Expanding the Use of Technology in Career Counseling: A Tool for Crossing Cultures

Kevin Stoltz

Kevin Stoltz

Too many times I have limited my thinking of the use of technology in career counseling to the administration of assessments, job search services, and career research strategies. Recently, I was confronted with a much more difficult case and was able to bridge a cultural gap by using several tools available on the internet during my meeting with this international individual. I was able to learn a great deal on how to utilize technology to fill in communication gaps regarding a language and cultural barrier.

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Making Paws-itive Changes in Incarcerated Youth

Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson

Those of us who work within the realm of animal assisted therapy often see the effects that an animal can make on a struggling client, patient, student or resident. Animal assisted therapy makes an exceptional adjunct to traditional modes of therapy…even for some of the most challening cases. Angela Sabin Veek, started PAWSitive Changes when she was staff at a youth corrections facility in Oregon. PAWSitive Changes strives to reach youth and dogs in need by pairing incarcerated youth with shelter dogs for the benefit of both. The idea to start the program began she asked the question, “How can you make a youth care about something when they have nothing to lose?”

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Beneficence

Pat Myers

Pat Myers

As I review textbooks on ethical, legal, and professional issues within the counseling profession I see almost identical lists of virtues and ethics that are the foundations of the profession. These lists all include the moral principles of justice, fidelity, and veracity. As counselors, we all know that a primary objective is nonmaleficence: to do no harm. The counterpoint to this principle of doing no harm is the principle of beneficence. Beneficence means to do good (a word with many meanings), and to promote well-being and health. Theodore Remley and Barbara Herlihy state “It could be argued that the obligation of ordinary citizens in our society ends with doing no harm to others, whereas professionals have a higher obligation to provide a service that benefits society. Thus, counselors actively do good or are helpful and work to promote the mental health and wellness of their clients”.

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Struggles and hope in an inner-city school

Robyne Stone-Davis

Robyne Stone-Davis

“Walk, please.” “Set a leadership example.” “Make an intelligent choice to walk instead of run down the hallway.” These are Responsive Classroom phrases I use in order to encourage safe school-wide behavior. The two students slow down, smile and say “Hi Ms. Robyne” as they pass by. I work as a counselor and dance/movement therapist at a Washington, DC public charter school. The school serves both special and general education K-8th grade students. In many of my sessions, I receive honest, humbling answers to everyday questions. For example, I casually ask a fifth grade girl (whose shirt has not been washed for days), “How is your Mom?” She turns her head away and responds softly, “Ms. Robyne, my Mom stays in bed all day.” I mention to a lethargic fourth grade student, “What did you have for dinner?” Her barely audible answer is “We don’t have enough food in the house.” I asked three sixth grade boys in a counseling session to identify male role models in their home life. They laugh and say “I don’t have any male role models at home.” When encouraging a seventh grader to think of times that she has been successful, she shrugs her shoulders and states “I haven’t had any.”

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The Counselor as Observer

Marianela Medrano-Marra

Marianela Medrano-Marra

Shifting from the laptop screen my eyes glance at the family of cardinals landing on the deck, one after the other, forming a red line, to then disperse in a disorderly manner. Their perky crests sticking up proudly, chests open, confidently pecking the seeds stuck between the boards, while a few finches dance their way around the openings in the hanging feeder. I push the computer aside to give the birds my undivided attention. A family of blue jays, five of them, arrives, and the cardinals fly away. The blue jays establish supremacy, and the finches too depart. One blue jay ventures so close to the glass door that I can see how the blue darkens in a circle around the neck, the wings and tail spotted with white and light blue. In the distance, I hear other jays singing out their dominant call. The visiting jay finds its way around, hopping from one end of the deck to the other, until a red-bellied woodpecker bullies it away. Not content with pecking at the suet feeder hanging to the left, the woodpecker flits to the cylinder feeder, and once again chases away the finches, who had ever so stubbornly returned. I look in ecstasy at the gleaming red cap, the slender body and the long beak and feast on the privilege of my seat.

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Using Occupational Images in Career Counseling: A Return to Yesteryear

Kevin Stoltz

Kevin Stoltz

Okay, every adult had a childhood and in that childhood we used to play. Many of those play themes had to do with work. Specifically, I played with cars under a large tree in our backyard. Much of the play themes centered on me traveling from house to house visiting people and building lakes and bridges. We also daydreamed and had specific characters from books, movies, or television that had special meaning for us. One of mine from early childhood was the Lone Ranger (Yes, I am old enough to have watched the series in black and white on a real black and white television!). But, I digress. The meaning of the Lone Ranger had special significance to me. I saw this man as an ethical person that was concerned about the world and society from which he came. However, there was a down side to his drastic independence; he had very little connection to the society that he spent his life trying to protect. In many ways I lived this theme in my early work life.

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What do you DO for a living?

Ken Oliver

Ken Oliver

I learned a long time ago not to offer information about what I do for a living. In fact, nowadays I find myself giving as little information as possible when asked. To paint the picture, I’ve been a Licensed Professional Counselor since the ripe old age of 22. Now that you’re done gasping, I’ll continue. You could only imagine the puzzled looks I received when I would proudly respond to that inevitable question, “So, what do you do?” The nonverbal reaction usually spoke much louder than the words that would follow. YOU? A COUNSELOR? Hmm!

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Talking Textures of Spirituality in a Group of African-American Counseling Students

Stacee Reicherzer

Stacee Reicherzer

The greatest teachable moments I have as a counselor educator are those that my students and I have together. The particular moment that I’m writing about occurred last summer in a group skills development. The group was comprised of 15 students, 10 of whom were women of African-American or of mixed African-American descent. Of the other students, one was from a Latin American country and the others were White and from the U.S (I’ll get to why this is important, later).

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