One of my favorite volunteer gigs right now is that I get to edit the quarterly newsletter of Oregon’s chapter of the American Counseling Association. It’s been fun to revamp this small journal’s content to focus on issues surrounding social justice as they relate to the counseling profession in Oregon. And it’s always a huge blast to find and reach out topotential contributors and advertisers, edit content, and manage/do all of the design and layout. If you’re interested in issues affecting this field and this work, check out the summer edition of The Counselor, out today 🙂 

Happy August, Oregon Counselors!

We hope you enjoy our summer issue of The Counselor  with a tall glass of sweet tea, because you deserve good things. After all, you’re a member of this beautiful community of front-line workers, students, and mental health allies.

Because of some amazing writers in our awesome community, this month we’re pleased to share ORCA’s stance on the GOP’s border policies, as well as a really insightful perspective on the recent Morrison Child & Family controversy. We’re also thrilled to learn (and share) some very concrete information around the work Janus Youth is doing to help queer teens (and how we can use Janus as a resource) and a lovely piece on the way providers can be biased around the “morality” of body size and the way that can feel and play out. Finally, please check out Roy Huggins’s primer on “Skype therapy” for tips and tools, as well as a recent letter highlighting COPACT’s recent advocacy work. (And, ORCA members, please pat yourself on the back for supporting COPACT’s work through your ORCA membership dues, you advocacy rockstars!)

In this issue:

ORCA Statement on the “Zero Tolerance” Policy and the Detention of Immigrant Children by Joel Lane, Ph.D, LPC

Separated at the Border: Kids (and Controversy) Come to Portland by Moira Ryan, Editor

Not in My Name by Emma Sohriakoff, LCSW

Intersectionality: LGBQTI Youth & Homelessness by Kimberlee Harrison, MS, GC-C, LPC Intern

FAT: A Call for Radical Acceptance by Haley Tursi Jones, PSU Graduate Student

COPACT Corner: Letter to Dennis Powell by Andrea J. Wright Johnston, COPACT President

How to Get Started with Telemental Health Practice by Roy Huggins, LPC

(You might also want to flip through for a special notice around how you can win one free – absolutely ZERO DOLLAR – admission to ORCA’s next CE training on the subject of trauma. DON’T YOU LIKE PRIZES?????)

Stay cool, y’all! (And read our newsletter!)

Moira Ryan, LPC

Editor, The Counselor