A school counselor’s graduate degree and academic training serve only as a base for the continuous learning that happens on the job — in classrooms, via interactions with students, via collaboration with colleagues, and through professional development.
Category: Online Exclusives
“I don’t know about you, but I want to have greater ownership over my calendar rather than allowing my calendar to have ownership over me.”
To work with immigrant and refugee populations more effectively, it is important to understand that discussing political issues with these clients can have a positive impact in their lives.
Keynote speaker Cynthia Germanotta tells ACA Conference attendees that today’s youth value mental health but don’t know where to turn for help.
We pride ourselves on cultural diversity as counselors, but I’m not confident that the blinders we wear allow us to really see how much we don’t see.
“Wellness counseling is client-centered [because] you are offering the client new ways of understanding and experiencing themselves and new avenues for goal achievement.”
“As adults who care about and work with young people, counselors can and do help young people understand how to be kind to themselves, how to cope with the challenges that life will throw their way, and how to take care of their own well-being while they’re busy changing the world.”
It is imperative to make time for silence in our noisy lives. Modern-day living is accompanied by a cacophony of external noise and internal concerns. Our bodies and minds cannot sustain the ongoing level of stimulation without disease or disorder.
Art therapy is one of four hours out of the week in which these clients are let out of their cells. How then does a clinician establish boundaries and a contained, safe therapeutic environment in a context defined by walls, chains and fences? Walk beside and begin with the art.
“Knowing our defects and failings as counselors, many of us struggle to live with ourselves, just like our clients do. I suppose what I’m hoping is that you too can find a place where you are OK with the end, no matter how many years away that might be. That strength is the firm foundation we need to manage the curveballs that life throws at us, thus making us better helpers for our clients.”