How To Get A Degree In Psychology At Jmu

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1 EMPATHIC TIMES FALL EDITION AUGUST 13, 2013 The Official Newsletter of JMU Counseling Programs We don t just report the news. We FEEL it. POTLUCK AND RITUALS RING IN NEW SCHOOL YEAR On Monday, August 26, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., we will hold a Happy New School Year! celebration for all the new and returning members of our Counseling Programs community. It will be held at Shelter #4 in Westover Park, which is by the Harrisonburg Recreation Center on West Market Street (Route 33). For detailed directions, go to The special event is open to all counseling students, faculty, staff, and all their significant others, both young and old. Our celebration will be a potluck affair, so bring along some dish you would like to share with others. You can bring something that you made from a family recipe, a dish that reflects your cultural background, or something that s just plain good to eat! We will provide beverages and picnic essentials. After dinner, we will have some special rituals to help us launch our new school year together. Chi Sigma Iota also plans to have something special. Come and join us! This is a great way for you to ring in the new academic year. PGSC SPONSORS BACK-TO-SCHOOL PICNIC The Psychology Graduate Student Council (PGSC) is hosting a Back-to-School departmental picnic on Sunday, August 25, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Robin Anderson s barn. PGSC will be grilling burgers, hot dogs and veggie options. Returning students and faculty members will be bringing a side dish, dessert, or beverage. There will be a brief orientation for all new students in the Department of Graduate Psychology at 3:15. You will be receiving an e-vite with directions to Robin s barn! ORIENTATIONS ARRANGED FOR NEW STUDENTS To make certain that you new students are thoroughly oriented, several orientations that are being offered at the program, department, and university levels. Because they began in the second six weeks of the summer session, the new School Counseling students already had their program orientation on July 17 at Sandy Hite s house. Thanks to Sandy for hosting the event and to Michele Kielty and Renee Staton with the excellent 1

2 program! If you were unable to attend, see one of them for information and guidance. The JMU Graduate School will host a university-wide orientation for all new graduate students from across the campus on Monday, August 19, from 9:00 a.m. to noon in Health and Human Services (HHS) Building, Room To find more details and to register for the event, go to During the afternoon, you can also attend an introduction to the campus libraries in Carrier Library at 1:30 p.m. and then take a tour of the University Recreation Center at 3:00 p.m. If you are unable to attend, then we encourage you to take the online orientation at An orientation meeting for all new students in the Department of Graduate Psychology will be held from 3:15 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 25, at Robin Anderson s barn, which will be followed by a picnic from 4:00 to 6:00 at the same location. As mentioned above, an e-vite provides directions. The departmental orientation is a great opportunity for you to learn the essentials for successfully launching your training career. Finally, on Monday, August 26, from 10 a.m. to noon in Miller G-007, we will have a program orientation for our new students in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. Come and get oriented! SUMMER INSTITUTE IN COUNSELING A HUGE SUCCESS Our Seventeenth Annual Summer Institute in Counseling, which took place in June and July, proved to be a great success. The diverse offerings included workshops and courses on human sexuality, school counseling, social emotional learning, ethics, hypnosis, clinical mental health counseling, play therapy, and connection to nature. This annual event, which is the longest running university-sponsored workshop series in the country, provides professional development in counseling and helps pay for our Pizza and Process meetings. JMU is an NBCC-approved provider of continuing education units and we are already planning next year s Summer Institute. If you have any suggestions for topics, please let us know. Thanks to all the presenters and a special thanks to Renee Staton for coordinating it! LIBRARY WORKSHOPS OFFERED Michael Mungin, who is our Liaison Librarian, has a great workshop for you! He will be offering a session specifically designed to help counseling students take advantage of the new services and extensive collections that the JMU Carrier Library and Rose Library offer. The workshop will cover information such as delivery service, literature searches, interlibrary loans, electronic journals, database searches, PsycNET, and the JMU Library Catalog. You will do hands-on work using online resources and search strategies. The one-hour workshop will be offered twice in Carrier 301: Wednesday, September 4, 10:00-11:00 a.m. Thursday, September 5, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Just show up and come prepared to learn some great information! 2

