The Mental Health Moment April 13th, 2020

April 13th, 2020 Transcript – Mental Health Moment 

Transcript by Google Voice Typing – Please excuse errors

Topic – COVID-19 Mental Health Solutions

Welcome welcome, It’s mental health Monday and it’s time to take a mental health moments I’m your host Joe Newman from Life Launch Centers, and on this show we talke about all things for your mental health and wow so much has changed in the landscape of our society the last month or so there’s a lot to talk about with how we can better cope emotionally during these uncertain times and how some things that we can do to improve our situation so you’re not familiar with Life Launch Centers I’ve been working with youth and young adults with anxiety and depression in a group counseling format for many many for several that are for about 2 years now I guess so it’s it’s been a great opportunity to help address the communities issues with anxiety and depression and holy cow we have seen such a dramatic change and even increase in these dip all the emotions not just with Youth and Young adults with kind of everybody in general during these uncertain times and so today for the show I felt like we should bring on our special guest his name is Thurmon Thomas he’s a licensed marriage and family therapist and owner of Ascend counseling and wellness in Hurricane Utah Thurmon thank you so much for joining us today 

Yeah I appreciate the opportunity to be here and excited to spend some time with you you know where we’re going to talk a little bit about today and help the audience out there learn maybe some healthy ways to cope during these emotional and uncertain times you mentioned just yesterday that you seen a dramatic emotional landscape in society what can you say to that we live in tough times in general you know life’s really busy people have an awful lot of things on their plate you you have families you’re trying to earn a living I just just daily living is challenging in these times but then you add you know a pandemic where life is totally turned upside down and so you take just kind of this average everyday anxiety that many of us feel and out of a worldwide pandemic to it you know people’s emotions are definitely heightened so I’m seeing a lot you know a lot more challenges with more intense anxiety reaching clinical levels many people so it’s yeah it’s it’s definitely been a challenging time for people wow well I really appreciate all you do you know why you’re doing what you’re doing well you know my background actually is not in mental health we I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my life and then a business owner in communities that I’ve lived in but I reached a point about for kids in my wife and I now have 6 children we when we had four children are businesses that we had at the time where they were growing and things are going well we just didn’t feel fulfilled my wife and I didn’t feel like we were fulfilling our purpose and so we can all we talked and prayed and researched and just realized that there was more than that we could do and especially that I could do as a provider for our family to not only bring home some money but maybe make a difference in some people to live so that’s when I went back to school and earn a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy we haven’t looked back I was absolutely loved every minute of my work as a mental health practitioner it’s just it feels so good to be a resource for people and Anton obit when I lay down at night I’ve tried to do some good in the world and just out of my interaction with my clients as well just one of your people that’s awesome in a great job and actually exciting announcements about your practice and also the collaboration with life launch Center so that it would be helpful to have access to this group counseling intensive outpatient program in the hurricane area and so you use a great and brought on by their curriculum from Life on centers in her going to start running groups is that right yes absolutely you know Hurricane Valley is just an amazing community and it’s it’s blossoming there’s so much growth and positive things happening out here it just makes sense to have additional resources for the year excited that my team and I we have about six practitioners in this Clinic we’re just so excited to be able to offer the life launch centers program here in our hurricane office well we’re really excited to get to work with you on that bringing this amazing curriculum to people because really it is all about teaching the emotional important time during the history of Our Lives that this is this is like the Central and we’re so many kids are really really struggling with with these emotions as their lives have been disrupted not just not just the kids right now it’s adults I really appreciate about the life life centers intensive outpatient program is that addresses the whole family there’s there’s family group there is parent night there’s individuals as well as the the group counseling component and so I really does help bring these principles into the family to help improve the family culture and so you know when when we’re talking about what kind of services are available you you got some unique aspects of your counseling center that are adding program in that has to do with amino acids tell us a little bit about how that plays into your practice Yeah be happy to talk about amino acids a little bit you know our body every every bit of our body is built on amino acids there there the building blocks of everything that makes us us when we’re talking specifically about emotional or mental health were talking a lot about brain chemistry others tiny chemical in our brain that thought is transferred through neurons and that thought is transferred by via I should say a tiny chemical Messengers called neurotransmitters when we when we have deficiencies in those neurotransmitters those those that brain chemistry we have negative symptoms a lot of depression symptoms anxiety lack of focus motivation drive to craving substance Cravings there’s just so many symptoms that can creep into our lives if that neurotransmitter learned which neurotransmitters are our decision based on the symptoms were seen and then we also know which building blocks or amino acids can help improve the the balance of that chemistry examples of depression and anxiety that serotonin production in the brain so it’s just a fascinating really quite inexpensive way natural way to help improve chemistry and kind of help people get the the extra benefit I’m having everything balanced chemical in their mind so they can better deal with the symptoms are facing I think people have not necessarily medication of medication but it’s exactly right in its nutritional based treatment now amino acids are found in the proteins that we eat but because of the way our diets are are are these days well balanced diet and even some of the foods that we we just don’t get the nutritional value that we need some supplements non-medicated way it’s really fantastic effort and bring this great nutritional elements to the program because we have seen such improved results with people as they address the nutritional part of their balance of life that really does help them establish a better emotional balance in life and yeah so it’s it’s a really valuable thing we’re grateful to bring not only to your Center in in Hurricane but it makes that available to everybody now so so you know things have been a little weird with a laying landscape right now is during this social distancing time if anybody practice but hopefully it’s coming through loud and I just wanted to kind of next half we’re going to talk about how even during these difficult times where we have to stay socially distance thank heavens we have some really advanced technology that’s able to allow us to connect and still be able to get the help the counseling the emotional support that we need and some next half we’re going to come right back here with Thurman Thomas from Ascend counseling and Wellness Center and talk about how we can get the mental health treatment that we need during this time of isolation or or social distancing so hang with me will be back in just about one minute. 

