50. The CCPA is 50 years old!
Imagine all that has changed since 1965…
Vehicles, medical breakthroughs, space exploration, job titles, prices, environmental concerns, clothing styles (though some of them keep coming back!), phones, computers, technology, the Internet…to name a few.
Whew.
Attitudes towards counselling have changed. Not to mention where and how counselling takes place. Mental health and wellbeing is an increasingly important conversation in workplaces and communities.
Yup. A lot has changed.
And now imagine all that hasn’t changed ….
The essence of counselling itself. The importance of listening, the art of questioning, respect, empathy, trust building, creating healing spaces.
None of that has changed. Neither has the real driving force behind the CCPA – people who have a heart for the work and a keen desire to see the profession continue to grow and develop.
At the recent CCPA 50th anniversary conference I came away with books to read, research to follow, questions to think about, resources to use and a renewed appreciation for the staff and volunteers who work so hard on our behalf.
In a session on “Frameworks for Ethical Decision-making”, Simon Nuttgens shared this quote that I think epitomizes what remains constant in our profession:
“By our very attitude to one another we help to shape one another’s world. By our attitude to the other person we help to determine the scope and hue of his or her world; we make it large or small, bright or drab, rich or dull, threatening or secure. We help to shape his or her world not by theories and views but by our very attitude toward him or her. Herein lies the unarticulated and one might say anonymous demand that we take care of the life which trust has placed in our hands.” – Knud Eiler Løgstrup: The Ethical Demand (1956) (transl. 1971, 1997) p. 18
Here’s to the next 50!
Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate of Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http://www.therapyonline.ca
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA