Living Legends in Counseling Living Legends in Counselingfo Cu S Jennifer Lunde, NDCA President NDMHCA Division Report
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A publication of the north dakota counseling association volume 32, number 1 - April 2014 Inspiring Excellence in Counseling on NDCA what’s inside Living Legends in Counseling Living Legends in CounselingFo cu s Jennifer Lunde, NDCA President NDMHCA Division Report What Do People Want Most As part of my duties as President of NDCA, I had the opportunity In Their Jobs to attend the ACA Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. It certainly Staying Positively Positive seems more like a privilege than a duty, and honestly is was a privilege for again I was amongst the greats in counseling. My NDSCA Website Update previous conferences I attended, I was thrilled for the opportunity Participate in a Research to attend sessions with Yalom, Corey, and Ivey and because of my Study fascination with them I was anxious to have the prospect to be in How To Educate Your Clients On Managing Their Fears North Dakota Counseling Association Scholarship Recipients NDCA Award Recipients Counseling Practice Survey Supervision Basics Research Request How To Run Meetings People Actually Want To Attend What NOT To Say In An Interview ND DVR 2014 Teacher their presence again. The education session was “Living Legends Internship Project in Counseling: Personal Development and Professional Wisdom” ND DVR Summer Work with prominent authors, theoreticians, and practitioners including Experience Program Jon Carlson, Jeffrey A. Kottler, Howard Kirschenbaum, Gerald Continued on page 2 Living Lengends... Continued from page 1 Corey, Debbie Joffe Ellis, Robert E. Wubbolding, in was “What advice do you have for students and Marchetta Evans. It promised to be an in counseling?” Kottler again referred to intimate, revealing, honest and provocative finding your own voice and to stop imitating or discussion where our guests “walk their talk” and mimicking … interesting as Kottler was voicing practice in their personal lives what they teach this, the rest of the panel was nodding and others. interjecting how important it was to find what My time spent with them was well worth it theories, techniques, etc. fit for you, BUT to and confirmed why they are legends and why make them your own and find your own voice. we are in the profession of counseling. The first Again similar to Kottler, Howie’s advice was to question was “What’s your legacy you hope trust your instincts and learn to trust ourselves. to be remembered for?” Corey used comedy Bob used the analogy of a basketball game, and to answer this question and revealed he is just how we are a member of a team and to focus glad he is a living legacy vs a dead one. Debbie on the positive teammates and cheering and not Ellis was so very passionate about her work in the 5 negative opponents against you. Debbie REBT and had said she does her best to do no encouraged us to help people help themselves harm, contribute positively, and practice what and to look for ways to give hope to our clients she preaches. Bob quoted Cousins “lighten the … be with, listen, and feel with our clients. Corey burden of another human being” and to make was adamant we take care of ourselves and do a difference in someone’s life. Howie wanted our own work, including taking care of our own to be remembered for promoting Carl Rogers … demons. He encouraged us to find our passions person centered, unconditional positive regard, and dream the impossible dream. congruence, empathy, the relationship. I found it so interesting that all of the legends in counseling were still so unpretentious and felt they yet had so much to learn and work to do. Their years and years of experience had built a wealth of knowledge and expertise and still were so very humble. I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you as president and I hope I can do as much justice to the profession of counseling as our living legends have. And my personal favorite…Jeffrey Kottler thought he would be remembered for talking about the forbidden, the power of relationships, and his personal motive to understand. He went on to encourage us to find our own voice. The other question I found much edification 2 NDMHCA Division Report This year NDMHCA and NDSCA collaborated on our website (ndmhca.org) and featuring in hosting the pre-conference at Bismarck Public monthly profiles of our board members. We also School’s Career Academy Center on Bismarck invite new members or prospective members to State College’s campus. The speaker was Dr. attend our annual luncheon to learn more about Stephen Wonderlich from Fargo, ND. He talked our organization, meet current members, and about the effects of trauma and its relation to learn about leadership