I have spent most of my adult life studying the Middle East. I have done this almost every day,
since the first war in Iraq.
I have intentionally avoided using social media for my beliefs about the
Middle East. I am a college
teacher and a mental health counselor. I usually try to avoid putting out any messages that would
detract from my ability to be understood as one in the helping profession. My friends are very diverse and have
broad views of the world, history and the future. But my friends know that I believe in Jesus Christ. So I wanted to share my thoughts about
the current events in Syria on my blog. I feel that we should be praying for the residents of
Damascus. God has a burden
for Damascus. His burden is bigger
than ours. America is making
choices to pursue actions it has not fully considered. This is due to blindness among our leaders. They have successfully
fought so many wars that the possible unplanned
consequences of war are not a deterrent. God has given
the world a tragic view into the future of Syria, and especially Damascus. It comes from Isaiah 17. I don’t know when it will happen. Damascus is the oldest, continuously
inhabited city in the Middle East.
It has never been destroyed like Jerusalem, Jericho, Babylon and Istanbul
have been. But according to the
Bible, (Isaiah 17) some time in the future, in the span of one evening, Damascus
will cease to exist. This should
cause great conviction among our leaders and among Christians. I don’t know why Damascus is
destroyed. Some have said for
years that Syria will attack Israel with unconventional weapons, and Israel
will respond with a nuclear counter-attack on Damascus. This seems to be one of the scenarios
that Bashar Al-Assad is threatening in response to US action. America does not seem to be considering
this as a possible outcome of an attack, even though Syria has threatened it
for years. If the Bible is true, (and I believe it is)
then we may be running headlong into the specific warnings that God has
provided to us about the Middle East. Events on the ground are pointing to the truth of Biblical
prophecy in many ways. Syria is
one of these ways. This makes me
want to pray for Damascus and for all of my neighbors and friends. The collateral damage in the
destruction of Damascus would not be contained to Damascus. The defensive scenarios of the world
powers will not allow it. It would
quickly lead to the events in Ezekiel 38-39. The bad news is that very old sin has infected the Middle
East. The good news is that we, as
individual sinners have had our sins paid for. This happened once and for all, for any who would confess
their sin to Jesus. Because of my
relationship with Him, I choose to pray for my friends, my neighbors and those
who are affected by the terrible events in Syria. Pray that many more innocent civilians are able to escape,
before too many more days pass. Pray
that peace will come to Damascus and that it will have many more years
ahead. Pray for the safety of the
United States and for Israel. Find
someone here in America, who needs something. Meet their need.
Give freely. Tell them about
the hope you have in Jesus. When
men’s hearts begin to fail because of the things happening in the Earth, they
will remember that you have hope in Christ.
Photography Is Therapy
Everyone has a story to tell. As a counselor I spend a lot of time trying to help people examine their past. My job is to help people. One of the tools that I use is the past. People do the things they do, because of the things they have done. How we remember the past greatly influences our present thoughts and beliefs. I believe that photographs are one of the most overlooked tools for counseling and life in general. People are storytellers by nature. We want people to know where we have been. We want them to know how we feel. Our greatest stories can be written through photographic prints. You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words right? Well the digital age has given us the ability to capture photos in ways we never could have hoped to do just a few years ago. But something changed. We stopped printing our pictures when we started taking photos with digital cameras. We no longer have boxes or albums full of prints. We have old hard drives full of images on old computers. Our computers have been replaced with our tablets. Our cameras have been replaced by our phones. It's really easy to take pictures, but it's a hassle to print them. So we don't. We have become a culture that has forgotten how to write our stories. We capture the story and unknowingly discard it. We are so busy taking pictures with our phones, that we don't really experience that special or important moment. Then we move on, and never really archive that photo. We might go back and look at it again once or twice in the phone or camera, but something will come along that will keep that memory from being transferred to a print. We are witnessing the story, and then forgetting to write it down. Maybe your software update will go wrong and the images will get erased. Maybe your memory card will go bad, or you'll accidentally erase the photos. Maybe your phone will accidentally go swimming.
