Dr Paul Jenkins

Oct 11

Perception of Mental Health in America

By DrPaul M-Power

One of our coaches passed along an article that shows 90% of Americans believe there is a mental health crisis in the United States. Being a psychologist, I read about and talk to others in the field about mental health so it is on the forefront of my mind. With 9 out of 10 saying they believe there is a crisis, it shows they have been thinking about mental health also. This survey was not a study of records, it is about the perception of mental health. About half of those polled said that someone in their family or someone they knew had experienced a severe mental health crisis and were a threat to themselves or others or engaged in self-harm. We know that the recent pandemic probably made mental health for some worse, but it may have helped awareness rise. The number of people seeking help for mental health related issues has increased

Oct 25

Love0

Is Group Coaching For Me?

By DrPaul M-Power

I was trained as a traditional psychologist, so I practiced like one. My patients were taught how to be a patient so they made an appointment, showed up, we talked for 50 minutes and they made another appointment on the way out. What I have discovered is that there are other ways to be a psychologist. I made a huge change when I stopped taking insurance, labeling people with a diagnosis and being told when it was time to end their care. I was frustrated. And so I acted more like a coach and my patients became clients. I began to see people achieve more, take control and experience happiness. Over the years the business model has been changing and continues to change. And I have found that Group Coaching is really effective. I kind of already knew that having run youth and prison groups, but the benefits are much

Dec 11

Love0

Time To Celebrate Festivus

By DrPaul M-Power

In a Tough Year, There Might Be More Reason to Celebrate This Holiday Than You Know Event after event has been cancelled in 2020 and we could use a reason to celebrate. How about Festivus? Why not? It’s as good as any other reason. If you aren’t familiar with Festivus, is was made popular by an episode of the TV show, Seinfeld, written by Dan O’Keefe. Dan’s father, Daniel O’Keefe was doing research for a book in 1966, and found a reference to a little known holiday called Festivus. He chose to celebrate it on December 23rd as this is the anniversary of his first date with his wife. Before you go all, “Ahhh,” and think it was soooo romantic, the symbol of Festivus is an aluminum pole. That’s right, no golden rings, no aromatic tree or lighted candles. And the celebration starts after a dinner of meatloaf. Following dinner

Dec 09

Love0

2020: A Holiday Experiment

By DrPaul M-Power

In year’s past, many people at this time of year would begin complaining about the stress of the holidays. There are Christmas parties to plan and attend. And, what am I going to wear, add shopping at the mall for new clothes. There are cookies to bake for the neighborhood exchange. There are appointments to make for Santa pictures. There are Holiday concerts to attend. And all the in-laws are coming into town this year. Wait, none of that is happening. Or very little. If you choose, there are still cards to send, gifts to give, lights to put up, homes to decorate. Or not. This year we have a chance to make our holidays less stressful, without looking like the Grinch. What if instead of mourning all the things we can’t do this Christmas or Holiday Season, we viewed it as an opportunity to conduct an experiment? A Christmas

Oct 15

Love0

Why Am I So Grouchy?

By DrPaul M-Power

Who are some of your favorite grouches? Oscar the Grouch? Archie Bunker? Eeyore? Sheldon Cooper? Maxine? Scrooge? The Grinch? Frank Costanza? You? Ouch, I hope the last one doesn’t ring true, but I get asked all the time, how do I stop being angry all the time? Anger is a secondary emotion. It usually follows another emotion like frustration or disappointment. So then, why do we switch to anger? Because anger is an active emotion. We know what to do with anger. You know how to throw your arms up the air. You know how to mean mug. You know the body language. You know how to YELL. You know how to strike out. It isn’t as obvious as what to do with sadness or loss. That emotion is not as active. We sulk, we cry, we sit. See, not as much expression and why we use the secondary emotion

Oct 01

Love0

Lessons from Oatmeal and ABC’s

By DrPaul M-Power

I was watching some preschoolers play the other day and I think there are a few lessons we can learn from them on how to adult. When I first started watching them, the teacher had directed them to a discovery center and she had put alphabet letters in some oatmeal (dry, not cooked). The kids had scoops and as they scooped, they discovered there were some letters in the oatmeal. They were then to find the letter on the alphabet strip next to the discovery center and put the letter there. The kids did this for a while and found most of the letters, but not all. Then they took some cars that were near the center and began running their cars in the oatmeal and making up all sorts of scenarios and knocking into one another, and driving on again. I thought about the kids and how they readily

Sep 14

Love0

How to Make Up Your Mind: Try Some Stuff???

By DrPaul M-Power

Let’s start with what gets in the way of making up our mind about something. Usually we create some kind of pressure or expectation that we have to get it right, That expectation creates a fear that we may get it wrong and who wants to be wrong? And so, we do not make a decision at all. Brett Harward is a friend of mine and the author of the 5 Laws That Determine All Of Life’s Outcomes. Brett talks about the law of frequency. And my understanding of that comes from an example that Brett shared with me. If you can imagine having a nice little paper bag, and I put in 20 $1.00 bills. Then I add 15 $5.00 bills. Then I add 10 $20.00 bills and 5 $50.00 bills. To top it off, I put in 1 $100.00 bill. Now, which one of the bills do you want?

Aug 04

Love0

How To Reduce Children’s Stress and Frustration

By DrPaul M-Power

Stress, and frustration usually come up, because we feel that things are not the way they should be. Sound familiar anyone? This triggers an emotional response for us as parents when we think things are not how they should be. This happens to our children also. If we see our kids stressed out or getting frustrated, the biggest help we can give them is to take a step back and keep ourselves calm. If our children are frustrated and we become frustrated, we aren’t helping. Take a deep breath and kind of detach for a moment. Check your face. Check your posture, your body language. Check your voice. Maintaining a calm voice, face, and body will show our children how we act when we think things are not the way they should be. Your amazing imagination has the capability of dreaming up scenarios that are either better or worse than

May 12

Love0

5 Effects Of Bad Parenting

By DrPaul M-Power

As a psychologist, I have seen some of the effects of bad parenting. Having said that, before I get into the top 5, it’s a relief to know that most of these things can be fixed. Especially if we jump on it quickly and early. The first thing that came to my mind is one of the effects of bad parenting is the endangerment of children. I’m thinking about a video that we’ve probably all seen, Home Alone. The parents somehow forgot and left one of their children home alone. Macaulay Culkin plays the child, who at first was a little tipped over but then starts to enjoy himself. Endangerment is one of the issues we need to look out for and especially when it comes to abuse. There is no excuse for the abuse of children. And that’s not what this particular video is about. But that’s one of

May 11

Love0

The Best Way For KIDS To Totally MANIPULATE Their Parents

By DrPaul M-Power

One of our younger viewers on our YouTube Channel asked, “Dr. Paul, can you tell us the best way to totally manipulate our parents?” And I can. Parents, before you run screaming away, stick with me because I think you are going to like the final answer. Let’s explore a few options first. Maybe, the best way for you to totally manipulate your parents is to just tell them what they want to hear. You know what they want to hear. So, just tell them that. Vicki, you are a mom. Can you tell if they’re doing that? Vicki: Usually I can tell right away. Paul: Can you tell if they’re doing that as a parent? Yeah, you can. It stinks a little. I mean you can kind of smell it. You can see it coming. Tell them what they want to hear. Vicki: No. That’s not it. Paul: Well

Contact Dr. Paul