Welcome back to the Mental Health Moment I’m your host Joe Newman with Life Launch Centers talking today with Thurmon Thomas licensed marriage and family therapist in the owner of Ascend counseling and wellness in Hurricane Utah and again Thurmon thank you so much for joining us today

So excited to be here this is a lot of fun and the unique aspects of treatment that brings to the service is available and I’m not sure I understand what that looks like like why would you want to like consider amino acids or do you just go straight to counseling or how does it how do amino acids and play with your treatment that’s great question you know actually a lot of are amino acids clients those in other words those who are receiving amino acid treatment are not in therapy they’re not even some of the clients that we have aren’t they’re not going to counseling they’re just using the amino acids to manage symptoms because the symptoms aren’t big enough got you weren’t Serebii the amino acid level of care before maybe you consider putting your loved one or yourself into counseling acid therapy is enough to manage symptoms and certainly with all of our therapy clients we we use amino acid therapy to help in connection with therapy therapy but not everybody needs both know how do you how do you do make that determination imagine there has to be some kind of this time it doesn’t have to be face-to-face in the office but we start with a good full of sediment we go through a basic physical background mental health background and then we just have a basic assessment measure the symptoms that are commonly associated with deficiencies in those chemicals that we once we’ve done that assessment we can determine the level of care needed for those who just need a little bit of help the fire isn’t that big in their lives we can start with amino acid treat a little bit more treatment and care than we can offer therapeutic services in the office that I have anxiety or depression they do not sure if they’re ready for counseling but that’s really comforting to know that there really are a lot of levels of care and treatments available get that assessment done so you know where you stand you know it seems like people are worried about getting help but when they find out what help is available for the the fear of it sure they’re really are a lot of different levels of care and we don’t want to use surgery that makes sense now if you know what I mean there are people that really heightened emotional situation because of this whole covid-19 and social distance a circumstances you know how is that how was how are you able to administer counseling during these times where we’re not meeting person-to-person the physical presence what is a couple of ways we can do that for those clients who are in Greater levels of distress we do still have in office Treatment available course we take all the necessary precautions weed in between each session we maintain the 6-foot face-to-face type counseling but for the vast majority sure you bet for the mask that vast majority of our clients though it’s it’s more comfortable to be able to meet online we live in a time where we’re really blessed to have so many technological advancements and and just just amazing what we have out there we can utilize technology get on video conferencing with our clients via hipaa-compliant a fully confidential and encrypted a means and see our clients face-to-face have our normal it’s nice to be able to look into each other’s eyes on those online sessions be able to communicate expressions and body language and really it’s been very effective tool for us to maintain a social distancing how did we are having to do Telehealth conferencing and realizing that some people are maybe a little resistant I’m opening up in front of a camera online but what I came to realize was that these Forum are actually very secure they have to be by law in order to comply with the HIPAA laws that are in place and certain platforms have that encryption and place I know that the estate provided Telehealth Services one and and also Zoom but you don’t put those encryptions in place to make sure that that people’s privacy is still a respected and maintained as they engaging in video conference is that right absolutely right yeah zoom and there’s a few others that that if provided platforms for us to be able to maintain that confidentiality and the quality of the programs are really awesome so even though it might feel a little uncomfortable at first you find it in the first few minutes of this day you realize hey this this this works we can do this I know is a little bit of an adjustment for our groups as the first week or two of of these side social distancing standards were put in place but now it’s something they really look forward to it because honestly it’s one