What also surprised me was how quickly I was able to make friends. As my cohort was all online, I thought it would be difficult to connect with people and truly start making connections. These connections, to my surprise, came quickly due to the environment that was created at PAU.
Author: Roque Neto
Know Your Needs and Set Boundaries
Self-awareness empowers us to control our behaviors, manage our emotions, and make better choices. By understanding ourselves better, we can more easily identify our needs and wants. These are key elements for setting personal boundaries and to recognize when they have been crossed.
The Road to Expertise: Unpacking Development and Diagnosis in Counseling
My third quarter in the Counseling program at Palo Alto University started yesterday. I am taking two courses this term: COUN612 Life Span Development and COUN634 Diagnosis. Today, I am sharing with you what these courses are about and some of my hopes for this quarter.
My Self-Care Strategies
While I have always enjoyed walking, my physician has highlighted the ole of weightlifting in preventing muscle loss. As I type these words, I am hoping to maintain this routine when my workload intensifies. For now, I am letting go of that concern and enjoying this amount of exercise while it lasts.
The Power of Self-Reflection
What stands out to me the most from this past quarter is the realization that becoming a reflective practitioner is more than an academic exercise. It is a way of being. In my career as a teacher educator, I have known this for a while. I have seen that when teachers self-reflect, they develop a deeper understanding of their students’ needs, leading to more effective teaching practices.
Reflections on a Transformative Week: My First Residency Experience
The heart of the residency was centered around the integration of both basic and advanced counseling skills. In a series of role-playing exercises, we took turns being mock clients and counselors, providing each other with a unique opportunity to apply what we have learned in a controlled yet impactful environment. Under the caring gaze of our instructors, we engaged in these scenarios, receiving specific feedback.
My First Residency
Residency is an intensive program designed to deepen our theoretical knowledge and to hone our practical counseling skills. The days ahead promise a rigorous yet rewarding schedule, filled with workshops and role-playing sessions.
Thinking about Hope
Hope is a key ally in building resilience. It enables clients to face setbacks with courage and perseverance. It offers a counterbalance to the despair or anxiety that many experience, not by eliminating these feelings, but by providing a perspective that coexists with them. Hope offers a glimpse of light in darkness.
A Peek into the Legal and Ethical Foundations of Counseling
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of my classes this term, bam, it’s almost over. The second quarter has been busier than the first, but it has also felt more real. We transitioned from a theoretical perspective of counseling to practicing specific therapeutic skills, and addressing the ethical and legal issues we may encounter in our counseling careers.
My Journey as a Dean
As I look to the future, I am hopeful. I envision a future where more individuals from minoritized communities ascend to similar positions of leadership in higher education, bringing a wealth of experiences that shape our departments and programs in impactful ways. Our backgrounds influence how we allocate funds, what we emphasize...
Roque Neto 