Mastering the Art of Counseling: An Online 6 Month SLP Certification Program

SLPs are very smart, and the ones I’ve worked with work hard at doing everything right. They collaborate with other professionals, putting in extra hours to deeply understand their cases, work hard on keeping with all the paperwork, provide excellent quality and time spent with their clients, and even do home visits when necessary. Yet with all of that, it’s often very common that they still experience pushy helicopter parents complaining about the lack of progress, mounting pressure to perform and get results, early clients that resist or shut down, or the worst- early case terminations with no reasons given.

Even with SLPs come to me for consultations and they are confident in their skills, when these things like clients not returning keep happening it can leave them feeling guilty, frustrated, ashamed, or stuck. They’ll come to me asking things like “What have I done wrong?” “There’s something wrong with me.” “Maybe I’m not really that good.”

The good news is that there’s nothing wrong with you. You are doing an incredible job given the training you’ve had.

The bad news is, that even with the ASHA requirements for counseling, there’s still a lack of training in this area for SLPs.

Hi my name is Dr. Henriette Langdon. I’ve been a bilingual SLP for 45 years, I’m a tenured professor, author and contributor to numerous clinical SLP books and research articles. I’ve been honored to be a recipient of both the ASHA Honors and the ASHA Fellow awards. One thing I’ve realized in teaching SLPs all across the country is that there is a lack of training and skills around the counseling piece of our work.

You know how to communicate with clients, how to sustain the therapy relationship, and how to interpret nonverbal as well as verbal cues from clients, but when were we ever taught how to develop deep trust through empathy, how to work with silence for active listening, how to work with the 4 major communication styles, how to educate parents on their responsibilities in a way that has them taking action? When we were ever taught how to avoid burnout?

SLPs are not counselors, but we do utilize counseling principles during interactions with our clients. That’s why the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has suggested that counseling individuals with communication disorders is within the speech-language pathology scope of practice and that counseling should be considered an integral part of clinicians’ responsibility.

Unfortunately, according to informal surveys, only about 20% of SLPs queried state they’ve had a formal class during the course of their education that was specific to principles of counseling (Flasher & Fogle, 2012). Worse yet, clinicians are often actually taught in their clinical practicum to avoid counseling principles in order to be more productive and in compliance with time management (Simmons-Mackie & Damico, 2011). This gap often leads to amazing clinicians feeling frustrated, burned out, and guilty for not being able to help their clients make the kind of progress they want to see happen. 

Even though ASHA has made it clear that counseling skills are important for SLPs, this kind of specialized training for our industry just doesn’t exist. I’ve made proposals year after year to different universities and conferences only to be denied. 

That’s why I’ve partnered with Dr. Maxine Starr, an adjunct professor of psychology at two universities, a California licensed therapist who’s worked in collaboration with SLPs in private practice for close to a decade.

Together we’ve developed this 6 month curriculum specifically designed to give SLPs the counseling and psychological training needed to communicate in a way that fosters deeper relationships and understanding with clients, professionals, and families. We also help you understand how to provide telehealth kids counseling to adapt to current health and safety guidelines.

We’ve poured our combined experience of over 50 years of working with families into this training curriculum. We’ve pulled out all of our best practices to give you the very cream of the crop training that currently exists in the country.

Introducing the first ever…

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

SEPTEMBER: Counseling & Rapport

• Counseling skills to attract clients, parents and families to keep returning and paying top dollar because these little known techniques will have them feeling extremely cared for by you. 
• How to deal with the emotions and frustrations of clients/parents so they feel heard and want to continue working with you
• Secrets to quickly develop rapport and deep trust so parents feel listened to and understood and are quicker to respond to your calls, emails, requests and suggestions

OCTOBER: Empathy & Active Listening

• Learn the steps involved to accurately show concern in a way that reduces misunderstandings
• Tune in to each client and quickly adjust to their specific needs even when there’s uncertainty and lots of unknown factors.
• How to access your intuition to ask questions that lead to the root of their frustrations so you can create a calm, enjoyable learning environment, even when things get tense
• How to work with silence as a tool to allow the process to unfold for your client which will accelerate their learning process regardless of what their learning pace or ability is. 
• How to grow your patience and avoid pressure to get results when clients or family members aren't listening or are exhibiting resistance or shutting down

