Roy Huggins, MS NCC

I’m happy to announce that my esteemed colleague Michele Pearce and I will be holding a free workshop for people returned from Japan and still struggling with reverse culture shock and other re-entry issues. We’ll talk about the phases of re-entry, help each other make sense of this crazy world called America, and enjoy senbei (rice crackers) and green tea.

Michele and I are both JET Programme alumni and we set up the workshop with recently returned JET colleagues in mind, but we realized there’s no reason why it has to be limited to them. So if you’re missing your host culture or are just trying to make sense of a world without 100-yen shops and karaoke, come on out.

Here’s the details:

When: November 20th, 3:00pm-5:00pm
Where: 5932 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR

Please RSVP at info@portland-counseling-therapy.com if you plan to attend. 宜しくお願いします！

I am proud to say that last week I completed the first run of my web presence creation course that’s just for therapists. It was an even bigger success than I hoped for! So, of course, I’m going to do it again. Here’s the press release:

–

On September 12th I’ll be starting the second section of my Web Presence Creation Class for Therapists. It’s a 6-week — 1 90-minute class per week — course wherein attendees build their practice websites from the ground up, learning to maintain, expand and promote them in the process. You’ll also get the materials you need to repeat the process and make other websites in the future.

The next course will cost a total of $210, which is much less than hiring a professional web developer or designer. Also, to reference the old proverb, you’ll learn to catch fish rather than having me hand you one. Future runs of the course will likely cost a little more, as I consider this next one to be “beta-testing.” (The first one was “alpha-testing.”) The class limit is 5 people.

The first section of the class was a big success and I look forward to doing it again. I’ve even already received a rave review, from Paul Rakoczy, LCSW:

“This web designing and creation class surpassed my expectations exponentially. Roy is knowledgeable and able to teach a technically challenged therapist like myself, with patience but also with focus towards success. I love my new website.”

Here’s the link for reading more about the class: Web Presence Creation Class for Therapists.

If you can’t make the next section but are at all interested in the course, please feel free to contact me and let me know. I’ll do more sections in the future. I’m really interested in using this as an opportunity to connect with more of the therapists in the Portland community and to help raise the overall tech knowledge and presence of our profession here.

About me: I was a professional web developer for 7 years before I figured out what my real calling was. Now I am in private practice in NE Portland, and I serve as Webmaster for the Oregon Mental Health Counselors Association and teach this class.

I’ve been reading Mindfulness in Plain English this last week, and I’ve found it has improved my efforts to get meditating. The book teaches about a style of meditation in which you sit with eyes closed and focus your attention on your breath. In the last few sessions, I’ve noticed some interesting things:

1) Sounds seem clearly louder or quieter depending on my awareness. I play some white noise when I meditate, and the volume seems completely different depending on how focused I am. In fact, many times in a session the sound will seem to start fading out but then come back the instant I notice the phantom fade out.

2) I feel a kind of head rush when my attention shifts significantly. I don’t feel lightheaded, but I do feel something happening like a head rush without the alarming bits. This occurs when I’ve been distracted or faded out for a while and then manage to regain focus on my breath. I think I breathe shallowly when I’m distracted.

3) 10 or more minutes of meditation calms even a caffeine rush. Before my last session I had clearly drunk too much coffee. After I meditated, I felt none of that caffeine jumpiness. Oddly enough, I wasn’t aware of the calmness until I finished.

I’m sitting at the Panera cafe next to Trader Joe’s in Hollywood. Apparently, 5 months ago they became a non-profit “community cafe.” Everyone pays what they can, and people in need can get fresh baked goods and coffee for free or cheap.

I wish I didn’t need to keep my carbs down or I’d eat here all the time. This is one of 3 Panera locations doing this, according to the staff. And people can volunteer 1 hour of work in exchange for a meal. Go check ‘em out and support this great idea!

In the US right now, there’s a big debate about civil rights for gay people, and especially the right to legally marry the person you love and want to partner with. I’ve often felt there isn’t much I can do to help except be supportive and vote with respect for others. I’ve been thinking for a long time, though, that I should probably be more vocal. With that in mind, I want to say out loud (“type out loud”?) that I not only support legal marriage for same-sex couples but I also personally recognize any couple that has undergone a marriage ceremony as spouses, even if the state of Oregon doesn’t.

It may seem odd for me to post this on my counseling practice blog. However, the tagline for my practice is “Respect and Care-Oriented Counseling,” and that has meaning to me. To me, respect means recognizing and appreciating everyone for who they are. Sometimes that’s a challenge, because it requires learning about things I don’t understand and am nervous to approach. I believe it’s always fruitful to step up to that challenge, though.

I should say that I don’t have any special training or experience working with same-sex couples. The point of this post is to show my support for a discrimination-free society and to talk about what I’m about. We all better our community in our own small ways, and I’m sure that every person who speaks out in support of equal rights for all people helps our society and culture improve.

Many years ago when my state, Oregon, voted to ban same-sex marriages, I saw real couples who love each other lose a lot of faith in their culture. I thought to make a website gathering signatures from people who personally recognize those marriages. For whatever reason, I didn’t actually do it.

Recently I was inspired by the plight of Henry Valendia and his husband Josh (legally married in Connecticut) fighting to keep Henry in the US, and also George Takei’s wonderful It’s Okay to be Takei campaign. Those were finally enough for me to at least do something, and write this blog post.

So once again, I’ll say that I recognize same-sex marriages, even if the state won’t. In my office I welcome pairs of husbands and pairs of wives. I’m sure many of my colleagues and fellow Allies feel similarly, too. Thanks for reading.

After nine months of being back in the US, I’m happy to say that I’ll be going back to doing counseling with English-speakers in Japan. This time, I’ll be working via Skype, and I’ve set up a website to support that part of my practice: www.alljapancounseling.com.

The timezone difference will pose a challenge, but I’ve been working hard on figuring out a schedule that should work on both sides. I was considering doing sessions at 2am my time (6pm in Japan), but my doctor convinced me otherwise. It’s good to have people looking out for you.

I’m also searching for as many local mental health resources as I can in Japan. Doing this kind of work requires performing a lot of networking to make sure clients are supported locally when they need it. Mark Holloway of the wonderful Health Hokkaido continues to be supportive, as have been many others. If you are in Japanese mental health or know someone who is, I’d love to hear from you or them.  宜しくお願いします！Thanks very much!

I’m seeking your ideas and suggestions to compile a resource for unemployed, underemployed and chronically ill people who want piecemeal work — non-regular work that workers can take as they go when the time works for them.

This could help un/deremployed folks make ends meet while they seek regular employment or job advancement.

This would also benefit people who have an illness that gives them normal-functioning “good days” and low-functioning “bad days.” Such people could really use work that they can selectively pick up when they have good days.

Any ideas or leads are warmly welcomed. Internet-based stuff is great but I also hope to get information on “real life” work. I’d like to make a list of ideas and specific possibilities for publication on my website, so anyone can come take a look and see what they can find.

If you’re not sure you know of anything or if you need more of an idea of what I’m talking about, read on.
Read the rest of this entry »