Trauma is as old as humanity itself. In fact, for nearly 3,000 years, such epic poems as The Odyssey and The Iliad have given eloquent voice to the psychic scars of war. These “hidden wounds” of combat included overwhelming feelings of anxiety, horrific nightmares, heightened startle reactions, flashbacks of battle
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Business practices for the beginning counselor
In my CACREP-accredited master’s and doctoral programs in community and clinical mental health counseling, I received a thorough education in many areas but little instruction on how to establish a private practice. Foundational legal and ethical concepts are introduced to students in the classroom, and clinical experience is offered in
Retaining family focus
“Rose” and “Steve” came to American Counseling Association member Laura Marshak for couples counseling because they felt they had been growing further and further apart ever since their son, “Sammy,” who was now in elementary school, had been born with cerebral palsy. Out of necessity, Steve had become the primary breadwinner
Diagnosing ADHD in toddlers
In 2000, Dr. Steven Hyman, then director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), made a statement for the record and publicly recognized that preschoolers can have the mental health condition of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He made this statement even though this belief was not widely accepted at the
Taking a creative approach to client change
Fan culture has gone mainstream. Whereas once the celebration of popular media was confined mostly to small, under-the-radar TV show and comic book conventions, today myriad fan gatherings take place — both on the Internet and off. Shows and characters that not so long ago would have been considered “niche”
Storytelling and hope in Ferguson
It was a striking scene: Protesters, many of whom had been on the front lines of the unrest and turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri, for more than 10 weeks, pausing to talk with a counselor and create a scene in a sand tray. At times, there were “heavy tears” as grief,
House call counselors
The counseling environment is an essential component of the counseling process. Typical environments include the plush offices of private practitioners, the sterile rooms in public agency buildings and the generic spaces in school settings. The amount of space, the arrangement and quality of furniture, lighting and many other variables all
The toll of childhood trauma
Mention the word trauma to Americans in the 21st century, and their thoughts are likely to turn to images of terrorism, war, natural disasters and a seemingly continual stream of school shootings. The horrific scenes at Newtown and Columbine still dominate public consciousness, particularly when our society discusses child trauma.
One year after Sandy Hook, mental health needs still ‘immense’
It has been a little more than one year since the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The need for counseling and mental health services for those affected will only grow in year two, says Deb Del Vecchio-Scully, a trauma counseling specialist and executive director
Understanding Deaf people in counseling contexts
We, five Deaf counselors, have come together to write this article to educate our fellow counselors about Deaf culture, the Deaf community and working with Deaf clients. This article is written from the Deaf experience — a “Deaf center” — which reflects “a different normality” (as Irene Leigh explains in