Ohio Counseling Conversations
The official Ohio Counseling Association podcast. Our mission is to host experts from our membership, leadership, and throughout the counseling field to bring listeners relevant conversations around what it means to be a counselor in Ohio. In addition, this podcast will provide a platform for Ohio Counseling Association divisions, chapters, and committees to share information and updates. Made for counselors by counselors, we hope to highlight important conversations in the profession that will inform our work as we continue to grow as professionals and as people. Thank you for tuning in! Views, beliefs, or references mentioned in episodes do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Ohio Counseling Association. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the view of the Ohio Counseling Association or any of its officials.
Episodes
For decades, musical theatre has been used to shine the spotlight on important social and cultural issues, and mental health has been no different. Today we sit down with Lauren Collins-Knight and Jared Sparks, a therapist and longtime community theater artist, to talk about what happens when musical theater tackles stories about mental health, representation, and the difference between authenticity and caricature.&...
The fastest way to lose a mental health workforce is to bury it in paperwork. We sit down with Michael Desposito from the Ohio Counseling Association and Matthew Tippett from NASW Ohio to talk about what’s happening right now in Ohio’s insurance and legislative landscape and why it directly affects whether counselors and social workers can afford to stay in the field. From reimbursement pressure to mount...
A single change in the law can decide whether a teen gets help today or has to wait until it’s too late. We’re tracking a major Ohio proposal, Senate Bill 274, that would require parent or guardian consent before a minor can receive any mental health services, reversing the current minor consent pathway that allows limited outpatient care for teens starting at age 14. We walk through what the bill could ...
Tune in to part two of “Unpacking Headlines of 2026” where this episode we wrestle with how therapy speak shapes real-life relationships, how financial stress and subtle uncertainties of the economy show up in the counseling office, and explore third spaces and why Cleveland’s WNBA return can rebuild belonging and collective joy.
Pop culture “therapy speak” is everywhere, and the s...
Dolly Parton’s death hit a lot of us harder than we expected and that reaction is not “dramatic,” it’s human. We start by naming what counselors often see beneath celebrity loss: parasocial relationships, memory, identity, and the way grief can quietly turn into mortality anxiety. When clients bring these moments into the therapy room, they are often grieving more than a person, they are grie...
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In our August Couch to Capitol Episode, Lauren Collins-Knight, MA, LPCC breaks down ongoing legislation at the state and federal levels that may be helpful for counselors to keep an eye on. While the legislators are on break, that doesn’t mean our advocacy needs to be put on hold. Listen on to stay informed and involved with ongoing OCA advocacy efforts!
Stat...
It’s a question we’ve all been asked time and time again: “What’s your theoretical orientation?” We first heard it in grad school, but answering that question has never really gone away. Picking a counseling modality can feel like choosing a side, but real counseling rarely works that way. In this episode of Let’s Unpack That, we talk through what has actually helped us decide the...
Trauma work gets more effective and more honest when we stop pretending identity is optional. We sit down with Dr. Claire Martin, professional counselor, counselor educator, complex trauma specialist, and incoming AMCD President-elect, to talk about what culturally responsive, liberatory, trauma-informed care looks like in real clinical decisions and real professional leadership.
We start with the personal ro...
Laws don’t feel abstract when they land on your schedule, your billing, or your client’s ability to get through the front door. We’re back with a summer policy check-in that connects Ohio legislative news, federal rulemaking, and real clinical impact for counselors across the state.
We start in Ohio, where a vetoed absentee voting bill highlights how barriers to civic participation can hit t...
Getting on an elevator shouldn’t feel like a group therapy exercise and yet, at a counseling conference, it somehow does. We’re pulling back the curtain on the weird, funny, and honestly inevitable ways the counseling profession rewires your brain. If you’ve ever found yourself in a politeness standoff at a hotel elevator, you already know the vibe.
We talk through the counselor habits...
If you’ve ever felt like counseling is happening in three places at once the therapy room, the classroom, and the policy arena you’re not imagining it. We talk with Dr. Chase Morgan-Swaney, an assistant professor at Baldwin Wallace University, an LPCC-S, and the newest president of the Ohio Counseling Association, about what it takes to practice and lead with clarity when the profession feels stretched t...
Surprise insurance clawbacks, fast-moving Medicaid rule changes, and a growing stack of bills that reshape client access can make it feel like the ground is shifting under counselors’ feet. We lay out what’s changing in Ohio right now and translate policy language into practical realities for counseling practices, community agencies, and the people we serve.
SB 162 (SUPPORT) Third party payments are consi...
A three-minute song can do something a 50-minute conversation struggles to pull off: it tells the truth fast. We’re exploring “accidental music therapy,” the tracks that were never designed to teach counseling skills, yet somehow nail grief, self-compassion, boundaries, identity, and resilience with a few lines and a melody that sticks. To be clear, this is not a replacement for counseling, and it&...
Talk therapy is powerful, but sometimes words are the slowest route to the truth. We sit down with Amanda Cole, LPCC-S, counselor educator, and doctoral candidate, to unpack psychodrama as an experiential action method that helps clients move from “thinking about it” to actually feeling it safely in the room. Amanda breaks down what psychodrama is (and what it is not), why warm-ups matter so much for pac...
Policy can feel far away until it lands in a session as grief, fear, shame, or burnout. Join the Ohio Counseling Conversations Team as we bridge the gap between the clinical couch and the Ohio Statehouse with a rapid, practical briefing on the bills most likely to affect counselors, and clients across Ohio.
We start with House Bill 698 and its push to withhold public university funding based on DEI compliance, includ...
Sunshine can feel like a promise: more energy, better mood, fewer heavy days. But we’ve learned the hard way that seasonal change, especially the spring shift into warmer weather, can also bring real mental health risks and clinical surprises. Victoria Frazier sits down with Jared Sparks, clinical counselor and supervisor at Cleveland Sex and Intimacy Counseling, to talk about what actually happens when the te...
Your next mentor might be one conversation away, but most of us still hesitate to reach out. We sit down with Dr. Jake Protivnak, counselor educator at Youngstown State University, past president of the Ohio Counseling Association, and current president of Chi Sigma Iota International, to talk about what mentorship actually is and why it shapes who we become as counselors.
We start with Jake’s own story...
A payer suddenly demands money back, lawmakers debate how long clawbacks should even be allowed, and the Supreme Court redraws the lines around counseling regulation when speech is the treatment. We walk through the urgent CareSource of Ohio recoupment news and the concrete steps we recommend right now: push for claim-level specificity, document everything, review your provider contract, consider for...
“If they wanted to, they would.” “Be the bigger person.” “Time heals all wounds.” These lines can sound clean and confident, but when you’re living real life with limited capacity, messy relationships, and actual grief, they can land like a brick wall. We sit down as two counselors who hear these sayings in sessions, group chats, and counseling rooms, and we pull them apart ...
You can be skilled, ethical, and deeply caring, and still end up overwhelmed if you try to do counseling alone. We’re joined by Dr. Charity Anne Kurz, counselor educator and clinician, to make the case for the “collaborative counselor” and to get painfully practical about what collaboration looks like when it’s more than a nice idea. We talk about why collaboration is both a mindset and an ac...
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