{"id":5592,"date":"2023-02-20T15:54:18","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T15:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/?p=5592"},"modified":"2023-02-21T21:06:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T21:06:54","slug":"legos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/blog\/legos\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Lessons and Legos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By: Deborah Johnson<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
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In recent sessions with clients ranging from the ages of 5 to 16, I utilized the Legos that were donated from United Way of Orange County to illustrate a lesson about life.\u00a0 Each of the clients have a different story that has impacted their life that range from abuse, abandonment, or suffering the consequences of negative parental choices and the lesson about life is the same.\u00a0 Even though the clients carefully constructed their models and put thought into the color patterns,\u00a0 they often found that the structure would suddenly break or fall apart.\u00a0 They would fix one part of the structure, only to see another part of the structure fall apart.\u00a0 Some clients demonstrated frustration with the Legos and one little five-year-old client wanted to just quit after her structure fell apart several times.\u00a0 However, with encouragement to pursue her goal, she was able to create the camera that she intended to make from the beginning.\u00a0 The final product was not the same as she originally imagined, but she was proud of what she created.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
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In life, we need strong social supports, but we also have to be willing to accept the help.<\/div>\n
As life-long learners, we discover that it is important to learn from our mistakes or from adversities, and not give up.<\/div>\n
To be successful in our life journey, we accept that bad things happen, but are committed to pursuing the goals that we value.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
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One eight-year-old client summed up the building process with Legos in this way, \"You have to build your structure on a firm foundation, the foundation is the key.\"\u00a0 As an individual who had not used these types of Legos in the past,\u00a0 this client showed me how to build a stronger base so that my tower would not break.\u00a0 We identified how life is similar to Legos in that respect.\u00a0 If individuals develop effective coping skills for dealing with anger, adversity, grief, anxiety, etc. they learn how to build an effective and supportive foundation for regulating their emotions.\u00a0 In life, it appears that things may be falling apart much like the Lego structures.\u00a0 We might get frustrated, angry, and at times, just throw up our hands and say, \"I quit!\" Many clients have identified with the concepts of the acceptance and commitment theory in that they identify the need to solve the problem rather than running away or avoiding the problem.\u00a0 Individuals engaging in self-directed learning through a strong therapeutic alliance with their counselor have discovered that running away from any problem only increases the distance from the solution.<\/div>\n
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Another client remarked that she started off wanting to build a structure that was totally different from the one that she ended up with in the end.\u00a0 In life, many times we seek \"perfection;\" which results in creating stress, anxiety, and even self-doubt in our own capabilities of being successful.\u00a0 Rather than striving to be perfect,\u00a0 individuals with strong coping skills have learned to strive for excellence - doing the best they can with skills and talents that make them unique.\u00a0 Rather than comparing one structure to another one, the clients created a structure that was unique.\u00a0 We talked about how comparing ourselves to others also leads to self-shaming and automatic negative thoughts that start a vicious cycle of negative feelings and negative actions.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
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Thank you to the United Way of Orange County for the Legos so that these young clients who have endured many adversities in their lives could have a visual lesson on life - a life lesson from the perspective of Legos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Debbie Johnson, MEd.<\/strong><\/a>, is Samaritan Counseling Center\u2019s Clinical Director. She earned her Bachelor\u2019s in Elementary Education from Southwest Texas State in San Marcos (renamed Texas State University in 2003) and her Master\u2019s in Educational Leadership, Special Education, and Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lamar University. Her 37 years in public education has spanned from being an elementary school teacher, educational diagnostician, school counselor, and a special education\/ Licensed Professional Counselor. With over 13 years of experience in the field of counseling, she has mentored counselors-in-training and focused upon meeting the mental health needs of children and adolescents. When she isn\u2019t working, she loves to spend time with her family and friends in addition to running\/walking. Debbie is dedicated in helping others to disover and re-discover their purpose in life as they face challenges in their life journey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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By: Deborah Johnson In recent sessions with clients ranging from the ages of 5 to 16, I utilized the Legos that were donated from United Way of Orange County to illustrate a lesson about life.\u00a0 Each of the clients have a different story that has impacted their life that range from abuse, abandonment, or suffering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5592"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5740,"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions\/5740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sccset.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}