of the only Outlets that they have you know they don’t they don’t get to go out and socialize two spaces and interact with him even if it is through a screen if you have teenagers at this time you feed realize that they’re really struggling and hungry for that social interaction so it’s really great that we have some technology to help us out with that it’s a little bit ironic because on his radio show I have talked a lot and a long time about the hills of overindulging in screen time and how it can have dramatic effect on on Youth and Young adults but here now we’re faced girl facing the pressures of isolation and now wear this technology has proved to be a healthy Outlet when you’re in those in the triple X of isolation so you know speaking of this whole isolation and in critical times you know that I’m interested to hear what you’re seeing in your practice with clients and how how It’s all affecting their mental health what have you seen as far as what people help you bad well I think generally people are impacted by just the general sense of uncertainty life has been turned upside down for many people especially those with with kids in school and things like that everything’s changed for them and sew patterns changed in my in my work and you know people are struggling more with sleep at night and not sleeping as well because of the general worry maybe they’re gaining some weight a little bit about the quarantine that everybody’s putting on some weight during this time social isolation the added responsibility of making sure the levels are higher people are struggling with you know just catching their breath I need just that General sense of kind of foreboding that comes when life’s a little uncertain yeah I mean I’m kind of worried that people have it seems to be growing and you know everybody’s got this weird feeling in the air they’re wondering if if they should be worrying more what how do we do that that’s it it’s a funny that’s a funny question because actually I’ve had a few clients asked me that very thing they say Thurman should I be worried more and I understand the basis of the question but my response generally is in what situation does worry actually help so we definitely want to manage the worry and maybe we turn that around a little bit and say well let’s not worry more let’s just be more proactive about how we’re taking precautions that were taking care of ourselves and our family and our health and and if we do our part to prepare and be cautious we don’t need to worry we’ll be just fine no question about that play I like what you said about taking it an opportunity to see where a life needs better balance and I recognize that I needed a little bit more emotional stability and I’ve been putting off my exercise routine you know that week after January 1st but then I realized I’ve been lifting weights and been more physically active which has proved to be a very helpful Outlet of a difficult emotions and releasing that worried and and just keep things in perspective so you know what what kind of things do we do that counts can help build or take advantage of this opportunity to put some things and play great question you don’t I love that you mentioned exercise is one of the things that with comes with worry is this the sense of fight-or-flight write the chemistry gets out of balance we don’t know what to expect so we’re in this kind of fight or flight mode and one of the best ways to flush that fight or flight mode out is to get all of my clients with my family and friends and recommended let’s get outside maintain the social distance is 6 feet which isn’t that hard to do get 30 to 40 minutes a day as well get that vitamin D Sunshine those are some powerful things we can do that’s awesome and I think people are hearing these things kind of regularly around but I really appreciate you coming on the show today but I meant to help share some of your insights in your expertise with everybody has been invaluable Avenue and we really look forward to working with you thanks so much it’s been fun to talk and again that we’re opening a life launch centers in hurricane and so those services are now available to that Community as well as we’re working hard to try to bring my service has two additional communities but I’m going to wrap it up here and we can use this time to form deeper connections and relationships with those that we love the most so those within our own household take some time to evaluate the balance within your own life and and it will prove to be helpful. If you have any questions then give us a call at 833-803-3883.  We’re happy to do a free 15 minute phone consultation to help you to know what the best course of action would be. That number at Life Launch Centers again is 833-803-3883. Until next time keep those kids safe and keep your sanity.