3 STUDENTS SUCCEED IN COMPS May, June and July have been busy months for comprehensive examinations. Congratulations to Mueni Masamba, Elizabeth Cranford, Christy Normant, Sarah Armstrong, Kelsey King, Brittany Gibson, Evenor Aleman, Cheri Greenfield, and Victoria Bice! Be sure to congratulate these students for their success in this important rite of passage. Two more students are scheduled to take the examination later this month. COMPS INFORMATION SESSION OFFERED We will host a comprehensive exam information session on Tuesday, September 3, at 12:00 in Johnston 211. If you plan to take comps during the fall semester, join us to learn more about how you can prepare. The comprehensive examination now includes important components that sample counseling knowledge, skills and practices: multiple-choice test (for CMHC students. SC students take this test as an exit examination.) practicum documentation of activities recorded tape segment of counseling work accompanying transcript and written analysis oral examination follow-up session Clinical Mental Health Counseling students also submit a proposal for the Ed.S. Research Project and a completed committee approval form. FALL SEMESTER COMPS DUE AT END OF OCTOBER This fall semester, comprehensive examination materials are due Thursday, October 31. The handbook has detailed information and suggestions for succeeding at comps, so this, in combination with the comps information session mentioned above, should provide all you need to know to prepare for comps. The oral exams will take place between November 4 and November 6. Good luck! ED.S. PROJECT AND DISSERTATION DEADLINE SET If you are completing your Ed.S. research or Ph.D. dissertation this fall semester, then you must submit your final report to The Graduate School by Friday, November 22. For a thesis and dissertation manual that includes format instructions and a helpful checklist, you can go to: Remember to make an appointment with The Graduate School s Director of Student Support to review the format of your draft prior to submitting the final version. Your review may be conducted in person at The Graduate School office or by . COUNSELING PROGRAM MEETINGS SET FOR FALL Throughout the fall semester, the Counseling Program Committee will meet the first and third Mondays of each month, except during Thanksgiving break. The meetings take place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon in Miller G-007 on the following dates: September 2 and 16 October 7 and 21 November 4 and 18 3

4 December 2 Although the December 2 meeting will focus on progress reviews, students are invited to participate in any of the earlier meetings. Mark your calendars! PIZZA AND PROCESS LUNCHES AT 12:30 THIS FALL This fall semester we will continue the tradition of having regularly scheduled Pizza and Process Lunches to share food, reflections, feedback, updates, and suggestions. The lunches will take place on Wednesday, October 2 Monday, November 4 Wednesday, December 4 All meetings will begin at 12:30 p.m. this fall and will take place in Johnston 204. Mark your calendars, because everyone in the Counseling Programs is invited. We will have door prizes, too! COUNSELING PROGRAMS WELCOME OUR NEW STUDENTS We are happy to introduce you to the newest members of the Counseling Programs learning community! Our new School Counseling students are: Aaron Boggs, Aamir Cobb, Kim Heverly, Heidi Jordan, Korey Lamb, Michelle Miller, Hayley O Brien, Kristin Williams, and Julie Zombakis. New Clinical Mental Health Counseling students include: Barton Biggs, Brian Caperton, Lauren Fortune, Olivia Gillies, Andriana Hench, Laura Jones, Jeffrey Lown, Greg Medley, Karen Moore, Jennifer Semaan, and Rachel Tysinger.. Our new doctorate Counseling and Supervision students are: Aimee Brickner and Jamie Hoffman. Welcome, everyone! A REMINDER ABOUT TRAVEL MONEY We have a small amount of money available to support students who are presenting at professional conferences, so if you know you d like to request travel funds for a presentation, please follow the procedure outlined in the Counseling Programs Handbook. We ll support your endeavors to the degree our budget allows. NEW PROGRAM HANDBOOKS AND DIRECTORY NOW ONLINE The Program Handbooks for School Counseling, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and the Ph.D. in Counseling and Supervision are now posted on our Counseling Programs websites. You will want to refer to your handbook regularly throughout your training. It provides you with more than the practical information you need about the program s policies and procedures. It also offers helpful hints and suggestions on gaining the most from the opportunities you have as a student. The 2013 edition of the Directory of Mental Health Services is also posted on the Counseling Programs websites. It provides detailed information on the resources available in the cities of Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton, and Waynesboro, along with the counties of Augusta, Bath, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, and Shenandoah. Thanks to all the students who helped with this important and valuable project! 4

