Title: Affective Constellations for Countertransference Awareness Following a Client’s Suicide Attempt

Authors: Jenny L. Cureton, MEd and Elysia V. Clemens, PhD

Description: Effective counseling with suicidal clients requires the development and maintenance of a strong therapeutic alliance. However, unmanaged countertransference (CT) can inhibit the alliance. This article provides strategies for enhancing CT awareness in counselors to support alliance building with clients after a client suicide attempt. The authors define CT in the context of suicide, introduce affective constellations as a method for CT awareness, and apply the methodto a case vignette. A figure for self-reflection and supervision is provided.

Title: Coping Skills for a Stressful World: A Workbook for Counselors and Clients

Title: Counselor Self-Care, Second Edition

Title: Counselor Self-Care: Now More Than Ever

Presenters: Gerald Corey, EdD; Jude T. Austin, PhD; Julius A. Austin, PhD; and Michelle Muratori, PhD

Description: Self-care is an ethical mandate, and not a luxury. If counselors are not practicing self-care, they will be unable to provide competent services. Counselors are generally committed to helping their clients improve their quality of life, yet they all too often neglect taking care of themselves. Counselors of today have many challenges that require them to engage in self-care. It is important to forge a future of counselors who are capable of practicing self-care. The goal of this webinar is to share and discuss useful and practical guide for encouraging counselors to reflect on how well they are taking care of themselves in all aspects of living. The presenters also aim to inspire and motivate counselors at all stages of their career to recognize the crucial role of self-care in their personal and professional lives. The counselor’s personal life is linked to his or her professional life, and in this presentation, there are illustrations of how the personal and professional dimensions are interactive.

Title: Innovate and Adapt: Responding to Findings from the ACA 2024 Counseling Workforce Study

Presenters: Shawn E. Boynes, FASAE, CAE; Illiana Navarra-Bueno, LPC; B. J. Barksdale, M. Ed., NCC, LPC-S, LCCA; and Keith Dempsey, PhD, LPC, NCC

Description: In this town hall-style webinar, we'll explore the results of the ACA 2024 Counseling Workforce Survey and discuss how we can use this data to move the profession forward.?Join us to hear from research firm, McKinley Advisors, along with ACA members and leaders who will address findings from this comprehensive study. Since the last ACA Counseling Workforce Study in 2014, professional counselors have seen the industry grow by about 36%; however, wages have not kept pace with this post-pandemic growth, and student loans are burdening those entering the field. In this town hall-style webinar, we'll explore the results of the ACA 2024 Counseling Workforce Survey and discuss how we can use this data to move the profession forward. Join us to hear from research firm, McKinley Advisors, along with ACA members and leaders who will address findings from this comprehensive study.

Title: Pandemic: Empathy Fatigue and Counselor Resiliency

Author: Mark A. Stebnicki, PhD

Description: Counseling Practice During Phases of a Pandemic Virus (Stebnicki, 2021) presents a new paradigm to help prepare mental health and other allied helping professionals who work with the mental, behavioral, and psychological health of individuals, groups, and communities to meet the challenges of pandemic viruses. This Continuing Professional Development resource provides counselors with a rationale to learn about empathy fatigue, recognize and explain risk factors, and apply the principles that endorse resiliency.

Title: Personal Reflections on Counseling

Title: Spirit

Authors: Jonathan H. Ohrt, PhD; Philip B. Clarke, EdS; and Abigail H. Conley, PhD

Description: This chapter addresses the internal lives of clients and the role of faith and meaning in wellness. Spirituality, values, ethics, and morals are delineated as they relate to meaning making and the role of self as it affects others. Spirit wellness is conceptualized as the process of feeling connected to, and searching for, meaning, purpose, and awe-inspired relationships with self, others, and the world around us.