ACA Blog

Life can be hard sometimes and there is always something to think about, but for the most part it is a wonderful adventure. I love the universality of sharing this space with so much diversity and difference that it can sometimes feel overwhelming. I am happy that we are able to adapt in such remarkable ways; to adversity, to disability, to environmental changes, all of which allows life to continue for the most part unabated. There is a certain resiliency we possess and I wonder everyday where it derives from.

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about social justice and how the concept can be applied to our region. According to Chung & Bemak (2012) Social justice can be defined as issues that involve the individual, the family, the community, the wider society, and even the international community. It refers to unfair treatment or inequities that have resulted from racism, sexism, socioeconomics, sexual orientation, religion, ableism and other “isms” all o which affect quality of life.

A co-worker just informed me the other day that my tax dollars are currently being used to pay teenagers in the Washington, DC area to attend high school. HUH?? I really couldn’t believe that. Has a portion of our society seriously forgotten that we are fortunate to have a public education system where any child can receive education (and receive free meals, school supplies, etc in many cases)? And now we’re going above and beyond that entitlement to now adopting a mindset that tax dollars should be used to PAY teenagers to get them into a classroom? What’s wrong with this picture?

If you’re just getting started in private practice, selling your counseling business is possibly the last thing on your mind. However, it’s never too early to start laying the groundwork for building a counseling practice that will someday be attractive to an acquirer. In fact, realizing at the beginning that there will one day be an ending is good forethought.

I am in the process of taking an online course – Trauma-Informed Art Therapy by Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPAT, LPCC, ATR-BC. One of the assignments was to watch a video “Putting on the Brakes” featuring Babette Rothschild in which she describes the need to work with traumatized – if not all clients at their own pace, allowing time to decompress from the emotional intensity experienced during a therapy session. She likened this process to the balance of driving a stick shift car and the need to apply the gas and the brakes to move forward and to foster safety. It is one of the many pearls of wisdom I have gained through this course and other trainings given by Cathy.

Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Licensed Professional Counselor of Mental Health. Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. Licensed Professional Counselor. Linguistic lore states that the Inuit culture has numerous words for “snow” and it seems that Americans have numerous words for “counselor”. Even I’ll admit, sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming when I tell people what I will be once I’ve completed my Master’s degree.

You’re a professional counselor in private practice. You’ve worked hard to build a solid reputation as a caring, ethical provider of top-notch behavioral health services. Then one day you notice a drop in new client calls and referrals. You do a name search on yourself on the Internet, and...low and behold!...someone has posted a nasty review about you that has wormed its way onto a number of “business rating sites.”

Just a few short weeks ago, my husband and I packed up our house and “family” (dog, cat, and two guinea pigs) and made the long drive from central Nebraska to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He started his doctoral program in music this month at Louisiana State University; I’m still finishing up my counseling degree through my university in Nebraska.

Imagine my surprise when I learned this weekend that all the training I have had regarding birth control and pregnancy was wrong. It appears that a politician who sits on of all things a science committee knows that a woman’s body has a natural defense against pregnancy IF she is LEGITIMATELY raped. I am not sure how the body knows the difference between legitimate and illegitimate rape (is there such a thing?) but somehow it just does, end of story. If she gets pregnant then it must not have been legitimate rape. I guess that would prove her a liar and the person arrested for the crime would be owed an apology, released from jail and given liberal visitation rights, that is IF the liar is even fit to have contact with the child at all; perhaps he would get full custody? It kind of reminds me of the old way of identifying witches, if she survived the drowning she was a witch and should be put to death, if she drowned, she was innocent but unfortunately dead.

I have blogged in the past, about Mental Health Court and the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program. I recently had the honor to meet and hear speak a “true champion” for the cause, The Honorable Mark A. Speiser, Judge in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida.