Hello my name is Allie

And I have a serious love affair with these:
Along with this love affair comes a love affair with:
And I think I would just die without prime shipping (which I got for free a bit ago because I am a student!). Other than to say that I just ordered more books:

On becoming a person by Carl Rogers and The gift of therapy by Irvin. Yalom

I don't have anything else to say this evening. I am now going to bed to read of course!

Acting Ethically

Part of the counseling profession is adhering to a code of ethics most often the American Counseling Associations code of ethics. As part of my ethics course our instructor invited us to post our view and reaction to the case of Julea Ward Vs. Eastern Michigan University (find info about case here). Mrs. Ward was a counseling student at EMU that was dismissed from the counseling program because of her refusal to counsel homosexual clients. Mrs. Ward also stated that she would not counsel a host of other clients including those who took part in fornication.It was interesting to see the stance and thoughts of my classmates on this issue. Most took the same stance that Mrs. Ward should not be allowed to be a counselor but there where a few that thought that Mrs. Ward was wrongly dismissed. I have to say this pushed my buttons.

My personal stance is this: refusing to counsel ANY clients in my opinion is a disservice to this profession. This is not to say that all counseling students/counselors have to counsel everyone but it is to say that we must be OPEN to counseling anyone. It would be unrealistic to state that counselors must work with anyone who comes to them for help however in the same stance we should be willing and able to try. As counselors people come to us for help and expect us to be accepting and non judgmental because of their life choices be it homosexually, adultery, leaving behind their children, or severing ties with their parents.

Our job is to provide guidance to them on how to make the best choice for them and my personal values and beliefs should never come into play in our counseling relationship and clearly Mrs. Ward is not able to place her own values and beliefs aside and serve her clients. So yes EMU made a good choice in my opinion when they dismissed her from the program because I don't personally believe she deserves to represent my soon to be profession.

A date night that went bad....

Last weekend I went out to a great dinner with my husband which is rare actually since moving up here as we left our baby sitter back in Missouri (we currently live in Washington). So we went out and were having a decent time eating this food:
Doesn't my husband have nice manly hands? He thinks I am totally weird but I like my husbands hands :) and he will probably be grossed out by me writing about this on my blog....lol

We were having a nice time eating until we got a phone call from someone asking if we have a dog named Sebastian..apparently the new sitter didn't understand that the bright orange tie out cable that ran up to our back door was meant for the dog...so she just opened the door and let him out and he was found walking along here:

At night at about 10:30pm....this beach is about a 5-10minute walk from our house on the main roads which I can't think our dog would take... so what was a nice date night turned in a date night wondering if the person was actually going to bring our dog home...he did thankfully and this post reminded me that I need to get his thank you card mailed out!

Dog is back home safe and sound however we are going to have to have a redo on the date night as it was pretty much ruined after that and next time I will ask that they keep the dog in the house ;)

Only Children

A few days ago Greyson and I went on a play date with a few friends from his school. This was the first time we had been anywhere with these moms so naturally it was a recap of everything. Husbands, work, life, kids, cooking etc. The one topic that came up and stuck for a bit was kids and if we were going to have another. These moms had 2 and 3 children each and so apparently the concept of only having one was foreign. When I stated that we most likely won't be having another I felt like I should have stapled this to Greyson's back:


I honestly get tired of people making comments about how only children are lonely, not social, need someone to play with and insert whatever else crap excuse that people come up with as to why we should have another. I know plenty of people who have multiple children who frankly don't pay attention to one (or more) of them, siblings that don't play together, moms who never have enough time for each of them etc. No I am not saying having more than one child is bad, if that is your choice that is great for you but for me and my husband more than one is not what we want. I would be lying if I said at times I didn't think of having another but it is just not in our plans.

We have very personal reasons for not choosing to another child and I wish people would honestly stop asking. So for those of you who are one of those people who constantly ask someone when/if they are having another, can you please stop and think that there are some (myself included) that have medical reasons that they are choosing not have another child and please stop saying that my child is going to have (insert issue here) because he doesn't have a sibling because siblings don't protect you from (insert issue here) because I have 4 and I still have issues.

The Sea Inside

For my ethics class we had to watch the movie The Sea Inside which recaps the story of a man Ramon Sampedro and his campaign for his right to die. Ramon was a quadriplegic who for almost 30 years has wanted to exercise his right to die after becoming paralyzed because of an accident. I was honestly surprised that I enjoyed the movie as much as I did considering it was subtitled and I seriously hate subtitled movies. My husband watched it with me and I think he enjoyed it as well. It covers a seriously touchy subject in such a beautiful way. Sounds corny I know but it really does. I am trying to not give away many details about the film just in case you want to watch it yourself ;)


My assignment was to write a reaction paper and touch on the ethical dilemmas that were present in the movie for a counselor. I am not going to go through all of those but I am going to talk a little bit about assisted suicide and a person's right to choose. Is there ever a right situation in which it should be okay to assisst someone in committing suicide and in doing this should safeguards be in place to keep these people from legal ramifications? Is there ever a right situation to where a counselor (or other professional) should not assist with suicide but not really do anything to prevent a person from exercising their right to chose if they live or die? Is it our right to chose when we die?

As you can tell this movie left me with some questions that I honestly don't intend to answer right now. I am going to process for a little while so look for another post in the future.

Oh happy mail day :)

I can't always be serious on this blog because I think the very few of you who do read my blog would stop reading it right? Or would you prefer that I stick to school and counseling only ?

So a few posts back I reported on my wax addiction. Today I received a few packages in the mail full of wax...like this:



That picture above is the majority of 30 bars I ordered from Scentsationals. I have been a long user/ lover/seller of Scentsy but even I will admit the cost is up there and so I decided to try out some of their competitors. I have to say that so far I am impressed with Scentsationals and the quality of their wax and you can't beat the price tag of 2/3.00 (2.00 if you get them from Walmart). So if you haven't given Scentsationals a try I say run to you nearest Walmart and pick up a bar.

I am not in any way affiliated with Scentsationals nor am I being paid to write this or any of the other reviews in the weeks to come on my blog (however if they wanted to pay me I would gladly take it...he he).

Adlerian Therapy

Part of my counseling program is figuring out what theoretical orientation you feel you most aline with that will either serve as your only or will become your base while you intermingle other theories but remain true to your base. Over the last few weeks I have read about a few different theories and I can honestly say that at this very moment I am really loving the approach that Adlerian therapist take when they are working with their clients.

Adlerian counseling is built upon encouragement and holds the belief that encouragement opens the doors for great change. I like that Adlerian counselors meet and see the person where they are and don't focus to much on the past other than to understand how their past has shaped their views in today. Adlerians describe encouragement as : showing faith in people, expecting them to assume responsibility for their lives, and valuing them for who they are. In essence they are saying:

I am sure this all sounds simplistic right? That simply offering encouragement can change someones life...well I am here to tell you I believe that it can. Think back to the last time you got an atta boy from your boss for example? How did the rest of your day go? Did you work harder? Did you continue to work harder even after that day? I would be willing to bet that the majority of you would say why yes yes I did! Of course I am not saying that encouragment is all there is to helping and using the Adlerian method but it is a major part of it and I honestly appreciate it!

I could go on and on but alas this is a blog and I don't think you would keep reading my crap would cha? For more information about Adler and his methods go to the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology.