Krylyn Peters

Tortoises are slow and steady, each step made with great intention. Not too dissimilar to the counseling process. For Catheryn Robinson, that’s a good thing.

When working with juvenile sex offenders, professionals may feel that the treatment protocol should vary from traditional treatment methods. While there is the offense-specific component that needs to be addressed, overall youth who have committed sexual offenses respond well to the same treatment as other adjudicated youth.

Part of the fun of using music, sound, and songwriting for healing is improvising. In my workshops, I like to ask people to take out their instruments and begin playing. You can probably imagine I get a lot of blank stares and odd looks. But I assure everyone they do have instruments with them.

There’s a misconception that creative interventions focus solely on artistic ideas, such as art or music. But if you practice under that assumption, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to be creative with your clients. Creativity is really about finding different perspectives of expression. Not everyone expresses themselves in the same way. And our job as counselors is to help our clients express themselves in the best way for them. In order to do that, we must be creative.

In my last blog, I shared a little about the plight of shelter dogs -- one shelter dog in particular. Nia has been living in a narrow wire kennel run for at least four months. Despite living in confined quarters with limited human contact and almost non-existent mental or emotional stimulation, Nia stays in seemingly satisfactory spirits.