Did you know that film is almost no longer being made? Photo printing has become so inexpensive, but we only print a small fraction of what we shoot with our cameras. I believe that printing your pictures is something that can help you write your story.
I admit, I am guilty of not printing enough of my own photos. I did professional photography for several years, and I loved to print my own photos. Eventually it became too much like work to print my own photos. It was also pretty pricey to print my own with the extremely nice ink jet printer I had. Today I can get professional prints made for less than twenty cents apiece. I have made a commitment to my family to print more photos, and I have been doing it. I have to say, that it's really cool to see more and more prints on our walls. It makes me remember the great times that we have been having as a family. Now that we have two children, I am very excited. I want them to see visual reminders of their stories hanging on our walls. I want them to see that we choose as a family to visually write our story through photography.
Did you know that film is almost no longer being made? Photo printing has become so inexpensive, but we only print a small fraction of what we shoot with our cameras. I believe that printing your pictures is something that can help you write your story.
I admit, I am guilty of not printing enough of my own photos. I did professional photography for several years, and I loved to print my own photos. Eventually it became too much like work to print my own photos. It was also pretty pricey to print my own with the extremely nice ink jet printer I had. Today I can get professional prints made for less than twenty cents apiece. I have made a commitment to my family to print more photos, and I have been doing it. I have to say, that it's really cool to see more and more prints on our walls. It makes me remember the great times that we have been having as a family. Now that we have two children, I am very excited. I want them to see visual reminders of their stories hanging on our walls. I want them to see that we choose as a family to visually write our story through photography.
Why Men Don't Want to Go To Therapy
Men don’t really do therapy. Many
men have a major issue with therapists. They believe they have to surrender to
the therapist as the first step of therapy. After all, men take a big risk to acknowledge that they
cannot fix what is causing their challenge. We are supposed to be capable of fixing all of our own issues. It’s in the unwritten “man code” after
all. We fix flat tires, we mow the
yard, we figure out how to get where we’re going without stopping to ask for
directions. We even have a habit
of telling our wives how to fix their problems before they ask. Admitting we can’t fix everything is
against the code. By the way, we
are surprised when our wives don’t appreciate us for giving them solutions to the
things they talk about. The idea
of talking and listening as an actual activity instead of a request for help is
foreign to us. We want to offer
solutions to our wives problems.
It’s what we think we are supposed to do. Actually, we are trying to protect you. It’s just against the code to say
it. You might think we’re too
cheesy. Appearing cheesy is
against the code too.
So maybe you have decided you and
your husband need some couples counseling. When you ask your husband if he will go to see a counselor
with you, it’s all about how you present it. He might need to know what’s in it for him. It sounds kind of silly doesn’t it? You see the need. You love your husband, but maybe you
are at a place in your relationship where you want some deeper communication or
intimacy. You are going to need to
spell it out for him. So now I’m
going to tell you everything you need to know about men before going to
therapy. I’m a guy so I’m all
about fixing things too. I’m going
to tell you all you need to know about getting your man ready for therapy. This is relevant, first hand experience
too. Ready? Repeat after me…
When I gave that speech to teenage
girls in therapy it was quite different.
It went like this…
“Boys are dumb.”
All we really need is a reason to
protect you or your honor from some outside force and we will be motivated for
world conquest. Remember how
earlier I said that men think they have to surrender to a therapist in order to
do therapy? When he thinks therapy
is about him, he thinks he has to sacrifice his honor. When it’s about the two of you, it’s
about him protecting your honor if he goes. But your husband may need you to help him see how going to
therapy is about protection.
Therapy is a process, and men have a hard time understanding a process
unless it’s been numbered. This is
why we like negotiating car deals.
When we negotiate a good deal, there is feeling that our honor has been
gratified, and we protected you from a bad car deal.
You might need to help him see the
goal at the end. You may need to
tell him what he gets out of therapy such as, “I know that sexuality in our
relationship is important to you, but lately I feel like you are trying to fix
me. I believe a counselor might be
able to help us reduce our arguments. Since I agreed to give it a try for three months
without therapy, I think starting with a counselor now may give us a better
chance to help things in our love life.
I want to try counseling once a week for three months. If things aren’t better by the end of
the three months, then we will have tried both of our ideas and we can stop. If it is better, then we may have a better
love life, and we can plan how to …(choose your own ending.)
By trying this approach, you will
be claiming the right that you have to an equal vote in your marriage. Plus, in this example you have said that you tried his way
for three months. His way didn’t
fix it when you gave him the opportunity.
He didn’t have a plan. (This is because guys use escape-type coping skills like
sports, video games and extra work in their jobs.) We avoid the problem for as long as possible. We try to keep busy doing other
things. We hope the problem will
go away if we just avoid it altogether.
What you are doing is trying to bring in someone with a plan
to get things back on track. He
will learn when he goes to the first session that the therapist does not want
him to surrender his role as the husband.
He will learn that the therapist actually understands how men work, and
will help him take advantage of his strengths as a man in your particular
relationship and situation. He
will be glad that you are able to see how he is still an honorable man even if
he needs a little help seeing the benefits of therapy.
Splitting
Teenagers have a special gift. They know just what to say to get parents on opposing sides
of an issue. Let’s pretend your
teenaged daughter wants to wear an outfit that her friend loaned her. You being the dad really haven’t paid
much attention to what she was preparing to wear tonight. She gets ready to leave, and you are
involved in something. Maybe
you’re cleaning the kitchen or washing your wife’s car or something. You know you’re always doing productive
things for the family right?
So out comes your daughter and she says, “Bye dad.” You look up and notice that you don’t
recognize those shorts that she’s wearing, and she’s just about to get past
you. You think to yourself, “Man,
those shorts don’t look okay.” What
do you do? Thoughts speed through
your mind like a flash of lightning.
What happened to my little girl?
What would my lovely wife say about those shorts?
My wife would look really good in those shorts.
I wonder what my wife is wearing right now…
Is that a scratch on the car?
I need to finish washing this car so I can go fishing.
What time did my wife say she would be home tonight?
Where are my keys?
You stop. Does
your daughter have your keys? No,
the important thing to stay focused on right now is that your daughter is about
to get away, wearing the most inappropriate shorts, and who’s going to get in
trouble for it when your wife gets home?
You’re daughter? No. You are! Why? You’re
going to get in trouble because you know teenaged boys better than your
daughter does. More specifically,
your daughter is testing your boundaries, and she is attempting to take
advantage of a psychology term called, “Splitting.” This is when your daughter attempts to elevate one parent
while demoting the other parent.
You are demoted by her attempt to avoid you. Your wife is elevated in this example, but your daughter avoids her, because
she knows she wouldn’t be allowed to wear those clothes if mom was there.
Your daughter knows your wife is not home. She knows that you are a softy. She is attempting to split you from
your wife. She knows that she can
take advantage of the fact that her mother is not here to help reinforce the
rules about her dress code. She
assumes that since you are not able to communicate with your wife at this very
moment, she will have the advantage of plausible deniability about her
choices. She knows the rules
regarding her clothes, but she can just say she didn’t know. Since you saw her in her clothes, and
you let her out of the house it must be your responsibility. News flash! It is your responsibility. You have just as much responsibility to point her towards
her behaviors as her mother does.
You also have the added responsibility to remind your daughter that you and your wife are on the same page about everything. (Even if you're not on the same page about everything.)
