For many counselors and educators, the term failure to launch is a familiar part of the American lexicon. Some have referred to this phenomenon as an “epidemic,” and a few prominent clinicians have even described it as a “syndrome.” This classification is problematic for a number of reasons, including that it fails to
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Opioid SOS
During a single afternoon this past August, 26 people overdosed on opioids in Huntington, a small city in West Virginia with a population of approximately 50,000. Bolstered by naloxone — an opioid antidote that often can revive overdose victims who have stopped breathing — and too much practice in overdose
Living with anxiety
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 18 percent of the adult population, or more than 40 million people, according to the National Institutes of Health. Among adolescents the prevalence is even higher: 25 percent of youth ages 13 to 18 live with some type
Using your integrated behavioral health toolbox
People with common medical disorders who visit their primary care physicians have high rates of behavioral health concerns, including diabetes, chronic pain, obesity, sleep disorders and heart disease. Obesity is one of the biggest drivers of preventable chronic diseases and health care costs in the United States. Currently, estimates for
The self ish act of forgiving
A rabbi, returning home on a train, sat near a group of salesmen who were playing cards. Absorbed as he was in meditation, the rabbi refused to join the card game. One of the salesmen, annoyed by the rabbi’s aloofness but unaware of who he was, pushed the rabbi out of the
A counselor’s journey back from burnout
I do not want to get out of bed, so I press snooze on my alarm again. I feel nauseated and think about calling in sick. Finally, I drag myself out of bed and take my time getting dressed for work. I leave my house reluctantly. On the drive to work,
The case for including animals in counselors’ duty to report
This past year, the American Counseling Association Governing Council endorsed formal competencies for the practice of animal-assisted therapy in counseling. The authors of the standards, and the coordinators of ACA’s Animal-Assisted Therapy in Mental Health Interest Network, contend that the competencies (available at counseling.org/knowledge-center/competencies) represent a key step forward in
The Counseling Connoisseur: Pet loss: Lessons in grief
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” — Anatole France ***** On Jan. 22, following a three-week whirlwind diagnosis and decline, my husband and I said goodbye to our 6.5-year-old goldendoodle, Lily. Her disease had rendered this Frisbee-catching superstar unable to
Facing the fear of incompetence
When Karena Heyward and Jessica Lloyd-Hazlett were enrolled in graduate school together at the College of William & Mary, they agreed to split the cost of a hotel room while attending the American Counseling Association’s annual conference. The two counselors didn’t know each other very well, but over the course
LGBTQ issues across the life span
The specific biological mechanisms that underpin how people develop as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer (LGBTQ) are still undiscovered, but what many researchers have determined is that neither sexual/affectional orientation nor gender identity is a choice. Rather, they are innate, unchangeable parts of who a person is, much