Kali Psychi Online Edition

Dear students, alumni, parents, faculty, and staff,

Peace of Mind?
A recent large-scale crime…a silly comment by some celebrity…the national debt rising again…an ungodly politician getting elected…all things that can sometimes get us bent out of shape. This reminds me of what the founding Dean of the School of Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Ron Hawkins used to say- “think about what you’re thinking about.” Meaning- consciously decide what to focus your mental energy on. This reminds me of Philippians 4:8 (NIV)- “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” It’s not that we ignore what is going on in our culture or proverbially stick our heads in the sand like an Ostrich, but victorious Christians do not let themselves get distracted by the noise of this world. They focus on what they are called of God to do- reaching others with the love of Jesus, using the gifts and talents God gave them, and thinking on noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy things. As we do this we will have peace of mind (Isaiah 26:3) and enjoy the journey much more.

Selah,

Kenyon

Dionna Doneghy (’23), an elementary school counselor, has helped children experiencing various forms of trauma, including thoughts of suicide.

Doneghy completed her dissertation, “Finding the Missing Pieces: A Phenomenological Study of Elementary Teachers’ Experiences with Student Suicidality,” for the Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling — Traumatology. Her studies helped her gain more insight into how teachers and school counselors can help intervene.

“I’d been noticing an uptick in suicidal ideation in the students at my elementary school,” she said. After performing preliminary research she found that there was limited data on young children and the perspectives of teachers was not often included.

She stated, “If we can go ahead and pinpoint some of the problems and target those areas, maybe we can inhibit some of those behaviors and prevent them…we can give elementary students the coping skills and the self-regulation strategies that they need before they get to middle school and high school.”

She said she chose to study the perspective of teachers because of the amount of time they spend with their students. “I thought about how eye-opening it could be to explore the unique lived experiences of elementary teachers with student suicide, especially since it is an untapped area of research,” she said. “(Teachers) have the students with them longer during the day than with anyone else, other than maybe their families. I wanted to get their perceptions of this phenomenon and then determine whether their experiences were aligned with current literature. I also was interested in hearing what additional insights they might have that could contribute to the present literature.” Donaghy’s research found that many of the teachers she studied felt ill prepared to identify students at risk of suicide and/or assist them and expressed a desire for training in prevention/intervention. They also felt that they lacked the time needed to focus on student mental health due to demands such as grading, lesson planning, frequent meetings, and disruptive, and externalizing behaviors in the classroom. Doneghy plans to publish her research and create presentations and professional development opportunities for school personnel to better recognize the signs of suicide and mental health concerns in children.

Doneghy said she chose Liberty due to its reputation of high academic quality and outspoken respect for the United States military, of which her husband is a veteran. “It’s been great for me,” Doneghy said of her experience in the program. “I have to say I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge in the field of counseling, especially regarding trauma. I think it’s going to allow me to better serve my students in the field that I work in currently, as well as empower educators with the knowledge to hopefully recognize and prevent suicidal behavior in their students.”

“God has guided me the whole way, and I know that I’ve felt His hand on me throughout this entire journey,” she said. “It’s been a blessing, it really has.”

Sarah Ritchie, a 2018 graduate of Liberty University’s M.Ed. in School Counseling Program was named Elementary School Counselor of the Year (2023) by the Virginia School Counselor Association (VSCA) and Division Educator of the Year (2023) by her school division, King George County in Virginia.

In addition to managing a comprehensive school counseling program that includes the Kindness Crew, a successful self-created after-school positive growth group that serves the school and community, she also serves as the Communications and Public Relations Chair for VSCA and an active member for the Board of Directors for Rappahannock Community Services Board. A Champion for Christ, Sarah is making a difference and surely demonstrates—if it’s Christian it ought to be better!

