Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has come under intense scrutiny from Congress (as well as the American Counseling Association) for failing to institute steps that would improve mental health access for veterans. One such step would be to hire counselors as mental health clinicians within veterans hospitals, facilities
Month: May 2012
According to research from the University of Warwick, people often misjudge the severity of their depression and anxiety by trying to “rank” their struggles in relation to those of friends, family and the rest of the world. This is cause for concern because these comparisons can lead to missed or false
Transitional events ranging in severity from abuse to changing schools can trigger eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, according to recent research from the University of Minnesota. The researchers spoke with 27 participants – 26 women and one man – between the ages of 17 and 64 who were receiving
Obese women are more likely to be discriminated against when applying for jobs and receive lower wages than their thinner counterparts, suggests new research published in the International Journal of Obesity. The study used the universal measure of bias (UMB), which measures anti-fat prejudice, to see if it could predict job
New research from Vanderbilt University suggests that how hardworking a person is might depend on which area of the brain the neurotransmitter dopamine is concentrated. “Past studies in rats have shown that dopamine is crucial for reward motivation,” said researcher Michael Treadway, “but this study provides new information about how
American Counseling Association President Don W. Locke has sent a letter providing feedback on the draft revision of the ASCA National Model. Based on input from the ACA School Counseling Task Force, the letter praises the model for advancing school counseling but disagrees with its tenet that providing individual counseling
African Americans are a complex cultural group. Although considered to be one culture, many cultural differences exist within this group. That same statement could be applied to any culture, but it is African Americans who have one of the most historically oppressive pasts and who continue to face numerous microaggressions along
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity now affects 17 percent of U.S. children and adolescents, which adds up to roughly 12.5 million kids. Since 1980, obesity prevalence among this group has almost tripled. Among children and adolescents ages 2 to 19, being overweight translates to a body-mass
Although many people struggle to grapple with the subject of mortality, University of Missouri researchers contend that when people are aware of and contemplate death, positive behaviors can emerge. After reviewing dozens of studies, the researchers found that an awareness of mortality can lead to “decreased militaristic attitudes, better health decisions,
When budding counselors finish their graduate programs and head out into the world with degrees in hand, they face an often complex decision — whether to specialize in a certain area of counseling in hopes of working with a particular type of client or issue or whether to serve a