ACA MEMBER BLOGS

It’s been a long week, and I’ve not had the time I generally care to have to dedicate to a particularly cohesive entry. I’m writing on my lunch break today. I have felt like I’ve been in the finals week of grad school between private clients, my full-time job, and rushing to complete materials for submission for this year’s ACA conference.

I still struggle with the notion of interview preparation. I’ve interviewed hundreds of job candidates, coached students on interview strategies, and gone on my fair share of interviews. As for interview preparation, I’ve always felt there’s a fine line between being prepared and being rehearsed.

It is that time of year again. Everywhere, red hearts, pink bows, and flowery cards are making an appearance to entice grand gestures. While loving acts on that one day can be wonderful, the care and adoration shared between partners the other 364 days of the year can be even more important.

Social activist founded Tarana Burke, founded the Me Too movement to help survivors of sexual violence heal in a community of “empowerment and empathy[i].” More than a decade later the #MeToo movement went viral as numerous celebrities such as Alyssa Milano, Simone Biles, and Lady Gaga came forward with their experiences and shed light on the “magnitude of the problem[ii].”

Why did you become a therapist? I sometimes want to ask co-workers and colleagues this question oftentimes. For me, in the beginning it was because I had such a positive experience with therapy, I wanted to share that experience with others.

In a previous post, I wrote about the need for rural counselors to be generalists. I also noted you need to be ready to treat trauma as trauma is, unfortunately, nearly everywhere. There are high incidences of trauma in places where there are elevated levels of domestic violence, and a high percentage of gun-owner households.

Faces of your friends and family may have flashed across your mind. If so, that is because love is typically interpreted as interpersonal. Did you consider yourself?

This semester, I have the unique opportunity of co-teaching Foundations of Mental Health Counseling at my Alma mater. As ten students begin their journeys, I’m eager to impart the wisdom that I gained (and a few things I wish I had known) during my own studies.

Like many (and probably most) of my fellow counselors, I have taken graduate courses in professional ethics where we’re taught some of the foundational ethical values and practices for our work.

For those of us who love wide open spaces, living in rural America gives gorgeous vistas: broad horizons punctuated by snow-capped mountains or vast, windswept prairie, and a sense of never being hemmed in by too many people.