I am looking forward to my two presentations at the West Virginia Counseling Association conference on November 10-11, 2016. My first presentation will focus on long lasting psychological impact of bullying, based on my first book titled “A Life Interrupted – the story of my battle with bullying and obsessive compulsive disorder”. My second presentation will be on the topic “prevention of child sexual abuse – the role of a counselor” which is based on my second book.
I understand that both of my presentations will be attended by a number of school counselors from the association. I do believe that school counselors in general find my presentations effective in their interactions with children of all ages.
In my presentation about long term psychological impact of bullying I try to make the point that prolonged bullying can have very significant impact on emotional health of victims. The attendees do understand the point that this kind of impact can affect the victims negatively for a long time much beyond the school years.
In my second presentation I try to make the point that even one episode of sexual abuse could have a very significant long term impact on the life of a young child. A knowledgeable school counselor can keep his/her eyes open while talking to children and can at times detect situations that could be harmful to the child involved. They can then intervene by reporting to the appropriate authorities to check out the situation.