ACA MEMBER BLOGS

Being a therapist requires empathy, patience, active listening and unconditional positive, just to name a few skills needed to be an effective therapist.

“Take a look, it’s in a book…” sang part of the Reading Rainbow TV series theme from my childhood. My childhood contains memories of paper books: picture books, books to follow along with on recorded cassette tapes which often began: “When you hear the chime ring, turn the page.

Colorism is not discussed often in personal and professional spaces and research on the topic is limited.

As society’s understanding of mental health disorders has expanded in recent years, the pivotal role mental health counselors fill in helping clients has gained long overdue recognition. As counselors, we’ve been at the forefront, providing necessary care and support to clients.

Worldviews filter everything counselors and clients experience, think, and process. Worldviews are a way that we make sense of circumstances, ourselves, and others—worldviews are part of culture and they shape our philosophy of life.

Colorism occurs all over the world. Colorism impacts people from marginalized ethnic/racial groups to keep us oppressed and inferior.

Colorism has gained traction in the last few years in popular culture in the film and music industries. Some examples include music lyrics from rappers and film casting from actors and actresses.

Since early 2020, many counseling services have found a new home online. Telehealth has established itself as a viable and efficient method for therapists to help their clients, resulting in a potential surplus of physical counseling spaces.

Counselors have likely heard and/or used the term: biopsychosocial-spiritual. Biospsychosocial-spiritual means that we [humanity] are widely diverse—specifically: biopsychosocial-spiritually diverse. Counselors respect and honor biopsychosocial-spiritual diversity. Honoring and respecting biopsychosocial-spiritual diversity in others begins with identifying it first in ourselves, so let’s break the 4-part terminology down!

Traditionally allies are associated with wartime because when there is a battle, it is both helpful and encouraging to have allies or helpers fighting alongside us.