opportunities. eating disorders and self-injurious behavior. We had 116 attendees. The evaluations and Jen Eberle, LPC comments indicated that the audience enjoyed NDMHCA President the speaker and the new location. We have discussed collaborating with NDSCA again next year pending the topic of the conference which has yet to be determined. Our service project this year was the Treatment Collaborative for What Do People Want Traumatize Youth. Our new officers elected this year include our Most In Their Jobs? new President -Elect, Rebecca Salinas; Awards 1. Recognition for a job well done and Silent Auction, Dan Sturgill; and Member at 2. A healthy work environment Large is Geraldine Cariveau. Gaylynn Becker was 3. Meaningful work honored with the Outstanding Mental Health 4. Responsibility Counselor Award. 5. Accountability At our annual luncheon we discussed strategic 6. Equitable compensation planning to lobby Medicare reimbursement for 7. The chance to learn mental health counselors and more employment 8. The opportunity to do great work opportunities at VA hospitals to our state 9. Understanding representatives. It is important that our counselors 10. The chance to work with interesting, in rural areas are able to bill Medicare and motivated, and responsible people whose Medicaid to address the needs of the elderly and personal and professional goals are in line poor populations in rural communities where with yours! www.prairiebizmag.com licensed clinical counselors may be the only mental health provider in that community. We Pam Schorsch-ND Employment Counselors also discussed how to increase membership. Association To attract more members, we will be trying to reach out through our website, social media, and talking with potential members about the benefits of being involved in their state professional organizations. We will be posting more updates 3 Staying Positively Positive Happy Spring! Ok, so as this article title Then we can say, “See, I told you so.” But who says, I’m trying to be positive. Spring will come wins in this scenario? eventually…I promise. Developing a positive attitude toward yourself Another NDCA MidWinter Conference has and the world around you comes through come and gone, filled with wonderful speakers challenging the negative thought patterns you and enjoyable networking experiences. I take have developed over the years and accepting away many gems from each conference, and the positive messages that others send your way. one of those gems sticking with me this year When you are thinking negative thoughts about is the keynote presentation by Dr. Wicks. His yourself, stop and ask yourself, “Would I say this message was full of insights as to what we should to a close friend who was a lot like me and had be doing on a daily basis to keep ourselves a similar problem?” Another helpful technique whole, resilient, and healthy. It made me think is to do a cost-benefit analysis by asking, “How of how easy it is for negative thoughts to creep in will it help me to believe this negative thought and take over, especially during our long, hard and how will it hurt me?” I often ask clients winters. As counselors, we know what to do to how worry helps them to change a situation. combat negative or irrational thinking. But do The answer is often, “It doesn’t.” But worry can we always practice what we preach? cause a lot of hurt, waste time and energy, and Growing up in the Midwest, I was always negatively impact your relationships. taught that being humble is a virtue. But how Why are we so hard on ourselves? Many of many of us hear humble and have decided that us show compassion to others every day, but if means we can never accept a compliment and we make one misstep, we find it hard to show must be self-depreciating on a daily basis, or we ourselves compassion. As Kristin Neff, author of may *gasp* become too proud? What happens the book “Self-Compassion”, writes, “Who ever after years of hearing ourselves and others remind said you were supposed to be perfect?...Having us to “not get a big head”? We develop negative compassion for yourself means that you honor thinking patterns that lead to feeling anxious, and accept your humanness. Things will not depressed, and critical of ourselves. As we all always go the way you want them to. You will know, our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves encounter frustrations, losses will occur, you will are directly tied to our feelings. So if we think make mistakes… This is the human condition, a negatively about ourselves, how do we expect to reality shared by all of us. The more you open have a positive attitude toward our own ability to your heart to this reality instead of constantly be happy, healthy, and successful? fighting against it, the more you will be able to We all struggle with irrational beliefs.