The University Counseling Center prepares to host the first Terrell Conference for mental health practitioners.
The conference is scheduled to be held on Friday, Dec. 8 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the War Memorial Student Union. The conference will have networking and education opportunities for attendees.
“I’m super stoked,” said UCC Assistant Director of Programming and Outreach Annette Newton-Baldwin. “I think it’s time for the Northshore to have something for licensed professional councilors here, and if Southeastern can host it, that’s great.”
The conference honors its namesake Tom Terrell.
“Tom Terrell was actually the number two licensed professional counselor in Louisiana,” said Newton-Baldwin. “The only reason why he was number two was he let the lady go first and be number one. He was the director at the University Counseling Center, but he also helped create the licensed professional counselor credential or license in Louisiana, so we wanted to honor him.”
The conference will include breakout sessions, networking breaks and presentations throughout the day, touching on topics such as ethics and addiction.
“It’s a full day of variety of educational tracks on counseling topics,” said Newton-Baldwin. “We’re gonna have a lunch, a networking lunch where Dr. June Williams is speaking. She’s a Southeastern professor, and then they’ll get to browse a mental health expo. We actually at this time have 16 different mental health providers from the area that will be exhibiting their programs.”
1989 Alumnus and Chief Clinical Officer of Lakeview Health Dr. Philip Hemphill is scheduled to be the keynote speaker, presenting “New Boundaries and Ethics: Are you ready?”
“I’m really honored to return the favor to what the school has given me, the trajectory that I’ve been on in my career,” said Hemphill. “It all started right there in those formative classrooms. I feel really honored they asked me to come back for that and also to offer such a complicated topic to people. That’s something I take very seriously, and I’m proud of my education from Southeastern.”
Newton-Baldwin discussed why Hemphill was chosen as the keynote speaker.
“He’s very good at what he does,” said Newton-Baldwin. “He’s been in practice for I know over 25 years, and he has a really good reputation for what he does. He’s the clinical director at Lakeview Health. He’s at Lakeview Health now, but he’s also practiced in Louisiana, in Mississippi. He actually used to play baseball for Southeastern.”
Hemphill shared why he decided to be a part of the conference.
“To the community as a whole, I have a commitment to the field of counseling and the therapy professionals, and I’m committed to assisting them with really being the best care providers in a very trying field, and I think that I have something,” said Hemphill. “I’m really in a lot of ways considered an expert in the industry in treating professionals who have had problems with ethics and boundaries and addiction and mental health issues themselves, so I think that I’m going to create an added value to people coming in who want to learn more about from the work I’ve been able to do in my career.”
Along with Hemphill, other scheduled speakers include Licensed Professional Counselor Brian McNulty who specializes in substance abuse counseling, Associate Professor of Counseling Dr. June Williams and Co-Founder of Hollander Counseling and Consulting Dr. Jenny Hollander.
“I know some of the other speakers at the conference,” said Hemphill. “I know a number of the other faculty members that are presenting on their topics. I think that people are gonna be really impressed with the different qualities and the depth and the profound experience that people are gonna bring to the talks.”
Newton-Baldwin shared why people should attend the conference.
“People are gonna attend because they need two things,” said Newton-Baldwin. “Number one, they’re continuing education hours to maintain their license. Then, the other piece is networking, so students who are probably in the master’s program or maybe about to graduate who would like to see what opportunities there are to work. A licensed professional counselor, they have to have two years of supervision before they get their license. So, students may also be looking for those professionals that will be willing to supervise them through getting their license.”
Registration for the conference can be done either online at www.southeastern.edu/admin/counseling/terrellconference/registration or on site at $100 for professionals, $70 for professionals employed by the university and $45 for students with verification.
