ACA Blog

Much research is conducted by exclusive academics or “parachute” professionals who drop into a situation or culture long enough to do a curiosity study or hand out a bunch of surveys and then leave. I think more research should be conducted by those of us actually working in the field, don’t you? However, therein lies the problem—we are working in the field! Who has time to do research? Well, I think many of us do but we just might not realize it. Due to incomplete lessons on research some of us may have received in college, many of us do not realize what we are capable of contributing to the overall body of knowledge. And guess what? There’s more to research than lab rats and statistics!

Recently, I was browsing through the DSM-5 website to look for new updates on the DSM revision process. I noticed a commentary written by Lloyd Sederer, titled The American Psychiatric Association’s New Bible, which was published on 7/26/11 in the Huffington Post. The direct link for the article is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-i-sederer-md/the-american-psychiatric-_b_906333.html

We all know that all work and no play not only leads to a dull life but can also lead to many health issues as well. Trust me, I learned that first hand and do not recommend it. Coming back from the abyss can really be a wakeup call; the question remains whether or not to pick up the line. I decided that now that I am feeling much better (hoping for 100% soon) that it was time for me to reduce my work hours to no more than 70 per week, including farm related work (I have a plan to further reduce it eventually down to 50) and to start doing things that I once enjoyed but had stopped due to having worked up to and sometimes exceeding 110 hours a week (it’s no wonder I got sick after 5 years of that schedule). Then it occurred to me that I had no real idea as to what I enjoyed anymore since it had been so long. Like any good addict in new recovery (workaholic in my case) I found myself emotionally stunted to about the time when my addiction took over.

I’m happy to report that the DSM-5 Field Trials in Routine Clinical Practice Settings has begun. According to American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE), counselors make up almost 700 (18%) of the 4000 volunteer clinicians who are participating in the field trials. Also, marriage and family therapists (MFTs) account for almost 500 (14%) of the total clinicians. Volunteer clinicians consist of counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatric nurses.

A wonderfully informative blog by Dr Dayle Jones (see it at: http://my.counseling.org/2011/08/16/what-should-counselors-do-about-dsm-5/) should be read in its entirety—but our point of departure here comes from just two of her conclusions: “I do have some recommendations for APA [American Psychiatric Association] and the DSM-5 Task Force that would assure the credibility of the DSM-5. I suggest that for mental health professionals to endorse and purchase the DSM-5, APA should take the following actions: 1. All evidence from the DSM-5 Task Force should be (a) immediately made public and (b) submitted for independent review. 2. Any suggested DSM-5 revisions deemed to lack strong empirical evidence by independent review should not be approved for DSM-5.”

I suspect almost every counselor has dealt with the question: ‘Do you have to have experienced it to be an effective counselor?’ Do you have to be married to be an effective marriage counselor? Do you have to have kids to effectively counsel parents having problems with their children? Do you have to have experienced unemployment to counsel those who have lost their job?

Though I try to avoid anything political in my blog and in my personal life and few would argue that health care has become a major political hot button issue these past few years, I feel the need to share some frustrations, one clinician to others. This sharing will not be a red versus blue or “us versus them” type of thing, but more a sharing of some weird and unsettling observations. Hopefully someone reading this will be able to help me better understand the “grand scheme of things” when it comes to insurance.

The voice on the other end of the telephone starts out with something like, “It’s me, Grandma. Don’t you recognize my voice?” And there begins another scam designed to take advantage of a senior citizen. These crimes are not uncommon, unfortunately. We all read or watch news stories about older adults preyed upon by scammers, some of them losing their hard-earned savings, or personal property with financial and sentimental value. The circumstances of the crime may even place them in jeopardy of physical harm, if the scammer initiates any in-person contact as part of the con – perhaps the perpetrator accosts the victim in a parking lot, offering to accompany them to their home or bank. Or maybe they want to come in person to collect on whatever they’ve talked the victim into giving them over the phone.

Coming into a Graduate School program, it’s the assumption that we come in knowing how to get things done. Looking back over this first year, figuring how to accomplish the next task at hand with the plethora of other roles has been a richer experience than I would have thought. Professors take special care to set things to maximize our learning and construct assignments to help us become effective counselors. You can all remember this, or maybe are the midst of this now. Sometimes, there’s a lot to do. Sometimes there’s more to do than you feel you have hours in the day. Sometimes it’s necessary to be very thoughtful in our plans in order to get where we’re going. For some of us this thoughtfulness involves careful plotting and strategizing our workload in a planner. For me, the magic really came--wait for it…when I threw away the planner.

Many of you have likely heard of the tragic shooting at a Carson City, NV IHOP restaurant last week. 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion, armed with an assault rifle that belonged to his brother, shot one person on his way into the IHOP restaurant and headed straight toward the back of the restaurant where uniformed members of the Nevada National Guard were eating breakfast together. Sencion killed 3 (2 Soldiers and one non-military patron who was reportedly in the line of fire between him and the Troops) and injured 6 others before exiting to the parking lot where he shot and killed himself. Such a senseless, tragic incident inevitably elicits the question: “Why?” and for many of us in the counseling profession also, “What can I do to help?”