The Colorado Counseling Association is made up of more than 1,400 members throughout the state of Colorado. We are so grateful to serve each member! 

 

The mission of the CCA is to serve its membership by promoting legislative advocacy efforts, education resources, and professional resources offered to its members.

 

 

What's in this newsletter:

Please find all of this important information below. If you have any questions, or any information to share, please email us at: info@ColoradoCounselingAssociation.org

 

Thank you from all of us here!

We’re excited to announce the speakers and program topics for the Annual and Foundations Student Conferences. CCA received a record number of high-quality presentation submissions for both the Student and Annual Conference.

 

The Student Conference is August 21 and includes two seminar tracks with Track 1 focusing on Clinical Practices aimed at students and Track 2 focusing on Counselor Education and Professional Matters. Some of the seminars Students and Educators can attend include: The Effects of Substance Abuse Use on Developing Brains in Teens, Three Creative Techniques to Engage Adolescents in the Therapy Process, The Art of Person of the Therapist Mentorship in Counselor Education, A Whole-Hearted Approach for Counselors in Training and Educators Well-being, Resilience, and Courage, Innovative Approaches to Suicide Assessment and Safety Planning, and Addiction Counselor Specialization among others.

 

The Annual Conference on August 22 features five tracks with content focused on: Youth/Family Substance Abuse, Trauma/Suicide/Crisis, Prevention and Self-Care, Ethical and Cultural Issues, and a track on Supervision and Clinical Practice which will give counselors credit for maintaining their supervisory requirements. On August 23, the five tracks center around: Youth/Family and Specific Populations, Trauma and Suicide, Trauma as it relates to Clinical Practice, Ethical and Cultural Issues, and Supervision and Clinical Practice. Programs topics include: Interventions with Children in Divorce Scenarios using Play Based Approaches, A Mindfulness-Based Approach to Experiential Therapy, Connection Before Correcting: Deepening and Exploring Polyvagal Theory to Support Co-regulation, Healing Space and Resiliency, Running on Empty: Fueling Wellness in the Age of Burnout, Starting and Managing Your Own Supervision Groups, The Addicted Parts: IFS and Addiction, and Supervision and Gen Z Supervisees, among many others.

 

In addition to the individual seminars, we’re excited to have Khara Croswaite Brindle, MA, LPC, ACS, CFT-I, author, TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and financial therapist, present the keynote address. And of course, the conference would not be possible without the many exhibitors and sponsors who will be available throughout all three days for attendees to meet and learn more about how each supports the mental health community. Conference attendees will also earn credits for their 2025 license renewal.

 

Setting boundaries with clients can sometimes be a daunting task. Some clients may struggle to accept or understand boundaries. Sometimes counselors may struggle to understand what their boundaries are. As ethical counselors, it is our duty to help our clients understand the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship and to maintain those boundaries throughout the course of treatment.

 

Boundaries allow us to make clear distinctions between our client’s needs and our own (Hartmann, 1997). Violations of boundaries can often be harmful to the therapeutic alliance and can sometimes harm the client as well (Pope & Keith-Spiegel, 2008). It is important for counselors to have strong, clearly defined boundaries with their clients and to communicate those boundaries in a direct manner. Good boundaries provide a foundation of trust, which can benefit the therapeutic alliance (Barnett & Hynes, 2015).

 

Best practices for setting boundaries require counselors to understand their boundaries. There are an array of rules and policies that can constitute a boundary. According to Barnett & Hynes (2015), therapeutic boundaries often - but not always - fall into one of six categories: touch, time, space, location, gifts, and self-disclosure. Boundaries related to touch can range from policies about shaking hands to our ethical requirement to avoid sexual contact with clients. Time boundaries can include when the session ends and the frequency of treatment. Space boundaries can be about the physical space in the therapeutic relationship or about the emotional space provided in the relationship. Location boundaries can involve the office or can include virtual locations, such as social media accounts and the telehealth space. Boundaries about gifts are important to consider, as are boundaries regarding appropriate self-disclosure.

 

Counselors should carefully consider their boundaries in these areas as well as any other boundaries that they feel will benefit the therapeutic relationship. Think about what would create trust in the relationship. Consider how these boundaries impact the client and how they impact your work with the client. Also be sure to consult the ACA Code of Ethics to ensure that your boundaries meet the ethical standards of the profession. For example, the ACA Code of Ethics establishes clear boundaries regarding counseling friends and family, but is more flexible regarding receiving gifts (American Counseling Association, 2014).

 

Boundaries should always be communicated clearly to clients (Celestine, 2021). Many boundaries are communicated in writing through consent forms and contracts (Celestine, 2021). They can also be communicated verbally and through actions. For example, maintaining a clear ending time for sessions establishes that timeframe as a boundary (Celestine, 2021). When setting boundaries, be sure to be assertive, clear, and consistent.

