Graduate counseling programs equip students with a wide range of skills to shape competent, ethical counselors. Most individuals enter the counseling profession with a desire to help others, support healing, and contribute to the well-being of society—not to participate in litigation or testify in court. Formal instruction on navigating subpoenas, court testimony, or legal procedures is often limited or entirely absent in counselor training programs. While participation in legal processes, such as court testimony or depositions, can be intimidating, it is a critical aspect of ethical client advocacy. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The thing we fear is the thing we must do.” For counselors, this includes maintaining our professional counseling identity, professionalism, ethical considerations, and integrity in legal settings. This session will demystify court involvement and equip counselors with the tools they need to respond professionally, effectively, ethically, and confidently to subpoenas and in court-related settings.

Learning Objectives:

1.) Attendees will learn how to respond to subpoenas and differentiate between common types of subpoenas counselors may receive. 

2.) Attendees will learn ways to maintain professional identity and prepare for court-related proceedings. 

3.) Utilizing a case study, attendees will learn how to organize client files and documentation in preparation for legal involvement, including strategies for supporting clients during court-related processes.

Speakers:

Lynn Jennings

Stephen Jennings

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury has become a common coping strategy during the adolescent years. Family response and cultural considerations have been found to impact the therapeutic outcomes of adolescents who use NSSI to cope. This original research will give you the knowledge, tools, and strategies to prevent and intervene with clients who struggle with NSSI.

Learning Objectives:

1.) Participants will be able to define and identify non-suicidal self-injury, warning signs of self-injury, and the cycle of self-injury. 2.) Participants will be able to identify and process the implications that family response and cultural considerations has on the outcome of non-suicidal self-injury interventions, based on research. 3.) Participants will learn specific family-based, culturally responsive, interventions that can be implemented in both clinical and school settings. They will be able to facilitate trainings in their specific work setting and provide others with the knowledge and educations related to self-injury.

Speakers:

Krystal Humphreys

Wendy Helmcamp

Michael Moyer

Maternal mental health spans far beyond postpartum care, influencing lifelong well-being and mental health outcomes. This session explores the impact of perinatal and perimenopausal transitions, including postpartum depression, cognitive stigma, and suicide risk in midlife (Venborg et al., 2023; Nakanishi et al., 2023). Participants will learn how counselors, regardless of specialty, can ethically and effectively support this underserved population using trauma-informed, culturally responsive approaches.

Learning Objectives:

1.) Describe the continuum of maternal mental health and its long-term impact across perinatal and perimenopausal stages. 

2.) Identify common stigmas and misconceptions surrounding maternal mental health, including cognitive and emotional changes. 

3.) Apply trauma-informed, culturally responsive strategies to support maternal mental health in general counseling practice.

Speaker:

Rebekah Willis

This presentation focuses on transitioning from crisis-oriented counseling and supervision to preventive approaches. Attendees will explore the necessity of proactive strategies, examine evidence-based interventions in counseling and supervision, and discuss the critical role of supervisors in fostering preventive care within clinical training and practice to enhance client wellbeing.

Learning Objectives:

1.) Explore the need to shift from crisis orientation to preventive approaches. 

2.) Highlight evidence-based practices for proactive counseling, supervision theories, and interventions. 

3.) Discuss the role of supervisors in promoting preventative care for clinical training and practice.

Speakers:

Tara Fox

Rikki Collier

New to school counseling? You're not alone. In this engaging and supportive session, graduate students and new professionals will explore how to confidently step into their role as school counselors. From defining your professional identity to navigating school politics and building culturally responsive relationships, this session will provide practical tools and honest insights into starting strong. You’ll leave with strategies for managing the transition, communicating your role clearly, and advocating for your place on the school team—all while maintaining a healthy balance and sense of purpose.

Learning Objectives: 

1.) Define and articulate their school counselor identity within the broader context of a school’s structure and expectations. 

2.) Identify common challenges faced by new professionals and learn effective strategies for navigating them. 

3.) Access self-care and reflection strategies to maintain professional boundaries and prevent burnout.

Speaker:

Jacqueline Moreno

Counselors are uniquely called to engage in advocacy for minoritized communities, but an everchanging social climate continues to create barriers to effectively engaging in advocacy. Evolving legislation, compassion fatigue, and scarce availability of resources all hinder the counselor's ability to engage fully in advocacy. In this presentation, attendees will reflect on their own levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction using the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) Scale (Stamm, 2009), a well-established instrument. Furthermore, participants will gain practical strategies and solutions for engaging in sustainable and meaningful advocacy, fostering both personal well-being and impactful social change.

Learning Objectives:

1.) Attendees will discuss barriers to engaging in advocacy as professionals. 

2.) Attendees will examine their own levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. 

3.) Attendees will learn practical strategies for advocating for marginalized communities in the community.

Speakers:

Kamiron Tran

Reagan Dickson

Sloane Sivek

For many clients, religious and spiritual beliefs serve as the foundational lens through which they interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world around them. When adversity strikes, they often turn to their faith as a way of attributing meaning to their suffering. However, when the distress is too severe, this interpretive grid can fall short, leaving these individuals experiencing great spiritual pain and going through a season of what has become known as religious deconstruction. This seminar addresses the importance of assessing for spiritual pain and addressing these spiritual struggles in a multiculturally competent manner. The religious coping literature provides the empirical base to understand this spiritual pain while common factors research highlights the most efficacious way to walk alongside strugglers. Participants will learn how their “way of being” creates the type of alliance necessary to facilitate the healing of spiritual wounds.

Learning Objectives: 

1.) Participants will be able to distinguish between the three domains and six types of spiritual struggles in order to assess for underlying spiritual distress. 

2.) Participants will be able to describe the importance of “way of being” in the nurturing of a strong alliance and identify the postmodern tenets of this posture that best facilitate healing for those experiencing spiritual struggles and/or faith deconstruction. 

3.) Participants will be able to list and describe the interventions and interactions that facilitate growth at various phases of the resolution process and be able to apply them with clients who are struggling spiritually.

Mentanna Campbell