AUNE’s Wellness Institute

Individual and Organizational Interventions to Support Wellness

Founded in 2014 by Dr. Cathy Lounsbury, AUNE’s Wellness Institute strives to provide the training and resources necessary to make changes on individual, agency, and policy levels to support wellness for those in the helping professions. The Institute was launched at the Antioch Institute on Counselor Wellness, during which 65 counseling professionals (students, educators, clinicians, supervisors, administrators) gathered at Antioch New England for facilitated dialogue to develop standards of practice both individually and collectively for creating a climate conducive to counselor wellness. These standards focused not only on increasing individuals’ resilience to STS, but more importantly, enhancing organizational capacity to systematically prevent and respond to the occupational hazard of STS and its complex effect on clients served, individual service providers, and organizational mission.

Since its inception, faculty from AUNE’s Wellness Institute have provided training throughout the US, helping counselors not only develop individual wellness strategies but also to create organizational changes based on evidence-based practices to support counselor wellness.

Hear Dr. Lounsbury describe the mission of the Wellness Institute at the 2014 Innovation Reveals Itself conference.

While the initial focus of the institute was support specifically for those in the counseling profession, our mission has become more expansive as requests have included the need to develop strategies to support ALL helpers (clinicians, activists, teachers, environmentalists, and social workers). Beginning in the Fall of 2015 the Institute’s faculty embarked on an annual “Wellness Tour,” bringing wellness support and education to sites throughout the US, reaching more than 500 professionals and many organizations. These workshops are offered at little to no cost to the attendees and are approved for Continuing Education Hours (through NBCC) for professional licensure. Please email Cathy Lounsbury if you would like to arrange a workshop and/or consultation for your organization.

Workshop Description:

Wellness for Helping Professionals: Mitigating the Effects of Secondary Traumatic Stress
6-hour or 3-hour training.

While there are many intrinsic rewards as a result of helping those who have been faced with traumatizing events, listening to stories of trauma may have negative effects on those serving in helping capacities. The emotional costs of caring for clients with histories of trauma can be significant, both for helpers themselves and those around them. Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) refers to those physical, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional reactions experienced by clinicians as a natural byproduct of working with those who have experienced trauma. Antioch University”s Institute on Wellness for Helping Professionals workshops provide participants with the most current information on the neuroscience of secondary traumatic stress, in addition to evidence-based models and practices to increase resiliency to STS. An important component of the workshop is facilitated dialogue bringing together various members of the helping professions’ personal and systemic standards of practice for creating a climate conducive to wellness. Workshops are experiential and participants are provided with materials to develop their own self-care plans.

Objectives

• Understand the physiology and symptoms of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS)
• Understand and develop individual strategies to address STS
• Develop a plan for organizational and policy change to support wellness
• Engage in dialogue to reduce the stigma of STS among helping professionals
• Collectively develop standards of practice to prevent and transform STS

NEW WORKSHOP OFFERINGS:

• Wellness for Helping Professionals:  Maintaining Hope and Optimism in Chaotic Times
• Radical Positivity: Cultivating Positive Action In The Midst Of Uncertainty

For more information on AUNE’s Wellness Institute, or to schedule a workshop at your site, please email Cathy Lounsbury or contact them by phone at 603-283-2146.

Faculty

Dr. Cathy Lounsbury, Director of Institute, Founding Member, Institute on Wellness for Helping Professionals; Associate Professor, Department of Applied Psychology

Cathy Lounsbury, Ed.D., LCPC is a seasoned counselor, educator, and leader in the study and practice of trauma, wellness, and resilience. Cathy has been a clinical mental health counselor for over 25 years working with both children and adults, specializing in those who have experienced trauma.

Currently, Cathy serves as an Associate Professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program, with a focus on trauma-informed treatment and clinical practice. In this role, she founded Antioch’s Institute on Wellness, providing consultation and training nationally on the mitigation of secondary traumatic stress. Within the Applied Psychology Department at Antioch, Cathy has developed training opportunities for students in trauma-informed, strength-based approaches, including an international clinical training opportunity working with children and teens in Peru. Additionally, Cathy has provided expertise in psychological trauma and resiliency to multi-disciplinary teams exploring the effect of climate impacts on youth and families.