You also have the fatherly task of assuring that your daughter
understands the role of safety in the outside world. She needs to know that it relates to what
she is wearing too. It may be fine for
someone else’s family to put their daughter out there as an advertisement for a
men’s magazine, but your daughter is a teenager. She does not need a man for a few more years. She needs to understand this concept in a manner that
communicates that she has value as a young woman. The best way for you to do this is to communicate how much
you value her and your own wife.
This is where you tell your daughter that you and your wife
have already discussed the acceptable way to dress with your daughter. You can remind her that she has already
agreed that she will not wear those shorts since they violate the rules for
clothes. Tell her that your love
for her and her mother is what motivates you to tell her to go back inside and
change clothes before she leaves.
Tell her that she can go out with her friends when she demonstrates that
she is going to make better choices with her clothes. Do something, but don’t let her split you from your wife by
letting her leave. You set the
expectation that she can attempt to come between you and your wife in the
future if you just let her go. If she continues this pattern, she may believe that it’s okay to try to continue coming between mom and dad.
The Triangle
I wanted to include a slideshow that demonstrates the Drama Triangle.
The triangle
The triangle
View more PowerPoint from billybarnett01
The Scripts: Bully
The Scripts:
Bully or Persecutor
So have you ever found yourself feeling like a friend or a
loved one was setting you up?
Ever felt like you were going to get in trouble no matter
what kind of response you gave?
Have you ever heard this line, “Does this dress make me look
fat?”
If you say yes, you’re in serious trouble!
What if you say no?
Maybe you’re being truthful…but maybe you’re being set up for a
conflict. The “non-fat” friend of
yours could reply back with something like…well are you saying the other dress
makes me look fat?
It’s a no-win for you isn’t it?
How about this one: “It’s your fault I over drew the checking account! You
said I could buy what I want.”
The language that we use is based on our personality. These are examples of people using the Bully script. It is also called the persecutor or the perpetrator. This is one of the three scripts in the Drama Triangle or the Victim Triangle. The Drama Triangle was a concept put forward by Dr. Stephen Carpman. He viewed personality conflict through a triangle with three different scripts. Each script puts the responsibility for behavior on the other person in the relationship. Not on the one doing the talking.
I remember being in the group home where I worked for two
years as a therapist. I would
constantly watch kids attempting to get out of trouble by blaming other kids or
staff members for the unjust treatment that they thought they were about to
get. It usually came about because
of something they had done wrong, but they were frantically working on a story
that put the responsibility for their behaviors on someone else. Usually they tried to come up with
something they remembered from earlier in the day. They would try to spin the story so that they were the
victim in the situation. The thing that struck me was that fifteen minutes
later they would be staring down some other poor kid, and threatening
unspeakable things they were going to do to them. Where did that poor victim go? It had only been fifteen minutes and they were threatening
to beat up on another kid. They
hadn’t learned anything from the consequence that was used or attempts to make
them feel like less of a victim. (Assuming
they were convincing enough to the staff member involved with them.)
I was introduced to the Victim Triangle through these
episodes. I used this concept in
treatment every day…all day.
Here’s what I would do.
A teenaged child would approach me, usually screaming about
what they were going to do to so and so, if they didn’t start getting some
respect. Usually there would
be some other poor teenager backed into a corner. I would ask them, “I didn’t know you were such a perpetrator
(Or bully)…Is that what you are telling me you want me to believe, or is there
something else you are trying to tell me?
Usually that was enough of a warning about the child’s behavior to get
them to stop for a minute from their tirade. Usually the other kid (or staff member) was even more
intrigued, because few people actually talk in this type of language in their
daily life. Think about it. I’m not saying they are a perpetrator,
or a bully. They approached me and
said they were about to do something painful and bullying to someone else. Their own language already shows their
intended choice through a threat of bodily harm to someone else. I’m just taking them seriously…but I
had already spent time with the same child as they were using the victim
script. I had empathized with them
when they believed they were the victim.
I didn’t necessarily enable that belief. I empathized with them.
