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

Joining a counseling profession is about more than understanding licensing requirements and reading step-by-step guides. This is a profession committed to continued education, listening, and learning. To be a successful counselor or therapist, you have to be engaged with and aware of the larger conversations in the community.

Whether you are just starting your counseling career or already working in the field, CS features cover topics relevant to you. It holds scholarship and resource guides, expert interviews, tips for avoiding burnout and compassion fatigue, discussions of the latest academic research, and detailed analyses of the most pressing advocacy issues within counseling professions. Overall, we bring you into the conversation around the biggest issues in counseling and professions today.

The Growing Demand for Bilingual Substance Use Counselors in the U.S.

Calendar Icon 03/28/24 Jill Jaracz

Society’s focus on destigmatizing substance use and mental health conditions while providing better treatment plans has helped millions of people pursue care. Still, counseling is tough for some because they can’t find anyone who understands or speaks their language.

Why Most Americans Who Need Substance Use Disorder Treatment Don’t Get It

Calendar Icon 03/26/24 Ali Hickerson

More than 39 million adults with a substance use disorder did not receive treatment in 2022, according to the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Nearly 95 percent of those not receiving treatment didn’t believe they needed help—but for 1.8 million adults who thought they did, barriers to treatment left them unwilling or unable to get support.

Counseling Awareness Month 2024 – Five Trends to Watch in the Field

Calendar Icon 03/22/24 Nina Chamlou

As the need for diversely skilled mental health professionals continues to grow, counselors are increasingly being recognized and celebrated for their role in supporting the mental healthcare needs of the public. New movements and regulatory changes are being introduced to make way for the future of the modern counselor.

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.