ACA MEMBER BLOGS

An important part of therapeutic work is becoming more aware of the sources of emotional reactions: are they entirely oriented around present situations or are there some roots in past experiences?

After the last COVID-19 patient has been discharged and the intensive care unit beds are empty, the world will declare the crisis over. Politicians and pundits will begin to talk about mistakes made and try to lay blame. They will finger point and bluster about why it got as bad as it did and declare it wasn’t their fault.

Telehealth services, driven by the pandemic, has certainly expanded to extraordinary levels, with more and more counselors using technology to connect with clients, mentors and colleagues.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It is important to reach out and check on students and parents to let them know you are available for questions or to talk to during the challenging COVID-19 crisis.

Why should I care about meditation? Because it has a direct connection to health benefits such as lower blood pressure, improved blood circulation, lower heart rate, less perspiration, slower respiratory rate, less anxiety, lower blood cortisol levels, more feelings of well-being, less stress and deeper relaxation.

Earlier in this series of blogposts, I wrote about counselor self-care. I wanted to address it early on as it is such a critical element of our practices right now; we cannot afford for it to be an afterthought.

Understand and acknowledge for yourself and your students that living through a pandemic is not "normal" and thus, feeling increased anxiety is completely understandable.

Over the last few weeks in doing consultation with other therapists about dealing with the current crisis, I’ve found that many are experiencing feelings of guilt about not doing enough to help those in need during this time.

As a college counselor, I am ever-curious about what students believe is crucial for us to be aware of while working with them. Though college students are often given resources on physical sexual well-being from their campus health centers, I wondered what college students might believe about the connection between sexual wellness and mental health

Within the last decade, telemental health has been utilized to meet client needs by improving convenience and accessibility to quality care. Also known as telebehavioral health, distance counseling, or virtual counseling, this serve generally utilizes a digital platform to provide synchronous “secure, encrypted, audio-video conferencing” to provide services to clients.