Sometimes I reality checked with them about twisted thinking
in the victim script too. But I
empathized with them when they were the victim. I validated their healthy choices, and offered alternative
ways to think for future situations.
The other child always
safely got out of the corner. The
Bully was also able to save face, because I was actually calling them a bully,
which was what they wanted their victim to perceive. But they made the choice to step away from the bully role in
the episode. It also showed the
actual potential victim in the situation how to use de-escalating language in
the moment.
By taking the threatening behavior seriously and telling
them what it is, I give them the opportunity to be responsible for choosing
which role they want to occupy.
They can’t be all three things (Bully, Victim, Rescuer) in the matter of
an hour. They know it’s not
consistent. Over the course of the
relationship with the children, I would spend time empathizing with them,
regardless of what script they used.
They always needed empathy, because they were working on changing
aspects of how they cope with others.
I was challenging how they view the world, and how they believed others
perceived them.
The Scripts
Once you have set up the ten rules in your home you will probably face some setbacks and frustrations. Hopefully you will begin to see some positive results from having a “home base” to parent from. The more you use them, the more you will notice that your language will start to follow a pattern. You may find yourself repeating things. You will develop what is termed a “script.” We will call it a script from here on out.
As you notice yourself practicing the rules, you may realize that your script is less about you or your child. It’s actually about the behavior you are trying to correct. For example, I might say to my little one, “Do we throw our toys?” She would say no.
“What do we do with our toys?” I would ask her.
“We play nicely with our toys.” She would respond.
We’ve practiced this, so she knows she has misbehaved. I’m just giving her the opportunity to be responsible for her behavior and to correct it through her own choice.
If she continues to throw her toy we would send her to time out and talk about the behavior again. But the benefit here is that we did not resort to what would have been my early script without the rules. It would go something like this.
“What are you doing?”
No response.
“Elizabeth!” If you don’t stop that right now, you’re going to get a spanking.
No response.
Elizabeth, if you don’t stop doing that right now, daddy’s going to get mad.
She still continues.
Elizabeth don’t make daddy come over there.
Elizabeth continues…etc etc. Until I follow through and spank her or change to a consequence I am willing to follow through with.
Notice my consequences kept getting less severe. I’m already changing my strategy from cause/effect to trying to appeal to her. I’ve told her she won, and I just want her to change her mind so she can preserve the relationship. I’ve given her the responsibility of parenting because I didn’t do what I said I would do the first time.
I never told her what she needed to stop doing. I didn’t follow through with my pledge to spank her until at least the third or fourth warning. This encourages her to continue to test the limit.
The script is habitual dialogue that I draw upon from the past with my child. Sometimes we take what we hear from our parents and make it snowball in the lives of our children.
The victim triangle, or the drama triangle:
This is an approach to understanding personality dialogue and what’s called the externalization process. It is credited to Dr. Steven Karpman MD. He first devised this model in the 1960’s. He came up with a dramatic script visual called the “victim triangle,” or the “drama triangle.” This is a very helpful tool to understand the way people try to avoid responsibility in their daily interactions.
We are not constant victims of the world. We choose what we do and how we feel.
“You always…” (Always is an absolute term. People are not absolute beings.)
“You never…” (Never is an absolute term.)
“Don’t make me do…” (People can’t really make you do things unless they violate your boundaries, such as a hostage situation).
“You make me feel…” (People can’t make you feel anything unless they are physically harming you).
This is an example of the “victim” script. The example is how our dialogue attempts to make us the victims of the people we are talking with.
“Don’t make me spank you” would be an example of a parent making himself the victim of a noncompliant child. The parent is implying that he is the victim of the child’s spanking. It makes the consequence the problem and not the behavior. This diminishes the cause/effect relationship to the child’s choice to misbehave. It also encourages a later attachment issue between the two. We will discuss these issues in more detail later.
We will discuss the three main scripts and put them in a visual format.
