Highlighting the importance of mental health awareness
While one in five people will experience mental illness over the course of their lifetimes, everyone will face challenges that can and will affect their mental health. Observed every year on October 10, World Mental Health Day seeks to raise awareness of mental health issues and highlights efforts to support mental health.
Acknowledging the state of one’s mental health issues is important, and so is being able to seek help when you’re struggling. ACA has provided sharable graphics and resources to support counselors around the world who play a crucial role for those struggling with their mental health.
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For people who want to return to the workplace after a gap or extended break, the search for the right job can come with serious doubts about getting back into the game.
Counselors are using happiness interventions to help clients redefine happiness and live a more fulfilling life.
Voice of Experience: The danger of misinterpreting risk
Fear and stigma can often cause people to incorrectly perceive individuals with a mental health disorder as a threat, which can have serious consequences.
To decrease the stigma around mental health in society, we must confront stigmatizing and biased thinking in the clinical world.
Voice of Experience: Disorders with the potential for dangerous outcomes
When working with people with disorders that are associated with more dangerous behaviors, counselors must be prepared to assess the client’s risk of violence to themselves and others.
Behind the Book: Q&A with Danica G. Hays
Danica G. Hays, author of Assessment in Counseling, discusses what’s new in the recently published seventh edition and how proper assessment of clients can help strengthen the therapeutic alliance.
Cultivating patience in counselors
A desire for change can sometimes cause counselors and clients to overlook the importance of building a sense of safety first.
Behind the Book: Counselor Self-Care (2nd edition)
Since the first edition of Counselor Self-Care came out in 2018, we have experienced many new stressors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, social injustice and political polarization.
The mental toll of adult bullying
Adult bullying is a social and mental health issue. Regardless of the reasons why a person is targeted by a bully, research shows that its impact can be disastrous to a person’s health and well-being.
Conceptualizing diagnosis through a social justice lens
Approaching diagnosis through a lens that considers systemic, cultural and ecological factors leads to better treatment outcomes for clients.
Everyone can remember being bullied. Maybe someone teased you relentlessly about your name because it “sounded funny” or they made fun of your physical appearance.
Building rapport with clients experiencing psychosis
Stigma and misunderstanding about clients with severe mental illnesses can prevent some counselors from taking the necessary steps to build a strong therapeutic relationship.
Recognizing burnout and compassion fatigue among counselors
Counselors have a responsibility to take care of their own mental health before they can help others with their well-being.
Is mindfulness a cure-all approach?
Mindfulness is often seen as a cure-all approach, but as with other clinical approaches, counselors should carefully consider when and how they integrate this practice into sessions.
4 steps to refresh, recharge and reconnect
Self-care is always easier said than done, but with these four steps, counselors can ensure they are taking time to care for and invest in themselves.
Find answers to common questions counselors have about the new edition of the DSM.
The lack of evidence-based research supporting somatic therapy raises skepticism among many clinicians, but for those who do use it with clients, the benefits are clear.
Building trust with reluctant clients
Rather than labeling hesitant clients as “resistant,” counselors should check their assumptions, work to better understand the underlying reasons and barriers these clients face, and double down on unconditional positive regard.
Past, present or future: Where do you usually live?
When you are in the present moment, you are not waiting for the next moment to be fulfilling or happy.
General Public Resources from the Counseling Corner
It's Time To Salvage Those New Year's Resolutions
No, those New Year’s resolutions you made weren’t a bad idea. The fact that you haven’t been successful in reaching those goals may seem a problem, but the reality is that it’s also a very fixable problem.
The middle of January is about when most people give up on those resolutions that, back on January 1st, they swore they were going to succeed at this year. So what went wrong? In most cases, a variety of things.
The most common is that we often promise ourselves too much. We want to lose twenty pounds, or stop smoking, or get that job promotion. And we want it to happen fast. But in most cases, fast isn’t really possible. Weight loss, real weight loss, is a slow process. Experts report that stopping smoking can sometimes take as many as eight attempts before someone is success. And working hard, impressing the boss, and getting that work promotion? Yeah, that might happen over months or years, but not by next week.
So how to approach change, reduce the stress and avoid the negative feelings that not achieving a New Year’s resolution can sometimes bring? Start by accepting that you haven’t failed, but just that you need to approach the accomplishments you desire from a slightly different direction.
A better attitude for life changes is not by starting out believing you need to fix a negative (something that is wrong with you), but instead focus on your goals as “positive” steps forward to a better and happier you.
Secondly, develop a plan that will move you in the direction of your goal in small, easy to achieve steps. Your final objective may be to stop smoking, but it doesn’t have to happen overnight. Maybe it means one or two less cigarettes every day to the point where finally stopping is a much easier thing to do.
Losing weight doesn’t have to mean setting a goal and then blaming yourself when you don’t reach it. Instead, focus on the process of making small changes toward healthier eating and congratulating yourself as you take positive steps in the desired direction.
Don’t blame yourself that you haven’t achieved those New Year’s resolution goals. And don’t give up on working toward positive achievements. Keep on trying, but do it in small, positive steps, and you’ll find you’ll eventually get to the positive results you desire.
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