February 2015
“Diverse Perspectives for Multi-cultural Counseling and embracing seasonal changes.” Greetings my IAMC Colleagues, Although I have been blogging to you for the past six month, August began my official tenure as President for this esteemed organization. I am excited about reaching out to all of you and continuing to share some of the good work we are doing as counselors. This year, I would like to spotlight through a bi-monthly blog some of this fantastic work that we are doing to promote multi-cultural counseling with our diverse clientele. Some of you work in private practice, others for agencies, schools, etc. and many have informally shared wonderful stories (filled with passion and enthusiasm) about how you serve your diverse clients. I sincerely believe that it is through sharing our wide range of experiences, challenges, resources and creative solutions for change that we continue to thrive and grow as practitioner. (Below this month’s featured blogger -Mr. Rodney Bullock) Next, I want to introduce myself and the team of IAMC Counselors that will be working with you this year. Ms. Linda Jackson-Brown is President elect for 2015/16 and Ms. Kasia Wereszczynska is our President, elect for 2016/17. Both of these ladies bring in a wealth of counseling experiences and have been supportive of ICA and IAMC for a number of years. Ms. Patricia Merriweather-Lampkin (an ICA Past-President) continues to serve as our treasurer and recent GSU Counseling graduate, Ms. Tracy Theard serves as our secretary. We look forward to having more of you join us in our efforts to promote and sustain the work of IAMC. Additionally, we are looking for nominations for the annual “Outstanding IAMC Individual” award, someone who is actively promoting multicultural counseling through his or her work. You may also nominate an “Outstanding Counseling program”. The individual and/or program will be honored at the ICA conference in November. The individual must be a member of ICA and IAMC or for a program, at least one member belongs to ICA and IAMC. Please e-mail me for a nomination form, and forms are due by Friday, October 24th. Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who made it out to our “Diversity Perspectives” workshop; which was hosted by the Adler School of Professional Psychology’s counseling program on Friday June 20, 2014. Long time IAMC and ICA counseling member Eric Dutt, presented on “Cultural Perspectives and Grief and Healing.” We had a good turnout of professionals on a beautiful summer day in Chicago. Additionally, IAMC had also planned to host a 2nd workshop on August 15th (with the topic of ‘Cultural implications for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault”). This event had to be postponed until this fall and is now scheduled during Domestic Violence Awareness month, Oct, 23rd from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at Joliet Junior College. To register for this event, go to the ICA website. The cost for CE’s is $20. Light refreshments will be provided. The workshop is free if you are not wanting CE’s, however you still must register on line. Please let me know if you are interested in working more closely with IAMC this year. I can be reached at [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing some of you soon. Mildred Mildred Holmes 2014/15 IAMC President
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February 2015
Presenting Rodney Bullock-IAMC Diversity spotlight Blogger Hello All, My name is Rodney Bullock and I have been a member of IAMC for the past 10 years. I am a LPC and I currently work as a counselor at Joliet Junior College. I serve as one of the contact persons charged with working with our veteran student populations. The work involves personal counseling, career planning, and educational goal setting. Many veterans are using education benefits such as the post 911 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill and IVG-Illinois Veterans Grant. The veteran must show progress in school to continue to receive these benefits. This creates a particular challenge because the veteran may be facing other issues that prohibit the individual from being able to focus on school. Some veterans may be attempting to take classes for the first time since high school which may have been 10 plus years ago. Even though military personnel share a distinct culture, this is indeed a very diverse group of students. We have all heard the saying, “no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” This is very true in working with the military population. Some veterans prefer to work with a therapist who has military experience. Others prefer to work with someone outside of the military. Multicultural counseling techniques have helped me gain acceptance and trust among this student population. Even though PTSD has been documented and associated with veterans, I am also seeing issues related to anxiety, relationship problems, anger and unemployment. Since the presenting issues and challenges can be so diverse, I have developed relationships with several key support organizations. I have contacts at Hines VA Hospital, Volunteers of America Illinois, Veterans Assistance Commission of Will and Cook Counties and Veterans Alliance groups. Substance abuse and self-medication is another concern among this population. It is imperative to get these students into counseling to address their issues because self-harm and suicidal ideation followed by suicide is also on the rise. I also attend state-wide veterans’ trainings presented by various organizations. This keeps me current with events related to the veteran culture and population. Transcendental Meditation (TM) studies have shown some success also in helping veterans adjust back into civilian life. I tried TM nine months ago and it has helped me in my everyday life. I plan on starting group sessions in our veteran’s center which just recently opened. We are looking at running an emotional support group and a substance abuse group if we have the numbers. I will continue to attend veteran specific trainings. When I attend veteran’s workshops, I add this information to the list of referrals. By utilizing the referral list, the veteran does not have to wait for services through the VA Hospital system. In closing, I am looking forward to hearing back from my ICA and IAMC colleagues, if you have thoughts or other insights about working with our veterans. I can be reached at [email protected] Regards, Rodney Bullock |
AuthorThis blog is dedicated to the happenings and musings of the Illinois Association of Multicultural Counseling. Archives
February 2015
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