Social Work Dominican Republic Missions Trip

During Spring break 2023, Dr. Christine Fulmer and Dr. Candace Hansford took students from the BSW, MSW, and interdisciplinary study programs to the Dominican Republic to work with Mercy Workshop and New Hope Girls organizations. These Christian organizations focus on ministering to victims and survivors of human trafficking, predominantly sex trafficking. Mercy Workshop provides self-sustainable employment skills to adult women who then can support for themselves and their children.

For New Hope Girls, they house, provide love, and introduce a new way of life for children and youth under 21 who have been rescued from sex trafficking. One of the main purposes of this trip was to participate in T3 (Trauma Tips and Tools) training alongside the directors and staff from both of these non-governmental organizations. Former Professor Jennifer Street, therapist and founder of Life Renewal Counseling and trainer for Arise Alliance, provided this necessary and beneficial training. The students were also able to interact with the children and youth at New Hope Girls, taught how to make jewelry by the women of Mercy Workshop, and were able to provide English tutoring to students at a local school.

The team experienced cultural immersion opportunities while practicing the Spanish language. The students exemplified servant’s hearts to each other, the faculty, and to the women and children of these organizations. If students are interested in participating in the D.R. trip in the future, please reach out to Dr. Fulmer at ckfulmer@liberty.edu for additional information.

Rwanda Missions Trip

Co-lead (Dr. Jerry Vuncannon, Dr. Whitni Buckles, and Dr. Jama Davis) LU Send trip with 21 students to Rwanda in March 2023. Students were from the CMHC, MFT, and EdD in Community Care and Counseling, Traumatology programs.

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Banks-Johnson, A., Jones, D.E., McIntosh, K. O., & Marrah, A. (February 02, 2023).  Christians can do what? How Christian counseling programs train ethically competent counselors.Law and Ethics in Counseling Conference 2023 (8th Annual), January 31 –February  3, 2023, University of Holy Cross, New Orleans, Louisiana

Camden, E. J., Waggoner, B., & Ostrander, C. (2022). Can You Hear Me? Building and Maintaining Rapport Using Telehealth. American Mental Health Counselor Association’s 2022 Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV.

Davis, J., Brown, D. & Evans, C. (January 2023). Professional counseling from a Christian worldview: Ethical considerations in practice. 2023 Law and Ethics in Counseling Conference. New Orleans, LA. [Virtual].

DeBolt, E. C. (2023, March 30-April 1). Maternal mental health: Beyond the baby blues [Conference presentation]. CAPS 2023 Emerge Conference, Louisville, KY, United States.

Hannor-Walker, T., Kitchens, S., & Ricks, L. (2023). Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children in schools: A proposed model for schools. National Youth At-Risk Conference: Savannah, GA.

Hannor-Walker, T., Pincus, R., Wright, L., Rock, W. Money-Brady, J., Bohecker, L. (2022). School counselor and administrators agree: Time and testing are barriers. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership.18(2) 36-53. https://doi.org/10.22230/ijepl.2022v18n2a1243

Jones, D. E. (2023). Case conceptualization: A biblical wellness approach. Kendall Hunt.

Jones, D. E., Evans, C. T., Miller, K. D., Tyre, Y., & Hull, K. B. (Spring 2022). Attending to the ASERVIC “communication” competencies via the B-Well model: A Christian-wellness approach. Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling, 31(2), 1-28.  https://aservic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ASERVIC_Interaction_Newsletter_Spring-2022.pdf

Jones, D. E., Ord, A., *Duskey, K., Jones, K., Duchac, N., *Dern, M., & *Montiel, L. (2021). An examination of Big Five personality factors in an undergraduate faith-based University. Journal of School Counseling, 19(11), 1-24. http://www.jsc.montana.edu/articles/v19n11.pdf

Joseph, R. A., Kim, J. J., Akers, S. W., Turner, T. M., Whorley, W. G., Lumpkin, K., Rosa, J. H., & McElroy, C. (2023).  COVID-19 related stress, quality of life, and intrinsic religiosity among college students during the global pandemic: A cross-sectional study. Cogent Psychology, 10(1). 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2023.219509

Kim, J. J., Connelly, C. A., Cox, A. M., Harris, A. Y., Owens, A. E., & Painter, K. J., Hodge, A. J., Wang Xu, J. & Volk, F (accepted). Religious humility, empathy, and forgiveness of a religious hurt. Journal of Psychology and Christianity.  