 

Some clients will push boundaries. In these cases, it can be difficult to maintain boundaries. Some best practices for setting boundaries include speaking assertively and using positive reinforcement (Celestine, 2021). Clients can sometimes be quite challenging in this area. If you find yourself struggling to maintain boundaries with a client, be aware of any countertransference that you may be experiencing and be sure to seek consultation with a trusted colleague (Celestine, 2021).

 

Setting boundaries is sometimes a difficult task. Counselors should ensure that they understand their boundaries, that they are communicating clearly and assertively, and that they are considering the ACA Code of Ethics when they set and maintain boundaries. Healthy boundaries help create a strong foundation of trust in the therapeutic relationship.

 

 

American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics. https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2014-code-of-ethics-finaladdress.pdf

 

Barnett, J. E., & Hynes, K. C. (2015). Boundaries and multiple relationships in psychotherapy: Recommendations for ethical practice. Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. Retrieved from http://www.societyforpsychotherapy.org/boundaries-and-multiple-relationships-in-psychotherapy-recommendations-for-ethical-practice.

 

Celestine, N. (2024, March 12). How to Set Healthy Therapist-Client Relationship Boundaries. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/boundaries-psychology-therapy/

 

Hartmann, E. (1997). The concept of boundaries in counselling and psychotherapy. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 25(2), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069889708253798

 

Pope, K. S., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (2008). A practical approach to boundaries in psychotherapy: Making decisions, bypassing blunders, and mending fences. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(5), 638–652. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20477

If you counsel college students, you no doubt are seeing an increase in trauma and stress-related disorders. A recent study published online in the JAMA Network Open showed the prevalence of PTSD increased by 4.1 percentage points from 3.4% (2017-2018) to 7.5% (2021-2022), and that of ASD increased by 0.5 percentage points from 0.2% (2017-2018) to 0.7% (2021-2022). The study concluded, “Factors contributing to this rise may include pandemic-related stressors (eg, loss of loved ones) and the effect of traumatic events (eg, campus shootings, racial trauma). Despite the study limitations, including the retrospective, self-reported data and single questions for diagnosed PTSD and ASD, these findings suggest the need for targeted, trauma-informed prevention and intervention strategies by mental health professionals and policy makers to support the affected student population.” 

An in-depth 2023 annual report from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University suggested that nearly half of all college students seeking counseling have experienced some form of trauma. The report’s authors state, “Several mental health history trends continued to shift in 2022-2023. Rates of prior counseling and psychotropic medication usage showed an increase in the past year and are at their highest levels since this data was collected in 2012. History of counseling continued to be the mental health history item with the largest 11-year increase: over 61% of students entered services with prior counseling. Notably, history of trauma demonstrated the second largest

rise: approximately 47% of students who initiated services endorsed a history of trauma. A closer examination of the specific traumatic events reported by students revealed that childhood emotional abuse and sexual violence primarily accounted for the 11-year increase.”

 

What does this mean for counselors? It requires all counselors who work with students to be competent in trauma therapy and to be aware of the impact trauma is having on students’ ability to cope with the other stressors of college. Increasing the student’s resiliency will help with coping skills. Resilience is defined as the capacity to adapt successfully in the presence of risk and adversity and is key to helping clients endure traumatic events and for post-traumatic growth.

I have found a book by Donald Meichenbaum, Ph.D, Roadmap to Resilience: A Guide for Military, Trauma Victims and Their Families (2012) to be a great step-by-step guidebook to help clients, and not just military clients, to develop greater resiliency. Dr. Meichenbaum draws on his 40+ years of research into trauma and how the lack of resilience impacts trauma in writing this book. He divides resilience into six fitness areas: Physical Fitness, Interpersonal Fitness, Emotional Fitness, Thinking (Cognitive) Fitness, and Spiritual Fitness. He then adds great examples and research data and action items for each area of fitness to help people improve their resiliency. While some action items are military focused, I’ve found I can adapt any of his suggestions to my civilian clients. For example, under the Emotional Fitness chapter, Dr. Meichenbaum in just one action step, covers in depth tuning into feelings, reducing “mental chatter”, increasing trigger awareness, mindfulness, tactical breathing and improving staying power in stressful situations. While this book is written for the client, as a clinician, I find this book to be very helpful in understanding what I can teach my clients. This book is available on Amazon. 

 

Submitted by Jane McGill, MA, LPC, NCC, ACS

We still need volunteers to help out at the Student and Annual Conferences August 21-23. If you would like to volunteer or would like more information, please reach out to Kellyanne at Kellyanne@coloradocounselingassociation.org.

 

Do you like to write? Is there an inner editor in you just waiting to get out? If so, we’d love to talk with you about joining the CCA newsletter staff. We need people who want to submit articles of interest and/or who can write articles on topics we choose. We are also looking for an assistant newsletter editor. There are perks to being on the newsletter staff. Not only will you be helping to keep your peers informed, you will earn Professional Development Hours for your LPC license renewal (under independent learning or volunteer service). Plus, writing articles for the CCA newsletter looks great on your CV. For more information, email us at newsletter@coloradocounselingassociation.org and we’ll be happy to talk with you.