UNews - Allison Roest

Shepard settling into new role

trevor.kenney — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:17:20 +0000

She comes with a big-time resumé and reputation and yet it's the small-town, small-school setting in which she thrives. Dr. Blythe Shepard seems a perfect fit for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge – and vice versa.

Just wrapping up her first year at the U of L, Shepard, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education, came to Lethbridge from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria. It was there she finished her master's and doctorate degrees (educational psychology) and had settled into a faculty position. Ironically, as Shepard helped grow UVic's research reputation and graduate programming, she found herself part of an institution that took her away from her teaching roots.

"Victoria used to be where Lethbridge is now, but it's moved into a much more research focused institution, more of a business model, and I found I was doing a little less teaching than I wanted," Shepard says.

"Being at a small school, working with smaller numbers, that seems to fit more with my style."

Invigorated with a new challenge, Shepard has been quick to contribute to the U of L's MEd (Counselling Psychology) program and the Master of Counselling program. Specifically, she's helping to overhaul the Campus Alberta Applied Psychology (CAAP) program.

"It needs to be revamped, so we're looking at all the courses," she says. "My colleagues and I are making revisions to them and making them more Lethbridge oriented and something that is unique for our students.

"Many of our students are mature students who are already out there practicing but they lack the credentials. They've probably been out of school for a while, so making that transition back into university is a pretty big step for them."

Shepard knows of what she speaks, because she was that student, coming back to school to pursue her master's degree as a single working mother in her mid-40s.

"I understand that aspect and having to juggle family responsibilities and a job you don't want to give up, all while going to school," she says.

It's no surprise many of Shepard's research initiatives revolve around this same theme. A native of small-town Ontario (she grew up in a rural setting near North Bay), Shepard offers a unique perspective. She did the majority of her undergraduate psychology degree through distance learning from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Waterloo. Her education and career path were moulded around the challenges of raising and providing for a young family in a rural setting.

Upon arriving on campus, Shepard applied for and received a Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities (CREDO) grant to research the career paths of women and even more specifically, those in a rural setting.

"Most of the career theory out there is around men's career paths and women's are quite different," Shepard says. "Their paths are quite disrupted, at times, around family considerations. And for most women I've researched with, relationships are very important and they want work that is relationship-based.

"There's a lot more complexity to women's career paths."

Shepard has also collaborated with Dr. Priya Mani of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba as they embark on a three-part project to develop a Canadian career-counselling textbook. For that, she's also enlisted the U of L's Allison Roest of the Counselling Services Office.

"We're trying to find out what career educators across Canada would like in a textbook and then who would be interested in contributing to it," she says. "Allison has an expertise in that area so it's great we're able to work with her. What I'm really liking about the U of L is that it's small enough here that I'm starting to make connections very quickly."

It's the kind of fit that is already proving beneficial to both.

GET THE FACTS

• Shepard is one of 12 directors to the National Board of the Canadian Counselling Association, taking over the Alberta/NWT position from Dr. Kris Magnusson

• She is also co-chair of the Inter-Provincial Mobility for the Counselling Profession: Phase 1. Its mandate is the further establishment of regulatory colleges for Canadian counsellors to create more uniformity throughout the country

• An avid hiker, she has enjoyed exploring the coulees around Lethbridge and making day trips to Waterton

• Before going back to pursue her master's degree in 1995, she was teaching and performing administrative duties at an alternative school in British Columbia

• She has three children, all living in Victoria, with two attending the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria

Counselling Services offers safe haven

trevor.kenney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:37:33 +0000

When it comes to maintaining their physical health, people know where to turn. However, maintaining one's mental health may present unique challenges and it is important to know what resources are available to students on campus.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, through collaboration of the Counselling Services office and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Health Centre, has created a safe environment through which students can get the assistance they need.

"This is a trusting and nurturing place where you can refocus and get some balance to your life," Counselling Services Coordinator Barbara Williams says.

"If we can reach out to folks and make them realize that everyone, at some point in their lives, hits some kind of a bump. If you are unable, for whatever reason, to find your own way around it, then this is a safe and reasonable place for them to come for some help."

The Counselling Services office is celebrating its one-year anniversary in Turcotte Hall (TH218) and Williams and her staff could not be happier with the change in location. Previously located in the Registrar's Office, that site did not provide the privacy they so desperately need to help students feel comfortable when they are seeking assistance.

Williams describes the new office as a one-flow environment where students can come in, be discreetly directed to a counsellor and then leave through a separate entrance — all designed to build trust and honour privacy.

The months of January and February are typically difficult times for many students, Williams explains. For new students, the reality of their first post-secondary term has hit with the first set of grades. Some have found it difficult to adjust to the university lifestyle as the newness of the experience wears off. Combine that with the cold, dark days of winter and the post-Christmas lull and it can be a tough time.

"This is the point where they are really changing a lot about themselves and their environment," she says.

"They've been out there trying to implement some of the strategies that worked for them in high school and discovered they may not work for them anymore."

It is important students recognize when they need help — and that's before they hit a crisis point.

"You don't have to be in crisis to come here, in fact it's so much better if we can have students come to us when they are feeling a little stressed or that there is something that's not balanced in their life," says Williams. "It's much better if we can get them at that point because the strategies that we can help them incorporate into their lives will be much more preventative."

It is a team approach they use, one that reaches beyond the counselling office to the Health Centre where psychiatrist Dr. Wayne Edwards can also be utilized. Williams' team is well rounded and can deal with any issues that walk through the door.

"We are all mental health professionals but various members of our team come with different educational backgrounds and different clinical backgrounds so they are able to bring those strengths into our unit," she says. "That allows us to funnel our students to the counsellor who gives them the strongest support."

Allison Roest is one of those counsellors. She's quick to add that they do not do all the work, getting through a problem is a shared responsibility with the student.

"It's a collaborative process, it's not something we're going to do to them, we're going to work together with the student in order to find solutions to whatever is happening," Roest says.

What is important to remember, adds fellow counsellor Mark Slomp, is that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, rather it's just the opposite.

"We really see counselling as an empowering experience," he says.

GET THE FACTS

• The Counselling Services office sees more than 70 students per week, on average

• Counselling Services offers a variety of outreach programs and workshops, headed by Heather Rowland. The workshops are psychoeducational and Rowland says it can be a non-threatening way for students to engage in counselling services

• Counsellors Allison Roest and Mark Slomp teach a full-credit course in career development, available to all students through the Faculty of Education

• To make an appointment with a counsellor, contact the Counselling Services office at 403-317-2845

UNews - Allison Roest

Shepard settling into new role

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