A Legal Beagle: Using service dogs in the court room

Posted on February 4, 2010, 10:35 am | 115 views | No comments
Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson

We won’t see a dog practicing law any time soon, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see one in the courtroom. In fact, the practice is becoming more commonplace. Service dogs in the courtroom have been shown to be beneficial in breaking down the barriers of fear, distrust and anxiety, says one prosecutor, in order to get to the truth. Service dogs, offering unwavering emotional support and unconditional affection, can be useful in securing testimony from worried witnesses who might repudiate testifying against their known attacker.

Continue reading this post »

 

Get Thee to a Math Class!

Posted on February 2, 2010, 12:53 pm | 104 views | No comments
Pat Myers

Pat Myers

A simple headline in the Sunday newspaper caught my eye this morning. The headline states: “Girls may learn math anxiety from teachers”. Having struggled with math anxiety for most of my life and having seen many other women with similar struggles, I decided to dig a bit deeper into this study. Out of my frustration in high school math class I can remember foolishly thinking “I’ll never use this in my real life!” This is a contemporary problem as many girls see math as irrelevant to everyday problem solving. This current research was funded by the National Science foundation and completed by researchers from the University of Chicago. The researchers assessed the level of math anxiety in first and second grade teachers and looked at the relationship of math achievement and gender stereotypes. Ah gender stereotypes!

Continue reading this post »

 

Using Adlerian Concepts in Career Counseling: Part I

Posted on February 1, 2010, 4:46 pm | 107 views | No comments
Kevin Stoltz

Kevin Stoltz

When I speak of using Adlerian concepts in career counseling I tend to get very strange looks even from the Adlerian counselors. I just smile and yes, you heard me correctly! Adler did talk about work as one of the 3 life tasks and he recognized that work has a central social role for adults. Following this line of thinking some Adlerians developed concepts to assist individuals in career selection. McKelvie (1979) wrote about the practice of career and life planning from an Adlerian perspective. He discussed the role of assessing lifestyle and helping the client to make career decisions using elements from the lifestyle. Watkins (1984a) wrote an excellent article outlining the use of Adlerian concepts to create a theory of Adlerian counseling. This article outlined several principle corollaries that help organize the theory into a framework for understanding the use of Adlerian ideas in career development. A central tenant is how lifestyle interacts with career decision making and the social role of work.

Continue reading this post »

 

The Devil We Know and Health Care Reform or “How does knowing you don’t need to worry about having health insurance make you feel?”

Posted on January 28, 2010, 9:47 am | 104 views | No comments

I am not a counselor. Nevertheless, having worked as a lobbyist for the American Counseling Association for the past fourteen years, I’ve learned a little bit about how counseling works, and one of the tenets I’ve heard more than once is that change is scary. My recent work for ACA on health care policy bears this out in spades.

Continue reading this post »

 

Transforming Sorrow into Hope…Haiti

Posted on January 27, 2010, 1:19 pm | 196 views | No comments
Marianela Medrano-Marra

Marianela Medrano-Marra

“We must all face the fact that we are very precariously suspended in life: we have a very slender foothold on the planet.” – Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

As I sit down and prepare to write this entry, a hawk circles outside against the blue sky. I marvel as it moves slowly, precisely, graciously cruising calmly in the waves of the wind. Unlike us, who stand precariously suspended amid chaos, change, and paradox, the hawk hovers and rides the wind. I get the message. I know that my entry today has something to do with standing still amid chaos, with transforming sorrow into hope and possibility.

Continue reading this post »

 

Aristotle and Cutie

Posted on January 27, 2010, 9:39 am | 92 views | No comments
Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson

As therapists, we are taught that who we are is based on the collection of our experiences. Aristotle said something like: as for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. This is often forgotten in todays society where we tell children how to consider others feelings and we tell our clients how to forgive, but really, these constructs are only truly understood when they are experienced. Using experiential learning assists in helping clients make meaning from their experiences. Id like to share a story about a 15 year old girl who is in a court-referred residential placement and a scrappy, black lab mix with whom she worked in a program at her facility.

Continue reading this post »

 

Can I get a little Respect?

Posted on January 26, 2010, 9:20 am | 116 views | No comments
Julie North

Julie North

I have been counseling for ten years and I have learned a thing or two in those ten years. I have learned to meet families, children and couples where they are. I have learned you can’t rush progress and probably the biggest gem is people only change when they are ready. I work with families who are in crisis constantly. A majority of my cases revolve around abuse and neglect issues. These families are dealing with long, long standing issues that likely date back to their parents and grandparents. Issues such as poverty, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, lack of transportation, substance abuse issues, incest and the list goes on.

Continue reading this post »

 

Treating Eating Disorders, Are we Being Lazy?

Posted on January 25, 2010, 2:32 pm | 187 views | 1 comment
Steve Bryson

Steve Bryson

I have in the past blogged a bit about eating disorders. Now I would like to climb on a soap box because I have had yet another mishandled client with an eating disorder. I don’t know if others would refer to me as an expert in the field of eating disorder treatment, but I do feel pretty conversant on the subject, and try to keep up with research (lets hear it for Pubmed). I am also aware that there sems to be some disagreement about the correct ways to treat these conditions. Few of us would disagree that the all too common E.R. intervention is unhelpful: “What is your problem? Are you so vain, so in love with your reflection that you would purposely do this to your family?” (actual quote from an E.R. physician).

Continue reading this post »

 
« Older Entries