The best way to avoid script language is to focus on the problem, not attacking the person. In our pre-marital counseling, our pastor gave us a communication covenant. One of the best lines in that document was that we would agree to never verbally attack our spouse. We would always discuss the problem as being the problem and not the person as being the problem. This is one of the most important points in counseling all relationship issues. We will continue with the victim triangle and the concept of scripts in our next few blog articles.
Why we have the Ten Rules
So for the last week I’ve been trying to narrow my focus for the “Ten Rules For Your Home” material. I received a few questions from people asking how to get started in coming up with rules. The main concerns were, “How do you keep the leadership role of the father in the home when the teenager is coming up with the rules?” Another question was, “Why do you do time out when it does not seem like it is working?”
These are great questions. When I enter the picture as a counselor, things have usually gotten to the point where the family needs immediate help. They can’t wait three months to see improved behaviors in their child. Usually the school is giving ultimatums to the family about their child’s behavior too. A comforting word from an overly optimistic counselor will not get the school to stop sending home letters about their kid’s bad behavior. There needs to be some sort of plan to get everyone in the child’s life on the same page. This is why I needed something adaptable to the most difficult family situations. Families with less intense issues can always scale back the plan if it is too much.
Working with teenagers can be very frustrating at times. Having the ability to manipulate concepts is a new skill for them. They are sometimes overwhelmed by the new information that they are now capable of understanding, but they do not have all the right places in their mind to store the information from new processing abilities.
I came up with the “Ten Rules” after my two years as a counselor in a Specialized Therapeutic Group Home. I was responsible for the counseling of foster children who needed an extremely high level of supervision. We had a 24-hour staff that was accountable to where the children were at all times. These workers all had differing opinions of how things should be run, but we couldn’t do it a different way for each staff member. Additionally, I learned that the kids would have been very happy for us to try to run the group home eighteen different ways. They could exploit that. That is why we emphasized the concept of “splitting” or divisions. By having a common plan, we were able to keep the children from using the different “parenting” styles of the workers against each other. Sometimes the kids understood it better than the grown ups though.
So when I left the group home I began working with children in an outpatient type setting. They had at least one parent. I realized that these children also had stability issues that I could address by simplifying the structure of the group home. I wanted to also make it a Biblical model, because I am confident in the Bible’s relevance for everyone. I noticed that many of the parents were mad because their kids were “disrespectful.” I asked them to tell me how they will know their kids are being respectful. They would say something like, “He’ll say yes ma’am or no ma’am. He won’t use profanity anymore, or he won’t get into fights at school.”
I would ask those same parents to write those down as rules, and about half the time, they would not write down those rules. Since I had so many kids, and about half of the parents would not work on coming up with rules, I began working on the rules myself with the kids. I would send the kids home with the rules, and many of them would get really excited about their counseling! In turn, their behaviors at home would improve. Imagine how a teenager feels when they are getting into trouble, and they begin to take responsibility for their actions. It is so disappointing when they get home and their parent is not involved in the counseling that they demanded the child receive. The only time I had a hard time with this design was when parents just did not think it was necessary to be involved in participating in the therapy. They would say things like, “Can’t you just get her to do what I say?” Unfortunately, those were the cases where I was least effective in helping the families. The “Ten Rules” is a model designed to help the parents and the child communicate about expectations. This behavior management template also allows the counselor to work on the deeper issues once the clear expectations are set at home. Many times it even improved marriage conflict, because it gives the parents an opportunity to parent from the same set of expectations. In time the “Ten Rules” get replaced with the language that the parents learn to use in the moment. In essence, it teaches the parents how to step outside of the issues they inherited from their own development, and to parent from a Biblical model, instead of an inherited wound of the heart from their own parents.
The Ten Rules For Your Home
Here is the slide presentation from last night's Empowered Parents at FBC Oviedo. Hopefully all who attended were able to benefit from the presentation. I'm putting it here so you can go back and review it.