If you are here…now, you are a part of a growing community of counselors practicing mindfulness.
What is Mindfulness in Counseling?
During my career, I have worked intentionally to promote open and effective counseling relationships while also balancing my own stressors and responsibilities in my life. In 2014, I had the opportunity to co-facilitate a Models and Techniques and Counseling course for the Counselor Education graduate program at Georgia Southern University. Counselors-in-training began sitting with clients for the first time and/or role playing while facing common barriers, anxieties, doubts, and fears.
Hi, I’m Brandon LaBarge! I’m a dog AND a cat person. I’m also a human person. I have a M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern State University and a M.Ed. in Counselor Education from Georgia Southern University. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Pennsylvania and a Nationally Certified Counselor. I have worked with veterans in a PTSD clinic as well as children, adolescents, and adults in a mental health and substance abuse clinic. I currently provide counseling services to students of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA as well as provide clinical supervision for residents in counseling.
By weaving mindfulness into each class, we promoted more ways of accessing openness, curiosity, and present-moment contact. The Mindfulness in Counseling Recordings were created afterward to help accompany the common obstacles of sitting with others while also helping to reach some fundamental milestones of counselor development.
These recordings include separate exercises intended to accompany a course focusing on the education and practice of counseling skills (i.e., Models and Techniques of Counseling, Practicum, Models of Psychotherapy). The aim is to help counselors mindfully practice sitting, not only with clients, but with themselves. As counselors, we are always learning. These recordings are intended to remind us to slow down and be present so we can form more mindful counseling relationships.
Who is Mindfulness in Counseling for?
Students enrolled in a counseling, social work, or psychology program
Educators aiming to improve counselor-in-training development
Clinicians who are facing the common barriers of sitting with others
Counselors seeking to be more present in their relationships
Feel free to practice for yourself with the Session 1 Demo. It is the first session of the Mindfulness in Counseling meditations. It briefly begins to cover the role of mindfulness in the counseling relationship and sets the tone for the series. Mindfulness exercises are all unique due to the nature of mindfulness being "here and now." This one in particular may offer a perspective into the benefits of mindfulness while also allowing space for one's "first" practice. Be sure to make sure you are set up in a quiet and comfortable place, enjoy, and remember to breathe.