Charmaine Perry

In July, I completed a continuing education (CE) book chapter on multiculturalism and social justice from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and I was very much impacted by this piece. The CE piece by Paul B. Pedersen and Manivong J. Ratts (Ph.D) called Multiculturalism and Social Justice: A Revolutionary Force in Counseling and Psychology was so inspirational for me.

I admit that as a counselor I have been more focused on suicidal teens. Now, I wonder how many counselors are in my boat? Recently, I have been working with a parent of a teenager who is suicidal. This has opened my eyes to an entire population I realized I had never considered.

This post will be my 12th consecutive post which has me feeling very reflective. This process has been such fun, and such a learning experience. It has forced me to really delve into my thoughts and feelings regarding myself, clients, counseling, other passions, and advocacy.

Self-care was talked about tremendously during my degree program. Like therapy, it was an abstract process that would become perfectly clear once a thriving career was established.

When I was about nine or ten years old, I decided I wanted to become a therapist. In my home country, counseling and psychology was one field. So I decided I wanted to become a psychologist. Titles and letters after one’s name was not really relevant at the time.