Category: counseling

ACA Launches School Counselor Connection with Reach Higher Initiative

For over 25 years, Dr. Gregg Jantz has worked with patients at The Center for Counseling and Health Resources, also known as A Place of Hope. An established figure in the mental health and chemical dependency field, Dr. Gregg Jantz holds membership in professional organizations such as the American Counseling Association (ACA).

The ACA has worked to advance the quality of counseling services across all settings, and recently it announced a renewed commitment to supporting high school counselors as part of Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative. The Reach Higher Initiative is an ongoing effort to inspire children to pursue further educational opportunities beyond high school, and the American Counseling Association recognizes that school counselors are an integral part of this process. Counselors often serve as the first point of contact between high school youth and continuing education programs, whether they are vocational programs, community colleges, or four-year universities.

To that end, the ACA recently launched School Counselor Connection, a clearinghouse designed to support high school counselors nationwide. In addition to providing professional development modules, the site provides several career counseling tools to help students and families navigate the sometimes overwhelming catalog of colleges and the financial aid process. All resources are available for free on the ACA website at counseling.org/knowledge-center/school-counselor-connection/.

What Is Emotional Abuse?

The founder of The Center for Counseling and Health Resources, also called A Place of Hope, Dr. Gregg Jantz is a sought-after speaker and author who regularly shares his behavioral health expertise with prominent news networks, such as CNN and Fox. Throughout his career, Dr. Gregg Jantz has written more than a dozen books, including 2009’s Healing the Scars of Emotional Abuse.

Emotional abuse does not leave physical scars but can result in low self-esteem, personality changes, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In an emotionally abusive relationship, one person attempts to dominate the other using any number of unhealthy behaviors. These can include humiliation and criticism, which the abuser may try to pass off as innocent teasing. Other common tactics are shame, in which one person tries to make the other feel inferior, and intimidation, in which threats of abandonment or violence are made.

An abuser may also try to control the other person with isolation, the silent treatment, or unreasonable demands. In most cases, the person doing the abusing denies any wrongdoing or blames the victim for this toxic behavior. The abuser also creates an environment that makes the victim feel dependent and afraid to leave. Emotional abuse is as traumatic as physical abuse and requires an individualized treatment program to ensure that the patient recovers fully with a healthy sense of self-worth.