Overcoming Hoarding Behaviors through Empathetic, Humane, and Ethical Methods w/ Elaine Birchall [Episode 50]

Paul Krauss MA LPC interviews Hoarding Behavior Expert, Author, Consultant and Therapist Elaine Birchall, MSW, about her work helping people all over the globe be able to overcome hoarding behaviors. If you are interested in or impact by hoarding, this is not a conversation you will want to miss!

Elaine Birchall, MSW, is a hoarding behavior and intervention specialist and coauthor of Conquer the Clutter: Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding (with Suzanne Cronkwright). Elaine helps to demystify and de-stigmatize hoarding. Elaine discusses the latest research on and strategies for treating hoarding disorder, shares real cases mined from her 18 years in the field, and offers tools to help clinicians assess where their clients may fall on the hoarding spectrum.
 
More than 19 million Americans hoard, many more are impacted. Hoarding comes with enormous costs to relationships, time, focus, peace of mind, and self-respect. It devastates relationships and it harms the emotional health of the children involved. Hoarding can also become a legal, personal, and public health and safety issue. Without hoarding-informed supportive interventions, people who hoard will continue to experience further deterioration in their mental health and in their living conditions.
 
More about Elaine Birchall:
• Director of Birchall Consulting & founder of the Canadian National Hoarding Coalition
• Helps individuals with hoarding disorder to understand and change their relationship to things—and to clean up their environment
• Trains mental health professionals across North America on how to treat folks who hoard and counsel family members impacted

You can take a quiz to find out if Hoarding is impacting your life here:

https://hoarding.ca/hoarding-quiz/

Paul Krauss MA LPC is the Clinical Director of Health for Life Grand Rapids, home of The Trauma-Informed Counseling Center of Grand Rapids. Paul is also a Private Practice Psychotherapist, EMDRIA Consultant in Training (CIT), host of the Intentional Clinician podcast, Behavioral Health Consultant, Clinical Trainer, and Counseling Supervisor. Paul is now offering consulting for a few individuals and organizations. Paul is the creator of the National Violence Prevention Hotline (in progress)  as well as the Intentional Clinician Training Program for Counselors. Questions? Call the office at 616-200-4433. 

If you are looking for EMDRIA consulting groups, Paul Krauss MA LPC is now hosting weekly online and in-person groups.  For details, click here.

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Original Music:

”Shades of Currency" [Instrumental] from Archetypes by PAWL (Spotify)

“Riot on an Empty Street” from Declaration of Dependence by Kings of Convenience (Spotify)

Resources:

Michigan Mental Health Counselors Association is working to increase the availability of quality mental health services statewide, increasing education, promoting best practices, and working to keep Licensed Professional Counselors and other professionals accessible by the public.