3/25/13
SLU Professor is Featured Presenter at National Conference
CANTON –Treating a patient as an individual would seem to be a logical and expected approach when someone with mental health conditions is treated by a counseling professional.
But that isn’t what always happens, according to Peter Ladd, a professor in St. Lawrence University’s graduate program in education. He was the featured presenter at the American Counseling Association’s National Conference, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 21 through 24.
Ladd’s presentation, which was part of the educational program available to the more than 3,100 counseling professionals in attendance, advocated for a more humanistic approach to counseling. He has found that patients with mental health issues are often diagnosed and treated using a strictly medical model of diagnosis with little input from the clients themselves.
Ladd proposed that counselors should use more of their philosophical background, rather than just a medical model, to help explore the reasons behind the client’s feelings and behavior. Such an approach takes the whole person into account, rather than simply fitting the person into the medical model.
The American Counseling Association is the world’s largest association devoted exclusively to the counseling profession. The ACA has more than 53,000 members across the U.S. and in 80 other countries.
