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Good morning! I am Brandon Forbes, welcome to my padlet. 

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Good morning! I am Brandon Forbes, welcome to my padlet. 

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This is to fulfill the assignments for my crisis and trauma assignment. I am studying Mental Health and Wellness Counseling.

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I am Brandon Forbes
I am a graduate student at Angelo State University, studying Mental Health and Wellness Counseling.
My professional goal is to consistently look for ways to better serve the folks that work for me. Right now I am focusing on helping develop them as leaders by not solving problems for them, but working with them to find their own solutions.
A personal goal is to graduate this program by the end of 2023.
From my Crisis and Trauma class, the main thing I want to get is a better understanding of how to help those suffering from trauma. As I will not likely ever be a licensed counselor, most of the time the answer is to refer them to someone licensed to help them, but there are times in which I will need to help, and learning techniques and methods of how to do this is very important.

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The assignment is attached below, but for the first assignment for this class we had to take a pre-test essentially and then introduce ourselves to the class with our background and what we hoped to accomplish with the class.
Reflecting back on it, I said that I wanted to learn how better to serve those around me. The material could not have been more timely for me. Without going into detail, I had two employees suffer through mental health crises while I was in this class, and I was able to guide them to getting the help they needed. I am not sure if the lessons learned here drove my responses or not, as the main tool I have is to listen to them, and guide them to the help they need. I am not a counselor and know that I need to help them get to someone with the training and expertise they need.

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This assignment was to create a reference guide for various mental illnesses. It took a lot of research and I learned a lot. The main thing that stood out from this one was regarding eating disorders. All my research suggested that Anorexia could be not eating, or conversely it could also be binging and purging. I always equated that with Bulimia. My sister is going through a similar program, but one with licensure, I had to call her and talk through the differences for a while.
A very timely and helpful aspect of this one was when I was researching depression. I did not know how many anti depressants there were, and I had an employee confide in me that he had started taking one but it was not having the desired effect. He thought there was only a couple options out there and that likely none of them would help in the way he hoped. I of course told him to discuss it with his doctor, but that if it was not having the effect he was looking for, he should talk to the doctor about other options as needed. Without the training for this assignment, I would not have known that.

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Reference Guide for Mental Health Disorders Forbes

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For this assignment, we had to research and then watch a documentary on some sort of trauma. The one I watched was regarding a killer and the events that led up to him killing his wife. It was morbidly fascinating, but also very sad. The killer had significant trauma from his past that he was unable to get help for, and I feel strongly that his trauma is what led to him going down the dark path that led to the death of his wife.

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One of the most important things I gained from this course is a resource list of places I can turn to get more information as I move forward in my professional capacity. Some of these that I will likely refer back to in the future are listed below.

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Substance Use Disorders. In Desk reference to the diagnostic criteria from DSM-5 (pp. 230–231). Chapter.

Klonsky, E. D., Victor, S. E., & Saffer, B. Y. (2014). Nonsuicidal self-injury: What we know, and what we need to know. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 59(11), 565–568. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371405901101

Mayfield, B. L., Holland, A. C., Ashley, M. N., Woodward, L. L., Julaka, S. T., Richardson, J., & McGuinness, T. M. (2022). Understanding veteran suicide risk and mitigation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 60(12), 25–29. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20220520-02

Pescaru, C-M., & Pescaru, M. (2022). The Phenomenon of Bullying at Early School Age: Social and Psychological Consequences. Revista Universitară De Sociologie, 18(3), 276–287.

Stop Bullying. (2022, October 12). StopBullying.gov. https://www.stopbullying.gov/

Veronese, G., & Pepe, A. (2022). Burnout syndrome, symptoms of trauma, and psychological distress in Palestinian healthcare professionals: The protective role of spiritual wellbeing. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 25(2), 144–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2021.2021872

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For this assignment, we had to analyze the ABC model of counseling, which is a method of building rapport and establishing a relationship with a client. It involves:

Achieving a relationship. You first must get the client to trust you enough to open up and talk to you.

Breaking down the problem. In order to help, you must first understand what is going on. The client in many instances will not understand why they feel the way they do, and you have to help them dig deep and understand not only their emotions, but also the underlying causes for them.

Commitment to action. Understanding everything accomplishes nothing without a way ahead. Once you have achieved the relationship and broken down the problem, you can make an action plan moving forward. By doing this, you can help clients progress and make the changes they want to see in their lives.

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This was probably my favorite assignment from this class. It involved taking a training about how to respond to various situations involving people needing psychological help. As the title implies, it is just First Aid, not intended to be comprehensive, it is just meant to be a first line of effort in getting someone the help they need. I learned a lot going through the training, and as I do not ever intend to be a counselor, this is the most applicable type of training for me because it involves being the first on the scene more or less, and tending to peoples' immediate needs before guiding them to getting the more in depth help they may need afterwards.