Kristina Walsh

It’s that time of year! Many people are preparing for the NCE and other counseling exams as they graduate programs or continue their licenses. Navigating the tunnels and hoops just to sit for some of these exams should automatically give people the right to a license, but unfortunately just sitting down to take the test is only half the battle.

At my internship in our IOP, we offer a new class on spirituality, meaning and values. The clinicians around us were a little skeptical about offering a class to patients that would most likely be talking about religion, faith and spirituality. A couple of us were (and still are) convinced that spirituality cannot be overlooked when addressing someone’s overall mental health.

Many of us get alarmed when we hear the word “spirituality” in our practice. Whether a client or patient mentions it, it’s in a curriculum in a psycho-education class, or we’re asked to incorporate spirituality into our own practice, you may freeze, feel unqualified or choose to ignore the subject.

As I started my internship in June 2015, I was thrilled that one of our psychoeducation classes was on the process of change, taken from Prochaska’s text. As therapists, we spend time each week teaching our patients about change spending a lot of time focusing on the process behind it.

I walked out of an assessment in the partial hospitalization program at The Ohio State University to see my cell phone lighting up with phone calls and texts. My phone vibrated in my hand, flashing the contact name, “Dad.” We text more than we call, so I knew something was up.