Life as a PhD student

Hello everyone, I hope everybody is having a good day. This semester has been very busy for me in graduate school. I wanted to provide you a quick update about everything and let you know how I am doing.

For many of you know that I am in a PhD program at the University of South Florida in counseling education. I am loving every minute of this program, even though it is a lot of stuff that I have to get done. Right now I am sitting on a Saturday afternoon, writing various assignments that have to be due within the next couple of weeks. I am loving every minute of it.

I have finally articulated my primary research interests. My employment research lies in the area of mental health counseling and disability rights. I am interested in community support for individuals with developmental disabilities. I am also interested inSelf-Advocacy and self-determination for individuals with disabilities.

This semester I have had the tremendous experience of teaching a practicum class. I have six wonderful students and I am having the time of my life teaching this class.

I am involved in several research projects and I will be submitting a article for publication within the next couple of weeks. I have also been asked to be a co-writer for a book chapter. This is something that I find very exciting.

I will be working on additional projects over the summer. I will also be moving on the campus of the University of South Florida.

I will be using this blog to keep you up-to-date on my area of research and trends it in the mental health and disability field.

I hope everyone is doing great. My family is the very good. I will be trying to write a little bit frequently, because I have finally found some balance with life.

Begin again

Okay one, I have been told that I need to begin to blog again. He told me that I need to do this. Who exactly is he, he is Dr.Herbert Exum, my professor for my PhD program. Yes, I just got into a PhD program and I began this fall. It has already become a very busy couple months.

If you are new to this blog, my name is Richard Chapman. I am a licensed mental health counselor and a disability advocate that lives in Tampa Florida. My specialties include abuse, domestic violence and disability issues. I have a general mental health counseling practice.

I am also a PhD student in mental health counseling education and supervision. My areas of research right now include clinical supervision, the intersection between mental health counseling and self advocacy and self-determination for individuals with disabilities. I also have a interest in mental health professionals that have disabilities and members of the Academy with disabilities.

This blog is a way for me to give my opinion about issues affecting my profession. My goal, is to publish something on a weekly basis.

Thankful

Greetings friends, I hope everything is going extremely well for you this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving is very special for me. I am spending the week with my family and a good friend of mine in Lewis. Lewis is about two and half hours out side of Baltimore Maryland.Tomorrow we will sit down and enjoy a very good meal together. This will be a Thanksgiving feast will be somewhat non-traditional. I have never been into the whole traditional type of thing, because I live a unconventional lifestyle. However one thing that is not going to break away from tradition is spending time with my family.

Family something that is extremely important to me. It does not matter what type of food that we eat, because we will be together as a family. I am encouraging each and every one of you to spend time with loved ones this holiday season. If you can’t be with your family, and then surround yourself with people that love and care about you. Eat lots of food. Watch some great football. Spend time with people that you love. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved one.

Get involved: the importance of joining professional organizations

A s a graduate student we discuss the importance of becoming involved in professional organizations. My professor taught me the importance of this. However I did not listen to them. I am beginning to recognize that I should’ve listened to them a long time ago. I am happy to say that I have finally decided to get involved in professional organizations related to the mental health counseling profession.

I went to a meeting of the Suncoast mental health counseling Association. This association is the organization that represents mental health counseling professionals in a six County region. They host training related to the profession I am involved with. They are a affiliate of the Florida mental health counseling Association and the American mental health counseling Association. I am happy to say that I am now a member of this organization. This is something that I should of gone a long time ago.

I have been involved in cases recently who are members of my profession took advantage of the clients that they serve. They violated the sacred trust that a client places in us. I trust that said that I will not take advantage of you because you are vulnerable in my office. I trust that state that I will treat you with dignity and respect regardless of the circumstances that have bought you to my office. I trust that state that outside of a few special circumstances anything that you would say to me is private and confidential.

I now recognize the importants of the community involved with professional organizations. These organizations set values for this prestigious profession. These organizations provide for opportunities for networking and mentorship for younger profession in the field. These organizations protect the public from unethical practitioners.

I am now a proud member of the Suncoast mental health counseling Association. I am encouraging all of my colleagues to get involved at some level in professional organizations. I believe that this is the critical to do. This is a privilege that we get to do every day and we need to have standard for are profession.

I am alive:Back to blogging

Yes everyone, I am still alive and kicking. I recognize that it has been close to a year since the last time I submitted any type of blog. I have been on a hiatus of sorts from writing any type of blog publicly. At this time I have decided to return to blogging. A lot has happened over the past 12 months. I am not prepared to go into great detail on this blog entry, because this is far too complicated and complex to discuss on a single blog. However I believe it's time to return to blogging.

