ACA Blog

Must a counselor have a spotless past and a picturesque present to effectively assist a client? Should a divorced counselor be the one to help a struggling couple stay together? Can a childless counselor give parental advice? Will a doctoral dropout be able to assist a fretful PhD student? What if a client walks into the office facing the exact same challenge as the counselor? Can and should the counselor help? Is there hypocrisy in this situation? Does the counselor risk being biased or blind to certain aspects of the client’s issue? ACA’s Friday keynote speaker, Dr. Irvine Yalom, tackled this question in his book, “The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients.”

According to the Pew Center on the States, One in every 28 children has an incarcerated parent (3.6%) (2010): A quarter of a century ago, one in every 125 children had an incarcerated parent. The Center continues to say that the rise, of course, can be attributed to the implementation of harsher laws for lesser crimes; two-thirds of today’s incarcerated parents committed non-violent offenses. The above stat is one of the most disconcerting of all U.S.-related prison stats because common sense dictates that a child’s chances of growing up as a productive, law-abiding adult are greater when both of their parents play significant roles in their life.

Like many of you, I’ve learned some valuable skills over the years that help me stay grounded during even the most stressful professional times. This is a work in progress, and I don’t always stay as serene as I would like, but I have what generally amounts to a healthy wellness practice that keeps me in the moment and sustains my work as a counselor.

I recently met some mental health professionals who told me that my blogs on DSM-5 were inflammatory and not helpful to the DSM-5 development process.

It’s one of the more important things we do yet it is also the thing that many of us dread. Trying to consult with other professionals can be akin to trying to catch a greased pig with your feet; though it is statistically possible, very few of us have ever seen it. Phone tag between colleagues can last days or weeks, even when we attempt to set things up via email prior to the conversations. This to a certain extent should be expected; try to get two busy clinicians available at the same time is difficult due to emergencies, meetings, paperwork and related insurance practices and the reality that our clients need us, at times they need us a lot.

Benjamin Franklin is known for his strict schedule. His personal notes show that he was asleep at 10pm, awake at 5am—and he spent most of his waking hours working, or reviewing his tasks. Starting a counseling practice isn’t a 40-hour a week job. Successful entrepreneurs either “Do the Franklin,” or burn the midnight oil. Or both! This is because an aspiring counselor-entrepreneur must stay relevant with the practice of counseling while learning (and executing) the myriad aspects of running a business (e.g., enacting a business plan, managing finances, setting up an office, getting the word out, etc.).

[caption id="attachment_4859" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Jennifer Bingaman"][/caption] I had a pretty good week last week. I’m starting to feel like I’m getting into the groove of things at my internship. I’m being asked to run groups, I’m taking on new clients, and I just have a good feeling about where I am in my life and my career. It’s a nice feeling.

Plans. We all have them. Some pan out and some do not. Some are intricate pieces of mastery while others are basic with few steps and little external influence. The more complex plans tend to involve greater steps, involve more important but uncontrollable variables such as relationships and time. So is it any wonder that with so many different possibilities that fall outside of the locus of control, that the clients we often see are deeply affected by plans gone awry?

Some of you might remember the posts I have written about the need for a mentoring program within the ACA. I remember my frustration trying to email and call various divisions within the ACA in my desperate attempts to find a way to connect with a mentor. I learned in time that while the need for a mentoring program for our grad students was great, I was not alone in my search or willingness to get something started. It just so happened that I attended a presentation on graduate student concerns at the Texas Counseling Association conference which provided me with an opportunity to share my thoughts and frustrations about the lack of mentoring with none other but Dr. Heather Trepal, the head of the ACA Graduate Student Committee.

The first woman I met, who worked as a street prostitute, was during my counseling practicum inside the Kansas City, Missouri city jail. (Regional Correctional Center, RCC). I remember her sad eyes, her beautiful but aged face, more importantly her dreams of a satisfying life and future for her and her children. She was a beautiful person, wanting the good life for her family and herself. Her words are as loud today as then when she told me “You don’t understand. The very worst has already happened to me. My father raped me. It does not matter what I do now.”