NOVEMBER: Communication Styles & Family Responsibilities

• Learn exactly What do you do when a client or family member expects more, complains about not seeing progress, or keeps making new suggestions that change the process
• Discover how to educate clients, parents and family members on their responsibility rather than having them expecting you to do everything and create miracles in one hour a week
• How to create collaborative goals with clients, manage expectations with family members and have them agree to sharing responsibilities and taking action to support your process
• Learn the 4 different major communication styles, discover your working style and how to adjust your communication based on each client’s dominant characteristics.
• Learn how to work better with other professional and colleagues on the team who may work or see things differently

JANUARY: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Healthy Boundaries

• Learn the fundamentals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) so you can easily tend to client’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors during even the most challenging sessions 
• Learn how to educate and create framing to the parents or the clients so that they understand the process and how things work and stop questioning your strategy
• Identify when your clients get frustrated, beat up on themselves, feel shame, and get stuck in the process so that you can help them through it quicker. 
• Learn how to transform your own negative feelings, thoughts and behaviors around having a private practice so you can keep it thriving with joy and ease
• Learn the secret to feeling less guilty about saying ‘no’, while having the other person supportive to you when you say it

FEBRUARY: Self Care & Cultural Development

• Are you so focused and drowning in work that you are losing friendships and feeling isolated? 
• Do you struggle with turning off talking about work? 
• How to prevent feeling selfish or feeling guilty for practicing self care and treating it like a boring chore or just another checklist to “go through the motions”
• How to create common bonds with clients from different cultures to retain them even when you don’t speak the same language

MARCH: Termination, Case Studies & Integration

• How to deal with feelings of inadequacy, failure, “what have I done wrong” “there’s something wrong with me” around unplanned dismissals.
• How to fire your clients
• How to graduate your clients

Isn't that AMAZING?!

Now Here's How the Certification Program Works:

• Class meets online in Zoom two times a month.
• Each class is 2-hours long and includes in depth training, skill building practices, and breakout groups to immediately integrate the work.
• Assignments will be provided to engage in the practices in between class
• You will be assigned accountability partners to keep you engaged throughout the program
• We’ll have an online community where you can get extra support, ask questions, collaborate about your work, stay connected to participants and create deep, lifelong friendships
• You’ll have access to both Dr. Langdon & Dr. Starr via email for your private questions.

This program is designed to celebrate you, show you how fantastic you are, and help you experience your very best self!

Enrollment for the 6-Month Online SLP Counseling Mastery Certification Program is open now.

The Training & Certification Program starts on Saturday September 12th, 2020 at 12PM Pacific. We meet the 2nd & 4th Saturday of every month for 2 hours. 

If you are unable to make the calls live, you can send in your questions in advance for Q&A You’ll get the call recording emailed to you along with the assignment. Assignments for the week will be emailed after each training session.

In addition to doing your counseling certification, this program is also incredible Personal & Professional Development that you’ll be able to take into improving every aspect of your life. This is an investment in yourself.

 

When we launch this publicly, it will be $5000 for the certification. It also even includes a bonus of 10 CMH’s for ASHA CCC-certificate maintenance. To include in licensure hours, please consult your state licensing board for clarification. > For this limited time, until September 10, 2020, save $1500 off the total enrollment!! > Deposit is only $500, spots are limited!

Our experienced therapists at Sunflower Therapies in Rancho Cucamonga are thrilled to bring our expertise to your group through motivational speaking services. Many individuals struggle with similar issues and can benefit from the knowledge and hope that our team can deliver.

Whether you have a smaller or larger gathering, rest assured that we can tailor our speech specifically to suit the needs and interests of the audience. In addition to conveying valuable information and exploring essential skills that can improve quality of life, we maintain a positive, hopeful tone that can be uplifting to your group. We are thrilled to speak with you soon about your need for professional speaking services.

Some of the many topics that we can cover in motivational workshops include:

• Anxiety and stress management
• Self-care and self-esteem
• Personal and professional development
• Work-life balance
• Mind and body integration
• The impact of trauma on learning