Counselor Education and Supervision Doctoral Students go “Virtual”

Doctoral student Zeynep Yilmaz and recent graduate Toni Saia came to the rescue of Dr. Henry McCarthy, Professor Emeritus at Louisiana State University recently when he was called away to attend to an ailing family member. With only a couple of weeks to prepare, they filled in for Dr. McCarthy by developing and delivering a virtual presentation entitled Disability-Related Competencies for All Counselors: Standards to Strengthen Your Ethical Practice at the Louisiana Counseling Association’s virtual conference. Along with fellow doctoral student Camy Shaheed, Yilmaz and Saia were instrumental in the development of the competencies, initiating the concept and advocating for the development of the competencies with the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA). Yilmaz also served on the task force that created the competencies that were later endorsed by ACA. It is therefore no surprise that Dr. McCarthy could confidently hand the presentation over to them and thanks to their quick response and content expertise, they saved the day!  Their presentation was well-recieved and attendees left the conference better prepared to counsel their clients with disabilities!