Transitioning to Future Post-Secondary Education

Posted by: Tanya Levy on April 29, 2015 11:40 am

Today I have had several students stand at my door and ask questions about future programs. One student said she was looking for a guide to point her in the right direction. We chatted for a few moments and I told her that transitioning is like a process of discovery and there is no wrong way to go about it. We discussed beginning steps for her exploration and a time to check in again with what she learned.

Supporting students with making decisions for future post-secondary education is a transitioning process. It involves reflecting on successes to date and how those successes may provide a pathway to the future. Evidence gathering in a portfolio of transcripts, learning narratives and information on programs of interest can be a place to start. On a deeper level students or applicants need permission to discover. Discovery involves asking questions that promote self-awareness as well as information gathering on future programs and careers. Helping students create questions can be helpful. Questions about future programs can cover several topics including: potential costs, admission requirements, waiting lists, length of program and future employment prospects. I encourage students to ask about additional program requirements such as specialized courses or practicums. Some students learn about their future through assessment taking and online research. Other students do best with in person interviews and volunteering.
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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

The Increasing Importance of Mental Health Professionals in the School Setting

Posted by: Peter Persad on April 28, 2015 12:00 pm

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The disturbing and tragic news a few days ago in Barcelona, Spain unfortunately serves as a reminder of the necessity of mental health practitioners in our schools. (“Crossbow attack kills teacher, wounds four others at Barcelona school” The Globe and Mail, April 20, 2015) Indeed, as I learned at the Mental Health Symposium sponsored by the British Columbia Principals and Vice-Principals Association in October of 2014, “Mental Health is the #1 issue facing children today as stress, anxiety and depression have become increasingly prevalent in the lives of children today.” As an educator for the last 20 years with 5 years as a school counsellor and 7 as an administrator, I can attest to this alarming trend first-hand. More and more children, it seems, are having difficulty functioning in schools and ultimately in a broader social context. Studies have shown that fully 50% of mental health issues begin by age 15 and that, if treated appropriately and early enough, 70% of these issues may be mitigated to the point where they will not have a lasting impact during adulthood. For me, this engenders a very clear responsibility on both federal and provincial governments to create structures in our schools that deal specifically with adolescent mental health. Indeed, I believe that schools are the best places to deal with this issue as professionals within the schools enjoy a unique advantage in their ability to see children on a daily basis and develop the essential baseline behavioural data. Furthermore, as respected professionals who deal with children on a regular basis, we have the opportunity to be effective and to help children and families get the care they need so as to offset the detrimental impact of mental illness and possibly avoid the all-too-frequent tragedies that seem to plague our schools. Having both a counselling background and the skillset of a certified counsellor as a school-based administrator has been extremely beneficial to me in helping students and their families who are struggling with mental illness. We will need more professionals with this background and skillset working with in our schools if we are to adequately address the needs of our students.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Walking our Walk…When Counsellors Don’t DO as they SAY

Posted by: Siri Brown on April 27, 2015 12:00 pm

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I will admit it – I have had several moments in my past counselling experience where I found myself giving feedback that I, myself, could probably have taken. Whether it was managing negative thinking, using healthier coping skills or just eating more mindfully, I could have “walked the walk” a bit better than I was.

Set boundaries. Set goals. Avoid toxic people. Use “I” statements. Identify your values. Understand and soothe your inner critic. All helpful psychological tools we can use to work towards greater self-awareness and personal growth.

Yet how are WE doing? Yeah, us – the “professionals” who have made personal growth our business.

Interesting question…

As far as I’m concerned, we fall on a significantly broad continuum in this regard. Personally, I’ve met counsellors who’ve struggled with addictions, Major Depression Disorder or Bordeline Personality Disorder; presented as highly defensive, passive-aggressive, or traumatized. I’ve heard from clients about various transgressions of boundaries or negligence from their counsellors, and from counsellors about their out-of-control or toxic colleagues.

We’re human. We all make mistakes. But how can we strive to uphold our ethical code of conduct while allowing ourselves an understandable slip now and then? Where do we draw the line so we can honestly say we are doing our best to work in alignment with our values and professional expectations?

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Maybe Every Therapist Should or Could

Posted by: Barry D'Souza on April 24, 2015 12:05 pm

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I’m not sure how it works for others, but for me, being and feeling a part of a community of like-minded therapists on a journey of experiential learning and good fellowship is an important thing. I am referring to the mindfulness meditation group that I meet with the second Friday evening of every month. Therapists in other cities maybe doing similarly already – they call it ‘convergent evolution’ – but, if they aren’t already, I put it out there as something to consider.

Here’s how it’s been looking so far these first few months. Each in our group of ten take a turn hosting. The host mcees the evening and introduces whatever suggestions for ritual they’d like to put in place. After a number of meetings now we’ve adopted a basic structure for how we like to do the evening. We begin with meditation for fifteen-twenty minutes. Always so nice after a busy week, I have to say. We then breath into a ‘mindful sharing of the moment’ check-in, that is surely guided by the spontaneous impression, perhaps gestalt, of the moment that emerges. Being therapists it is not hard to imagine that there is a level of open and natural sharing of ‘what’s up’. Most of us can’t but help ourselves here. We meditate a second time for twenty minutes. Share ‘mindfully’ a second time, this time usually with a guiding theme, question or consideration. We then meditate a third time before we smile a deep inner satisfaction, and move into the closing of the evening – the mindful ‘breaking of a little bread’, potluck style. This past group we ate in mindful silence!

