Posts Tagged ‘Mental’
A Meaningful Future for Young People with Mental Illness
September 5, 2011 | 
Author Transitioning to adulthood is a daunting task for most young people — it can include striving to graduate from high school; finding a full-time job or entering college; living independently; forming long-term relationships and becoming a parent. Although their goals and desires may be the same as those of their peers, young people who have a mental illness or substance use disorder, especially those who are transitioning from institutional care, face an even more challenging road. For the many youths who reside in residential treatment facilities or foster homes, turning 21 can feel like falling off a cliff.
A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report (2008) outlined the many challenges facing approximately 2.4 million non-institutionalized young people, ages 18 to 26, who have serious mental illnesses and are transitioning from child to adult delivery systems of care. The report, which excludes children who are homeless, in foster care, or in the juvenile or criminal justice systems, nevertheless identified significant hurdles in obtaining housing, health and mental health treatment, and employment. The young people GAO studied are far less likely than their peers to graduate from high school (64% versus 83%) or to enter college (32% versus 51%).
Although the GAO report raises important policy issues that should be addressed by states and the federal government, the study has serious gaps. For example, it failed to include the young people most at risk for chronic homelessness or incarceration, those who may have the most difficult time transitioning: young people with a mental illness, regardless of diagnosis, who are institutionalized or already living on the streets.
The GAO study focused on the public service system; that is the formal services and supports kids receive as they go from one birthday to the next. Various program eligibility rules differ drastically for children and adults. One in four children receiving SSI will fail to qualify as adults. Similar problems occur with Medicaid. The report also noted the failure of adult programs to address the unique needs of young adults: What 24-yearold wants to spend time in group therapy where the average age of the other participants is 47? These important problems must be addressed, but meager income supports and formal mental health treatment can only do so much to guide a young person through both the morass of public programs and the overwhelming daily challenges of life as an adult.
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For young people with serious mental illness to succeed in the adult world, they need more than treatment. They need to be truly integrated into their communities. They need jobs that offer skills, dignity, independence, and peers. And they need a responsible and caring older adult who can help them make better choices, learn from their mistakes, and applaud their successes, no matter how small.
National mental health organizations, as community providers, can create those opportunities through their own programs or appropriate community collaborations. The Children’s Village in Westchester, New York, which serves foster children in a residential treatment center, is an example worthy of mention. The Children’s Village created a transition-age youth program, Work Appreciation for Youth (WAY), for kids who are at the highest risk of incarceration, homelessness, and joblessness. The program starts in the residential facility and continues for 5 years after the youths enter the community.
The core elements of the WAY program for transitioning youths are as follows: Educational advocacy and tutoring to facilitate school success; work experiences and work ethics training to enable participants to build work histories and a sense of themselves as workers; group activities and workshops to promote a positive peer culture and help youth develop life skills; and financial incentives to help youth plan, save, and believe in their futures; and long-term, individualized counseling/ mentoring to help WAY participants meet challenges and solve problems.
The counseling and mentoring component is not an “add-on” service or a volunteer program. Each young person is assigned a paid, trained WAY counselor, and their relationship forms the core of the WAY experience, providing personal and intensive emotional support and practical guidance at every step of the way in the youth’s young adulthood. Counselors are to be coaches, cheerleaders, surrogate parents, advocates, teachers, and friends. Most important, counselors stick with the young people during the worst times, no matter how far off track they get.
Community mental health organizations like WAY focus on education, job preparation, and the professional counselor has been effective in changing the expected paths for
General Mental Ability ? The Best Indicator of Future Poor Performers
Last week I did some online shopping. My purchase was dispatched via Courier Post for an additional .44.
Two days after placing the order, I received a call from the supplier wanting to verify my address. The address was correct, but according to the courier company, we had moved. Another two days later I received a call from Courier Post saying the driver had gone to our address and we did not exist.
After a couple of facetious comments reiterating the address given did exist, and I was sitting in the said office, they sent the package back out. Guess what, yet another call saying the driver cannot find your office!!
By this time I am getting extremely vexed – How simple is it to drive to 1 Pupuke Road, find the Quadrant Properties building (the only commercial building in the street)? Then, once at the building, find our office? The second time the driver arrived he reported back to head office that the Quadrant Properties building only had two tenants – we were not one of them!
