The Interpreted Rock

Guest Blogger Jared C. Schultz, Ph.D., CRC, LVRC, HS-BCP I have witnessed both the unproductive and productive side of vocational assessment. I remember taking the Strong Interest Inventory in high school. My guidance counselor called me into his office and shared with me that I should be a “Mortician and Embalmer”. This is a great profession to be sure; but not a future that will attract the girls. I had a choice; I could either disregard the results of the test, or face a life of… well… you get the picture. Unfortunately, I think that many people have similar experiences. When vocational and career assessments are done in a fragmented manner or in isolation of the comprehensive process, it leads people to believe that these processes are generally useless. The process of providing a career evaluation is grounded in the task of matching a person to a vocation or career goal. We comprehensively assess aspects of the person and the work environment to determine the level of...

By Stephen C. Schultz The sky was blue and a gentle breeze fluttered through the aspens in a wave like motion. The truck strained a bit as it wound its way up the mountain pass at 9000 feet above sea level. Shawn Brooks and I were headed to the annual camp out for the students at Oxbow Academy . Each year, the students and staff head to the mountains for week of camping, hiking and fishing. While group and individual therapy still takes place throughout the week, it provides a more relaxed atmosphere for students and staff to interact.   We pulled off the highway onto a dirt road that wound up the hillside to where the camp was set up. As we approached, there was a group of students and staff playing a game of “horse shoes”. I got out of the truck and walked towards the big tarp that covered the cooking/food area. As I approached, four or five students came running towards me with a stringer of fish. They were so excited and a couple of boys started cleaning the fish whi...

 By Stephen C. Schultz How is a parent to know if the concerns they have about their teenage son or daughter need to be addressed at a professional level? When is it time to seek the help of a therapist? How do you measure progress in behavior as well as maturity? Are they simply going through the turbulent teen years or is there something more serious going on? Teens today have an unrelenting barrage of messages coming at them from many different places. The media is suggesting how they behave, speak, dress and interact with others. Technology offers communication opportunities never before seen, yet few standards on the social implications of its use. There are parental expectations on education and external pressure to be the best at everything they do. You can read more about  some warning signs associated with Family Discord, Loss of Motivation and Failure to Launch here and here . These are some areas that parents should be aware of so they can interv...

 By Stephen C. Schultz I recently had the opportunity to attend a conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. Matt Hendry  from Discovery Academy had a former student who is now attending The University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.   This student is from Houston, but Matt wanted to make the trip to Dayton to see this young man and provide continued encouragement and support; he asked if I would like to go with him. I said, “Sure…absolutely!” We then hit the road headed North out of Cincinnati. While in Dayton, we also had an opportunity to visit The DaytonEarly College Academy   which is a partnership among Dayton Public Schools, the University of Dayton, Sinclair Community College, and Wright State University. What a great experience it was to see these disadvantaged youth all come together with a sparkle in their eye and an eagerness to learn. These kids have been forced, through circumstances they don’t control, to simply survive. What resilience…what courage…w...