As the East Coast recovers from Hurricane Sandy, a historic “superstorm” that claimed more than 120 lives and left an unthinkable path of destruction in its wake, Counseling Today reached out to a few American Counseling Association members living in affected areas. We asked them to share their thoughts on how
Tag: Trauma and Disaster
Trauma and Disaster
Alex Teves loved trying new things: going to a hole-in-the wall neighborhood restaurant that his friends had overlooked; drinking a new beer from a local brewery; pushing himself to the limit in an 8-mile obstacle course known as the Tough Mudder; bringing together groups of people who wouldn’t ordinarily run in
As members of the Sikh faith, we were in shock when we received the news on Aug. 5 that six members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek had been shot and killed. Immediately, we reached out to our families and were glued to the television as we
The issues female clients bring to the counseling session are as unique as the individuals who come to counseling in pursuit of personal growth, wellness or answers to life’s problems. But Cecelia Hope Manley, an American Counseling Association member who estimates that 90 percent of her client base is female,
When a military plane on a routine mission from Anchorage, Alaska, to Juneau crashed and killed all eight service members aboard in 1994, Judy Mathewson found herself thinking about the families of the deceased and their need to grieve. “I knew the children who had lost their fathers that day
Called to the scene of a fire, Michael Dubi immediately noticed the elderly woman. She stood in place, silently, simply watching as her home and all of her belongings were consumed in flames directly in front of her. “She could not speak or move,” says Dubi, president of the International
Counselors who stepped in and tried to help support a grieving nation in the aftermath of 9/11 believe lessons that emerged from that tragic day have gone a long way toward shaping the counseling profession’s direction over the past decade.
It is a common belief that clients seek counseling to begin or continue change. In the case of recent immigrants, change is a significant, ongoing process. Deciding to leave one’s home country to make a new life somewhere else requires considerable bravery and faith that the future will be as
Local law enforcement, code enforcement and animal control experts have known about the problems of animal hoarding and object hoarding for a long time. But excepting the sporadic attention given to the issue here and there in the professional literature, the mental health community is relatively new on the scene.
Dan sat motionless, riveted to his chair as he recalled his recurrent nightmare. “Every night …” He trailed off and faded back. “It’s the eyes. I see his eyes! Staring at me.” Dan was recalling a soldier, frozen to death and still at his post. The memory, too, was frozen