How do you view CEU's? Are they just paper credits you have to get in order to renew your license? Or are they an investment in your professionalism and your practice?

CEU's for Mental Health Counselors

After conducting workshops for several years I have come to the conclusion that our collective paradigm through which we view, "continuing education", is severely restricted to two major thought processes:

1. "I need 24 of 'em to renew my license, regardless of the topic, except for those damned ethics ce's."

or,...

2. "I'm going to take skillset ce's cause that's what I'm most interested in. Besides, they're free."

What's Wrong With That?

Well, nothing's "wrong" with that but simply aiming at the random, bi-annual 24 credit finish line for license renewal isn't a road-map to practice excellence. I think our approach could be better. Specifically, our acquisition of CE's needs to have a plan driving it and we need to make the acquisition of the plan's end-goal our objective, not the cumulative 24. If we limit our self-education to that which is focused on counseling skill-set, or free, well, you're eliminating a very large portion of your practice improvement opportunity.

So What's Missing?

Pretty much everything to do with the operation of your practice: Federal and State compliance, Business Development, Practice Marketing, Practice Platform Management, and related topics. To be fair, we haven't previously had the option to do any ce-planning, have we? No one has offered an alternative until now.

Change Your Outlook on Continuing Education

I'd like to encourage you to think about your continuing education as an on-going investment in your counseling practice. (Here comes the unabashed commercialism...) By allowing us to help you develop some mid-to-long-term ce goals through The Counseling Landscape, we can then help you achieve that.

Your Future Professionalism Starts Today

Let's stop looking at our continuing education as, "the acquisition of 24 free ceu's", and start viewing it as the axe that sharpens our overall professionalism. Sometimes that's gonna cost a few bucks. Let's be kind to ourselves and do the right thing. You deserve it!

Besides, we have a blast at our workshops! And lots of chocolate.

Plan Smart. Be Safe. Serve Others.

Kathleen Mills, LPC-S, CEAP