Nose-Rings and Bellybutton Things: Next Generation - Book

NOSE RINGS AND BELLYBUTTON THINGS
Counseling the NeXt Generation

Professional Resource - Paperback - 6 CE Credits Available*

Who Are These New Clients?

Today's clients truly are different than yesterday's, and these real generational differences do heavily impact the therapeutic process.

Whether you're a younger therapist working with older clients, or an older counselor working with younger clients, this book offers insight and answers to make your job easier, and will likely make you chuckle once or twice along the way, too.

- Understand specific generational differences and how they affect interactions with your clients.
- Learn intervention ideas to build trust, increase motivation and reduce confrontations.
- Develop targeted strategies for facilitating effective brief therapeutic encounters.

Table of Contents

Eminem, Sing for the Moment  ---------------   1

Introduction  -----------------------------------  3

1  Generational Differences Do Exist --------   5
 
2  Five Generations  --------------------------  15

Blink 182, Stay Together for the Kids -------- 20

Pink, Family Portrait  -------------------------  22

Time Magazine Cover, 1997  ----------------  27

Beloit College Mindset List, 2006 ------------  29

Beloit College Mindset List, 2007  -----------  34
 
3  People, Places and Things of Influence --- 41

Chart 1, Influential People  ------------------- 43
 
Chart 2, Influential Events  ------------------- 48

Chart 3, Values, Attitudes & Beliefs ---------- 52

Strength From Within ------------------------- 57
Presenting Problems -------------------------- 65
Cross-Cultural Counseling Skills ------------- 75
Interventions ---------------------------------- 89
Conclusion ------------------------------------ 105
Appendix -------------------------------------- 107
CEU Approvals -------------------------------- 110
CEU Credit Quiz ------------------------------- 111

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps my broad professional experiences have spawned my deep interest in the subject of cross-generational counseling. Or, possibly it stems from my profound awareness of the vast generational differences between my personal family experiences and those of my Mother and Grandmother, concerning their most impress-ionable years. 
 
For many, counseling is a second profession, begun in the middle or later years of life. It was my first. Consequently, after Graduate school I began my career as an eager young counselor working with older clients. Over the years the situation has evolved, and I’m now an older counselor working with younger clients.
 
Naturally, my personal values, attitudes, experiences, strengths, and even my problems have been shaped, in part, by my life long cross-generational experiences. I was raised in a family laden with traditional nuclear family values, passed on from the Builders (my grandparents) to the Boomers (my parents). As a typical X-Generation child, I experienced the modern adjustments of divorce, a dual-career blended family, and being responsible for a latchkey to let myself in the house after school. 
 
Whatever the instigating factors, by exploring my interests I’ve uncovered valuable information and gleaned powerful insight that has truly made interactions with my clients far more productive and meaningful, and I’d like to share them with you.
 
I believe this material is essential reading for all practicing professionals. While the context will focus more on older counselors working with younger clients, as we talk about intergenerational counseling skills and strategies for impacting clients whose generational experiences are different than ours, we need to recognize that these ideas cut both ways. Whether you are an older counselor working with younger clients, or a younger counselor working with older clients, you should find this text not only interesting and entertaining, but also practical and useful. 

Enjoy!

~ Richard K. Nongard, LMFT, CCH, CPFT

EXCERPT:

CHAPTER 1

Generational Differences DO EXIST

Demographers define the five current living generations as:

The GI Generation  1901-1924
The Builder Generation 1925-1942
The Baby Boomer Generation 1943-1962
The Generation X’ers  1963-1981
The Millennial Generation 1982-2001

What’s the difference between a Builder and an X’er?
 
It’s all a matter of perspective...
 
If there is anyone I know who most closely resembles the story of the man who “walked nine miles to school in the snow, barefoot, uphill, in the winter”, it would be my neighbor down the street, Ned. Ned was born in 1928 and is, in my opinion, the quintessential Builder. Born just shortly before the Great Depression, he grew up on the family farm in Northern Wisconsin. When he was five, his mother passed away  during childbirth. His father, who did odd jobs and owned a tavern, died when Ned was in his late teens. From this point on, his oldest sister, Aunt Leona, raised the five siblings on the family farm.
 