As the former Clinical Director of the Maine Psychological Trauma Institute, she has provided consultation, training, and supervision to schools and communities throughout New England on Post-traumatic Stress Management, Fostering Resiliency in Children, Mitigating the Effects of Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Promoting Positive Youth Development. Cathy believes strongly in building natural resiliency supports for those who have experienced traumatic events. To this end, she has served on both local and national community trauma response teams following national disasters, terrorism, and other traumatic events and was the founder and director of the IMPACT Team, a youth-focused community trauma team, consulting on 200+ incidents. Cathy has also advocated for policy and environmental changes to support youth and has led several federal initiatives, including Safe Schools Healthy Students and Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse, to create better systems to support youth and families. To this end, Cathy was able to secure over $7 million in grant funding to support the youth of Maine.

Dr. Devona Stalnaker-Shofner, Educational Coordinator, Institute on Wellness for Helping Professionals; Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the SAAC Concentration, Department of Applied Psychology

Devona received her Doctor of Education in Counselor Education and Supervision from Argosy University Atlanta. Her dissertation research focused on wellness in graduate students as they transition to counselors-in-training and during clinical practicum. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the State of Georgia, as well as a National Certified Counselor (NCC) through the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). Devona has been in professional practice as a counselor since 2001, and her experience includes providing individual, group, and marriage and family counseling to clients presenting with treatment concerns such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders, as well as substance abuse, chemical dependency, and recovery. Additionally, her professional experience includes working with trauma, grief, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and self-mutilation/injury.

Devona has presented at a number of national conferences speaking on the topic of counselor wellness, as well as facilitating workshops in this area. Though her research interests have primarily been focused on counselor wellness, her other interests are in multiculturalism and family systems and include the influence of acculturation, intracultural colorism, and factors influencing mate selection.

Devona is a member of Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology, as well as Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society. She is also a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), and the American Mental Health Counselor Association (AMHCA).

At the core of my teaching philosophy is that good teachers leave an indelible impression on their students. I view myself as a highly skilled practitioner, and my job as an educator is to make the abstract more accessible, essentially bridging the gap between understanding theory to the practical application of concepts and helping students to integrate the two worlds. Learning is based on synthesis and integration, not on the regurgitation of facts. Consistent with my systemic theoretical orientation of practice, it is my belief that learning does not occur within a vacuum. The classroom is a microcosm of the professional world. In the capacity as the facilitator of the education process, it is my job to help the student to determine and find their future role within that community.

Tim Desmond, LMFT has been appointed as Distinguished Faculty in The Institute on Wellness for Helping Professionals. This appointment recognizes Tim’s record of outstanding professional service, scholarship, and dedication to wellness for those in the helping professions. As Distinguished Faculty for the Wellness Institute, Tim will be presenting for the Applied Psychology Department Internship Site Supervisors and will be collaborating on a professional full-day workshop this Spring.

Tim Desmond is a mindfulness teacher, therapist in private practice, and co-founder of Morning Sun Mindfulness Center in Alstead, NH. He is the author of Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy (W.W. Norton, 2015) and offers training and consultation to therapists around the world, helping them to integrate positive psychology and mindfulness practices into their work.

Tim has presented at Yale University, the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy Colloquium, Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Conference, and the International Society for Ethics in Psychology and Psychiatry, as well as to mental health audiences around the country. His writings on mindfulness and positive psychology have appeared in the Psychotherapy Networker and the Mindfulness Bell magazine. Tim was interviewed about self-compassion by the Huffington Post and writes for major mental health websites such as Madinamerica.com.

He developed and teaches “dialogue-based mindfulness training,” a technique for teaching mindfulness and self-compassion in which the client is guided through a meditation while giving the clinician feedback about their experience in real-time. The clinician uses this feedback to adjust and custom tailor the meditation instructions in order to ensure the client learns the technique effectively.

In 2005, Tim was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh into the Order of Interbeing after many years of practicing in that tradition. He leads meditation retreats around the US and teaches regularly at Morning Sun Mindfulness Center in NH. In addition to the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Tim teaches Nonviolent Communication and positive psychology.

Dr. Ernie Zullo has been a counselor for the past 10 years and has had a variety of professional experiences including play therapy, college counseling, private practice, and inpatient & outpatient substance abuse counseling.

The majority of Dr. Zullo’s professional work has involved crisis counseling, both in a local crisis center and in a trauma-one emergency room. The focus of all these professional experiences has centered on suicidality, trauma, addiction, and or survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Dr. Zullo’s areas of research involve counselor preparation, especially student coping with anxiety during practicum and internship, as well as adult learning. He also provides clinical supervision for master-level intern students and graduates working towards their licensure as professional counselors.