COUNSELING - PSYCHOTHERAPY - MyHope

Techniques for Reducing Problem Behaviors

I. GENERAL INTERVENTION GUIDELINES 1. Always try these techniques at home first, where you have greater control over your environment. 2. Be prepared for your child’s behavior to get worse before it gets better. 3. These techniques become more effective over repeated, consistent use. 4. The best way to judge whether the intervention is working […]

Autism and the Family

Autism is clearly a disorder that affects the functioning of the child with the diagnosis. It also profoundly affects the entire family — parents, siblings, and the extended family. Recognizing and coping with these effects is an important process for family members not only to care effectively for the child with autism, but also for […]

What is behavior?

Behavior is defined as the observable actions performed by an individual; it is what a child does and is usually expressed in verbs (e.g., runs, jumps, waits, requests). For our purposes, there are two kinds of behavior, positive and negative: By negative behavior, we mean those things that your child does that are potentially dangerous, […]

Tools for Assessing Autism Symptoms and Relevant Features

AUTISM SYMPTOM CHECKLISTS – (EDUCATOR OR PARENT REPORT) Infant-Toddler Checklist (ITC) Description: The Infant-Toddler Checklist (ITC; Wetherby & Prizant, 2002) is a 25-item checklist that was developed out of the SCERTS model and is very well attuned to the communicative aspects of ASD in young children. Designed and validated in a large community sample […]

Assessment in Developmental Disabilities: Tools

Assessment in Developmental Disabilities A Lecture for NSP Special Topics Course NRSC 7670 OV1 (Course Director: K. Gardiner) February 5 & 7, 2013 Presented by Susan Hepburn, Ph.D. Licensed Clinical Psychologist/Associate Professor Departments of Psychiatry & Pediatrics/JFK Partners/University of Colorado DEVELOPMENTAL/INTELLECTUAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS (sequenced developmentally) 1. The Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) (Bricker […]

Seven Ways to Be More Effective

The late, best-selling author Steven Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People back in 1989, but he believed the depth and breadth of societal changes and challenges that had taken place between when the book first came out and and our current lives made the habits he described even more relevant today. People […]

Making and Mastering Habits

There are good habits and bad habits. The challenge is to keep your good habits and stop the bad ones. But that’s easier said than done. Habits simplify life, allowing you to do things without having to put energy into thinking about them. The brain makes a behavior into a habit whenever possible. “Because I […]

Healing Trauma

War. Rape. Fear. Violence. Molestation. Sexual assault. According to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, incidents involving emotional trauma and toxic stress are far more common than people generally understand. Since 2001, he says, far more Americans died due to family violence than in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Women are twice as likely to […]

Don’t Let Imposter Syndrome Hold You Back

Does this sound familiar? You love your boss, the CEO. He’s the smartest, fairest, least ego, most supportive leader you’ve ever worked for, and you trust his judgment – business and otherwise – completely. And you love your career, which has provided many opportunities to work on cool projects, with teams of knowledgeable individuals, to […]

Are You Master or Victim of Your Own Mind?

“Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.” – Erica Jong Do you feel annoyed when people complain? If so, it turns out there’s a good reason why. Listening to too much complaining is bad for your brain in multiple ways, according to Trevor Blake, an […]