CS Features – Expert Interviews, Guides, Professional Advocacy & Research in Counseling

One of the most effective tools you will use, as a counselor, is your self-awareness. In a therapeutic session, this perspective allows the counselor to question his or her own thoughts, feelings, and biases. Without this process, counselors may react to their own and their client’s subconscious programming.

Journaling is one self-care method counselors can recommend to their clients. Clients can use this tool on their own and incorporate these entries into a therapy session. Counselors refer to journaling in therapy as writing therapy, journal therapy or expressive art therapy.

Even though awareness and consideration have increased towards pet death sensitivity, there are many societal and cultural factors that do not support this type of grief. As a counselor, you need to be aware of this fact and offer supportive empathic counseling which helps your clients heal.

Transition is the self-actualizing process of aligning one’s external being with their internal sense of gender. This includes social transition like gender expression, legal transition like changing one’s name or pronouns on documentation, and physical transition like hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS).

Anyone who aspires to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) or a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) will inevitably take the National Counselor Examination (NCE). While each state has different licensure requirements, the NCE is a comprehensive test administered by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) and used throughout the United States.

While people can disagree about the potential for harm from AI, there is no arguing that AI is here, advancing rapidly, and poised to influence many aspects of life in ways that are currently unimaginable. The use of AI in psychotherapy is not some proposed future event but is here and now. To maximize usefulness and avoid hars, counselors should keep up-to-date on AI technologies and to the best of their abilities, take a proactive stance regarding ethical issues before they arise.

Exploring one’s sexuality or gender identity is, by its very nature, an existential pursuit. In fact, LGBTQ+ clients often seek out therapy to help make sense of their phenomenological experience.

Cultural competence was introduced in the 1980s by social workers and counseling psychologists as an approach to working successfully in multicultural contexts. Primarily concerned with learning about the cultures of those with whom we live and work through the examination of behaviors, attitudes, and policies, cultural competence was embraced by the healthcare community and has been used widely throughout the industry.

Too much caring without proper boundaries can cause emotional stress and strain on the counselor. Even with sufficient self-care measures, chronic day-to-day occupational stress can wear down even the most experienced professional.

The goal of BCI technology is to translate brain activity into actions or sensations. The technology picks up Signals from the brain and communicates via Bluetooth to a computer application. The application decodes the signals and translates them into actions, such as the movement of a cursor or prosthetic device.