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Our building has 5 tenants. These are listed on a large sign board in front of the building. There is a large letter box alongside this with the street number on it. Once inside the building there is a large directory in the foyer with arrows and a further 4 arrowed signs guiding visitors to our office – any person who can read, or has a minimum level of problem solving ability, would find us in a flash. This courier driver obviously failed in both these areas.
The scientific literature on selection is unanimous in the power of using cognitive (metal ability) testing for pre-screening job applicants. In fact, if you could use just one test, a test of mental ability (numerical, verbal and spatial ability) will have the highest predictive validity of around .56.
Now, if Courier Post had spent about on a simple 10 minute mental ability test, like CLUES, this driver would not have been hired. would be a small investment to make, considering the overall cost of my delivery, not to mention dozens of other deliveries that are probably suffering the same fate.
As I mentioned, the courier cost was .44 and the company made four trips. How much fuel and man hours were wasted through the actions of an incompetent driver!
My point is, when selecting new employees, it is critical to test their cognitive abilities – how proficient will the considered applicant be at learning and problem solving, a competency that will impact on job performance irrespective of the role. It’s also a competency you cannot assess through interviewing.
To understand more about employee profiling or take a test drive, contact our team at AssessSystems.
Rob McKay MA(Hons) Organisational Psychology is the Director of AssessSystems Aust/NZ Ltd. His company specialises in employee assessment for selection, development and performance appraisal. Rob has over 30 years of practical hands on business experience. He can be contacted on +64 9 414 6030 rob@assess.co.nz – For general information go to www.assess.co.nz – For weekly articles like the above go to Rob’s BLOG at www.fromthedeskofrobmckay.com/blog
Article from articlesbase.com
Posted in Mentalism | 
Tags: ability, Best, Future, General, Indicator, Mental, performers, Poor | 
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The Stigma of Mental Illness
On a daily basis the media bombard us with news of tragic deaths of home invasions, murders, kidnapping and other atrocities. Many of these crimes are committed by a disturbed, mentally ill person. The failure of government and public policy to protect all our citizens from those who have mental disabilities is wrong. They are ignored, denied. blurred, blamed and are invisible.
The Federal Government should lead in establishing an environment of reality and acceptance of treatment without the ignorant stigma of shame. Mental problems are just as legitimate as a cut needing stitches or a heart attack. Yet people who seek help for a psychological problem are still looked upon as flawed and blamed for not being able to handle their own problems.
Mental health is a legitimate health problem. As we go forward to reform our national health care, let us not forget the mentally ill.
We need public education to encourage individuals to go for help when they recognize feeling out-of-control or in a situation where they need counseling, support and advice. Some problems are chemical imbalances and often medications can reduce symptoms or stabilize the individual, if the person takes the medication. They don’t always take them because the medications have such uncomfortable side effects. Many patients believe the disease is easier to cope with than the drugs.
Other problems are situational and don’t need to be medicated but brought to the surface, worked out and resolved. The best way to do this is through “talk therapy.” There are many modalities that effectively work to educate and empower people to stop repeated patterns of destructive and self-deprecating behaviors. Being molested as a child is one example. There is no drug to resolve the damage done and continuing negative effects on adult relationships like trust issues, guilt, shame and sexual confusion and dysfunction. These issues need to be resolved by other means.
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Medicating such a wound just exacerbates the dilemma and doesn’t resolve or heal the wound.
Grief is similar issue. Typically it isn’t pathological, yet it hurts like hell for a long time. Medication isn’t recommended. Talking about the pain and expressing the hurt is a healthier way to deal with grief. Knowing what to expect, the hot spots and the time frame is empowering. Just knowing that the immediate pain will heal itself is part of the grieving process.
Historically, we as a nation have attached a stigma of shame on the individual suffering from a mental problem and on the family. I know because in 1956 my father was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and rather than go to a hospital and inflict shame on his family and himself he killed himself at 45 years old.
In the 1960′s we began systematically to empty out all our mental hospital. Often they were less than ideal, but rather than reform them we dumped the patients onto the street. Most homeless people have serious mental health problems and so do most inmates in jail. Today when a person is identified with serious mental problems there is no place to put him or her, few long-term are available for the mentally ill. Half way houses substitute as a safe place to be housed, but they are rarely safe. And inmates in jail don’t get adequate mental health help to prevent recidivism, returning to jail after they are released.