For those of you that are just now following my blog, this blog is about the counseling profession. This blog is also about disability issues and the self advocacy movement. I am still very much deeply in love with this profession. For someone that is 27 years of age, I can't believe all the opportunities that have been afforded to me at such of the young age. My specialty to date has been working with individuals that have experienced complex trauma issues. I've had the opportunity of to receive clinical supervision from my clinical supervisor John Mayo. He has taught me to operate from a family systems and a straights-based perspective is a way to provide treatment to the population. I focus on strengths of my clients instead of pathology. I do this with the population where it's easy to focus on pathology instead of students. However I still believe that using this of perspective it is a better way to provide treatment to clients.

The volume of my practice had definitely increased. I am beginning to see more more complex cases.I have begun to see a lot of stuff that I have only read about in textbooks. This has been both exciting and scary at the same time. I find myself going back to the fundamentals of counseling. Focused on the therapeutic relationship I have with my client. I'm learning a lot every day. I am being challenged every day. this is a very good thing.


I have had the distinct privilege of doing some consulting with self advocacy group with a team of people. This is something that I will talk about in future blogs. Consultant is only one component of my practice.

In the fall of 2014 I anticipate applying for a doctorate programs in Education. For many of you that have been following me you thought it was going to be this year. The past 12 months have been very interesting and a lot has changed in my own professional and personal life. The doctorate program you need to be placed on hold why I get some stuff organized. I feel at peace at this.

Over the next couple of blogs I will be diving into the past couple of months. I'm very excited to be returning to writing publicly again.This blog will discuss the perspective that I have about counseling and the disability rights movement in the state of Florida

The need for peace

On Friday, I was getting ready to go to supervision after my 1 o'clock session. I was speaking to my colleague Teresa, who stated that there was a school shooting in Connecticut. I was very shocked like I am always with events like these. Over the next several hours, we would discover just how massive this was. Many of the individual that died on Friday were kids. Kids ages of my nieces and nephews. I think everyone is in shock about this tragedy.


Only the past couple days I have been struggling with how to respond to the senseless tragedy. I find that writing is a way to make sense of this. In the office today, I figured how I wanted to respond. I knew that we need peace in society. Peace is absolutely necessary. Violence does not solve problems. We need a society that promotes peace and forgiveness for all. Now I do not know what was going through this individual mind on Friday. I do know that this individual was deeply disturbed.

I don't want to get into a debate about gun control. I feel uncomfortable with talking about the subject, because I do not know enough. But what I will say is something has to be done. Violence has never been a way to solve conflicts protectively. There has to be a better way then all while violence. I am praying for the victims of this tragedy. I am praying for peace in Newtown Connecticut.

As always I would appreciate any feedback you have about this blog.

The process of writing

I remember clearly distinctively having a conversation with a colleague of mine about the stresses of this profession. She is someone that I respect, and who is a trusted friend and colleague. At the time I was having difficulty managing my own stress at my job as a counselor. I believe I was a student at the time. She suggested that I write my thoughts and ideas down on paper. Ever since that time writing has it been a refuge for me. It has been a way to relieve stress and anxiety from my day-to-day life. Music also does the same thing for me. However, this blog is not about music that is about writing our thoughts and feelings. I choose to write because it alleviates my day-to-day anxiety.

 

I am not always felt this way. I remember a time when I used to hate to write. I’m a member time well I would have to receive help to write my thoughts and ideas down. I used to struggle with writing. Over the past couple of years, writing has given me a outlet to express my thoughts and feelings. It has been very useful to me, and especially when having problems with my job.

I hate to admit, but I have not done this much writing and I like to over the past couple of months. Initially I thought it would because I was too busy. Now I am beginning to see that my writing has a direct correlation between how stress I am. The past couple of months has been very stressful for me as a professional. Do not get me wrong, I am having the time of my life. However, the type of walk that I am doing does it generate some stress.

 

I came to this conclusion, a couple of weeks ago when I took my vacation for Thanksgiving. The weeks before Thanksgiving, having been very stressful. I was dealing with a lot of very complex client issues, and that need to be addressed. I think it is important for me to find effective ways to alleviate stress and anxiety. I recognize that I have not been doing writing, as a way to do this. If I am going to be able to be in the profession for the long haul, I must find ways to cope with stress. I am making a commitment to you that I will be trying to write more on a weekly basis. I think it is important to give my perspective on counseling and disability advocacy.

 

So to sum up, why is it that I write? Writing is a outlet to get my thoughts and ideas out to a public audience. Writing is a way for me to alleviate stress. Writing is away from me to document what is going on in life for me. I hope to continue to share with you my personal thoughts about counseling, about life and disability advocacy.