Interview with:Los Angeles Teen Counselor - Sandra Dupont [sandradupontmft]
PSYCHOLOGY
 | Which is your specialty in psychology? Teen Therapist | Adolescent Phase of Life Coach
I help teens approach life’s challenges with confidence and competence.
I help parents to understand the issues teens face today, and to support their child in successfully navigating the adolescent years. |
| What types of clients do you work with? Initially, I meet with the parents of teens in a FREE Parent Consultation.
Together we decide whether I will see the family as a unit, or the teen individually with their parents coming in separately for coaching or consultation. Teen Support Groups and Effective Parenting of Teenagers classes are also available.
I specialize in working with creative, talented, and sensitive teens. I also have extensive experience working with diverse, multi-cultural clientele, who are dealing with the reconciliation of bi-cultural values. |
| Is there a web site or blog where we can learn more about you? |
| What methods do you employ? Could you briefly explain the principles your approach is based on? My interactions have a conversational feel. I look beyond "diagnoses" to discover what the symptoms are saying about where this person or family is in their process of growth and self-discovery.
My goal is to use my relationship with clients to model alternative responses and ways of thinking about their situations. My work reflects my Humanistic training in graduate school, together with the Psychodynamic training I received in my internship. |
| Depression is almost epidemic. What is going wrong on the societal level? In a society where we have become extremely technological, many people have disconnected from nourishing relationships in favor of virtual ones. From television viewing, to Internet surfing, to text messaging - people are spending more time with their phones and computers than with their families.
Unfortunately, the co-regulation of emotional states that was once available to society through chatting with neighbors, friends and co-workers is getting interrupted by less emotionally fulfilling forms of interaction. |
| What do dreams mean? In my experience, dreams are a way for the mind to organize and process the day's events, concerns, hopes and fantasies. Thrown in there are symbolic representations of things our unconscious may try to shield us from, or bring to our attention. In my experience, the organization of a dream is outside of time and space; meaning past, future and present, occur out of order and even lumped together.
Keeping a dream journal is a good way to encourage your sub-conscious to remember your dreams. Reading your journal and taking time to reflect on your dreams is a good way to stimulate your own creative interpretations. |
| Why is it so difficult for us to forgive ourselves? As humans, we are designed to learn from our experiences. If we accidentally burn our hand on a hot stove, we will be more hesitant to make that mistake again.
Forgiveness is about trusting ourselves to not make the same mistake. By hesitating to forgive ourselves, we are saying that we do not, as yet, believe that we have learned our lesson from the experience we have deemed wrong or inappropriate. |
| What does the phenomenon of falling in love consist of? Is there a cure? Our brains have evolved to require consistent bonding and nurturing. New research in brain function has proven that love is a human necessity; its absence damages not only individuals, but our whole society.
Close emotional connections actually change neural patterns in those who engage in them, affecting our sense of self and making empathy and socialization possible. Yet, in American society, self-sufficiency is often seen as great virtue, while emotional dependence is considered a weakness. |
| What are the keys to creating healthy relationships? To have a healthy relationship, one must first know oneself, and accept oneself. To accept oneself presumes integration of all of one's expressions, quirks and idiosyncrasies. For only in accepting oneself, can we truly make space to accept another.
Another aspect is that of attunement. In a perfect world, we learn attunement in the beginning stages of our life, through the mother-child dyad. By our primary caregiver mirroring our tentative first encounters with the world, we come to understand that we can impact our world, and learn to trust that our needs will be met.
Ultimately, healthy relationships are about creating a safe space where we can be seen, and see others, in our most authentic expression. |
| What new trends in psychology have stirred up your interest the most? Parenting issues are often trans-generational, meaning that parents bring with them unresolved issues from their own past that influence the way they parent their children.
I often hand out the book Parenting from the Inside Out to parents of new clients of mine. The author, Dan Siegel, shows parents, through cutting edge research, how a parent's communication with their child literally impacts their child's brain development. |
| How is the creative personality different from others? In the process of creating, there is a tendency to you lose yourself in your creation. Time can stand still and all else be forgotten. The medium one uses to create is irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether it is a business proposal, a piano sonata, or a delicious meal.
Creative people may seek to resolve life's mundane problems, as well as express deep feelings and insights. By allowing the creative process to flow, they renounce control of their head alone, and enter into an altered state of intuitive awareness. |
| What is a “healthy” ego? The word ego has also been used to describe one's sense of self-importance, as in having a "big" ego. The term Egotist is used to describe insecure people who are attempting to cover up their fear that they are not as good as other people by pretending that they are more important.