Kim, J. J. (February, 2023). The psychology and theology of divine forgiveness. Paper presented at The First International Conference on Forgiving and Being Forgiven within an Inter/Intra Cultural Perspective (Bar-Ilan University, Israel)

Kim, J. J. (2023). Forgiveness and religion/spirituality: What science has discovered about the relationship between the two. In R. D. Enright & G. Pettigrove (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Forgiveness in Philosophy and Psychology (pp.533-545). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003360278

King, J.A., Lakin, A., Camden, E. J., Ebersole, D., & Kitchens, S., (2022). From Isolation to Inclusion: Building Community Among Online Counseling Faculty. Christian Association for Psychological Studies’ Virtual Conference.

Kuehne, J. (2023, February). Creative Pedagogy Approaches: Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling. Presented at the 8^th Annual Law and Ethics in Counseling Conference, New Orleans, LA Lorbeer, C. (2022, December 29). Transforming Underserved Populations: Synchronizing and Mobilizing Indigenous Collaborations. Presented at the 40th Annual Conference on Mental Health and the Black Community, Jacksonville, FL.

Martin, L. E., Ebersole, D. B., & Mitchell, D. N. C. (2022). Using the TEACHING WELL Model for Evaluation of Online Counselor Educators. Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision, 2(2).  https://doi.org/10.22371/tces/0022

Mitchell, D. N. C. (2022). Value exploration of the counselor: A narrative approach for supervision. Counseling and Values, 67 (1), 23-43. doi: https://brill.com/view/journals/cvj/67/1/article-p23_002.xml 

Mitchell, D. N. C., & McGinnis, C. (2022, Fall). Level up your school counseling game. Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling, Fall Newsletter, 13-16.

North, R. (2023, March 1-2). Motivational Interviewing: The power to motivate [Conference session]. Washington School Counselor Association Conference, Seattle, WA, United States.

Pincus, R., & North, R. (2022, November 3-4). Teaching school counselors to use Motivational Interviewing [Conference session]. Southeast Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors Conference, Baltimore, MD, United States
Reid, N. (2023, April 17th). Black couples: Their crisis and their hope. Liberty University Department of Social Work, Lynchburg, VA.

Ricks, L., Kitchens, S., & Hannor-Walker, T. (2022). Using imagination to blast into a new future: Supporting adolescents with acquired disabilities. Association for Creativity in Counseling (ACC): Melbourne, Florida.

Shaler, L., Brooks, S.C., Kuba, S., & Kitchens, S (2023). Helping grieving mothers guide their children through the grief process. The Family Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10664807231166082.

Shaler, L., Brooks, S.C., Kuba, S., & Kitchens, S (November 2022). A Mother’s Journey: Parenting Grieving Children Alongside Her Own Grief. Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Baltimore, MD

Smylie, K. (2023, March 30-April 1). Integration of Counseling and Inner Healing Prayer: A Demonstration [Conference session]. Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) conference, Louisville, KY, United States. https://caps.net/2023-conference/

Vernam, J., Ansell, L., Barend, A., Conley, V., Whitcraft, W., Mitchell, D. N. C., & King, J. (2022). Promoting connection and leadership: Insights from an online counselor education community. Chi Sigma Iota (CSI) Exemplar, 37(3), 18-20. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.csi-net.org/resource/resmgr/publications_exemplar/fall_2022_exemplar.pdf

Villarreal-Davis, C. (in press). Systemic and social barriers to grief in interracial couples,  interracial families, and biracial individuals. In R. Turner & S. Stauffer (Eds.), Beyond bereavement. Guilford Press.

