Recent research has revealed an alarming development: The number of youth admitted to the hospital for a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation nearly doubled between 2008 and 2015. The findings, published in the May 2018 issue of the journal Pediatrics, analyzed seven years of billing data for emergency room and
Category: Online Exclusives
[EDITOR’s NOTE: This is an online-only companion article to “Guiding lights,” a feature on the ins and outs of the counselor supervision process appearing in the June issue of Counseling Today.] Counselor supervision can have quite a steep learning curve — one that often comes with several ups and
Counselors are not immune to trauma — in fact, far from it. Many practitioners say that personal or familial experience with trauma or mental illness actually spurred them to become professional counselors. The connection between personal experience and the pull to become a counselor is something that is hard to
[Editor’s note: Because of the personal nature of the narrative, the author is using a pseudonym.] “Welcome to the club!” This greeting, typically extended to new members, often implies certain advantages, discounts and perks. However, the club my husband and I unwittingly have joined is based on an experience I
Change is a large part of what we do. Nothing stays the same no matter how hard we try, and that, my friends, can often be a good thing. A few years ago, I contacted the editor of Counseling Today and shared my thoughts on the need for a column
Having kids and young adults train rescue dogs isn’t technically animal assisted therapy, but for the kids—and dogs—involved in the Teacher’s Pet program, the result has definitely been therapeutic. The youth —with the help of professional animal trainers— use positive reward-based training to increase local rescue dogs’ chances of being
Johnnetta Betsch Cole couldn’t help but chuckling at the audacity (or, as she phrased it, the “chutzpah”) of the keynote message she was about to deliver to the thousands of counselors congregated Saturday morning at the ACA 2018 Conference & Expo in Atlanta. With charismatic presence — and a knowing
Dolores Huerta can be described in many ways: labor organizer, feminist, civil rights pioneer, social justice icon, impassioned speaker and lifelong advocate for the oppressed. On Friday, Huerta delivered a stirring keynote address to open the ACA 2018 Conference & Expo that proved the 88 year-old has lost none of
There is no perfect plan when it comes to self-care. The important thing is to have a plan and make self-care a career-long focus. Not only will the methods that counselors find effective vary from practitioner to practitioner, but a self-care routine will also need to evolve to meet changing
No matter my professional role, there always seems to exist the need to send out the same email over and over again. Either I write the same email monthly or annually, or I write the same email and send it to multiple people. When I was in private practice, it