Bitcoin Forum

NOTE:  If you are interested in this service, do NOT state your interest in this thread!!!  All interest must remain 100% confidential through private message (pm).

Hello! :)  I wanted to make the community aware of a new humanitarian service that I am offering.  Mental Health is applicable to everyone, early adopters and newbies alike :)

I recently posted another thread (which I closed) in which I questioned the ethics and legality of offering counseling without a license.  According to the Illinois (where I live) Professional Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing Act, no one may solicit counseling services as being "professional" or "clinical" without a license.  Additionally, one cannot present his self as a professional if he is not licensed.

Before you read further, please note that I am NOT in any way a professional counselor and I do NOT hold any clinical or professional counseling license of any kind.

I would like to offer you, the community, an outlet to talk about your troubles and to help you to release and relieve your stress. Hopefully, in the process, you may stand to gain increased insight into your problems and gain a renewed sense of hope and strength.  The medium through which we can communicate is up to you; some may feel comfortable only talking via typing, others may be more comfortable in front of a web cam.  I personally believe there are advantages and disadvantages to each.

These services will be available for BTC only.  Rates will only be discussed through private message (pm) for many reasons, but especially because of confidentiality and because of individual need.  BTC should be sent at the end of each discussion.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee -- If, at the end of each discussion, you feel as though you are not satisfied with your experience for any reason, you may decline to send BTC.  I will understand.  Happiness can't be bought, sadness shouldn't be bought.

My philosophy/approach -- Students, like myself, are taught a wide range of therapeutic approaches ranging from cognitive-behavioral therapy to psychodynamic approaches to existential ones.  While I do not limit myself to one particular genre due to the contrasting needs of clients, I do have some very general beliefs that you may or may not resonate with:  

1.)  I believe in balance.  I believe balance brings enrichment, and I can't help but see evidence of this everywhere in nature.  In nature, all systems require perfect balance (what they call homeostasis) otherwise they will deteriorate according to entropy.  Human beings are systems, too.
2.)  I believe in "meeting you where you are".  By this, I mean trying to understand your problem through your eyes, emotionally and cognitively.  There is no one-size-fits-all helping technique, and that's because each person is in a unique situation and at a unique place on their road to happiness.  Some may be more ready to move forward than others.  We're simply not all the same.
3.)  I believe hope is essential to moving forward.  Without hope, the idea of a future can seem unbearable.  Creating hope where there was none is, in itself, a huge achievement.   But, it also helps build the motivation to achieve even more.
4.)  I believe the human mind is a very powerful thing, and that beliefs and associations help form our cognitive and emotional image of the world.  If we can form more rational beliefs and integrate more positive associations in our lives, we will be wiser and happier.
5.)  I believe people are creatures of habit.  Are you a pessimist?  Maybe you're a really GOOD pessimist!  What a talent!  After all, you've been practicing pessimism for...2 years?  5 years?  10 years?  Imagine if you spent that much time getting good at optimism!  It's hard to change a pattern of behavior or thought overnight if we've been doing it for so long.  The bad news about this is that now is the hardest time to change.  The good news is once you start, it keeps getting easier.


A little about me
I am a 2nd year grauate student at one of the finest social work institutions in the country.  I am active in all classes and maintained a 4.0 GPA all last year.  I have over 900 hours of internship experience in three different settings.  First, I interned at my county's juvenile probation department conducting interviews with juveniles and their families and prepping case paperwork.  Second, I interned as a counselor within a disadvantaged school district providing individual and group counseling to middle- and high-school students, most of whom were minority students.  Currently, I intern as a counselor in the adult psychiatric unit in a local hospital.  My current duties include conducting intake assessments, discharging patients, providing individual and group counseling, and connecting hospital patients with other community resources for aftercare treatment (e.g. residential care facilities or drug rehabilitation programs). I estimate that half of my total hours (~450) have been spent working face-to-face with clients.

As an undergrad, I was the president of Psi Chi, the national honors society in psychology, at my college.  I presided over an organization of nearly 50 students and my tasks were to conduct meetings, delegate tasks to other Psi Chi officers, give speeches when necessary, and connect with other college clubs and community agencies to benefit the community.  For example, I helped to coordinate with another club and a local church to provide a "reading club" where we helped teach K-5 refugee students how to read English.

I also consider myself particularly well-versed in East-Asian spiritual traditions (especially Hinduism and Buddhism) but have an interest in religion and spirituality in general.  For those of you that have a deep spiritual side and consider this an essential healing element, I may be able to help.  I have many years of experience in meditation (though I do not claim to meditate every day) and feel particularly comfortable imparting this skill as a coping mechanism for stress upon those who are genuinely interested.

On a final note, I encourage anyone that is interested in speaking with me to skim through my previous posts, especially if you are skeptical.  I have posted many thoughtful, thoughtless, mature, immature, and some downright crude and childish posts.  If it is hard to trust, respect, or like me, then it is doubtful that a therapeutic relationship will form.

I wish you all the best :)

Bump and Updates:

1)  I am now graduated with a B.A. in psychology and an M.S.W. in social work mental health with over 1200 hours of practice experience.  I am still unlicensed.

2)  Instant Messaging via Skype is now my preferred means of communication.

^^
Lol.

shouldn't this be under marketplace and services? ???

I subscribe to the psychological theories of Daniels, Walker, and Cuervo.

And I subscribe to this thread. I alone could make OP a very rich man, but just wait till Atlas PMs him...or even logansryche

Yeah, that's my problem with health services for money. You never know if they are trying to heal you or make a boat payment.

