.06.2014

"If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern." ~ Ursula K. Le Guin 

2.05.2014

 
Consume Media Judiciously

2.04.2014

“The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”  C.S. Lewis
Pennsylvania Dutch -- "Marriage is the art of falling in love many times -- but always with the same person!"

2.03.2014


2.01.2014

Solutions for Change

Servant Leadership! Here at Solutions, there are 
"7 Practices of Servant Leadership" we live by:
1. Servant Leaders seek lasting change instead of system relief
2. Servant Leaders create authentic relationships instead of dependent relationships
3. Servant Leaders persevere with a non-anxious presence knowing that direct reaction, deliberate resistance and destructive rumors are evidences of one’s effectiveness
4. Servant Leaders inspire personal responsibility instead of encouraging perceived victims
5. Servant Leaders invest in motivated people instead of adapting to troubled people
6. Servant Leaders see troubles as the heart of preexisting anxiety instead of seeing troubles as the origin of anxiety
7. Servant Leaders live to the applause of one as opposed to the applause of many
Now pick one. For the next 7 weeks, dedicate yourself to being a Servant Leader. Focus on one practice every week. In a couple of months you'll see growth, change, and fulfillment in yourself. Who's up for the challenge!?