The Ingredients of Great Counseling
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The ingredients of great counseling Also inside • Understanding bulimic dissociation • Brief counseling in the trauma unit • Another view of evidence-based practice • ACA, Division, Region election information ACA 2013 Conference & Expo • March 21-24 • Cincinnati (Pre-Conference Learning Institutes March 20-21) CounselingTodayDecember 2012 Cover Story 26 The recipe for truly great counseling Compiled by Lynne Shallcross Many of today’s leading counselors say it pays to never stop examining which ingredients are truly vital to the essence and effectiveness of counseling. Features 26 34 Knowledge Share Understanding bulimic dissociation to create new pathways for change By Rebecca Heselmeyer & Eric W. Cowan Given the extensive research on eating disorders, motivated clients and a gold standard treatment — cognitive behavior therapy — it is perplexing that recidivism rates remain so high for bulimia. 34 38 Knowledge Share Alcohol screening and brief counseling interventions for trauma unit patients By Nathaniel N. Ivers & Laura J. Veach Naysayers question whether anyone will really make changes to their drinking habits after just one counseling session, but there is growing evidence that counselors and their unique set of skills can provide an invaluable service in hospital trauma units. 38 42 Opinion A new view of evidence-based practice By Stanley B. Baker Do a larger volume of counseling practice evaluations need to be addressed via the action research paradigm and conducted by counselor practitioners? Extras 46 ACA, Division & Region election information Contents December 2012 | Counseling Today | 3 CounselingTodDecembera 2012y Columns ACA 9 Washington Update 10 Counselor, Educator, Advocate Celebrating 60 years 12 Learning Curve: Notes From a Novice 60 years The American Counseling Association has been celebrating its 60th 14 Through a Glass Darkly anniversary as an organization throughout 2012. The following items appeared in Counseling Today between 2001 and 2010: 18 Counselor Career Stories n ACA establishes a “new professional” membership category, with the goal of making association membership more affordable for recent 20 Private Practice Strategies graduates just starting out in the counseling profession. (February 2001) n By a unanimous vote of the Governing Council, the Association 22 Recent Book Releases for Creativity in Counseling becomes the newest division of ACA. The purpose of ACC is to create a forum for counselor educators and 24 Risk Management for Counselors practitioners to explore creative means of facilitating relational movement and therapeutic change within a counseling setting. (October 2004) n The 2005 ACA Code of Ethics is released after a years-long revision process. The updated code puts emphasis on multicultural and diversity Need to Know issues facing counselors, addresses a paradigm shift concerning dual or multiple relationships, adds a section discussing end-of-life care for terminally ill clients and broadens ethical use of technology in research, 5 From the President record keeping and provision of services to clients. (October 2005) n ACA is one of only six organizations to receive a Summit Award in 7 Executive Director’s Message the Associations Advance America Awards program for its Hurricane Katrina relief effort, which included issuing a call to its 43,000 members 8 Letters to the Editor to provide disaster mental health services in the Gulf Coast region. ACA sent 20 percent of the total number of deployed mental health 44 NBCC Perspective counselors to the Gulf Coast after the devastating hurricanes of 2005. (July and August 2006) 97 CT Learning Test n Delegates to 20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling, an initiative spearheaded by ACA and the American Association of State Division, Region & Branch News Counseling Boards, release Principles for Unifying and Strengthening the 98 Profession, a document that identifies seven principles critical to moving the counseling profession forward. Among the principles are sharing 100 Bulletin Board a common professional identity and creating a portability system for counselor licensure. (November 2008) 101 Classifieds n The counseling profession realizes a historic victory more than 30 years in the making when California becomes the 50th and final state to license counselors as master’s-degreed mental health professionals. Virginia was the first state to enact counselor licensure in 1976. (November 2009) n The 20/20 delegation, representing more than 30 organizations with an interest in counseling, reaches a consensus definition of counseling: Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education and career goals. (June 2010) 4 | ct.counseling.org | December 2012 From The President CounselingToday Counseling Today Staff Raising the bar: Publisher Richard Yep The power of Associate Publisher Carol Neiman standardization Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Rollins Bradley T. Erford 800.347.6647 ext. 339 y travels recently took me and various required exams — from [email protected] to Malaysia, a beautiful state to state. With such disparate, Associate Editor and Senior Writer country with an incredibly unstandardized licensure requirements, M Lynne Shallcross diverse culture and perhaps the happiest, it has become a challenge to achieve 800.347.6647 ext. 320 most resilient and fun-loving people I three critical professional issues: a) [email protected] have ever had the privilege of meeting. As licensure portability, b) unification of the I learned about the status of counseling counseling profession and c) convincing Staff Writer and how it has evolved there over the insurance and governmental entities that Heather Rudow past 20 years, I felt like I had fallen all counselors from different states are 800.347.6647 ext. 307 through the looking glass and emerged equivalently trained for clinical practice. [email protected] from the rabbit hole into an upside- ACA is a membership organization, Senior Graphic Designer down world. You see, in Malaysia there and we advocate for employment Carlos J. Soto II is no licensure for psychologists or social opportunities for all of our members. 800.347.6647 ext. 377 workers — only for counselors. The Our position is that states determine a [email protected] Malaysian government passed the 1997 counselor’s required level of qualification Counsellors Act, a title and practice for licensure or certification — regardless Contributing Writer act for professional counselors, to help of how diverse those requirements have Stacy Notaras Murphy address mental health and other societal become. Advertising Representative issues. Given that I was a counselor and Recently, the U.S. government has Kathy Maguire advocate who helped fight the licensure created a great deal of concern and 607.662.4451 and assessment wars in the United States, consternation for many counselors and [email protected] imagine my surprise when psychologists counselors-in-training. The Department approached me to solicit support for of Defense and the Department of psychology licensure in Malaysia! I Veterans Affairs have made decisions that CT Column Editors politely declined. place counselor education and training Washington Update Malaysia’s top-down, national provisions into regulations that are at the Scott Barstow counselor law accomplished in one fell high end of the qualification continuum. Counselor Career Stories swoop what it took us more than 30 These regulations also are likely to soon Rebecca Daniel-Burke years to accomplish in the United States influence proposed Medicare laws and — licensure in every state. I was more regulations that would allow counselors Private Practice Strategies than a bit envious. The experience made to provide mental health services Anthony Centore me reflect on the continuing struggles independently. New Perspectives we are encountering at home. In the In 2005, to address the license Donjanea Fletcher Williams United States, it is each state’s right and portability and professional identity responsibility to determine how best issues, and in anticipation of the federal The Digital Psyway to protect the public through licensure standards issue, ACA and the American Marty Jencius regulations. The American Counseling Association of State Counseling Boards Learning Curve: Notes From a Novice Association championed counselor initiated 20/20: A Vision for the Future Suze Hirsh licensure initiatives in all 50 states, plus of Counseling, a consortium of 31 Through a Glass Darkly U.S. territories, and finally made this counseling organizations charged with Shannon Hodges goal a reality within the past few years. charting a course for the profession. The But several unintended consequences organizations participating in 20/20 Risk Management for Counselors have resulted, including widely varying have already reached consensus on seven Anne Marie “Nancy” Wheeler licensure requirements — 36-60 graduate credits, 1,500-4,500 training hours Continued on page 90 December 2012 | Counseling Today | 5 New Edition! Assessment in Counseling: A Guide to the Use of Psychological Assessment Procedures, Fifth Edition Danica G. Hays “Danica Hays has skillfully and thoroughly updated and broadened this textbook, which we authored through the first four editions. She has made a number of improvements to help instructors convey this information to students and we are confident that this will remain a widely used