Ohio Counseling Conversations | Podcast Guru

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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.

Recent Episodes

Let's Unpack That #18: Mental Health in Musical Theatre

Send us Fan Mail 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. We dig into Next to Normal as a powerful example of wha...

33 MIN

Conversation 45 - Unity & Community: Interprofessional Collaboration

Send us Fan Mail 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 mounting administrative burden, we connect the day-to-day reality of clinical ...

42 MIN

Couch to Capitol: September 2026 Legislative Updates

Send us Fan Mail 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 mean for school-based counseling, situations involving suicidal ideation ...

10 MIN

Let's Unpack That #17: Unpacking Headlines of 2026 (Pt. 2)

Send us Fan Mail 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 stakes are higher than a vocab debate. When words like triggered, gaslighting, boundaries, ...

53 MIN

Let's Unpack That #16: Unpacking Headlines of 2026 (Pt. 1)

Send us Fan Mail 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 grieving a time in life, a sense of safety, or a symbol of hope. Then we move to a headl...

45 MIN