BLOG FOR MENTAL HEALTH
Workin Wednesday
I am trying to restart weekly job posting series on Wednesdays to promote job opportunities in the mental health field. For more details please click on the links below. These jobs are mostly located in California with a sprinkling of jobs that may take people elsewhere or abroad.
Social Worker - MSW at Cedars-Sinai Hospital - Apply Here
Type: Social Worker, Discharge Planning, Acute Care, Social Work, Master’s Degree
Adjust Faculty Position - Antioch University - Apply Here
Type: Education, Counselor Educator.
Bereavement Coordinator - Children’s Hospital Los Angeles - Apply Here
Type: End of Life, Palliative, Hospice
Licensed Care Providers / Associate Care Providers - Caring Connected - Apply Here
Type: Private Practice
Expert Psychotherapist/Trainer - Center for Victims of Torture - Apply Here
Type: Refugee Resettlement
Adolescent Girls Psychosocial Worker in Lebanon - International Medical Corps - Apply Here
Type: Refugee, Gender-Based Violence, GBV, MHPSS, humanitarian support.
I hope these jobs can be helpful as you continue to explore your careers in the mental health field.
Stay tuned for more every week.
-Zack
Roe v. Wade
Going into my first group this morning, my mind was focused on the events that took place over the weekend with SCOTUS, and what continues to come out of their rulings. With each day that passes, our society is experiencing collective, social, and individual grief. It is important to grieve and it is important to find agency and support in community. I encourage my clients to connect with their communities, families, and friends to feeling connection and support during this time.
As a counselor, I have a direct responsibility to be present for my clients and the communities that I serve to understand how this ruling may affect them and their mental health and well-being. I recognize the confidence that my clients place in myself and fellow counselor as we help them navigate this collective trauma and grief while helping them make the best decisions to support themselves and their families.
Reed-Fier Therapy Services will continue to provide space for those that wish to process thoughts and feelings within individual, couple’s and group settings. Reed-Fier Therapy Services will be offering a consultation space for fellow counselors, therapists, counselor-educators, licensees, associates, and students to process these times. For additional resources, please see below.
Resources
The National Network of Abortion Funds
https://abortionfunds.org/need-abortion/
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-8255 (TALK)
Veterans: Press 1
En Espanol: 1-888-628-9454
For Deaf & Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889
Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741-741
Text with a trained counselor for free
The Trevor Project
1-866-488-7386
www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help-now/
Phone, chat, and text support for LGBTQ+ youth
Friendship Line
1-800-971-0016 Crisis and warm line for adults 60 years and older operated by the Institute on Aging
Find abortion resources in California and throughout the US:
Mindful Mondays - June 13, 2022
Mindful Monday - 01 - June 13, 2022
Here we are back at it again. Before you get a case of “the Mondays” take a few moments to pause, breathe, and observe your surroundings before moving on with your Monday. So often we get stuck on predicting what the week will be like before we even get into the minutia of it. I hope you can take the next few minutes to mindfully start and take a mindful present approach to moving through the beginning of your week.
To help support you through his mindful moment check out this video through the AIMS Course to help you start with your breathe. Enjoy and Happy Monday!
AIMS COURSE - Deep Breathing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBjXX-eIuwo
Start of another journey… this time through yoga.
A new day… a new training….
When deciding what professional development trainings to do through out the year, I take several things into consideration. First is it something I am interested in. Often my interests are around trauma, trauma-informed care, body based therapies, social justice approaches in mental health, refugee and asylum seeking support, grief and loss, and disaster related psychology. Secondly, is it a training that supports my work or required to renew my license like suicidal assessment or law & ethics. Thirdly, affordability. Trainings can get pricy for a number of reasons and as a solo practitioner I try to also look at the return on investment from the trainings that I do participate taking.
For many years now, I have had an interest in taking a Yoga teacher training. I have been a yoga hobbyist and enthusiast for years with skill levels ranging depending on how dedicated I am. It just so happened that I found a YTT that also offers a YIN certificate and a trauma informed yoga certificate along side the training. I felt this would be a great intersection with my niches, focus on mindfulness, and love for mind-body work with yoga.
As I start this journey to complete a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, I plan to share a post once a week in order to help with personal accountability.
Cheers to more learning and hopefully becoming more grounded and connected.
