My former principal once described me as a “natural born” teacher. But I like to think of myself as a “natural born” student.
My experience:
Over the years, I have grown to love the process of examining underlying causalities that often inflict an individual’s mental health and learning how to apply therapeutic principles to assist with healing deficits and improving functioning.
My expertise lies in the areas of working with individuals with severe and persistent mental illness (may be transitioning from acute psychiatric hospitalization), substance abuse, Depression, Anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and at-risk youth.
I have a proven track record in working with individuals with Depression (suicidal ideation and or attempts), Anxiety as well as Severe and Persistent Mental Illness. I am committed to working with individuals within these populations, primarily because many have a high level of acuity, which demands an intense services and treatment due to the need of various levels of social and health supports.
My focus:
I understand that individuals who struggle with mental illness are a heterogeneous group of people whose environmental circumstances, mental, physical, and cognitive health impairments may lead to a deterioration in their ability to function in various life domains. This speaks to the necessity of my engaging in clinical practices that adheres to the fidelity of treatment modalities that are influenced by both ecological as well as person centered theoretical principles.
Because of this, I have invested in the development of therapeutic strategies and techniques to assist with meeting the needs of individuals within this population.
My approach:
My overall goal is to assist individuals within these populations with maximizing their ability to live, socialize, learn, and work in communities of their choice.
As a clinician, I believe that recovery from mental illness or decrease/management of symptom impairments is likely if patients receive evidence-based treatments in line with The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
Cognative Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves psychoeducation, which relies on my ability as a practitioner to explain how it works to patients. It is a here-and-now, goal-focused, collaborative, evidence-based theory and therapy. Therapy is time-limited, structured and based on a skills-based learning approach. It is a model where thoughts are central; thoughts cause feelings, distorted thoughts cause psychological distress, therapy can only be successful through changing thoughts.
The process of therapy is to help patients identify problems and the thoughts that cause them, and then to help them change their thoughts through thought-challenging and behavioral experiments. I understand that Cognitive Restructuring varies therefore it necessitates the incorporation of various strategies during the service delivery process.
My experience:
Another area in which I possess expertise is working with at risk children and adolescents. My experience working within individuals within this population consists of providing outpatient, residential, and community-based mental health services to children and adolescents. Services rendered often addresses the needs of at-risk youth whose mental health illness caused significant impairments in various life domains. I have a proven record of accomplishment for providing similar services that have yielded positive treatment outcomes.
Program participants have developed skills and learned strategies to assist with symptom management and reduction as it relates to mental illness. Cognitive Behavioral treatment modality is employed to assist with addressing mental illness as well as to assist with prevention and determent from maladaptive behaviors and criminal activities. The treatment process identifies and addresses underlying causal factors that contributed to behavior deficits.
A critical component of the service delivery process is the inclusion of parent or primary caregivers, who played an active role in the treatment process. In addition, services are person-centered.
Sensei (先生), Dr. Kimberly Moton, The Grandmaster of clinical documentation.
