TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

431 The Professional Counselor Volume 5, Issue 4, Pages 431–441 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2015 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi:10.15241/tpr.5.4.431 TPC Editor Note: Earlier this year I was in the wonderful city of New Orleans and realized it was the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In 2005 I was involved with operations at the National Board for Certified Counselors that sent 240 National Certified Counselors to New Orleans and the surrounding area to provide direct crisis counseling and disaster relief. Having done similar work in New York City following the attacks in 2011, I found myself reflecting on what it might be like 10 years later in the Crescent City from a counseling perspective. Of course I immediately thought to contact Dr. Ted Remley, who was living in New Orleans and teaching in counselor education at the time of the storm. I knew that his personal perspective would be invaluable, leading me to ask him to write this commentary about his reflections on mental health services in New Orleans today. Dr. Remley returned to the city last year to teach in a doctoral program in counselor education and supervision. His many years of experience and astute vision of the global process of counseling have resulted in the following personal analysis. It is my hope that this article is commemorative of the challenges that all mental health workers experienced during and after Hurricane Katrina, and the heroic services they provided during a time of extreme stress and loss. — J. Scott Hinkle, NCC Theodore P. Remley, Jr. is a Professor at Our Lady of Holy Cross College. Correspondence may be addressed to Theodore P. Remley, Jr., 4123 Woodland Drive, New Orleans, LA 70131, tremley@olhcc.edu . Theodore P. Remley, Jr. Counseling in New Orleans 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina: A Commentary on the Aftermath, Recovery and the Future Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the counseling profession in New Orleans has changed. The author, along with a group of counseling and other mental health professionals who were providing services at the time of the hurricane and still working in the city 10 years later, provided their impressions of counseling in New Orleans a decade after the storm. The population of New Orleans and the presenting problems of clients shifted after Hurricane Katrina. The residents have required help from counselors, supervisors, counselor educators and agency administrators in order to adapt to new challenges. The need for counselors to possess skills in trauma counseling was one of the lessons learned from the disaster. Agency administrators also advised using caution after a disaster when considering funding offers and research study proposals. While it may be impossible to prepare thoroughly for each unique disaster, Hurricane Katrina taught counseling professionals in New Orleans that after a disaster, flexibility and creativity are required to survive. Keywords : Hurricane Katrina, mental health, trauma, disaster, counselor educator Pausing to assess counseling and other mental health services in New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina has been a worthwhile endeavor. Many people are curious about what has happened to New Orleans since the hurricane, and counselors are particularly interested in how counseling and other mental health services have changed. The unique challenges due to Hurricane Katrina faced by New Orleans counselors who live and work in the city have not been forgotten or put aside since the storm. The state of counseling and other mental health services in New Orleans a decade after the hurricane are presented in this article along with some of my own observations. This article does not report a qualitative study, but instead offers a summary of the impressions of counseling and other mental health services from a select group of professionals who were providing services at the time of Hurricane Katrina and still working in mental health agencies in New Orleans 10 years later. Rather