Connecting with the Courage Within

Facilitated by: Angela Lehr, Ed.D., LPC
Date: Friday May 30th, 2025
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm PST
Location: Online via Zoom
CEs: 3 CEs Available
Cost: 3 CEs = $119.00 | Non-CE Option = $99.00

In large and small-scale ways, the world and daily life can feel uncertain and unpredictable. As counselors and human services professionals, showing up for others and for ourselves amid changeable conditions and challenging or precarious social contexts requires continuous acts of courage, wholeheartedness, and self-awareness. Prioritizing our clients’ resilience building, courage development, and growth in therapy while acknowledging the parallel processes and contextual stressors that are also part of a therapist’s daily life is paramount.

This workshop will guide and support participants in defining, connecting with, and expressing what courage means to them, what purpose courage serves in counseling and therapy, and how to facilitate courage and resilience work in sessions and groups with clients. We will explore the clinical concept of the parallel process and how it relates to courage, empathy, and self-care.

This interactive and transformational workshop will offer opportunities to settle into what it feels like to embody and live into the truth of one’s heart. Participants will also learn how vital, practical acts, of completing the stress response cycle each day support the therapeutic process, can be introduced to and utilized with clients, and contribute to counselor well-being and professional longevity.

Using prose, reflective journaling, interpersonal discussions, and a unique watercolor scribble exercise, participants will connect with their inner courage and the heart of what matters most while gaining clinical and self-care skills that can be integrated into all aspects of work and life.

Learning Objectives

1. Define and Explore Courage in the Counseling Setting: Participants will be able to define courage personally and professionally. Participants will understand the role of courage in counseling and therapy and learn ways to incorporate courage and resilience-building activities and interventions in therapy sessions and groups.
2. Explore and Apply the Concept of Parallel Process: Participants will examine the concept of parallel process and its connection to courage, empathy, and self-care, applying these insights to enhance therapeutic outcomes and support counselor well-being.
3. Integrate Daily Practices to Complete the Stress Cycle: Participants will gain practical skills to complete the stress response cycle. Participants will learn how to introduce these practices to clients, understand their importance in the therapeutic process, and recognize how regularly completing the stress cycle contributes to professional longevity.

Required & Suggested Materials

• A journal or notebook paper if you’d like to take notes
• A set of watercolor paints, a brush, a tray for water or a spray bottle with water. For an easy, economical watercolor set option, check out this site.
• A Sharpie pen
• Blank watercolor or art paper (2 pieces)
• Painter’s tape (optional)
• If you’d prefer to use an alternative to paint, you are welcome to use colored pencils, crayons, or markers

Preparing for the Workshop

• Please prepare to bring an item that represents courage to you (could be a symbol, word, picture, song, etc.)
• You will be invited to read an article sent a week prior to the workshop

Cancellation Policy: We require cancellation notification at least 2 weeks prior to the workshop date in order to use your registration fee towards a future workshop. No refunds will be given. read more…

• School Counselor/Teacher (OSPI) Approved by the Washington State Office of Public Instruction as a “Washington State approved clock hour offering workshop.”
• If you are outside of Washington State, we advise that you check with your state licensing board to confirm that they accept NBCC approved CEs. 
• This workshop offers 3 CEs for Mental Health Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Social Workers.

Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute (NWCEAI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7104. Programs that do no qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute (NWCEAI) is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.