Then in the 1990′s the Insurance companies under the umbrella of Health Maintaince Organizations (HMO’s) appeared on the reimbursement stage and embraced short-term therapy with an emphasis on behavioral modification and limited psychotherapy to six or on occasion twelve sessions. Any additional sessions need to be approved by the HMO before they would be paid. This was the death knoll to effective therapy for the severely mentally ill.
Private insurance limits the number of visits they will pay for through reimbursement and co-payments. With the number of visits regulated by HMO staff a mental health professional literally has to beg for additional visits for deserving clients. Additionally the HMO tells the practitioner what they will pay and it is rarely his or her regular fees, always less. It is a nightmare of getting approved to provide services, with co-pays and reimbursement different for each provider. Mental health practioners are overloaded, overwhelmed and underpaid. It is a job with high burn out and high turn over.
Now in 2009 access is limited even non-existent in many states in the the US. Most don’t have enough money to adequately fund Community Mental Health Programs. Tragically of the places states cut funds in budget crunches is Mental Health. Sick people fall between the cracks even when identified and mandated to get out patient therapy.
Mental health must become a higher priority in this country to
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Mental Stress- Ways to release stress
Imagine you’re on your way to meet friends in a bar. You’re late and stuck behind a van in slow motion, when the whole street lurches into darkness. Suddenly the man crossing the street in front of you likes a potential burglar. The cars around you seem to be hemming you in. Everyone and everything seems dangerous. You went from a little stressed completely strung us a moment.
When you finally reach the bar, his friends are deep in conversation about blackouts, crime and plan to leave the country. What should have been a carefree; full of fun has turned into a night filled with anxiety.
It’s like a dark cloud of weight is hanging above us now. Most of us are unaware of the extent to which issues of concern that are affecting us. But if a high level of stress to your mind continues over a long period, paralyzing feeling of being overwhelmed can set in. Have you ever been in a situation where, under mind stress, can not remember the name of one of their own family members? Maybe you are stuck in a depression, or perhaps you have achieved something great, but the next morning you do not want to get out of bed because you’re so low.
These are indications that you are caught in a mind storm stress – a place full of fear and confusion when you’re no longer thinking rationally. If this sounds familiar, read on to understand better what is happening to you – and to become acquainted with it.
On a physical level – which is where the symptoms are easier to detect and treat – memory stress can appear as migraines, headaches, muscle aches and pains, skin breakouts (acne, psoriasis, eczema) and stomach problems (including bowel syndrome irritable and constipation). Emotionally, we become more prone to outbursts of temper, mood swings and negativity. Mentally, we feel less able to cope. Our vision becomes distorted and it becomes very difficult to keep our perspective. Mentally highly stressed people become reactive. This means that they react more to everything in their lives, the lack of milk in the fridge for the geyser burst. We become so overwhelmed that literally pull us along.
High levels of stress can affect our relationships too. Some people are too tired to go out and socialize, and they often feel a burden on others. Others may drink more to be more sociable or in an attempt to forget, so that the glass of wine, suddenly turns into a bottle of wine. According to the investigation of women may be more likely to develop stress-related factors (such as cocaine addiction) than men. The good news, however, is that stress the body is our way of telling us to do something. But what……….
The suggestions below are a good start. Do not knock them sound obvious – at least not until you actually tried them.
Stress Busters….Gain Perspective — Understand that there are certain things in your life that you have control over you and others not. If, for example, you are concerned about the political situation, I vote. If you are concerned about crime, join or start a monitoring program to the neighborhood. Be proactive about the things that you can influence and let go of who you can not.
Breathe– At work, if you find your mind getting stressed or anxious, go somewhere quiet and concentrate on your breathing. Imagine your breath is like waves breaking on the beach. Keep a regular rhythm. Imagine you are breathing all the way from your toes when you breathe, and all the way back again as you breathe out.
Eating Well— Do not hand your power over food and drinks. This fat burger will not release your stress of you mind. Instead ask, ‘What will make this drink or food for my body in the long term? “Cut the sugar. Sugar gives you a temporary lift followed by a downer. If you’re craving something sweet, try eating fruit or a handful of nuts. Drink plenty of water. The stress mind tends to dehydrate the body. Keeping your body hydrated will reduce stress symptoms such as fatigue and headaches.
