The Penn State community has been rocked by tragic allegations of the worst kind. Our collective hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to victims of sexual abuse in our community and in every community. The allegations have exposed locally what is a global issue that needs serious and immediate attention by all of us. One [...]

It’s easy for some people to see that individuals who commit the heinous act of child sexual abuse are monsters. But human problems seldom, if ever, occur in isolation. Rather, they usually occur in context. And so is the case of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. According to linguist and social activist Noam [...]

The American Counseling Association is initiating the process of revising the ACA Code of Ethics and invites interested members to submit an application to serve on the Ethics Revision Task Force. The deadline is May 15th. The task force will be comprised of 8-10 individuals who will spend approximately three years revising the code with [...]

“Dear Colleagues, We have returned from Haiti after serving in a clinic that is run by a religious organization, Partners in Development. This clinic is located in Blanchard, the poorest of poor communities outside Port au Prince. In one week, the clinic with one Haitian doctor and American nurses, who are like Florence Nightingales, served [...]

Time seems to pass by quickly as we train professionals about psychosocial needs and reactions after a disaster. We have trained various professionals who consistently apply the information to their personal and professional lives. Each group has been great to work with as we engage them in various activities, from doing grounding techniques to peer [...]

You’re a counselor, so I know you’ve had the experience of listening to someone with your complete attention. But have you ever had someone listen to you with complete attention? I trust you have. It felt great, didn’t it? So how would you feel if you had about 80 people listening to you with complete [...]

On January 21, I was sent to Haiti by the American Red Cross (ARC) on a special assignment. Having 17 years of experience as a Disaster Mental Health Volunteer for the ARC I have been deployed to over 25 national disaster relief operations and worked extensively with my local ARC Chapters so I know a [...]

On Friday (2/12/2010), three ACA staff headed into still snowmageddoned Washington DC for the release of the long-awaited Institute of Medicine (IOM) TRICARE study. With reports of three hour commutes into DC on the first day of post-snowpocalypse work, we had every reason to back out of attending the meeting. But this report was just [...]