Advanced Training Quiz A

Answer the follwoing questions after reading  I, Mammal: How to Make Peace with the Animal Urge for Social Power and The Nature of Hierarchy (scroll slider down), and watching Attenborough’s Life of Mammals Episode 9 – The Social Climbers  and watch Monkey Kingdom

Email your short answers to [email protected]

Each of the questions is framed in terms of an imagined client, but you could think in terms of anyone you might be teaching or counseling in addition to a client in a clinical setting.

 

1. Imagine you have a client seeking help for anxiety. You learn that they were recently demoted at work. They are still doing the same work for the same money, but now they report to someone lower in the hierarchy. They say this doesn’t bother them, and you explain the mammal brain’s response to status. They vehemently insist that they don’t care about such things. What would you say to them?

2. Imagine a client who has begun attending yoga classes and reports extreme frustration. You explain the brain’s natural impulse for social comparison. They insist that they are only focused on their own enlightenment and do not compare themselves to others. How would you help this person?

3. Imagine a client who is distressed about a social disappointment experienced by their child. You explain the mammal brain’s sense of urgency about reproductive success. They respond with detailed speeches about the specialnessof their child and the unfairness of their child’s school and community. They insist that they don’t care at all about success. What advice do you have for this family?

4. You attend a social event that celebrates other people’s achievements. You are truly happy for them because you are a good person. But as you try to fall asleep that night, you find yourself curiously tense. The next day, you feel a loss of enthusiasm for what you are doing, and you are surprised when this feeling lingers for days. How can you get back on track?