Exercise More– One of the most effective ways of dealing with stress mind is exercise. Try doing some kind of exercise at least three times a week for 30 to 60 minutes.
Develop a positive internal dialogue– This is a powerful way to help us when we are feeling our mind stressed. We tend to feel worried about things that we have no control over (the future, other people) and more than we fear never happens. Staying at this time, if you start to stress about tomorrow, remember that you can live today – tomorrow does not exist.
Get more information on stress remedies and mens health product at www.herbalcureindia.com also.
Read more mental health stress remedies and stress remedies and mens health product at www.herbalcureindia.com also.
Article from articlesbase.com
Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Illness – The Time is Right
Epic arguments are being waged regarding the pros and cons of disease prevention. However, few, if any, are offering serious insight as to how to address the host of mental health disorders estimated to affect 14 to 20 percent of America’s young people in any given year. A perfect storm is brewing, exacerbated by a troubled economy, rising unemployment, increasing bankruptcies and home foreclosures, and dwindling funds for programs. Dismal realities affect families and threaten the mental health of our nation’s youth.
Passionate exchanges tout the medical benefits and lives saved through the early detection of breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease, while the stigma surrounding mental illness persists. Workplace shootings, familicides, and the overdose deaths and suicides of notable celebrities prompt frequent news coverage, with discourse on prevention and early detection in an everyday setting taking a noticeable backseat. The public interprets the message: the mentally ill aren’t safe to be around. As a result, would-be-patients fly below the radar to avoid detection. Without the increased use of prevention strategies that are scientifically proven to work, and a correspondingly swift uptick in early detection efforts and community awareness and education in national media, mental disorders continue to fester like an undetected cancer.
The discussions regarding preventative healthcare are more than politically fueled punditry about dollars and cents. Saving money is important, however, the bottom line should include safeguarding a quality of life. When it comes to mental healthcare, or lack thereof, individuals and their families are hoping for anyone to throw them a lifeline, to live a “normal” life. According to the March 2009 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report brief for policymakers: Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People, Progress and Possibilities, evidence-based approaches are proving to prevent certain mental health disorders, and limit risk factors, and are likely to be far more cost-effective at addressing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders (MEBs).
Most MEB disorders erupt during childhood and adolescence. The IOM report suggests that the “window of opportunity” when symptoms first appear, typically 2 to 4 years before the onset of the disorder, is the prime time when prevention strategies have the most impact. Persons with mental health disorders have usually been identified only after they dropped out of school, and shuffled through the criminal justice system, and multiple hospitals, leaving extraordinary healthcare bills in their wake. The Early Detection and Intervention for the Prevention of Psychosis Program, a national effort launched by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and spearheaded by program director, William R. McFarlane, MD, estimates the cost to society to be higher than million over the lifespan of a person who has schizophrenia. Most community mental health organizations supports early intervention, before costs escalate and the prospects of a happy, healthy life disintegrate. The ensuing discussions beg the question – just how much is an improved quality of life worth these days?
Community mental health organizations also recognize that the issue reaches beyond the bread and butter aspects of healthcare, and becomes muddled when editorials sound the alarm of diagnosing millions with a disease that requires treatment. An op-ed piece by David Harsanyi in The Denver Post insists that expanding the definition of diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and osteoporosis, has already placed millions more Americans at the swelling healthcare trough. The idea that patients shouldn’t be identified for having a disease, or the potential to develop one, is a precarious one, especially for mental health. Sweeping mentally ill patients under the carpet has been going on for years and has hindered even the most ardent efforts of dedicated mental health professionals. Harsanyi is blunt – end of life care is costly, and free will overrides the patient’s decision to follow the doctors’ advice anyway. Part of the stigma plaguing mental illness is the notion that one can simply “snap out of” depression, or that persons “choose” to be mentally ill.