-Zack
Managing Election Stress.... 11 p.m. Election Night
Good Evening,
Night of the election… and the results are pouring in. I am putting some good vibes and some support out the into the world tonight. In recent days, I have been paying attention to many media posts by therapists/psychologists/coaches, social media influencers, civil rights activists, and of course our elected officials around this election. This election impacts the people, the public, those can vote and those who cannot. The election impacts the health of the nation, communities, cities, and individuals. It has a big impact on mental health. Trying to further be a steward of conversation on mental health, the Dean at my alma mater, Dean Shelley Smith-Acuna made a post on the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology’s IG on how to support yourself in the hours after the polls closing. I share her points and give my own twist to elaborate.
1) Limit or curate your media use. Give yourself a break, take a pause, breathe, do something that brings you joy to help take the focus off the election results.
2) Use this moment as a means to build a toolkit to manage anxiety. Let’s get simple…. watch that new Tik-Tok comedian, learn that new skill, watch your favorite TV show/movie you have binge watched a 100 times, or listen to your favorite podcast series (hmm.. Brene Brown?). Build out things that can help with self-care and joy. Need some ideas? Go a head and click here.
3) Remember your positive values and use them as a touchstone. Let’s simplify.. This comes back a lot to the idea of reframing a situation, your thoughts, and values. Bring your attention back to your values. Your values will often support how you voted. Stand firm and stand strong with your values and focus the positives. Focus on how your values will continue to help you navigate the changing landscape that is to comes… hopefully for the better.
4) Take the long view - Let’s take a moment to to settle in… we have a long road a head of us. Understanding the big picture might help to see where you can both help yourself and our society. Remember politics is about the short term, long term… and everything in between. That is the grey, the unknown, ambiguity, and the stretch of time between elections. Pace yourself. Hunker down. And find where you personally can find sustainability for what comes next. That could also be where you find meaning. Do you get more involved in voter rights, in LGBTQI rights, climate activism, supporting and/or allying with BIPOC communities, health advocacy, supporting reproductive rights. Find what brings you meaning even if that means backing away for a little while…. give can give yourself some permission around that.
5) Get help if you need it - This is a moment where support from one another is vital to being able to survive through the election, the pandemic, natural disasters, the fight for civil rights, and so many other things right now. You can get help by emailing gethelp@reedfiertherapy.com or email counselingwithzack@gmail.com for more information on individual and group therapy. I can also be reached by phone at 818-860-1892. For crisis supports you can reach out to our various hotlines across the country: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
Music Playlist for Election Night and Thereafter:
A music playlist for the on-goings of election night. As a supporter of public radio, I realize many of these music videos are a part of the Tiny Desk Concert series at NPR. Please support public radio for solid objective news reporting, great music, and local content.
Gogol Bordello - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGh50t6crw
Alicia Keys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwUt1fVLb3E
Tegan and Sara - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFrcgcCnr1U
Tash & The Bangas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzobTCIRDw
Hamilton - The Room Where it Happens - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSTAf0eXSD0
Woody Gutherie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s
~~
Thanks for reading.
Stay safe as we get through this election.
-ZRF
Seven Years Ago - Another step into grieving a loss.
Seven years ago, I was in Sichuan Province, China helping to support a community impacted by the Sichuan Earthquake 14 months earlier that had devasted the local landscapes, communities, and lives in the areas surround Lushan, Sichuan Province. This was a part of my international field placement where I could put into action many of the things that I had learned as a student learning about international disaster psychology.
Seven years ago today…. 7200 miles away in a suburb in Los Angeles, I lost someone close to me. This person who I will decline to specify represented a father figure in my early adult life and even more so to one of the people closet to me. I was anticipating this loss for some time, as this person was on palliative care and then transitioned to hospice shortly after me starting my field placement going to China in late May 2014.
Seven years ago, I felt the over-whelmed power of anticipatory grief mixed with separation anxiety, struggling with attachment issues that stemmed to my early childhood, and dealing with the uncertainty of what would happen over the course of my field practicum.
Several year ago, my heart broke. It broke for the people home struggling with the grief, the shock, the pain, the trauma, the anger, the rage, and piece of the puzzle that was now missing. The right words to describe this experience still is not easy for me to find. It is welled in emotion. It is consumed of rumination. It is grounded in the raw vulnerability that I had to face day in and day out 7200 miles away from my loved ones who needed me.
Seven years ago, things changed. The people closest to this loss evolved with time. Some processing the loss, some pushing it down, some letting anxiety rule at times, some finding meaning in the loss, some searching for acceptance, and some seeking to work through tasks of grief.
Seven years ago, I began another grief journey as part of a person living with a life-time of grief…. the tasks of grief, the cycles of loss, the reminiscing, the nostalgia, the commiserating, the seeking of connection, the pure eruption of emotion…. is all valid. It all has a space. It all needs to be heard, to be felt, to be allowed to exist. Why?
