ACA Blog

[caption id="attachment_7044" align="alignleft" width="150"] Lisa Krystosek [/caption] This week we will jump into the saddle to gain some insight into the world of Therapeutic Horsemanship.

I sit here in my monkey suit, custom tailored, smart tie, long sleeved shirt, calf skin leather shoes, silk tie and suspenders; it can mean only one thing, I am headed to testify as an expert witness in court. Very few things can make me wear long sleeves or a tie for that matter…

You might want to sit down because this could take a while. Developed in the 1970s by Insoo Kim Berg and Steven de Shazer, the miracle question has become a very popular therapy intervention. It’s standard fare for solution-focused therapists and has been written about extensively. In 2004, Linda Metcalf wrote a whole book about it and in 2010 Ryan Howes of Psychology Today declared it the #10 most “cool” intervention in psychotherapy.

YouTube is not typically my thing, but I’m glad my mom put her cell phone in front of my face Monday to share this video with me. It’s AMAZING. I shared it with my psychology students because our topic was the psychology of healing and it fit perfectly. The ex-paratrooper featured in the video had all but given up: He was overweight, unhappy…but someone believed in him and offered him hope. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this right now and go watch it…then come back and finish reading of course! Here’s how to view it:

As we approach the New Year, our credentialing team is being asked more and more frequently what 2013 will bring for the process of getting on insurance panels. That’s a good question! While we don’t have a crystal ball, the trends show us a lot. Here are our predictions for 2013.

The month of November can be a bittersweet time for me. It conjures painful memories of grief and loss; this year was particularly melancholy. Being a northeast resident, we faced back-to-back weather challenges with Hurricane Sandy and then a Nor’easter which dumped nearly ten inches of snow. My office was closed for an entire week due to power outages which oddly didn’t feel like a break from work. Rather, it felt like I was persistently on call waiting to be ordered back to the office. This was my entrance into November this year and I’ve felt off center since.

Who is responsible for providing supervision for professional school counselors? Is it the responsibility of their site administrator? Or perhaps, a district level individual whose job entails overseeing various educational support professionals?

This week we will explore the world of Hippotherapy. Despite the way it sounds, we are not using the hippopotamus for therapeutic purposes - although I would like to see that!

A few years ago I was at a conference and saw a display table for a program called “Spring Lake Ranch” and met Rachel Stark who was manning the booth and also was in charge of Admissions and Outreach. I found her to be a bit different, unlike others who were simply trying to sell a program. Rachel appeared to not be trying to sell a program so much as she was trying to promote an idea. This intrigued me mainly because it is how I feel about the programs that I developed and direct. Hers is not mainstream to say the least, which really is a shame when you think about it. Nestled on 600 acres of land in Vermont they have developed a true therapeutic community. The program blends ranch work with a therapeutic milieu; a combination of lay people and licensed pros make up the program staff. Clients take part in everything from growing food and animals, to woodwork, syrup making, maintenance etc. they learn how to adapt to life in more productive ways, how to address their issues, increase personal responsibility and self respect and also how to be both interdependent and as independent as possible; a combination that is hard to find.

It’s final exam time at KEMU. The exam system here is a little different than what I have known; and, you may have read my descriptions of the exam writing process if you are a regular blog follower (Hey, I hope you are—even though I don’t know who you are).