Chicago Tribune reporter Carla Johnson acknowledges in her article, Disease Prevention Often Costs More than it Saves, that disease prevention won’t necessarily save money, but that some efforts to prevent illness are necessary. Johnson quotes Robert Gould, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Prevention, saying that “Many of the services that don’t save money, improve people’s lives at relatively low cost.” A “pro-prevention” piece, More Attacks on Prevention and Its Role in Health Reform That Make No Sense, by Kenneth Thorpe in The Huffington Post, cautions against using “imprecise language” when it comes to
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11 Points for Mental Health Care Reform
Due to greater understanding of how many Americans live with mental illnesses and addiction disorders and how expensive the total healthcare expenditures are for this group, we have reached a critical tipping point when it comes to healthcare reform. We understand the importance of treating the healthcare needs of individuals with serious mental illnesses and responding to the behavioral healthcare needs of all Americans. This is creating a series of exciting opportunities for the behavioral health community and a series of unprecedented challenges Mental health organizations across the U.S. are determined to provide expertise and leadership that supports member organizations, federal agencies, states, health plans, and consumer groups in ensuring that the key issues facing persons with mental health and substance use disorders are properly addressed and integrated into healthcare reform.
In anticipation of parity and mental healthcare reform legislation, the many national and community mental health organizations have been thinking, meeting and writing for well over a year. Their work continues and their outputs guide those organizations lobbying for government healthcare reform. .
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY
1. Mental Health/Substance Use Health Provider Capacity Building: Community mental health and substance use treatment organizations, group practices, and individual clinicians will need to improve their ability to provide measurable, high-performing, prevention, early intervention, recovery and wellness oriented services and supports.
2. Person-Centered Healthcare Homes: There will be much greater demand for integrating mental health and substance use clinicians into primary care practices and primary care providers into mental health and substance use treatment organizations, using emerging and best practice clinical models and robust linkages between primary care and specialty behavioral healthcare.
3. Peer Counselors and Consumer Operated Services: We will see expansion of consumer-operated services and integration of peers into the mental health and substance use workforce and service array, underscoring the critical role these efforts play in supporting the recovery and wellness of persons with mental health and substance use disorders.
4. Mental Health Clinic Guidelines: The pace of development and dissemination of mental health and substance use clinical guidelines and clinical tools will increase with support from the new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and other research and implementation efforts. Of course, part of this initiative includes helping mental illness patients find a mental health clinic nearby.
MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
5. Medicaid Expansion and Health Insurance Exchanges: States will need to undertake major change processes to improve the quality and value of mental health and substance use services at parity as they redesign their Medicaid systems to prepare for expansion and design Health Insurance Exchanges. Provider organizations will need to be able to work with new Medicaid designs and contract with and bill services through the Exchanges.
6. Employer-Sponsored Health Plans and Parity: Employers and benefits managers will need to redefine how to use behavioral health services to address absenteeism and presenteeism and develop a more resilient and productive workforce. Provider organizations will need to tailor their service offerings to meet employer needs and work with their contracting and billing systems.
7. Accountable Care Organizations and Health Plan Redesign: Payers will encourage and in some cases mandate the development of new management structures that support healthcare reform including Accountable Care Organizations and health plan redesign, providing guidance on how mental health and substance use should be included to improve quality and better manage total healthcare expenditures. Provider organizations should take part in and become owners of ACOs that develop in their communities.
MENTAL HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE
8. Quality Improvement for Mental Healthcare: Organizations including the National Quality Forum will accelerate the development of a national quality improvement strategy that contains mental health and substance use performance measures that will be used to improve delivery of mental health and substance use services, patient health outcomes, and population health and manage costs. Provider organizations will need to develop the infrastructure to operate within this framework.
9. Health Information Technology:
The Significance of the Shooting in Tucson, Mental Health Parity Laws & Conspiracy issues
The significance of the shooting in Tucson, mental health parity laws & conspiracy issues
The timing of this act in Tucson is significant; it is a symbolic warning of what more mental health treatment will produce; violence. The Mental Health Parity Act signed in 2008 is scheduled to go into effect January 2011. Obama care also stipulates more coverage for mental health. What people need to know is that mental health treatment is ALL drug oriented, and the psych meds CAUSE mental illness, they do NOT cure or abate it. The drug handbooks admit that common side effects of anti-depressants and anti-psychotics are psychosis. ALL of the school shooters since Columbine were ON prozac and anti-psychotics, or withdrawing from them. They cause suicidal and homicidal ideation.
Dr Peter Breggin has written many books warning about toxic psych meds. See breggin.com
NAMI which lobbies for more treatment, gets heavy funding from the drug cos, as exposed by Sen. Chas Grassley. They claim to be a grass roots org. advocating for the mentally ill. That is Orwellian doublespeak. They advocate against them by arguing they should be drugged, which is abuse.
The Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR.org) has much research on psychiatric abuse. Their lawyers go after doctors on criminal charges.
There is NO parity between mental illness and physical illness. People who are physically sick are NOT forcibly treated, like those who are accused of being mentally sick. The mental health system is unconstitutional; the hospitals hold people for long periods of time just to get the insurance money, and treat people as medical experiment guinea pigs involuntarily; this is involuntary servitude which is slavery. It violates the anti-slavery amendment.
The mental health system also violates the First amendment for religious freedom, since psychiatry is rooted in atheism; their definitions of mental illness are premised on an atheisic worldview which defines spiritual beliefs and experiences as symptoms of mental illness. 90% of the people called schizophrenic are NOT sick; they are Christians. THis slander has been going on for 50 years in this country.
God had me write a book exposing atheistic psychiatry & their toxic drugs & how to be healed of mental and physical illness thru prayer; you can read it FREE at 1prophetspeaks.com; Manual for Transformational Healing-God’s Answer to psychiatry.
Loughner was in the mental health system; at 15, 7 years earlier. He was most probably treated with psych meds, which contributed to his problems.
The reason psych meds CAUSE mental illness is because they are openings for demonic oppression, which causes mental or physical illness. ALL drugs do this; including caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, pot, lsd, etc and psych meds. The demons can be rebuked in Jesus’ name. I have done it; it works. Jesus did it and gave his followers authority to heal this way. All diseases are caused by spirits whose “assignment” is that disease. I have rebuked depress-, asthm-, canc- and been healed. (I don’t print the entire name of a spirit because one can invoke it by speaking or writing it).
Unless someone who has been on psych meds gets prayer of this, kind, they likely still have the oppression from that experience, from which they need deliverance.
The Shooting in Ft Hood by the psychiatrist was also a symbolic sign that Psychiatry is toxic and deadly; most doctors don’t use guns, but drugs. They give people shots all the time illegally in hospitals, for control. They are trafficking in death.
The following link is for an interview with Robert Whittaker, medical researcher, author of MAD IN AMERICA, & Anatomy of an Epidemic, on the history of suppressed info about the dangers of prozac, paxil causing psychosis and violence, suicide, and the anti-psychotics causing psychosis. He says there has never been any truth to the argument that mental illness is caused by chemical imbalances; but the drugs cause them after treatment. The more we treat people with these drugs, the more mental illness will be created. This is what the drug co’s want- a permanent market for their drugs.
The FDA which used to be a watchdog against the pharmaceuticals, is now their lapdog and just helps them to get drugs to market rather than prevent dangerous drugs from being marketed. The scientists who have spoken out about the truth about the dangerous psych meds have all been fired, discredited and worse to suppress the truth. Even an editor of the New England Journal of medicine, when she spoke the truth about prozac, was fired. pharmaceuticals own politicians, so their influence is very strong.
The title
Posted in Mentalism | Tags: Conspiracy, health, issues, Laws, Mental, Parity, Shooting, Significance, Tucson | No Comments »
Applying Mental Toughness Daily is not Easy
Sports psychology experts often talk about the importance of learning mental toughness to improve your performance. However, my 15 years of teaching the mental game to students makes me think that understanding mental toughness skills is not the whole enchilada. To be successful with mental toughness training, athletes must learn how to apply it.
You can be taught to improve concentration and focus all day long. You may understand the information and concepts by hearing it or reading about it (see “The Focused Athlete” at peaksports.com). However, until you actually are able to put the focusing skills into practice and competition, you can’t make any progress and *really* learn mental toughness.
If you’re serious about getting the most from what you’ve learned, then you must be sure to apply consistently the mental skills you understand on a conceptual level. This is the biggest challenge in my work – helping athletes apply the concepts.
Take confidence, for example. Teaching athletes and coaches strategies to enhance confidence (such as how to fight doubt) and how to put it into action is the first step. Until athletes actually implement, practice, and add these techniques into their routines, you won’t see improvement.
The biggest challenge is the commitment to work on mental toughness daily over weeks, months, and even years. It’s easy to pick up a book on mental training and then forget about the strategies one week later. The key is to apply your new mental toughness strategies to practice and competition on a daily basis.
This is similar to the skill of visualization (seeing what you *want* to happen). When an athlete visualizes her performance, she can see it in her mind, but can she truly believe it and feel it?
Visualization can be just wishful thinking on the part of the athletes. If you don’t believe in the images you create in your mind and have complete control over those mental images, it just will not be effective.
I asked one of my golf students if she visualizes each shot before she executes. Her reply, “Oh no! I stopped visualizing my shots because I would only see a bad shot in my mind before I hit it.” Is this athlete really using visualization the way it was intended?
The best athletes truly feel, sense, and believe in what they see in their minds *and* have total control over the images when they use visualization. When you can join your mental pictures with true confidence, then you have power to change your performance by just using your mind.
Want to learn simple, proven mental toughness skills that you can apply to competition? Grab my free online mental training newsletter, Sports Insights Magazine – for athletes, coaches, and sports parents:
http://www.peaksports.com/free_newsletter.php
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Dr. Patrick Cohn is a master mental game coach who work with professional and amateur athletes, sports parents, and teams of all levels. Visit http://www.peaksports.com for more information.
Article from articlesbase.com
Mental Skills For Golf and Life
You carry 14 clubs in your bag, and probably several more accumulating dust in your shed or garage. You are capable of hitting high and low shots, draws and fades, hooks and slices, half shots, three quarter shots and full shots. In order to do so, however, it is imperative you have a full range of empowering mental skills at your disposal so as to enable you to execute your chosen shot as and when it is required and in circumstances when it truly matters.
It is all too frequently the case that the way in which one hits shots upon the range is not reflected when out on the course, when it matters. Most people, including teaching and playing professionals alike, agree that 90% of golf is in the mind. You need as many mental skills as you have shots. And this is true of success in every other area of your life as well as in your game of golf.
I am a hypnotherapist and I am also a passionate golfer. This is why I decided to outline a whole set of mental skills for golfers and recorded a mental skills toolkit in the form of hypnosis cds and hypnosis downloads. This was back in 2006. The response was fantastic and I’m pleased to say that many great testimonials popped in via e-mail from golfers all over the world. This is what Paul Eales (European Tour Professional, BBC TV and Setanta TV Golf Reporter) had to say about the GolferWithin golf hypnosis cds:
“It took me many years of heart ache and hours of time hitting thousands and thousands of golf balls before I realized that, without the correct mindset, you can’t get anywhere near maximizing your potential. A library full of books on the sporting mind as well as time spent with accredited golf psychologists still didn’t quite get me into my ideal sporting performance state. Then I was asked to listen to some CD’s produced by Roseanna.
For the first time in my search the impact was not only massive but immediate. The well presented, ordered course covered “stuff” I had heard before. But this time just by listening to Roseanna and following the GolferWithin program, my state changed and allowed me to play without the negative, destructive self-talk that had plagued me from an early age. I would strongly advice any golfer who’s serious about improving their game to get involved in Roseanna’s CD presentation and see the immediate results. You can’t afford not to.”
Paul also suggested that it would be fantastic to create a similar set of mental skills hypnosis downloads for life in general, which is exactly what I did. Whether you are a golfer or not, there are many mental skills which you can learn which will make life more comfortable, more enjoyable and more successful. The game of golf simply highlights the effect of your thinking. If you think “don’t go in the trees” how often does it go in there? And on those days when you feel much focused and “in the zone” how many putts just seem to roll in without any effort at all? You can learn mental skills which will allow you to focus, to play “in the zone” at will. You can learn mental skills which will allow you to step back and relax, instead of getting tense.
There are many, many mental skills which can all be learned with the help of hypnosis cds or hypnosis downloads. It is amazing what you can do as you learn to harness the power of your own mind. You can retrain your mind to play great golf and also a great game of life.
You really can play the game of your dreams with the help of golf psychology, NLP and hypnosis downloads. Why not give yourself a head start and use your mind to make a difference. The fact is that great golfers know how to play the mental game; they have learned the necessary skills to be successful.
Roseanna Leaton, author of Golfer Within golf hypnosis cds and specialist in hypnosis downloads for success, health and well-being.
With a degree in psychology and qualifications in hypnotherapy, NLP and sports psychology, and a great passion for golf, Roseanna Leaton is one of the leading golf psychologists. You can get a free hypnosis download from http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com and view the GolferWithin golf mind training cds and downloads.
Article from articlesbase.com
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