Parallel Journeys: Supporting Wounded Healers in Counselor Education

Much has been written about the motivations for wounded healers to pursue work in the helping professions. Those with painful life experiences can have a unique ability to understand the pain of others, and through their recovery, they may gain insight and understanding to benefit others. The counselor development process can be fraught with challenges that may have a detrimental impact on wounded healers. As such, counselor educators can benefit from amending their approaches to ensure that wounded healers gain the skills necessary to support their mental health and well-being, effectiveness, and personal and professional development. This article introduces a framework for understanding wounded healers and recommends topics and practices for inclusion in the curriculum. With an emphasis on wellness and self-care, promoting help-seeking, building a community of support, and boosting shame resilience and self-compassion, this article highlights specific training elements tailored for wounded healers in counselor education

Two families of graceful cacti

We present a graceful labeling for each member of a subfamily of quadrangular cacti whose underlying graph correspond to the subclass of rooted binary trees where every level has at most two vertices. We also prove the existence of an $\alpha$-labeling (the most restricted type of graceful labeling) for all cyclic snakes, i.e., those cacti whose blocks are copies of the cycle $C_{4n}$ and its maximum degree is four

How Romance Can Impact Video Game Players, Both in Game and in Life

Part of the session titled Home Screens

Evolution of My Home

A creative non-fiction essay of my meditation journey through continents, countries, cultures and time evolved my understanding of home and helped me realize the depth of connection to the meaning of home

The Causes and Effects of Procuring a Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Educational Pedagogy

This study investigates the causes and effects of educators adopting a Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education (CR-SE) pedagogy within our educational system. Three qualitative data collection and analysis pathways are used: thirteen participants are surveyed and interviewed, a policy analysis occurs, and an autoethnographic journal is analyzed. This research explores how cultural conflicts, deficit mindsets, and at-risk labeling contribute to systemic inequities, leading to social suffering for both students and educators. The research examines how educators who develop a critical consciousness navigate these challenges, often experiencing moral injury as they advocate for equitable educational practices. Through qualitative inquiry, this study identifies the transformative learning experiences that shift educators\u27 perspectives toward CR-SE and the structural barriers that prevent meaningful change. By centering the lived experiences of educators and students, this dissertation highlights the urgent need for systemic shifts to disrupt social suffering and create inclusive, empowering learning environments

Graduate Counseling Students’ Preparedness to Practice Tele-mental Health

This qualitative study explored counseling graduate students’ preparedness to provide telemental health during their internship experience. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 11 Latine counseling graduate students’ who attended a Hispanic-Serving Institution. The following themes emerged following data analysis: (1) Challenges with Establishing Personal Relationships and Telepresence with Culturally Diverse Clients; (2) Lack of Preparation to Use Evidence-based Practices to Handle Ethical Dilemmas and Crisis Interventions; (3) Cultural Competency and Diversity; (4) Engaging Activities in a Telemental Health Counseling Environment; (5) Additional Training and Practice with Technology; and (6) Lack of Preparation to Use Telemental Health Counseling. Implications for practice and counselor education programs are provided

“Woman at Point Zero” Challenges Faulty Person Schemas

This paper explores how literature can challenge faulty-person schemas as defined by Mark Bracher through an analysis of Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi. The paper outlines how Saadawi pushes her readers to question faulty-person schemas and biases and also question the impact these schemas have on institutions and structures that are rooted in bias to oppress and control minorities. The main character in the novel, Firdaus, is a woman who fights against oppressive structures for her protection and freedom, and through humanizing such a character, Saadawi demonstrates how faulty-person schemas place inaccurate judgements on people and encourage dangerous structures to thrive

Exploring Race in Addiction Treatment and the Need for an Anti-Racist Approach

Extensive literature documents that Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC) have been historically and systematically discriminated in addiction and substance use disorder treatment and services. This systemic oppression is the result of the creation and intersection of multiple systems that are rooted in White supremacy, which continue to fail to recognize racism as a critical factor in health disparities. The complexities of the structural factors that contribute to these racial health disparities, and opportunities to better address these disparities were reviewed to discuss their impact on BIPOC clients and the necessity for anti-racist approaches to addressing addiction in clinical practice and counselor training. Anti-racist clinical practice and training to promote anti-racist approaches based on the review were discussed and implications for future research are suggested

Understanding Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Foundational Concepts for Counselor Education

The purpose of this manuscript was to introduce key concepts in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to counselor educators and counseling researchers. As AI continues to play an increasingly significant role in various fields, counseling professionals need to develop a foundational understanding of AI, including ML. The first section of this manuscript outlined basic concepts in AI and ML, with study examples that utilize specific algorithms in mental health and counseling-related fields. Next, the second section explained the general process of building an ML model, illustrating it with a real-world dataset example for counseling professionals. The manuscript also provided practical guidance for counselor educators and researchers, including curriculum suggestions and ethical considerations