Interface Consultation Services, PLLC

Meyer and Salovey, in the early 1990's, coined the term Emotional Intelligence . Daniel Goleman wrote a best seller called Emotional Intelligence 1995. Emotional Intelligence refers to a person's emotional intellectual abilities and often times correlates with, but is seperate from, the intelligence of IQ scores, grades, SAT and ACT scores. Emotional Intelligence includes: The ability to gage emotions. "Knowing one's emotions" The capacity to manage emotions Recognizing emotions in others - Empathy Social Skills in handling and using intuition in social relations Motivation What is the formula for success? IQ is not the only predictor of success. Research has indicated that success in these areas above increase the likelihood of successful happy lifestyle.

Identifying symptoms of depression in elderly individuals is often overlooked. This phenomenon has a couple probable explanations. In general, elderly folks themselves are less educated to the signs and symptoms of depression (or any mental health condition for that matter) and many have chronic medical conditions that they tend to explain in primarily medical terms. So, when these folks seek healthcare treatment, it is usually a result of a physical manifestation of symptoms described in a very medical manner. Also, their medical physician may be responding to and focusing exclusively on the medical/biological reasons for their distress and providing treatment for those disease processes only. In addition, the medical community is only beginning to understand and recognize mental health disorders and those symptoms as a co-occurring health process for their elderly patients. Additionally, many elderly persons have few or limited natural supports. It is fair to say that in those cases ...

A brief overview of what Interface Consultation Services is currently doing: I. 2 Blogs: Providing our professional blog site readers with informative clinical behavioral health material at this blog site. Also we are creating more therapeutic, counseling-focused articles for consumer interest at our Counseling Connections blog. 3 new blog postings to each blog per week. II. National Training Seminars: Behavioral Managed Care -20 Insider Tips & Strategies on How to Get What Your Clients Need AND High Risk Mental Health Triage- “How To” Assessment & Intervention Techniques for Telephone and Face-to-Face Emergencies seminars are now complete. PESI Healthcare seminar dates and locations are now available at http://www.pesi.com/ . Check us out! III: Newsletter Articles: Designing newsletters for medical and mental health websites in order to provide information to health care workers on vital mental health topics effecting their day-to-day work environment. Various articles al...

The suicidal caller again….. Our service provides a Intake Triage for a large mental health agency in Michigan. Telephone triage consists of a brief phone assessment of their mental health needs where we consistently ask people about their thoughts of self harm. As you would expect there are as many variations of people’s thoughts as there are people. These high risk cases become the cases that we ponder most often. For mental health professionals, this probably comes as no surprise but many of the people calling for a first time appointment are experiencing some thoughts of self-harm. The continuum of these thoughts is broad. Recently I experienced a call of concern and worked diligently to intervene with the person. Ring, Ring….How may I help you? “I am feeling really depressed. I talked with my daughter and she suggested that I call. I lost my husband 3 years ago and I just can’t seem to get over this. She says she has tried everything she can think of…going to church, going...

Many scholars have created and published theories on how the human self is created. In my academic experience, no theory explains this evolution of self nearly as coherently and logical as Robert Kegan’s theory. Kegan, a developmental psychologist, wrote The Evolving Self which provides a developmental framework from which we can understand human development and personal growth. This theory has particular relevance and value to persons involved with parenting of children. Fundamental to this theory are the concepts of: 1. Confirmation (Holding) which supports the individual through the stage of recognition 2. Contradiction (Letting Go) which releases the individual at the appropriate time in order to facilitate differentiation and 3. Continuity (Staying Put) which provides the stability and commitment of support while the individual moves through new and unfamiliar stages of development. Kegan also identifies 6 stages or selves that emerge as we evolve throughout our lifespan. He ...

With the arrival of Valentine's Day romance is in the air. As a mental health professional how many times have you heard a string of discontentment followed by but "I really love him or her?" Research indicates that many of us think being with someone is better than being alone. Relationships are very important part of our lives. How often have you seen someone who is presenting in crisis triggered by discontent or another issue in a primary relationship or the loss of a primary relationship? Subjectively it appears most crises are triggered in this way. What does it take to have healthy long-term intimate relationships? This American Life interviewed Dr. John Gottman, a marriage researcher who gives specific descriptions of what works and what doesn't in marriage. This interview can be heard with Real Player at the link www.thislife.org - The Sanctity of Marriage 3/26/04. Following are a list of attributes of a successful long-term marriages from research in the ...

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is a family-oriented, short-term (3-4 months) home-based program that focuses on a target population of the chronically violent, substance-abusing juvenile offenders ages 12 to 17 years old. It uses methods that promote positive social behavior and decrease antisocial behavior, including substance use, in order to change how youth function in their natural settings (i.e., home, school, and neighborhood). The program seeks to empower the family, schools, churches, the community in general to support troubled youth. The primary goals of MST are to: Reduce youth criminal behavior Reduce antisocial behavior, including substance abuse Achieve these outcomes at a cost savings by decreasing incarceration and out-of-home placement rates Based on the philosophy that the most effective and ethical route to help youth is through helping their families, MST views parents or guardians as valuable resources, even when they have serious and multiple needs of their own. A ...

There has been several studies indicating that the full development of the brain is reached at a much later age than we initially thought. Previously, scientists and researchers believed that the brain and it's cognitive abilities reached maturity at age 12. A long-term research study by Dr. Jay Giedd indicates that the age of full maturity of the brain is more accurately around age 25. Actually he indicates that the brain does not grow much during childhood. By the time a child is 6, it is 90% to 95% of its adult size. As a matter of fact, we are born equipped with most of the neurons our brain will ever have--and that's fewer than we have in utero. You could say, teens still have alot of growing up to do!

(The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893)

“Evidence-based practice” is the trend in the treatment of mental illnesses. Insurance companies and government are requiring that mental health providers implement research-proven clinical practice models in order to increase effective treatment outcomes. In the case of treating adolescent depression, the National Institute for Mental Health has recently conducted research in this area and provided findings that validate the concurrent use of both psychotropic medication and psychotherapy treatment as “best practice” for intervening with these afflicted teens. Most significant is the 71% effectiveness outcome for those teens receiving the combination of Prozac (which is the only FDA approved antidepressant for use in children) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This outcome compares to test subjects receiving Prozac only(60.6%) Subjects receiving CBT only (43.2%) Control group of teens receiving placebo only treatment (34%) These research findings seem convincingly clear that t...

The mental health industry, more and more, is focusing on researching, defining and implementing “evidence-based practices” for the treatment of various mental illnesses. Already firmly established as acceptable and effective treatment interventions is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for the treatment of depression, anxiety and substance abuse; Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorders; and Family Psychoeducational intervention strategies to assist families of Schizophrenic patients. More recent research, funded by the National Institute for Mental Health , involves creating evidence-based protocols for the treatment of Bipolar Mood Disorder. The current study called Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program – Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) involves identifying the best combined medication administration and psychotherapy interventions aimed at producing long-term mood stabilization and improved patient coping strategies. Various mood sta...