Even though I’ve retired from the field of counselor education, I still retain a keen interest in the field. One way I’ve tried to stay connected is through a substack site, which can be found at https://henryvirkler.substack.com

There are two sections of the site—Christian Counseling News and Christian Counseling Articles. I have the luxury of being able to spend 15 to 20 hours per week perusing the news, and from this I compile a list of mostly counseling-related articles that I think might be of interest to professional counselors, counselors-in-training, counselor educators, and anyone else who is interested in this topic area. In the process of collecting articles each week I sometimes run across interesting quotes, some fascinating facts, and so I include them in two brief sections at the beginning of each week’s compilation. If those don’t interest you or if your time is limited, you can skip those two sections and go directly to the Counseling News section. If you’re already receiving the compilation of counseling news articles by going to the SFACC site, this compilation is identical. I just wanted to make it available to those who don’t live in South Florida.

The second category in my substack site is composed of articles and class handouts I’ve written for various classes in the three graduate programs I’ve taught in over the last 40 years. As my time allows, I will try to update and post one or two articles per week, so this section will hopefully be constantly expanding, as will the Counseling News section.

If you are a student and see something you would like to include in a paper for a class, feel free to do so with whatever attribution your professor expects. For Christian counselor educators, if you see something you would like to use for a supplementary assignment in your class, feel free to do so.

My intention at this time is that everything on this site will remain free so that it is easily accessible to anyone who is interested in the general area of Christian counseling. Should you have a question or comment, feel free to direct them to me at hvirkler@aol.com

A few people have told me that the articles don’t format correctly when they access substack through their phones, so if you have an interest in either the Counseling News compilation or the Counseling Articles and it’s not formatting correctly with your phone, you may find it better to access it through your computer.

There’s one article that I’d especially like to call your attention to. I spent about 3 months researching for it. It’s the article called “What is conversion therapy? Should it be banned?” All of the secular professional mental health groups (e.g., the two APAs, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Mental Health Counselor’s Association, etc.) have called for the banning of conversion therapy, so there is quite a push to prohibit counselors from engaging in this, but I think, for reasons described in the article, that it should not be. I hope you read it and decide for yourself your answer to this issue.

If you read some of the articles on this substack post and would like to be alerted when a new news compilation or article becomes available, you can subscribe and you’ll receive alerts.

If you have Christian colleagues that you think might be interested, please feel free to forward this information to them.

Sincerely,

Henry Virkler