Pre-Conference Workshops

The Advanced Topics of College Counseling offers (4) 90 minute sessions covering the following topics, each session is worth 1.5 CE Hours:

1. Postvention: A Campus Response
   
2. Supervision in College Counseling
3. Evolving Clinical Services in College Counseling
4. Outreach in College Counseling: Creative Engagement

Each Advanced Topics of College Counseling session is $70 if purchased individually, if you sign up for all 4 sessions the price is discounted to $170.

Outreach in College Counseling: Creative Engagement

Presenters:

Scott Sokoloski - Saint Joseph's University

Franky Schulze - Lewis University

Abstract: The demands placed upon college and university Counseling Centers have required us to get creative and develop new ways of engaging an entire campus in supporting the mental health of students. In this session we will explore outreach tactics implemented at university counseling centers that emphasize education of campus colleagues, prevention, and peer support in an effort to further hone and develop outreach efforts in university counseling centers.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify three outreach practices they may be able to implement on their own campuses.
• Participants will be able to advocate for outreach and explain its value and importance to their staff and administration. 
• Participants will be able to summarize factors to consider with respect to current staffing needs in relation to current trends in college counseling.

Half Day Pre-Conference Options

Half Day Pre-Conference sessions will award 3.0 CE Hours for successful completion.  The cost to attend is $99 per session. You can also bundle the morning and afternoon pre-conference session for $170 total.

8:30 AM - 12:00 PM (Break Time Included)
CE Hours Available: 3

Voices, Votes, and Vitality: Strategies for Fostering Wellness Amid Sociopolitical Stress 

Presenter:

Jeni Beckwith - Mercer University

Abstract: In this timely session, college counselors will explore strategies to support student wellbeing, manage sociopolitical stress, and maintain their own vitality in response to significant societal events, including political transitions, current events, and social movements. These moments can evoke a wide range of emotions among students and counselors alike, requiring thoughtful approaches to support wellbeing and foster resilience. This workshop will equip participants with tools to empower students to find meaning, purpose, and connection while fostering their own resilience and maintaining personal effectiveness. We'll discuss methods for supporting student advocacy, engaging in self-care, and making sense of a complex world. Simultaneously, counselors will learn tools to recognize and mitigate secondary trauma, vicarious traumatization, and burnout in themselves. Practical tools for maintaining professional objectivity while supporting students across diverse perspectives will be discussed. Attendees will leave with a comprehensive action plan for promoting mental health and resilience—for both students and themselves—amid sociopolitical events.

Learning Objectives:

• Implement strategies to support student wellbeing during and after significant sociopolitical events, including techniques for helping students find meaning, purpose, and connection while balancing advocacy with self-care.
• Develop a comprehensive plan to recognize and mitigate personal vulnerability to secondary trauma, vicarious traumatization, and burnout related to sociopolitical stressors, while maintaining professional objectivity and avoiding countertransference.
• Integrate evidence-based approaches to manage counselor and student wellbeing, fostering resilience and connection across diverse perspectives during times of sociopolitical change.

1:30 PM - 5:00 PM (Break Time Included)
CE Hours Available: 3

Strategic Outreach: Tools and Strategies Toward Asserting the Value of the College Counseling Center

Presenter:

Gary Glass

Abstract: With ever-growing demand for clinical appointments, a trend has emerged that delegates outreach to campus wellness centers, resulting in the utility of counseling center outreach becoming less clear and, in many cases, questioned.  This pre-conference session will introduce a framework that challenges this trend, demonstrating how a strategic approach to outreach can better serve students and highlight the counseling center as an essential campus resource.  A framework will be introduced that allows for a cohesive and efficient outreach strategy that translates clinical expertise to community-level interventions.  This experiential workshop will introduce various tools and activities for use in clinical services and outreach modalities to address some of the underlying struggles and dilemmas that students face and are the context from which these struggles emerge.  The materials and activities introduced in this session are informed by evidence-based interventions such as ACT, DBT, and CBT, with nuance that attends to the cultural and economic diversity of our student populations. Participants can explore how such materials can help their clients and students gain more nuanced insights into their struggles, clarify values and motivations, validate identities and aspirations, and make more intentional choices in the life arenas in which their presenting problems emerge.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will summarize a strategic approach to Outreach that articulates intentional messages and themes conducive to cohesive community-level interventions.
• Participants can be able to articulate how counseling center outreach distinguishes them from wellness center programming or services marketed by 3rd party vendors offering mental health or wellness services.
• Participants will be able to identify campus partners in delivering your messages (faculty, students, staff, etc.) in implementing strategic community-level intervention.
• Participants will be able to List and/or Describe different forms or modalities of outreach that can emerge from their counseling center.