Expert Interviews & Perspectives in Counseling

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.”

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.

Counselors who are new in the profession may take therapeutic failure personally when it may reflect other relationship dynamics. Therapy does not work for many reasons, including a mismatch in personality, client readiness for treatment, financial issues, or cultural misunderstandings.

The root Latin manipulus means handful, as in a skillful handling of objects. A juggler, a card shuffler, and a bored student spinning their pencil in class are all manipulating objects. Applying this skillful handling to people, it’s no wonder we feel played with when we’re socially manipulated or powerful when we can manipulate others. In fact, the American Psychological Association defines manipulation as a “behavior designed to exploit, control, or otherwise influence others to one’s advantage.”

Two benefits programs that may be available to individuals with disabilities—including those caused by mental health conditions—are Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).