Villarreal-Davis, C., Dantzler, J., & Simmons, R. (2022, October 20). The play therapist is  human: Reconciling who I am and who I should be as a play therapist [Conference session]. Association for Play Therapy 2022 Annual APT International Conference.

Vuncannon, J., Brown, D., & Davis, J. (March 2023). The significance of adult attachment style and relational stress in a COVID-19 world.  2023 Christian Association for Psychological Studies Conference. Louisville, KY.

Weber, M.R. & Goodrich, R.S. (2022, November). Lived experiences of counselor education faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic [Poster Presentation]. Southern Association of Counselor Education & Supervision Conference, Baltimore, MD.

Welch-Sigmon, L. (April, 2023). Best Practices in Substance Abuse Assessment in Individuals with Co-occurring Mental Health Conditions. Georgia Psychological Association Annual Meeting. Athens, GA.

Welch-Sigmon, L. (April, 2023). Women’s Career Progression in Academia: Tackling the Impostor Phenomenon. Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) 2023 Annual Convention. New Orleans, LA.

White, D. & Davis, J. (January 2023). Intimate partner violence and COVID-19: Ethical, environmental and treatment considerations. Law & Ethics in Counseling Conference:  New Orleans, LA. [Virtual].

Faculty and Student Academic Collaborations (*denotes student)

*Bruckner, H. & Kim, J. J. (faculty advisor) (2023, April). Humility, empathy, religious commitment, and the forgiveness of hurt in close relationships. Poster presented at 2023 Research Week, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.

Davis, J., Brown, D., Vuncannon, J., Chamberlin, B. & *Frazier, C. (2023).
Facilitating multicultural and social justice development through immersion and study abroad experiences. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 00(0), 1-13.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00916471231166005 (online pre-release)

*Leland, A., *Vollmer, H., *Geisler, K., *MacPherson, S., *Keefe, A., & Kim, J. J. (faculty advisor) (2023, April). HEXACO personality predictors of self, victim, and divine forgiveness among Christian college students. Poster presented at 2023 Research Week, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.

*Mullen, L. M., *Bistany, B. R., Kim, J. J., Joseph, R. A., Akers, S. W., Harvey, J. R., & Houghton, A. (2023). Facilitation of forgiveness: Impact on health and well-being. Holistic Nursing Practice, 37(1), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1097/HNP.0000000000000559

*Vollmer, H., *Geisler, K., *Keefe, A., *Leland, A., *MacPherson, S. & Kim, J. J. (faculty advisor) (2023, April). HEXACO personality predictors of self, victim, and divine forgiveness among Christian college students. Paper presented at 2023 VAPS, Alexandria, VA.

Sosin, L., *Barend, A., *Bonta, J., *Kimonyi, D., &* Parrish-Martin, R. (2023). A Multicultural, Social Justice, and Peace Intervention for Interpersonal Violence. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00916471231163108

Sosin, L. & *Barend, A. (2022, October 6). Creative and Expressive Arts-Based Recovery from Bullying and Relational Cruelty: A Multicultural, Peace-Promoting Approach. Webinar presented at The Professional Training Institute, Family Service Society, Corning, NY.

Sosin, L., *Barend, A., *Kimonyi, D.,* Bonta, J., & *Parrish-Martin, R. (2022, August 5). Fanning the flame of unity: A multicultural, social justice, and peace intervention for interpersonal  cruelty [Symposium Presentation]. Central Virginia Counselor Development Symposium: LU Workshop Series | Counselor Education & Family Studies | Liberty University

Sosin, L., *Barend, A. *Kimonyi, D., & *Emmanuel, D. (2022, May).  Facilitating recovery from interpersonal violence and bullying. Michigan Counseling Association Webinar series.

Sosin, L. & *Barend, A. (2022, October 6). Creative and Expressive Arts-Based Recovery Bullying and Relational Cruelty: A Multicultural, Peace-Promoting Approach. Webinar presented at The Professional Training Institute, Family Service Society, Corning, NY.