Guides to Counseling Careers & Other Resources

Within the counseling profession, there is a need for comprehensive and authoritative resources. These guides help current and prospective counselors find scholarships, loan forgiveness programs, and other types of support in these growing careers.

Busting Myths of Non-monogamy

Calendar Icon 02/21/24 Alex Stitt, LMHC

Consensual non-monogamy (CNM), also known as ethical non-monogamy (ENM), includes many different relationship formations, often called polycules. There is no single template for what a polycule looks like, or how a polycule operates, since there are many possible combinations of people, personalities, and relationship styles.

How to Teach Client Responsibility

Calendar Icon 02/20/24 Lisa Hutchison, LMHC

Some clients begin therapy without learning healthy boundaries or taking responsibility for their actions. For many, their behaviors are a reflection of the abusive systems they were raised in. Abusive systems teach a skewed perception of responsibility through blame and shame. These circumstances do not take away the need for personal responsibility but offer an understanding to counselors who encounter these behaviors. A part of therapy will be to hold the space, validate these experiences, and teach clients personal responsibility.

How Could Artificial Intelligence (AI) Be Used in Psychotherapy & Counseling?

Calendar Icon 02/14/24 Laura Freberg, PhD

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.

How School Counselors Can Address the Youth Mental Health Crisis

Calendar Icon 01/22/24 Matt Zbrog

America is experiencing a mental health crisis, and mental health struggles amongst the nation’s youth are intensifying. Student mental health is in a precarious place, with children and teens exposed to more information, more social contact, and more discord than ever before. The student mental health crisis is pervasive.

5 Statistics That Explain the Current Teen Mental Health Crisis

Calendar Icon 01/19/24 Dom DiFurio

Over the past few years, teens have experienced an alarming increase in mental illness in the U.S. The 2010s, in particular, marked a decade of declining mental health capped off by the disruptive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. By 2022, national survey data from the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that around one in every five adolescents suffered from a major depressive episode in the previous year, continuing an upward trend in depression that began around 2013.

2024 School Counselor of the Year Winner & Finalists

Calendar Icon 01/10/24 Matt Zbrog

Each year, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) selects five school counselors who exemplify why we need the profession now more than ever, and from those five, one winner is selected. The School Counselor of the Year Selection Committee includes principals, school counselors, and representatives from education-related organizations.

Vaping is Finally on a Downward Trend in Schools

Calendar Icon 12/28/23 Ali Hickerson

The allure of e-cigarette usage for high schoolers is waning, according to newly published survey data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Electronic cigarettes, also known as vapes, entered the U.S. marketplace around 2007. The use of e-cigarettes surged by 900 percent among middle and high school students between 2011 and 2015, according to a report from the office of former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy.

Music Therapy and Music-based Interventions for Older Adults

Calendar Icon 12/20/23 Lisa Hutchison, LMHC

Music is an effective tool to bring forth strong emotions from the past. Sometimes clients cannot find the words to express what they feel in a counseling session but can choose, sing, or play a song.

How Mental Health Counselors Can Help Clients Examine Gender Labels

Calendar Icon 12/18/23 Alex Stitt, LMHC

For those who grew up with a binary definition of men and women, it can be quite confusing to encounter people who don’t fit these categories. Not only are sex and gender different, there’s an entire planet of cultural gender constructs to wrap one’s head around. On top of this, language is polysemic and definitions overlap, meaning that trans and nonbinary people may use gender labels differently.

2024 Guide to Counseling Scholarships

Calendar Icon 12/08/23 Matt Zbrog

The cost of undergraduate and graduate programs has grown significantly more expensive over the last decade, and salaries haven’t kept pace. Many aspiring counselors turn to scholarships to reduce their financial burden and focus on getting the training they need.