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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Counselors can help transracial and transnational adoptees heal the wounds from separation and being raised in an all-white world.
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
When It's Time To Take Action
Most of us have few hesitations about taking actions to correct life's small problems. We might complain about poor restaurant service, return yesterday's defective purchase, or visit our doctor about a troubling health issue.
But are we are ready and willing to take action when the problem we're facing turns out to be the actual life we're living?
Too often our response to real life issues and disappointments is to simply push them aside, or to feel sorry and depressed that things aren't going right. Unfortunately, allowing yourself to wallow in anger or blame or feelings of helplessness when life isn't giving you all you expect from it, doesn't fix anything. Instead, you need to turn such feelings into positive energy to help in building the better life you desire.
A starting point is simply sitting down with yourself and identifying what things have you feeling that your life isn't working out the way you once planned. While the realities of daily living often take a toll on the optimistic visions we all once had, you need not surrender totally to the problems and shortcomings you face.
Instead, you can begin to take small steps toward living the life you really want. One step is simply finding your own voice. It's necessary to be able to express your feelings when things are disappointing you. Speaking up doesn't mean that you're being selfish or overbearing. You simply want to be honest and to have others better understand what's troubling you.
If the demands of an overly-busy schedule don't leave you time for people and events that would make you feel more positive about your life, learn to say, "No" when necessary. Your aim should be for the changes, even small ones, which help you move toward the life you want.
Identify your strengths and interests and then put time into nourishing them. Begin by taking one daily action that moves you closer to your desired life. It can be something simple, like rewriting your resume, cleaning out old files or a cluttered closet, or reconnecting with an old friend.
Your goal is to create an overall balance in your life. A life that is too busy often ends up without room for those people and activities that can help you better connect with the real you.
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