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

There are many different modalities in psychology, providing counselors with an array of therapeutic approaches to work with everyone under the sun. Yet, with over 50 modalities to choose from, psychology and counseling majors don’t always know where to begin—and clients seeking therapy can feel just as lost. Finding a therapeutic approach that aligns with who you are can help to examine the main schools of thought from which these modalities branch.

Boundaries start at the first encounter with your client, and continue throughout the counseling process. The counselor’s role is to clearly explain what is happening and why, while keeping the client informed throughout the development of treatment.

Gender dysphoria is a complex diagnosis with a controversial and sociopolitical history that cannot be ignored. It’s also a very recent concept that should not overshadow the full scope of gender diversity throughout the ages.

Not only do counselors support their clients through end-of-life decisions and fears, but they may also assist their families through their own grief journeys. The issues clients present at the end of life can include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, anticipatory grief, management of pain, and dignity concerns.

Self-injury is when an individual deliberately harms themselves in a manner that is not intended to be lethal. It can also be referred to as self-harm, self-abuse, self-mutilation, or non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).

Deciding to become a mental health counselor is a huge step, but how do you pay for it? Cost varies depending on the type of school you’re attending, the type of degree you’re going for, and how long it takes to complete your academic journey.

“School counseling is 100-plus years old,” says Eric Sparks, EdD, Deputy Executive Director for ASCA. “Starting as vocation guidance in the early 1900s, school counseling has shifted from a job position to a service and finally to an organized K-12 schoolwide program that improves outcomes for all students.”

More than 39 million adults with a substance use disorder did not receive treatment in 2024, according to the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. More than 95 percent of those not receiving treatment didn’t believe they needed help—but for 1.5 million adults who thought they did, barriers to treatment left them unwilling or unable to get support.

Factors as diverse as diet, stress, and drug use can produce epigenetic change. Epigenetics helps us understand how nature and nurture can interact to produce an outcome, including whether a person develops a psychological disorder.

Somatic therapy focuses on the client’s physical experience by identifying how their body stores and releases stress. For many, this approach is quite intuitive, yet some anxious clients may initially struggle. Stressed out, over-caffeinated, and bouncing between past regrets and existential crises, they may have spent many years bypassing the discomfort in their bodies, doing mental gymnastics to stay cerebral.