Professional Service

First and foremost, I work at a psychiatry office and I feel this has helped me grow as a clinician, being in the environment for my job and my internship. My place of work, which is also my internship site, hosted a Mental Health Symposium with the City of Chandler, featuring psychiatrists and licensed counselors talking about topics that are important to them. As a volunteer, I assisted with the flow of the symposium but answering questions of people attending and holding up the time sign for the presentations. One of the clinicians presenting is my internship supervisor, whom I learned a lot from throughout internship.

Advocacy

         The American Counseling Association listed government affairs and acting with them. The affair that strikes me is the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Act. This act is to provide dedicated funding to states to the lower staffing ratios for school counselors. School counselors are important for students and because what they do for the students. According to Grimes et al., “responding to emergencies such as peer conflicts, student self-harm, or possible abuse requires school counselors to develop strong counseling and advocacy skills with an understanding of child and adolescent development” (Grimes et al., 2017). A counselor does so much for the students, and for them to be able to afford treatment because of the act, means that less students will have that problem. I want to focus on middle school and high schoolers for this reason. A way I can get involved with the act as well as the schools are raising awareness, asking for donations, as well as helping counselors in those positions. Advocating for the problem will help mental health be more acceptable once everyone can afford it.