Hello Counselors and Colleagues, 

This global pandemic has changed our lives in unprecedented ways. Individuals and families are dealing with massive amounts of stress and uncertainty. The remarkable thing in it all, though, is that we can look around and see so much resiliency, generosity, and flexibility radiating from people all over the world. We are all learning new skills and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones to make the best of this situation. I am especially in awe of the amazing work that counselors are continuing to do in the middle of this crisis.

We have seen so many of you completely uproot your day-to-day lives to make the move to online service delivery, all while maintaining caseloads, lesson plans, and providing phenomenal support for those you serve. Although there is still a large learning curve for many of us, please keep pressing ahead, assured that your work is appreciated and respected.

Our staff continues to be dedicated to serving board certified counselors, emerging counselors, and counselor educators—though our team is now providing services from the safety of their homes. Although I miss seeing their smiling faces in the office, I am proud of the work that they have been able to accomplish during this transition and I deeply appreciate their flexibility and fortitude. 

We also appreciate our professional partners and the work they continue to do to support and advocate for counselors. Pearson has worked with us to solidify the essential importance of mental health services for our communities during these troubling times. Recently, we got the good news from them that the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE) and the National Counselor Examination (NCE) is included with other essential healthcare programs that are being offered in open Pearson testing centers in over 40 states. The State Counseling Boards and the American Association of State Counseling Boards (AASCB) have been focused on finding solutions to ensure that telemental health is provided in safe and ethical ways to clients and on facilitating processes to ensure that counselors may become licensed and be available to provide services to their communities. Many of the professional counseling organizations are working together to try to make certain that counselors are able to continue to provide necessary services to clients during these tumultuous times. 

We are all still here to help in whatever way we can and continue to look for creative ways to support the counseling profession. In lieu of our typical newsletter format, we decided that it would be a better use of space this month to provide some resources and information that we feel would be most useful in this time.

I cannot express enough how important the mental health field, counseling profession and counselors, like you, are, now and especially moving forward. Thank you for the work that you do.

Sincerely,

Kylie Dotson-Blake
Interim President and CEO