Several students in the Pitt Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) master’s program were honored at the Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Association (PRA) Professional Development Institute (PDI) this spring. The event was held on April 12, 2023, at Central Pennsylvania College in Summerdale, PA. The annual conference is a networking and education event designed to enhance the professional growth and skills of rehabilitation professionals, employers, educators, counselors and disability related organizations.
Victoria Huston (MS ’24) was awarded the 2023 PRA Student Leadership and Service Award. Huston has demonstrated her commitment to working with individuals with disabilities through her academic and vocational performance and her volunteer work.
Huston is a Project CRESTS (Certified Rehabilitation Counselors and Educators Supporting Transition Success) scholar. As a CRESTS scholar, she participates in interdisciplinary coursework and enrichment experiences with an emphasis on supporting students who are blind and visually impaired as they transition from secondary education settings, resulting in improved career outcomes and quality of life.
In the summer of 2022, Huston began working at the Center for Assistive and Rehabilitative Technology (CART) at the Hiram G. Andrews Center (HGAC) in Johnstown, PA. In this role she evaluates and trains students to use various technologies, writes progress notes and reports, maintains lab and equipment, provides equipment demonstrations, and supports the summer Access Planning and Strategies (APS) Academy.
Huston also volunteers as a research assistant at the Emotion Awareness and Skill Enhancement Program (EASE) Research Lab. In this position, she evaluates the usefulness of the mindfulness practices and cognitive behavioral-based interventions that compose the EASE intervention to improve emotion regulation in young adults with autism spectrum disorder. She has expressed her sincere desire for this research to translate to improving rehabilitation practices for persons with disabilities, specifically autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Huston is hardworking and dedicated to working with and for individuals with disabilities She is well-deserving of this award! Be sure to read more about her and CART in the Spring 2023 edition of FACETS magazine.
Yuwen (Ellen) Gong (MS ‘24) and Cassidy Ridley (MS ‘24) had posters accepted for presentation as part of the PRA conference proceedings. Gong’s poster was titled, “Development of an Emotion-Focused Therapy Group for Individuals with Eating Disorders.” She talked with conference attendees about the prevalence of eating disorders and the evidence for emotion-focused group interventions. She presented a 16-week group therapy proposal that included interventions such as empty chair work, which allows group members to confront unfinished business or unresolved emotions.
Ridley’s poster was titled, “Providing Trauma-Informed Rehabilitation Services to Neurodiverse Transition-Age Students.” Conference attendees were interested to learn about neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodiversity and trauma and trauma-informed care. Ridley shared several concrete interventions for working with this population based on an extensive literature review and her experience working as a rehabilitation specialist in the Cognitive Skills Enhancement Program Her examples included how to consider the developmental, environmental, social and functional influences when providing interventions and developing treatment plans.
The Pitt Counseling program is exceedingly proud of the work of these outstanding students!
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Written by:
Jamie Kulzer, PhD, CRC, LPC
Associate Professor
Department of Counseling and Behavioral Health
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Published June 30, 2023
Updated July 5, 2023