I'd rather get a joint before getting help from someone called the joint.

No offense, just joking :D

What's your opinion on self administered ECT?

@ Vernon,

Yes, this should be in the marketplace, but I think project development is also somewhat appropriate.


@ cbeast,

This is why I have included the 100% satisfaction guarantee.  Nobody is required to pay -- it is their choice to compensate me.  If for any reason someone does not want to pay, then they do not have to and I will not argue with them. That is the risk I am taking.  I would, however, recommend a rate of compensation.

Lol, my unprofessional opinion is that self-administered ECT would be impossible to do, especially since you'd likely want to be unconscious during the treatment  ;D

Actually, my opinion on ECT treatments in general is mixed.  Keep in mind that even licensed health professionals must undergo specialized training working with ECT to administer the treatment. 

Having witnessed dozens of hospital patients undergo ECT treatment, I have seen mixed results.  Some patients with extreme forms of major depression or psychosis do seem to experience some remission in their symptoms after multiple treatments, but this is not always the case. 

The most common complaints that I have heard about ECT treatments are about immediate headaches and the memory loss that people typically experience.  While this memory loss can be very minimal, it can also be rather debilitating to the point where people experience increased depression or anxiety because of the memory loss.  I recall one patient who became less confident in his job skills after ECT treatment because he was not able to remember all of his work-related responsibilities.  While I've heard patients say that they believe ECT truly helps them, I've heard many others say they didn't find it to work well at all, and some have said it has increased their negative symptoms because of the memory loss.

In general, it seems that health professionals across the board have exhibited mixed opinions about ECT treatment largely because they don't know exactly why ECT helps some people who receive it.  My own research into ECT seems to suggest that the electric shock that the brain receives during ECT helps to prune away neural connections, and if many of these connections are related to depressive or psychotic tendencies/characteristics, then pruning some of these connections can help decrease the intensity of depression or psychosis.

In any case, ECT treatment is a very serious form of treatment and is typically reserved as a last resort.  ECT treatments should always be discussed with a licensed health professional who is experienced in the technique.

Do you have any opinion on CBT?

My own therapeutic model largely incorporates CBT with an additional emphasis on existentialism.  I like CBT for a number of reasons.  A universal characteristic of the human brain is the "use it or lose it" theory of neural development.  This basically states that whatever action/thought we engage in will strengthen the neural connections associated with that action/thought such that we become more likely to engage in that action/thought in the future.  Conversely, failing to engage in a specific action/thought over time will deteriorate the neural connections corresponding with that action/thought.

CBT is helpful in identifying patterns in behavior or thought that affect us negatively so that we can systematically dismantle those negative connections and replace them with more positive, healthy connections via positive thoughts and behaviors.  In this way, you could say that living a stress-free life (as opposed to a stress-filled one) is a skill that is developed through practice.  Conversely, you could also say that the stress we experience in life is largely the result of the way we have practiced thinking and behaving in response to stressful situations.

Another reason I like the CBT model is that it encourages the development of self-awareness.  I find that many people who experience mental stress and anxiety to a significant degree are not really sure about how to overcome that stress and anxiety.  If you ask them, "So, how are you going to get better?", they will usually reply, "I don't know what to do."  

One question that I frequently ask people (initially catching them off-guard and typically evoking quizzical looks) is, "Have you ever tried to take a picture with a camera while you're running?"  If you're moving all around when you take a picture with a camera, your picture gets 'motion-blur' and it lacks clarity.  I think that the human mind under stress is like a photographer who is moving all around while trying to take a picture -- if you aren't settled and aren't calm, you will lack clarity and insight into your own situation and it will not be entirely obvious what you need to do.  

I believe increasing self-awareness is critically important and is a necessary first step to overcoming stress, and this is done through improving our skills of observation.  We must learn how to properly and accurately observe our situation in order to clearly understand how to overcome stress and anxiety.  Any good photographer knows that he must calm himself in order to take that perfect photo.  Similarly, we must learn how to calm our minds so that we can observe our own situation with the greatest clarity.  When we see our own situations with greater clarity, it becomes increasingly obvious what steps we need to take.

I'm not familiar with that term used in this context. Can you explain what it means?

Existentialism refers to the idea that the existence of an individual precludes the essence an individual.  As a result, existentialism emphasizes an individual's role in creating his/her own meaning in life.

When we experience any real-world phenomena, existentialism argues that it is through the individual's interpretation of that phenomena that meaning is created.  Thus, individuals are primarily responsible for defining themselves and the world around them through beliefs, associations, etc.  It is of critical importance to an existentialist to then define himself according to the nature of his/her existence and not according to his/her actions or the essence of some other thing.  For example, if we define ourselves as teachers because we happen to have jobs as teachers, then there is an immediate threat to the self if our job is in jeopardy.  Existentialism encourages an individual to identify with his/her most fundamental state of being (remember, being cannot not be) because this fundamental state of being is the purest and truest form of identity.

I believe that we are observers by nature, and thus my approach to therapeutic existentialism would involve encouraging the person to identify with himself as an observer.  This goes hand-in-hand with what I stated in my previous post, that becoming more observant and increasing self-awareness can help us gain clarity and insight into our life's situations.

I see. Good luck with your endeavor.

Thanks :)

Bump!

Edit:  I now work as the lead counselor of the evening shift in the Adult Mental Health Psychiatric Unit of a Chicago hospital.  I have my masters degree in social work mental health.  I still do not hold a license of any kind, though I am accumulating hours necessary to take my LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) exam.

I recommend the Joint.