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Non-Verbals in Session

Posted by: Andrea Cashman on April 23, 2015 10:21 am

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Approximately 90 per cent of communication is exchanged non-verbally and most of that is done in an unconscious way. We use 30 of our 90 facial muscles to convey non-verbal communication (www.counsellingconnection.com) The body’s innate intelligence is an untapped resource in psychotherapy (www.sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org).

You have learnt about non-verbal communication in your counselling graduate studies. It is an essential skill to be able to pick up on subtle non-verbal cues your clients exhibit in session. Most times, a client may not be able to put into words or articulate how they really feel. Non-verbals can speak for them. These non-verbals demonstrate a client’s status in their eye contact, facial expressions, their body movements and in their posture. For example, a depressed client may exhibit a slumped body posture, with their head mostly down, shoulders down, eye contact limited and they may seem to reflect a body posture that turns inward and makes them appear smaller. Most times a client’s non-verbals will match what they are conveying to you verbally about their situation and sometimes there will be an incongruency between what is verbalised versus expressed in body language. It’s an important skill to notice non verbal communication and another skill to be able to incorporate that into therapy by reflecting back what you have observed. Often times client’s are not even aware of the messages their bodies are conveying. Helping them become aware can facilitate body awareness in times of relationship conflicts where others may perceive their body language as threatening or in any other negative fashion.

There are many theories and therapies that utilise nonverbals. Sensorimotor psychotherapy, developed by Pat Ogden in the 1970’s, correlates the disconnection trauma victims feel in their bodies with their physical patterns and their psychological issues. Sensorimotor psychotherapy joins somatic therapy with psychotherapy (www.sensorimotorpsychotherapy.org). Somatic therapy is another holistic therapy that studies the relationship between the mind and the body in regard to psychological past. The word “soma” is a Greek word that means living body. Somatic therapy shows how trauma symptoms and their effects on the autonomic nervous system and how these effects can fester into prominent physical symptoms, digestive issues, hormonal imbalances, sexual dysfunctions, depression, anxiety and addictions (http://psychcentral.com/). In addition, other therapies utilise non verbal communication to some degree. Emotion focused therapy relies on body language to convey emotions and work directly with them. Biofeedback is another therapy that tracks specifically body language by use of monitors or biofeedback machines to ease anxiety and stress. There are many more, of course. Can you think of one that has intrigued you or one therapy that you use specifically in your therapy sessions that utilises the body/body language?
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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Blog Posts are for Sharing

Posted by: Dawn Schell on April 22, 2015 10:12 am

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I have favourite bloggers whose work I regularly read and enjoy. The bloggers are friends, counsellors, writers, lawyers, artists, students, teachers, business leaders, coaches,…the list goes on. They come from a variety of age groups and I find the writers to be creative, inspiring, fun, humorous, playful, and thought-provoking.

As I read I often find posts that I think are worth sharing with clients. The response when I have done so has invariably been positive. Some clients have then shared the posts with others. Which tells me it’s hit a chord.

In sharing these posts with clients I am careful to state that my sharing is not meant as a wholehearted endorsement of everything on the site. I share what I think is relevant and I let clients know why I think this might be relevant for them to read.

Here are a few of my favourites:

This mother talks about how one sentence changed the way she interacts with her family. It is a post that I have often thought about, referred back to and shared.

The six words? “I love to watch you play”
http://www.handsfreemama.com/2012/04/16/six-words-you-should-say-today/
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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

The Unintended Benefits of a Counselling Degree – Part 1

Posted by: Peter Persad on April 21, 2015 10:30 am

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As a prospective counsellor, you may be asking yourself “Why should I do a degree in Counselling?” For those of us that have a formal background in the field, the answers are self-evident and myriad. For me personally, my Masters in Counselling out of Gonzaga University was one of the most powerful learning experiences of my life. And it wasn’t about the “counselling” theories, practice, etc. It was about “me”

That is, the two years that I spent learning and studying and practicing and writing didn’t so much help me to become a counsellor or develop my skills as a practitioner as it was about me simply becoming a better person, developing my interpersonal skills and expanding my introspective analysis and intrapersonal acumen.

I had no idea that this would be a by-product of my time, effort and money. (Isn’t serendipity wonderful?) I fully expected that I would gain a background in psychology and psychotherapy and develop skills that would help me to help others. What I didn’t expect was how intimate I would become with those aspects of my personality that were, how shall I put it, “less than satisfactory”. I thought I had people skills! I actually didn’t! It was a very humbling realization. I thought I was a good listener. I was in fact a pretty good talker. I thought I was doing a Masters in Counselling to get job skills. What I found was that I needed to work on my people skills. This was incredibly important, life-changing information for me to have as a 30-year-old “professional.” (At that point, I was 5 years into a career as a professional educator.)