Like so many members of his generation, Ned joined the military when he turned 18. He served his country proudly and attended college on the GI Bill. He also tended bar through college at his fathers tavern, to help pay for his education. 
 
Because of his generational experiences, Ned acts in certain ways that I feel epitomize The Builder. Let’s say it’s a Friday night, and Ned is going out for a big time on the town with his wife. Before he leaves the house, he will go through each and every room turning off all the lights and electrical appliances, making sure that no electricity is wasted while he is gone. He’ll turn off the TV set. He’ll turn of the radio. He’ll check and double check to make sure nothing unnecessary is turned on or plugged in, and that the windows and drapes are tightly closed. And then, after re-checking the locks on every window and door (because alarm systems use too much electricity), he will leave for the evening.
 
Ned is so compulsive about electricity that to this day, if his granddaughter comes to visit and goes into a room without turning off the light in the room she just left, he will yell down the hall for her to go back and flip the switch.
 
Ned’s granddaughter and I think Ned’s behavior is a little bit odd.
 
But, is Ned eccentric or even obsessive-compulsive?  No. This is simply the only way he has ever known. As a child growing up through the Great Depression, his family economic experiences were typical of that generation. He was raised with core survival values of thrift and conservation. Back then, every penny did count.
 
My life experiences are obviously quite different from Ned’s. I think Ned’s behavior is odd not because I’m opposed to thrift or against conservation, but because from my perspective, there are more important things in life to worry about than a few watts of electricity, especially on a Friday night when you’re headed out on the town. 
 
When I’m headed out for the evening, I walk around the house and turn on the TV’s, and I turn the volume up. I’ll turn on the clock radio that sits next to my bed. I’ll turn a couple lights on in the kitchen. I make sure that my son’s bedroom, which has a window at the front of the house, has a light on. Sometimes I’ll even take one of the kid’s bicycles from the garage and put on the front porch.
 
When I was growing up, if we ever left our bicycles on the lawn or in the driveway we got in a lot of trouble, because someone might steal our valuable bicycle. But today, when I leave home for the weekend or even just for the evening, I leave a bicycle or a scooter in the front yard.
 
Ned, by the way, thinks my behavior is odd. 
 
The truth is that neither of our behaviors are overly strange. Our conduct, though opposite in nature, comes from each of our generational experiences.
 
Unlike Ned’s Depression era childhood, I grew up in a family with financial security at a time of national economic prosperity — and crime. Although I can appreciate thrift and conservation, safety over frugality is one of my most important values. 
 
The reason I leave my lights on, turn the volume up and drag a bike into my front yard is simple: I don’t want my house to look as if no one is home when I’m not there.
 
I think Ned’s behavior of turning everything off is asking for trouble. If I were a bandit driving around the neighborhood looking for an empty house to rob, I would identify his house immediately. But if I were a bad guy driving through my neighborhood, and I saw a kid’s bicycle in the front yard, and the front bedroom light on, and heard the TV set through the door, I would probably bypass a house like mine and aim for an easier target. 

ADD/ADHD
 A Prime Example of the Generation Gap

 Our generational experiences often dictate our values and attitudes, which translate into specific behaviors. Parents and anyone in a counseling setting knows that these specific behaviors can sometimes be remarkably disruptive or traumatic.

*OPTIONAL CE CREDIT:

We offer a 6-Credit Hour Online CE Course based on this textbook, and therefore you can read this book, then take the Evaluation of Learning Quiz and receive a CE Certificate. The fee for receiving the CEUs is $89 (the same as taking the Online Course).

This book's contents and the equivalent CE-CEU-CNE course is appropriate for all mental health professional counseling counselors (LPC, LCPC, LPCC, MHC, RMHC, NCC), marriage and family therapy therapists (MFT, LMFT, RMFT), social work social workers (SW, LCSW, LMSW, SWA, LICSW), psychologists, psychology associates (LPA), chemical dependency substance abuse counselors (LCDC, CADC, CAD, DAC, CAAD, CSAC), and nursing registered nurses (RN, LPN, LVN), and related behavioral health professionals.