Seven years ago, I learned what it means to continue to being human. Part of being human is to grieve. Grieving takes time. Allow the time no matter how long. Allow the time for it to run its course, to allow for growth, to allow for meaningful connection. To allow for humanity to experience suffering and perseverance. And even just maybe grieving will help you as it did parts of me to find a sense of resiliency during loss.
Allow yourself to grieve, to move through the loss, to feel, to heal, to be brave and let go of suffering.
Private Practice Open.... via telehealth
Zack Reed-Fier, LPCC is now own to conduct counseling and therapy services for anyone currently living in California. As I continue to monitor updates regarding Coronavirus (aka Covid-19) I will be looking into securing a physical location. However, at this time my plan is to continue to do therapy via telehealth platforms in order to meet my own safety concerns. i am familiar with multiple telehealth platforms and can help new clients who are unfamiliar with these platforms get set up.
If you have questions please reach out to me via my email counselingwithzack@gmail.com, my website fillable form, or by phone 818-860-1892.
Cheers to new adventures!
Licensed in the midst of Covid-19.
It has finally happened!!
Great news for me and for the many people who are struggling and needing support right now during the Coronavirus pandemic…. I am now officially licensed as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in the state of California. This has been a long time coming.
So what is next?
My plans are to build out my private practice and offer support groups in the areas of eating disorders, grief and loss, and for front-line / emergency responders.
This will be phase 1.
Stay tuned for news and updates.
Podcast rotation at the end of 2019
Here is a list of Podcasts I am currently listening to and on my rotation (on Spotify, Soundcloud, Anchor, or iTunes) as I ramp down with 2019 and gearing up for 2020.
The Tony Robbins Podcast - https://www.tonyrobbins.com/podcasts/
Rise Podcast by Rachel Hollis - https://www.risetogetherpodcast.com
Uncommitted: Iowa 2020 - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xw7zv/introducing-uncommitted-iowa-2020-a-new-podcast-from-vice-news-and-spotify
Selling the Couch with Melvin Marghese, PhD - https://sellingthecouch.com
Historical Hookups https://open.spotify.com/show/4F2PMwrcflikzQnxAsn5QO
Latina to Latina by Lantigua Williams & Co - https://www.latinatolatina.com/episodes
The Nod by Gimlet - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nod/id1250583865?ign-mpt=uo%3D2&mt=2
Cat & Cloud Coffee Podcast - https://catandcloud.com/pages/podcast
2020 is upon us.
It is almost here.
What a better time to reflect than at the end of the decade. As I write this, I am sitting up late watching the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trying to not get distracted or geek out over seeing the new movie, maybe a discussion for another time.
Anyway, in a few minutes there will be 48 hours left in 2019, and we will welcome in the new decade. I could probably come up with a top 10, top 20, or top 5 tips/tricks/lists on self-care, reflecting on one’s accomplishments, acknowledging our journeys, or going on a discussion on the importance of being authentic. Mind you these are all important things being discussed by other therapists, coaches, motivational speakers, podcasters, Youtubers, and IG influencers. I just want to very briefly talk to you about one thing…. permission.
Permission. Yes. Permission. Why? When was the last time you sincerely gave yourself just permission? As I have come to learn in culture, popular thought, working with clients, friends, family, talking with colleagues, etc…. we (the general ‘we’ as people) give ourselves less permission than we think. I am sure there is some statistic I will find and add to this later on. I know that several people have written on the subject.
Let’s go back. So permission… we don’t give it to ourselves enough.
Permission for what?
Here’s a secret.
It doesn’t matter for what, to do what, about what…. cause deep down it is just the act of just allowing ourselves to be.
This could be permission to allow ourselves the chance to feel, to think, to act, to embrace, to enjoy, to love, even love ourselves. Maybe chase a dream, to follow through, to have that difficult conversation, to take charge, ask for a raise, have a hard talk with a partner, show up for someone you weren’t planning to, and event take your self-care more seriously. This could even be to plan a vacation without hesitation, say no, to step back, set a boundary, embrace your body, to go a different direction, to look at food differently, say goodbye to pain, let go of suffering, to wave good-bye to fear…. and maybe just maybe [fill in the blank here] _____________. Permission has to start from somewhere.
It can be very very hard to start and give yourself permission.
Let me be someone to just tell YOU … you NOW have permission to celebrate the end of this decade in order to give yourself permission to welcome a new one.
And most importantly..
you have PERMISSION…
to be YOU.
Breathe it in.
Hold. A pause or two.
Breathe it out and allow it to just be.
Let yourself have more permission in this new year and decade.
Thanks for reading.
See you in 2020.
Cheers,
-Z