Counselors are fond of telling clients that a drowning person can’t help others to get out of the water safely without first saving himself or herself, says Jane Myers, a professor in the Department of Counseling and Educational Development at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. But do counselors

For counselors, self-care is an ongoing and necessary endeavor in order not only to maintain their own wellness but also to provide the best care possible to clients. A feature story in the January issue of Counseling Today addresses exactly this topic — click here to read “Who’s taking care of

One of the most contentious changes in the soon-to-be released fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) is the American Psychiatric Association’s decision to drop Asperger’s syndrome from the manual and place it under the category for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In a statement, the American

From the moment he stepped off the plane, Tyler Wilkinson knew he had to be ready. Ready to have a meaningful conversation in the car on the way to campus, ready to engage at a faculty dinner meeting and ready to field questions from potential future colleagues during a marathon

If that headline caught your attention and you found yourself wondering, what does make a truly great counselor, you are not alone. In fact, many of today’s leading counselors say it pays to never stop asking — and trying to answer — that very question. No matter where they are

My travels recently took me to Malaysia, a beautiful country with an incredibly diverse culture and perhaps the happiest, most resilient and fun-loving people I have ever had the privilege of meeting. As I learned about the status of counseling and how it has evolved there over the past 20

At La Plata High School in Maryland, a college and career adviser shoulders some of the responsibilities that would otherwise fall on school counselor Janel Young and her towering caseload of 383 students. Young has found, however, that students sometimes feel more comfortable coming to her for help with the

In August, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) a Minority Fellowship Program grant. The grant provides NBCC as much as $1.6 million over the next two years to “expand the behavioral health workforce in order to reduce health disparities and

For many counselors, retreating into the depths of a novel can often be a much-needed and well-applauded act of self-care. But can reading fiction actually make someone a better counselor? Empathy-focused research in the past few years suggests that this may very well be a possibility. Keith Oatley, a cognitive

The keynote speakers for the American Counseling Association 2013 Conference & Expo in Cincinnati (March 20-24) are well known in their respective fields. The circles in which they are famous and the perspectives from which they view the counseling process are quite different, however. Actor, humanitarian and mental health advocate