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Noteworthy Articles

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:

College Counseling -- A Related Way of Being

Elizabeth Kincade, ACCA President

I entered the mental health and development profession in order to work with college students. This was my first choice of professions within the field. I had been a confused traditional-aged college student and later a somewhat older confused student. Without solid and effective personal and career counseling, I wandered around trying to find a way of being in the world that "fit91 my self image. Slowly this pain and contusion informed my vocational search and I became a college counselor. I entered the field with a mission and with passion --I wanted to ease other's transitional periods. I did not want others to be as confused as I was.

I believe that it is not only good but necessary that our passion for our vocation grows out of our personal experiences and relationships with others. This is how we make sense of the world. Recently, I have been reading the relational psychology literature (Jean Baker Miller, Judith Jordan, Carol Gilligan and others from Wellesley's Stone Center for Developmental Services and Center for Research on Women). Briefly, relational theory states that who we are and who we become is (a) a product of our relationships with others and (b) how we maintain these relationships and grow within them. Self-development is not a model of separation and individuation but a model of building a place for our 'self within the context of our relationships with others. We grow and maintain our sense of self through helping others grow. In this model, caretaking is a very healthy motivation for being and existing in the world.

I believe that this model underlies what we do as college counselors. It is not a job with high status or financial reward. For the most part, we cannot base our self worth on what the greater society calls success but college counseling is, nonetheless, a wonderfully rewarding career. My passion for the field is continually renewed through my relationships with my clients who share with me their hopes and dreams, as well as their pain and contusion. My professional goal is to be the counselor I wanted/needed when I was in college. I think sometimes, with some clients I achieve this.

This coming year the field of college counseling will face many challenges. Challenges that might sap our energy and make it difficult for us to be in relationship with our clients. Already, I hear reports of the undermining of career counseling, universities and colleges disbanding counseling centers, further reports of outsourcing of counseling services, counseling functions being rolled into the functions of other units, and so on. We must meet these challenges together. Our strengths lay in being able to act and react as a college counseling community. As we enter the 21st century we need to remember that we are not alone. ACCA members are part of a thriving, vital and passionate community. I encourage you to be an active part of this community--- to be in relationship with us. You will grow from the experience, as will the organization.