This year, OCDA had the pleasure of giving away two $250 grants to be used for professional development!

One of our winners was Dr. Ana C. Berrios Allison, LPC. She is currently an Assessment Specialist and Career Counselor at The Ohio State University as well as Adjunct Faculty  member within the Counselor Education Program at The Ohio State University.

Allison used the full $250 grant to attend AOCC 2019 where she and a co-presenter presented, “Lets ACT: Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Career Counseling and Decision Making." Her presentation promoted a greater understanding of the meaning of work and vocation because of ACT's main goal of increasing "psychological flexibility" in decision-making. The presentation highlighted the value-added that ACT has on fostering career development over the life span, and they taught the application of ACT to decision-making, including acceptance of decision constraints, defusion from conceptualized career identities, and commitment to valued actions and meaningful work. Moreover, the AOCC presentation also improved the standards of professional service due to their demonstration, through a specific case scenario, of the integration of an evidence-based approach to career counseling. Both school counselors and clinicians in the state of Ohio learned how to use ACT with their clients to increase the psychological flexibility much needed to make meaningful vocational decisions with clear consequences to their personal and occupational identities.