Dear Counseling Colleagues, This month, Counseling Today includes a cover story on death, dying and grief counseling — topics that can be difficult to reflect on and discuss. However, counselors have learned to embrace what is, hope for what can be, and the deep and consistent resilience that can emerge
Category: Counseling Today
Anger is sometimes an important emotion because it results in taking action to protect yourself and your family, friends, students or clients. For example, anger over some policy or act of evil can bring people together to make changes in society or local communities that result in a safe and caring
Counseling is not a profession that has a knowledge ceiling. We are always working diligently to grow our knowledge so that we can be more efficacious for our clients. All too often, however, counselors may find themselves studying the same general areas: their chosen theoretical orientations, research studies on their
U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. was preaching to the choir at last week’s Reach Higher Convening when he said school counselors could make a powerful and long-term impact on the lives of students. “I am here because of the difference educators made for me. I know you
The concept of wellness can be found across history, from ancient civilizations through the foundational tenets and ethical codes of contemporary counseling and allied mental health and medical disciplines. Counseling professionals in particular have embraced a holistic, wellness-oriented approach that contrasts with traditional medical/illness models, and many of our theoretical
During the time that Kerin Groves spent by her dying client’s hospital bed, she could tell that he felt conflicted. “I sensed he kept hanging on because his adult children were unable to cope with him dying,” she recalls. “The son kept urging him to fight and get better, even
If this fall’s presidential debates have left you feeling angry or dejected and the thought of finding out election results state by state on the evening of Nov. 8 makes you break out in a cold sweat, you are not alone. More than half of U.S. adults who took a
For many years, mental health practitioners labored under the assumption that grief was a relatively short-lived process that people navigated in an orderly and predictable fashion until they reached “closure” — the point at which the bereaved would move on and put the person they had been grieving in the
As a guy who doesn’t even use a cellphone, I’m not exactly what many would consider a technology wizard. Still, I make sure to maintain an updated and functioning website and a viable and active social media presence for the charity that I direct. This has helped us not only
Picture this scenario: You’re a counselor in private practice and a potential client contacts you via the email address listed on your practice website. The emailer expresses interest in attending marriage counseling with his wife, then goes into detail about the specifics of his situation and the struggles he and