April is counseling awareness month and the American Counseling Association (ACA) is working with more than 56,000 counselors to break stigma related to seeking mental health services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention External link  reports that only 25 percent of adults with mental health issues believe that other people are sympathetic toward people who have mental illness, and that 57 percent of adults believe that people would be sympathetic toward people who have mental health issues. This is a clear indicator that we must educate the public about need for support and encouragement for people of all ages to seek assistance from counselors.

The Counseling@Northwestern program has received a full eight-year accreditation. This means that the program is fully CACREP accredited. It is rare for a program seeking accreditation for the first time to receive a full eight-year accreditation. This is a testament to the program’s training model and the strength of the faculty and staff. This accreditation is a clear endorsement of the quality of Counseling@Northwestern.

Choosing a specialty can be difficult, and oftentimes students are faced with the choice between clinical mental health counseling and counseling psychology. The line between the two professions appears to be blurred. If you’re undecided, this post will help you decipher the similarities and differences between the two graduate school paths.

In their role, counselors are often responsible for cultivating and maintaining relationships, monitoring clients’ well-being, and working with different cultural values and confidential information. The American Counseling Association External link  (ACA) has a code of ethics to help counselors navigate the challenging and sensitive aspects of their roles.  In this post we have compiled a basic summary of the 2014 ACA code of ethics, so counselors have the foundational knowledge to work in the field confidently and ethically.

For couples who want actionable, practical advice, The Family Institute at Northwestern University publishes a “Tip of the Month” series on relationships. Based on research and clinical practices, these tips are short enough to absorb quickly and put into use immediately. Read more for a few recent tips featured in the series for maintaining a strong relationship.

Based on best clinical practices and research, these tips offer brief, actionable strategies that are applicable to everyday family challenges. Take a look at the following highlights from some of the “Tip of the Month” columns.

An overview of many Northwestern faculty's sessions at the 2015 ACES Conference. Faculty members included: Donna Baptise, Paul Pagones, Nona Wilson, Joel M. Filmore, and Nathan Perron. 

May is Mental Health Month, and, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 43.7 million adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. were diagnosed with a mental illness in 2012. This represented 18.6 percent of all U.S. adults...

If you are deciding between a school counseling degree and a clinical counseling degree, the difference is in the details. There is a fine line between the career paths, and the following comparisons highlight the differentiators to help you make your final decision easier...

This May, Mental Health America (MHA) is celebrating 65 years of Mental Health Month observances External link  by launching a B4Stage4 External link  campaign focused on improving public awareness of mental illness—from prevention to diagnosis to recovery. MHA urges the public to address the first signs of mental illness rather than waiting until “Stage 4,” when symptoms are more severe...