Bob Walsh and Norm Dasenbrook

Ever consider putting pen to paper and entering the literary world? Is there a book in you? Most of us have contemplated writing a book and most will never do it. The whole process from writing a manuscript to getting it published can be overwhelming. However, it is not a daunting task as you may think.

Five years ago this month, heroes seemed to emerge from the disaster these two brought to the gulf coast. Katrina and her sister, Rita, were nasty and unforgiving. The counselors, medical people, and construction workers brought their best to bear against the disruption to the lives of the Louisiana evacuees. Houma Louisiana, a small city of 35,000 people rallied to accept 1100 evacuees from New Orleans flooded districts and refugees from the surge flooded Bayou. The Terrebonne Parish treasury was drained by their unselfishness. Several remarkable stories telling of small kindnesses and monumental sacrifices emerged.

We just returned from presenting at the Louisiana Counseling Association annual conference in New Orleans. The conference theme was, “The Counseling Family” which was evident from the minute we got off the plane to the final workshop. We have never felt more welcomed and appreciated by a state counseling association than by our counseling “brothers and sisters” in Louisiana. They walk the talk.

Ok, we've read the bad news about the current economy. Many of the counselors who visited our booth at the ACA Convention Center shared how their practices were doing. We asked them for details about payment issues, insurance re-imbursement, and cost effective strategies. Many told us their client numbers were steady but they also talked about new economic stresses for themselves and their clients. Almost all of our scheduled consults in the Career Center asked for tips on cost effective practice strategies. We learned of some strategies from them too. Counselors are learning to be leaner with their overhead costs and their time. Time, they say, is money, but not always.

Many counselors have complained about low reimbursement rates from managed care and insurance companies. Some have gone to fee for service payments and abandoned managed care altogether. Dropping all managed care contracts and only accepting fees paid by clients is one way to handle the problem. Doing that cuts out many clients that have paid into their insurance and expect to be able to use it for counseling. In many demographics, practices would suffer unless our niche occupies the upper end of the income spectrum.