People with healthy levels of self-esteem do not need to determine their self-worth by comparing themselves, publicly or in their own minds, with others. Instead, their self-worth is determined how well they live up to their ideal self-image in regards to attitude, compassion, belief, passion and their vision for their life. |
| Which are the most common psychological problems of artists and creative people in general? Artists are often visionaries, leading the way, walking to the beat of drums only they as yet can hear. This can leave them feeling isolated and alone. In modern classrooms, where left brain skills are valued, creative children can be given the message that something is wrong with them. This message, if not tempered, can haunt them for the rest of their life, and they try to contort themselves to fit in. |
| What kinds of people do you think are at high risk for addiction? People at high risk of becoming addicted often show a lack of authentic connections to others in their current lives. In teenagers, this manifests in substance abuse, attention seeking, and/or isolating behavior. Self-medication through substance abuse is often an attempt to regulate (or avoid) uncomfortable emotional states. |
| What books do you recommend to help us develop a better understanding of ourselves? The Blessing of a Skinned Knee
by Wendy Mogel
This author's wise reflections on parenting demonstrate that trying to iron out any difficulties our children may face in life - now and in the future - actually hinders their development, producing offspring that have far less initiative, resilience, and character than they should.
The Female Brain
by Louann Brizendine, MD
The author tells the story of the human brain concisely with the impact of a good novel. This book is worth owning for anyone who wants to understand women better, how they change over the years and how female psychology correlates to development and physiology.
Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce the Sandcastles Way
by M. Gary Neuman
If you want to know what your children are really experiencing and want to help, this book is for you. Be warned, it will make you cry, feel pain for your children, and possibly resurrect feelings of guilt. But it will also give you insight and direct you in how to continue parenting effectively with love and guidance, with or without the cooperation of your ex-spouse.
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk
by Adele Faber
This book is an excellent communication tool kit, which provides a step-by-step approach to improving relationships in your house.
Parenting from the Inside Out
by Daniel Siegel and Mary Hartzell
Drawing upon stunning new findings in neurobiology and attachment research, they explain how interpersonal relationships directly impact the development of the brain, and offer parents a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of their own life stories, which will help them raise compassionate and resilient children.
The Price of Privilege
by Madeline Levine Levine
Explores such issues as social isolation, the fine line between parental under-involvement and over-indulgence, and the perverse role of money and material goods in creating false promises of fulfillment. Yearning for outward approval, adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the delusion that wealth causes happiness.
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
by Mary Pipher and Ruth Ross
With sympathy and focus the author cites case histories to illustrate the struggles required of adolescent girls to maintain a sense of themselves among the mixed messages they receive from society, their schools and, often, their families. Pipher offers concrete suggestions for ways by which girls can build and maintain a strong sense of self.
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys
by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson
The authors turn a spotlight on the inner lives of boys, debunking preconceptions about gender, explaining the importance of nurturing communication skills and empathy in boys as well as girls, and steering boys toward a manhood of emotional attachment, not stoicism and solitude.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
by John M. Gottman
Gottman has revolutionized the study of marriage by using rigorous scientific procedures to observe the habits of married couples in unprecedented detail over many years. In his book he outlines seven principles that guide couples on the path toward a harmonious and long-lasting relationship.
Siblings Without Rivalry
by Adele Faber (Author), Elaine Mazlish
The authors talk you through umpteen different situations and outcomes to help you teach your brawling offspring a new set of responses. The highly informative text is punctuated with helpful summary/reminder boxes and cartoons illustrating key points. It's a must-read for parents with (or planning on) multiple children. |
| In the past there was a lot of stigma associated with going to therapy, but now it is rather fashionable. When is and when isn't help from a psychotherapist necessary? "Know Thyself " is a central component of the philosophy of Socrates. Therapy was once a luxury of the very affluent; a way of knowing oneself.
Persons suffering from more severe forms of neurosis are obviously in a different category than those suffering from milder forms of depression, stress and anxiety. The difference between seeking help from family and friends versus a therapist is the objective comprehension that a trained professional can provide. Ultimately, serious emotional problems require professional treatment. |
| How should one deal with a friend who "psychoanalyzes" without having been asked to do so? However well meaning, uninvited advice needs to be named as such. People who are delving into another person's business may be looking to distract themselves from their own unresolved issues. By pointing out solutions to another's problems, they gain the illusion that they are somehow on top of their own life.
I would kindly invite them to look at their intention behind their actions, and share with them how it feels to be identified as a "patient". The bottom line may be that they are uncomfortable with hearing about your pain, and unless they can learn how to tolerate their discomfort and trust in your process, then limits may need to be set about what information you decide to share with them about your life. |
| Give us a simple prescription for happiness While you are figuring out solutions to get over, under, or around any obstacle that you come upon, stay present with the goodness that still exists in your world. Look ahead to the future, but be sure you do not miss the love and abundance that is already in your life.
Each night before you go to bed, make a mental note of 5 things in your life that you are thankful for. At every opportunity, look the people that you love in the eye and tell them so. |
| 
726 visits  Whohub
[sandradupontmft]
Los Angeles Teen Counselor - Sandra Dupont
Los Angeles - USA
|
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS
More
About Whohub ![[sandradupontmft] Los Angeles Teen Counselor - Sandra Dupont](http://www.whohub.com/_pics/8366.jpg?1269101676)