Creativity in Counseling

Marianela Medrano-Marra

Marianela Medrano-Marra

As psychologist and author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi puts it, creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. It is “a process by which a symbolic domain in the culture is changed. New songs, new ideas, new machines are what creativity is about.” Everything in our surroundings is the result of inventiveness, of creativity. Csikszentmihalyi’s idea is that the creative process emerges in five steps: preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation and elaboration.

When we take a close look at what we do in counseling, we find the above five steps also, and we see the interfaith of creativity and the counseling process. At the core of the preparation step is awareness —becoming immersed, consciously or not, in a set of problematic issues that are interesting, that arouse curiosity, and that are usually the impetus that moves clients to seek us out. Most counselors strive to bring to clients’ awareness what is happening in their surroundings and how they are impacting what is happening. In the interaction of our observations and their awareness, incubation begins. We want to awaken clients’ sensitivity to the ways they interact with their environment, or to use Thich Nah Hanh’s language, how they are “interbeing” with the world.

Continue reading this post »

 

For Lucy

Pat Myers

Pat Myers

My husband and I recently made the heartbreaking decision to euthanize our eleven year old beloved dog Lucy. As we have grieved her loss the counselor part of me has been trying to make some sense of both the process of grief as well as psychological importance of the loss of a pet. I know all the research about how pets enhance our well-being. At this moment of loss the scales seem horribly tipped in favor of never experiencing this pain again.

One morning when I was feeling particularly sad about Lucy I remembered a client from years ago. This woman sought counseling following the death of both a parent and a sibling. She spoke powerfully of the months she had cared for her mother as she died. She stoically described caring for her brother as he too faced death just a few short months later. Then her eyes filled with tears and she began to sob as she spoke of the loss of her dog. She alternately expressed grief and foolishness. “Why should I be crying like this? He was just a dog! Right?” This sentiment is the crux of why more people do not disclose to their therapists or anyone else, the heartbreak of losing a pet.

Continue reading this post »

 

Using the Holland Codes to Help Understand the Whole Client

Kevin Stoltz

Kevin Stoltz

By now, if you have been keeping up with my blogs, you realize that I focus much of my work into career counseling. But, as I have argued in the past, I advocate for no division between mental health and career counseling. Given this position, it would follow that I would write a blog about the usefulness of the Holland coding system in understanding clients from more than a strictly career perspective. My experiences as an employee assistance (EAP) counselor really helped me to understand that Holland (1992) intended these typologies to represent more than interests and a career personality. I have found that the types help me understand the persons’ approach to life.

Continue reading this post »

 

Part II: Pets in practice: Can they really be co-therapists?

Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
-Maya Angelou, poet (1928- )

As humans, I believe we often give ourselves a little too much credit, believing that only we, the superior species, can be helpful to others. Though anecdotally were hearing more and more stories about pets stepping up and offering a paw and consequently, research is backing this up. It seems we can accept a dogs service for sniffing out bombs or drugs, but thats where the service line is drawn.

Continue reading this post »

 

So Near and Yet so Far: The State of Cultural Competence Training

Stacee Reicherzer

Stacee Reicherzer

Cultural competencies- how far we’ve come! There are so many real and transforming learning experiences being shared within ACA- this is a truly amazing time in our evolution as a profession. Yet, I also wonder this- at what point do we transform multicultural training so that, outside of the multicultural counseling class that is standard in all master’s level courses, it can be something other than an end-of-chapter or end-of-book quickie? It’s as if an author is saying “Oops, before we go- let’s spend a few moments talking about (fill in the blank) theories/ethics/group counseling in work with (fill in the blank) special populations/minorities/women’s issues.” Often, these add-ins seem to be only means by which authors or editors can produce a new edition (and more money!) with minimal effort (and I do mean, minimal!)

Continue reading this post »

 

Power in Counselor Education

Ken Oliver

Ken Oliver

As many of you may be well aware, a prominent counselor educator at a prestigious institution was recently accused of having sexual relationships with several current and former counseling students. Just “process” that sentence for a couple of seconds.

Now, unfortunately my first response was not of outrage or disgust, but rather of wonder about how much this actually occurs within academia and, more specifically, within the field of counselor education. The ACA code of ethics clearly states that within counselor education, “Sexual or romantic interactions or relationships with current students are prohibited.” But then, being my annoyingly inquisitive self, I wondered, “what in the world does ‘current’ mean?” Does it mean currently enrolled in a course that semester, or does it mean currently a student in the program, or does it mean students who have been enrolled but may be on hiatus? Well, maybe “clearly” isn’t the right word…maybe we need to polish this up a bit.

Continue reading this post »