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 Importance of Therapeutic Boundaries

Calendar Icon 03/01/21 Lisa Hutchison, LMHC

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.

Sex, Gender, and Personal Identity: What to Know as a Mental Health Practitioner

Calendar Icon 02/25/21 Alex Stitt, LMHC

Sex and gender aren’t synonyms, though they’re often treated as such on medical documents, legal forms, and in casual conversation. Therapists who intend to work with intersex and gender diverse people must understand how independent sex and gender are, in order to comprehend how they intersect.

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week – Expert Resources & Advocacy Guide

Calendar Icon 02/19/21 Nina Chamlou

With National Eating Disorders Awareness Week coming up in February, we explore the range of eating disorders, what types of therapies are available, and resources for those struggling with (or those interested in treating) eating disorders.

How to Promote Social Justice Within Your Community – A Spotlight on Human Trafficking

Calendar Icon 02/17/21 Nina Chamlou

In recent years, a pipeline from the foster care system to trafficking has gained the attention of organizations like the Human Rights Project for Girls. The group published a report called “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline,” highlighting that girls who grew up in the child welfare system, especially those placed in multiple homes, are particularly vulnerable to the exploitation of traffickers, who coerce girls into compliance with promises of love and affection.

Celebrating LGBTQ+ Relationships – Coming Out to Intolerant Family Members

Calendar Icon 02/10/21 Nina Chamlou

Prior to the global health crisis, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans were already at greater risk of mental health problems, illicit drug-use, and suicide. Gay and lesbian youth are 3.7 times as likely to attempt suicide as their heterosexual peers, and transgender teens are almost six times as likely.

An Expert’s Guide to Fighting Coronavirus Fatigue and Seasonal Depression

Calendar Icon 12/23/20 Nina Chamlou

As we approach the one year mark of living in a global pandemic, communities around the world are suffering from what experts are calling “pandemic fatigue”—the feeling of exhaustion of life in the new normal. The endurance and sense of unity that many of us felt months ago at the beginning of the crisis is beginning to dissipate, and in its place is a feeling of restlessness and impatience.

Covid-19 and Mental Health: How Will the Pandemic Impact Children in the Long Term?

Calendar Icon 12/16/20 Vanessa Salvia

When the coronavirus became a household word earlier this year, the world quickly shifted. We all had to perform many daily tasks differently—from how we grocery shopped to how we cleaned our homes, from how we worked to how we cared for our children. Developmental psychologists quickly recognized how much this impacted the daily lives of parents, and by extension, that of their children.

An Expert on the Long-Term Effects of Covid-19 Social Isolation

Calendar Icon 12/10/20 Matt Zbrog

Lockdown measures and social distancing have a critical role to play in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic, but they come with the side effects of social isolation and loneliness, which have been proven to have harmful effects on the public.

Mental Health Disabilities & Employment: An Interview with the U.S. Department of Labor

Calendar Icon 11/24/20 Cevia Yellin

Started in 2001, the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) is a non-regulatory federal agency housed in the U.S. Department of Labor. ODEP’s primary objective is to eliminate barriers to the employment and training of individuals with disabilities.

Treating Narcissists: The Psychology of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NBD)

Calendar Icon 11/17/20 Nina Chamlou

Variations of the word narcissism, which comes from a Greek myth about a handsome youth named Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection, have been around for millennia. But in the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud published a paper on narcissism, generating interest from the psychology community. It has since been seen as a legitimate psychological condition.