ACA MEMBER BLOGS

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like you have so much to say that it limits you from saying anything at all? Yes, me too! This is one of those situations as a matter of fact. I have blogged several times before, both for classes that blogging was integrated into and at times to offer words of encouragement to the classes in which I was a part of the teaching team.

It’s true that “Know thyself,” is a wise bit of advice. For counselors, we must also know our clients. To best serve teenage and young adult clients, we need to know the lingo. Some of us have kids and we just sort of know things. Others of us do the homework and learn so we can work with this amazing population that faces so many unique challenges.

I believe asking about cultural traditions in an evaluation/clinical assessment is important because many people forget to describe their family’s cultural traditions including how birthdays were or were not celebrated.

As Private Practice Consultant for the ACA, of all the practice forms requested of me by members, the one I’m asked for above all others is an employment contract. Often, practice owners—both novice and experienced—are looking for something that will protect them from the myriad things that can go wrong when working closely with others.

Poetry has served me well. As a child I learned to seek refuge in silence, in reading and in writing, whenever I was confronted with difficulties. It turned into a habitual practice and offered me the confidence to trust that no matter how disturbing the circumstances I always had a way out or a way in, depending on the situation at hand.

On Sunday, I will be attending the New Jersey Counseling Association’s (NJCA, the NJ chapter of the American Counseling Association) annual counseling conference. This will be the second year that I will have attended. Last year, I was struggling with finding post-graduate placements and attending the conference really helped.

Recently, with 10 minute’s notice, I was asked to speak to a class of counseling students. Having nothing prepared, I scrambled! I knew whatever I came up with last second wasn’t going to be pretty, but I wanted to provide something of value. So, I asked myself “What did I need to hear 15 years ago?”

When I started this profession decades ago I never thought I’d be writing this. It's 2017 not 1917 but here we are. We are living this. It IS real.

Conducting therapy takes a great deal out of us. We carry our personalities and traits into our sessions where we know it or not. Regardless of theoretical orientation, our personalities factor into the way we conduct therapy.

Daily reports of hate crimes, violence, and discriminatory acts emerging from unjust policies proposed by the new Republican administration disturb and frighten many of us. With this current political climate, civic responsibility, advocacy and social accountability are are receiving renewed attention.