5 PSYC 800 ED.S. RESEARCH PREP COURSE OFFERED THIS FALL This fall, Rebecca Heselmeyer will offer a special one-credit-hour, five-week PSYC 800 Ed.S. Research Project course to prepare clinical mental health counseling students for succeeding in this capstone experience. In addition to enhancing your writing skills, the class will help you to learn the Graduate School format requirements, guidelines for proposals, sixth edition of APA Style, procedures for selecting a chair and committee, and other strategies for carrying out a successful project. During the course, you will develop a draft for a proposal that you can use for your comps and your Ed.S. Research Project. By the way, this one credit hour will count towards the 3 credit hours that are required in PSYC 800 for you to graduate in the CMHC Program with 60 hours, so you will not be paying extra for this. The short course will begin during the second week of the semester and meet once a week until the first week of October. We will arrange a 2 1/2 hour block of time that is workable for everybody who wishes to take the course. Our students have completed some wonderful Ed.S. Research Projects. The class is one way to make sure that your project will be a successful one, too and with less anguish and frustration! Contact Lennie at echterlg@jmu.edu as soon as possible with your student ID number because you will need an override to register for the course. APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION If you plan to complete your training by Friday, December 13, there is a simple procedure that you should follow. First, you must complete the Application for a Graduate/Doctoral Degree form, which you can access online. You will find detailed instructions at Please note that the Graduate School will not accept forms completed in pen. You must first complete the form electronically and then print it. Make sure that you will be completing all the requirements and that you have no outstanding Incompletes by the end of this summer semester. Then, meet with your advisor, who will review and sign your application. After that, see Lennie Echterling, for his signature at Program Director. Finally, see Carl Guerin, who will help you obtain the signature of Robin Anderson, our department head. Carl will make a copy of the form for our files and send the form to The Graduate School. The deadline is Friday, September 27, so don t wait until the last day! CVCA PLANS BUSY FALL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS The Central Valley Counselors Association has planned a full schedule of events for the fall. On Thursday, September 19, CVCA will sponsor Counselors Creating Connections for community and school counselors to meet and share resources. It will take place at the Bowl of Good in Harrisonburg, at 6:30 p.m. 5

6 The following week, CVCA will host Invite, Invest, Inspire for school counselors from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. at Blue Ridge Community College on Thursday, September 26. This year s fall CVCA workshop, Human Sexuality and Development, will be offered on Friday, October 11, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Dr. Debbie Sturm is the lead presenter of the workshop, which will take place at Blue Ridge Community College. At the VCA convention, which takes place November 6 to 9 at the Homestead, CVCA will sponsor another social for attendees. Finally, on the following Thursday, November 14, CVCA will host a social for members at the Shenandoah Pizza in Staunton, beginning at 5:30 p.m. For more information about all these events, check out the CVCA website. VASC WORKSHOP SET FOR SEPTEMBER The Virginia Alliance for School Counseling is sponsoring a workshop on the impact of adversity on our youth and the legal issues confronting school counselors. It will be held on Friday, September 13, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Luray-Page Center of Lord Fairfax Community College. For more information and to register online, go to CHI SIGMA IOTA PLANS BUSY FALL SEMESTER The JMU Alpha Sigma Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, the international honor society for students, professional counselors, and counselor educators, is planning a busy fall semester for counseling students and faculty. Meredith Reed will serve as the President, Ann Tolley Hynes will be the President- Elect, Kerri Tracy will serve at Secretary, Jessica Hayden will continue as Treasurer, Hannah Trible will be the Social Chair, Niki Crump and Jaime Grove will be the Community Service Chairs, Brittany Gibson will serve as Historian, and Elizabeth Granford and Victoria Bice will be the Professional Development Chairs. Stay tuned for news on the exciting CSI events taking place this fall! PROGRESS NOTES At this summer s conference, the American Mental Health Counseling Association awarded Thom Field with the 2013 Foundation Dissertation Research Award. Congratulations, Thom! Also this summer, Michele Kielty attended an international conference on mindfulness in Rome. She and Renee Staton welcome students to join their research team on mindfulness. We have a few birthdays this fall semester. Here are the people (and the dates of their birthdays) for each month: August Mueni Masambia (4), Cheri Greenfield (13), Jaime Claytor (15), Jamie Hoffmann (18), Brette Stephenson (27), and Brittany Gibson (28). September Cassandra Jones (3), Karen Moore (5), Sarah Armstrong (7), 6

7 Elizabeth Cranford (12), Andriana Hench (13), and Eric Cowan (28) October Kerri Tracy (1), Jamie Grove (6), Bill Hall (16) November Rachel Tysinger (11), Michelle Miller (20), Michele Kielty (23), Aaron Boggs (24), Anne Stewart (25), Renee Staton (26) December Niki Crump (12), Hannah Trible (12) Be sure to pass along happy birthday wishes to these people! OTHER IMPORTANT DATES August 26 Classes begin September 9 Ed.S./Thesis/Dissertation Committee Approval Form due to TGS 27 Application for Graduation due to TGS October 28 Spring registration begins November 7-9 Virginia Counselors Association Convention, Homestead 15 Ed.S./Thesis/Dissertation due to TGS Thanksgiving break December 14 Commencement Please send corrections and additions to the Empathic Times Editorial Staff, aka Lennie, at echterlg@jmu.edu. 7