Oakland Counseling Association

The Oakland Counseling Association is a not-for-profit, professional and educational organization that is dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the counseling profession.

Mission

The mission of the Oakland Counseling Association is to enhance the quality of life in

Oakland County by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the

counseling profession and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.

• National School Counselor Week Celebrations!
• 2023-2024 OCA Counselor Awards - Submit Nominations!
  
• Register! March 1 Virtual Event - Mandated Reporting
  
• Priority: Self-Care
• Learn More: EMDR

OCA membership is primarily made up of school counselors, so this is an important week coming up for our organization!

Here are a few ways OCA will be celebrating school counselors during NSCW:

• Daily membership drawing of five OCA members who will receive a celebratory $10 Amazon gift card!
• A special NSCW mailing to prinicipals of public school buildings in Oakland County where school counselors are currently staffed!

National School Counseling Week is a great time to celebrate a counseling colleague by nominating them for one of the OCA counselor awards. Winners and nominees are celebrated at the end of year OCA event on April 26th.

Nominate a counseling colleague that is upon completion of their career (or recently retired) and has made a positive impact on their school/agency, students or clients, staff, and/or community. This Award recognizes and promotes individuals who have made a significant contribution as a counselor throughout their career.

Nominate a counseling colleague that has been in the counseling field for any length of time that has made a positive impact on their school, students, parents, staff and/or community.

This OCA Awards Description document explains the criteria of what we are looking for in nominations. Please review to help you prepare your nomination. The more information you are able to provide, the better!

The Oakland Counseling Association is offering a virtual event around the topic of Mandated Reporting. This event is free for OCA members! See below for all the details and click the button to register.

Event Flyer

Topic: Mandated Reporting

Date: March 1, 2024

Time: 11:30am-3:30pm

Location: Online (Zoom)

SCECHs: 3.75 General

Cost:

• Free for OCA members!
• $10 for non-members

Description: Mandated Reporting presented by the Oakland Counseling Association. After successful completion of this virtual training, participants will fully understand mandating reporting, know the components of the Child Protection Law (CPL), recognize certain signs of child abuse and neglect and finally, know the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services reporting process.

Agenda:

• 11:30am-11:40am - Introduction to Mandated Reporting
• 11:40am-1:00pm - Mandated Reporting Considerations for School Counselors with Dr. Sheri Pickover (Professor and Program Director at Central Michigan University)
• 1:00-1:15pm - Break
• 1:15pm-3:30pm - Mandated Reporting Considerations for ALL staff members with Kristen Field (CPS Supervisor for Oakland County DHHS)

Step 1: Register in Zoom (all)

For OCA members, this is the only step! For non-members, proceed to Step 2 after registering in Zoom.

Step 2: Pay the Registration Fee (non-members only)

For non-members, use the PayPal link to purchase the $10 event registration.

Once your registration (and payment if needed) have been confirmed, you will receive an email confirmation that your Zoom registration has been approved along with the unique Zoom access link tied to your registration.

School counselors play a crucial role in attending to the needs of others. In honor of National School Counselor Week (NSCW), we emphasize the importance of caring for yourself. As school counselors you have daily responsibilities that are physically and mentally demanding, which may lead to neglecting your own well-being. Failure to prioritize self-care can result in serious personal and professional consequences, including the risk of burnout, which can potentially cause harm to yourself and your students. Self-care is the practice of taking action to maintain and/or improve your physical and mental health. According to American School Counselor Association (ASCA) ethical standards, school counselors should “monitor their emotional and physical health and practice wellness to ensure optimal professional effectiveness. School counselors should seek physical or mental health support when needed to ensure professional competence.”

Red Flags: (T. S.Quintana Jan. 2022)

• Chronic fatigue/low energy
• Forgetfulness, impaired concentration and/or issues with attention
• Detachment (e.g., pessimism, cynicism, or self-isolation)
• Increased illness
• Loss of appetite
• Irritability

Focusing on fundamentals such as exercising, maintaining a healthy diet, and getting enough sleep form the basis for good self-care. Also connecting with nature can enable counselors to feel a connection with a larger world and help them to put issues in perspective, according to a 2021 report in Psychology Today. Other self-care examples include, but not limited to, relaxing, staying hydrated, spending quality time with loved ones, setting goals, setting healthy boundaries, practicing gratitude, focusing on positivity, journaling, meditating, prayer, therapy and making time for hobbies or other activities that you enjoy.

Incorporating self-care activities in your daily routine is vital. Remember, self-care is not a luxury, but a necessity for your overall well-being. As you celebrate NSCW, Oakland Counseling Association encourages you to reflect on your own self-care practices and to recommit yourself to the activities you will prioritize, implement, and maintain for the remainder of this school year.

Resources:

• Refilling Your Cup: A School Counselor Self-Care Routine By Taqueena S. Quintana, Ed.D. | January 2022; https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Newsletters/January-2022/Refilling-Your-Cup-A-School-Counselor-Self-Care-Ro?st=FL
• Headspace - Headspace offers free access to all K–12 teachers, school administrators and supporting staff in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. This app offers free exercises and resources for every age group. Podcasts and articles are available along with the “Headspace for Educators” Facebook Group.
• Calm - The Calm app offers free CalmSchools resources including “30 Days of Mindfulness in the Classroom” – breathing, meditation and relaxation exercises equipped with lesson plans. CalmSchools also provides a self-care guide for educators.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a mental health treatment technique that treats mental health conditions that happen because of memories from traumatic events in your past. EMDR therapy doesn’t require talking in detail about a distressing issue. EMDR instead focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts or behaviors that result from a distressing experience (trauma). This allows the brain to resume a natural healing process. EMDR relies on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, a theory about how the brain stores memories. This theory recognizes that the brain stores normal and traumatic memories differently. During normal events, the brain stores memories smoothly. It also networks them, so they connect to other things you remember. During disturbing or upsetting events, networking doesn’t happen correctly. The brain can go “offline” and there’s a disconnect between what you experience (feel, hear, see) and what your brain stores in memory through language. Often, your brain stores trauma in a way that doesn’t allow for healthy healing.

The brain is an organ of the body. The mind is the collection of thoughts, memories, beliefs, and experiences that makes a person who they are. The way the mind works relies on the structure of the brain. That structure involves networks of communicating brain cells across many different areas. That’s especially the case with sections that involve your memories and senses. That networking makes it faster and easier for those areas to work together. That’s why your senses-sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches-can bring back strong memories.

EMDR therapy can help people with a wide range of mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and more. Adolescents, teenagers, and adults of all ages can benefit from this treatment. EMDR therapy doesn’t require talking in detail about a distressing issue. EMDR instead focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts or behaviors that result from a distressing experience (trauma).

Licensed Professional Counselors can look into becoming an EMDR Certified Therapist here: https://www.emdria.org/emdr-training/emdr-certification-2/

For more information on EMDR, check out these resources:

• What You Need to Know About EMDR and Trauma (brickelandassociates.com)
• EMDR Therapy: What It Is, Procedure & Effectiveness (clevelandclinic.org)
• Understanding the difference between the mind and the brain (nature.com)

Selina Abraham

Nicole Bell

Sean Dougherty

Elizabeth Germaine

Amanda Gohl

Randy Maddock

Albana Metaj

Kelly Messing-Mirabito

Ben Morin

Pamela Wesley

Email: oaklandcounselingassociation@gmail.com
Website: www.oaklandcounselors.org
Phone: ------------------------
Twitter: @OCACounseling