So, “Why should you do a degree in Counselling?” Do it for yourself! You will become a better person. You will develop better interpersonal skills. You will develop a better understanding of who you are, what makes you “tick” and the ability to step back, analyze your feelings and behaviours and, ultimately, make better choices. These choices are fundamental to living a fulfilled, satisfying life. You will like yourself more and the people around you will like you more. You will establish and maintain better, more fulfilling relationships because you will have a better understanding of yourself. And really, how can any of us expect to have better relationships with others if we haven’t developed that most important of relationships? With ourselves?

In Part Two of this Blog I will explore the unintended benefits of having a counselling degree in my day-to-day work life.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Lack of Self-Esteem

Posted by: Hailing Huang on April 17, 2015 12:27 pm

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In January 15 2015, I wrote an article: Emotional Health, reflecting on two Chinese international students who committed suicide during their second year of school. The two students were Yuan Yuan, and Guo Yanjun. Yuan, a young woman in her early 20’s from Nangjing China, was in her second year of an economics degree at Amsterdam University. Guo, a 28 year old, who immigrated to America in 2001, graduated with an Honors BSc in 2006, worked in investment banking in New York, then registered at MIT, majoring in management – a journey much admired by many Chinese families.

Unfortunately, on January 27, 2015, another 20 year old Chinese international student named Wang Lu Chang a math major at Yale University, was successful in her suicide attempt. These young students all exhibited excellent academic performance records, hard work, and were achievement driven; in the eyes of an outsider, they all would have a bright future. While we are sadly mourning these young lives, it also causes us to question: What kind of pain was so heavy that it caused them to choose to end their own life?

My previous article looked at this issue from an emotional health perspective; I thought it was the taboo of depression, suicidal thoughts and loneliness that blocked them from seeking help. It was the negative emotions that confounded their thoughts and their mobility, blocked their view to finding a way out; since most people see vulnerability as shame. Neither failure nor misfortunes are supposed to be disclosed or shared with others, even with family members. Lacking the knowledge and skills to deal with negative emotions becomes an obstacle to reaching out and asking for help.

Then, recently, I have come to realize that there could be a deeper reason for their taking their own lives: lack of Self – Esteem. In order to learn new knowledge and skills, they first have to believe in themselves and trust that there is a way out, and are willing to try. Without confidence and beliefs, they would not reach out. Even if the resources are there, they won’t be able to recognize and seize it.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

How to Fail Forward

Posted by: Mark Franklin on April 15, 2015 1:20 pm

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Ashley Good on learning from failure

Starting from a side project taking over the leadership of the Engineers without Borders failure report, Ashley Good (Career Buzz, March 11, 2015) founded the world’s first failure consultancy, Fail Forward. How did it start? She came back from a troubled overseas project and when she got back “the only thing that made sense to me was failure.”

How do the clues apply to you? Ashley told Career Buzz listeners that she regularly draws on her strength of “seeing opportunities where other people don’t.” That’s how her business, Fail Forward, emerged. There’s a lot of opportunity in failed projects! Try this. Today, spark a conversation with one person, a colleague or friend, and talk about one project that failed. Ask yourselves, what’s one lesson learned from that failure?

If you’re trying to learn from your own less than stellar career moves or situation, get started with an Exploratory Consultation with CareerCycles.

Hear the whole interview also featuring Don Presant of Learning Agents on ‘open badges.’

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Vacation!!!

Posted by: Bhavna Verma on April 13, 2015 2:03 pm

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I recently went to India for a much needed vacation! It was one heck of a trip; multiple time zone changes, grueling flights, and extreme weather changes as well. But, totally worth it! The trip was a combination of meeting family, as well as shopping for my upcoming wedding. It was both chaotic as well as relaxing. Chaotic because New Delhi is a city that never stops! It doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, or season, there will always be constant movement; and relaxed, because I got sick halfway through the trip which forced me to stay indoors. Being sick turned out to be the best thing ever! I was able to spend time with family that I had never had a chance to before. It allowed us to not only learn about each other but create a newfound bond. Throughout my past few posts, I had mentioned that there were many resenting situations and stressors in my life. Taking this much needed time out was a perfect way to not only accept the past unpleasant experiences, but also let them go and forge forward. In a way, it allowed me to come back to my world renewed and energized (once the jet lag wore off that is). I have mentioned before that time outs are crucial to having a long healthy relationship with others, as well as maintaining self-care. These time outs do not have to be short and brief, but can definitely be longer ones if required. I do not want to send the message that the vacation was a way of running away from my stressors; rather, it allowed me remove myself from the environment altogether, block them out so that I could fully enjoy my time in India. It also taught me how to recharge my life battery so that I could tackle new stressors. I feel much better now that I am back. I feel like anticipated wedding stress will be a smooth and exciting process because I will not be so bogged down by past experiences. I encourage such time outs. You do not have to take a week-long trip halfway across the world, you can take the time out by even going to a local retreat or spending the weekend away with a loved one! Embrace the time outs, allow for regeneration and utilize the time to breathe, be more mindful and allow yourself to accept and let go of your own personal stressors.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA