Nebraska Counseling Association

10/28/2026

📣 TWO OCTOBER CE OPPORTUNITIES FOR COUNSELORS! 🎓

Ready to grow your knowledge and strengthen your clinical practice? The Nebraska Counseling Association has two great continuing education opportunities coming up this October!

🧠 LIVE CE | Nutrition and Mental Health: Fact or Fiction
📅 October 30 | 11:30 AM–12:30 PM CT
👥 Featuring Dr. Ryan Schwer & TJ Gorman

Separate fact from fiction when it comes to nutrition and mental health! Learn how to evaluate popular nutrition claims and find reliable resources to help answer your clients’ questions. Earn 1 CE credit hour while joining us live on Zoom.

🔗 Register: https://www.necounseling.org/event-6855255

✍️ RECORDED CE | Beyond the Narrative: Understanding and Applying Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD
📅 Available on demand through October 31
👤 Featuring Jason Swain, LIMHP, CCMHC, ACS

Explore the research, clinical applications, and five-session protocol behind Written Exposure Therapy (WET), an evidence-based approach to PTSD treatment. Build your understanding of how this approach compares with other trauma-focused therapies and how it may fit into clinical practice.

🔗 Register: https://www.necounseling.org/event-6855250

✨ NCA members attend FREE! Nonmember registration is $20 per event.

Whether you join us live or learn on demand, invest in your professional growth this October!

📌 Please note: The nutrition and mental health presentation is LIVE only and will not be recorded. The recorded WET presentation and required quiz must be completed by 5 PM CT on October 31 to receive the CE certificate.

10/26/2026

Student Volunteers Needed!

The Nebraska Counseling Association is holding its Fall Conference on Thursday, November 5th, 2026, at the Omaha Marriott Downtown. We will also be hosting the American Counseling Association Midwest Region Leadership Development Academy November 6-8th, and we will need volunteers for this event as well.

Volunteers will need to be able to attend the conference in-person for the full day they register to volunteer. Volunteers are also required to bring their laptop computer to help moderate afternoon conference sessions.

If you are interested in volunteering please complete the form ASAP. Student volunteers must be current student members of NCA.

🔗 https://forms.gle/BXEZKNrWnNd7V2wk9

Volunteers will receive FREE conference registration and t-shirt (shirt for fall conference only).

This is a great way to get connected with our professional community and further connected with graduate students across the state!

If you have any questions about volunteering, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

10/24/2026

Please help us wish a big Happy Birthday to Lyndsay Deal, Public Policy & Legislative Committee member!

10/24/2026

Sarah, our Membership Committee Chair, is all set up in Omaha for the 1st Annual American Foundation for Su***de Prevention Run for Good at Stinson Park!

10/22/2026

Student Volunteers Needed!

The Nebraska Counseling Association is holding its Fall Conference on Thursday, November 5th, 2026, at the Omaha Marriott Downtown. We will also be hosting the American Counseling Association Midwest Region Leadership Development Academy November 6-8th, and we will need volunteers for this event as well.

Volunteers will need to be able to attend the conference in-person for the full day they register to volunteer. Volunteers are also required to bring their laptop computer to help moderate afternoon conference sessions.

If you are interested in volunteering please complete the form ASAP. Student volunteers must be current student members of NCA.

Volunteers will receive FREE conference registration and t-shirt (shirt for fall conference only).

This is a great way to get connected with our professional community and further connected with graduate students across the state!

If you have any questions about volunteering, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

10/22/2026

Congrats to our own Kelsey Watchorn!

🌟 NABHO Member Spotlight: Kelsey Watchorn

This week, NABHO member Nebraska Counseling Association helps us spotlight one of its members, Kelsey Watchorn, a clinical counselor at Sidney Regional Medical Center.

For Kelsey, a career in behavioral health began in the classroom.

After earning her degree in Elementary Education and beginning her teaching career, Kelsey discovered that what she valued most was building connections with students and families — particularly taking the time to understand what might be behind a child’s behavior and helping them find a path forward.

That passion led her to school counseling and, after 14 years in the school system, to clinical counseling at Sidney Regional Medical Center, where she now works with individuals and families across the lifespan.

Her work has also given her a firsthand understanding of the unique challenges of delivering behavioral health care in rural Nebraska, where fewer local services and long wait times make collaboration especially important.

“Meaningful behavioral health care extends beyond the counseling room. It takes a community working together to identify needs, build awareness, connect people with resources, and create more effective ways to support individuals and families.”

Kelsey puts that philosophy into practice through her involvement with community initiatives including CASA and Upstream and through collaboration with Region 1, schools, providers and other community partners.

For Kelsey, rural behavioral health means not only providing care, but knowing the resources available, building relationships across systems and continually looking for creative ways to address gaps and make care more accessible.

Whether helping someone through a difficult season or working alongside community partners to strengthen the local system of care, Kelsey says she considers it a privilege to walk alongside people through some of the most meaningful moments of their lives.

Thank you to Nebraska Counseling Association for helping us highlight Kelsey and the important work counselors are doing in communities across Nebraska.

10/22/2026

Want to leave the Fall Conference with your very own Play Therapy Kit, ready to use right away at your own practice?

Become a Play Therapy Kit Sponsor today! Sponsors will be recognized at the conference, and each sponsor will receive one full kit to take home with them.

Kits include:
Magnetic Dollhouse--a 33 piece magnetic playboard
Felt black mask, easy on, easy off.
Toy Stethoscope--really works!
Mouse finger puppet
Cellphones, set of two that look real but have no noise to encourage
imaginative play colorful playsilk- so versatile! Use to have a picnic, make a cape, hood, skirt, blanket. Hand sewn in the U.S.A.
Wallet and play money
Metal handcuffs with key
Deluxe Strikeforce Army men set
Felt hamburger and fries
Twelve wood blocks in a travel container

Register today via link in our bio, or on our website:

10/21/2026

📣 NCA MEMBERS, LET’S TOUR AROUND TOWN! 🎉

Ready to connect, explore, and discover new opportunities in our counseling community? 💙 Join NCA District 1 for our October Tour Around Town: Mourning Hope Edition!

📍 Where: Mourning Hope Grief Center | Lincoln, NE
📅 When: Thursday, October 22, 2026
⏰ Time: 4–6 PM CT

✨ Here’s what you can look forward to: 🤝 Connecting with fellow counseling professionals
🌱 Learning about valuable community resources
🔎 Exploring potential internship opportunities
💬 Building relationships that strengthen our counseling community

🎉 The best part? Registration is FREE for NCA members!

Make plans to join us, expand your network, and discover the incredible resources available right here in our community.

👉 Register today: https://www.necounseling.org/event-6844270

Tag a fellow NCA member who should join you! 👇

10/20/2026

Please help us wish a very Happy Birthday to our current District 4/5 Chair, Mallory Swantek! 🥳 Mallory is also running this fall to be President Elect-Elect