Idaho Mental Health Counselors Association
Mission: The Idaho Mental Health Counselors Association (IMHCA) has a mission to enhance the profession of clinical mental health counseling through the promotion of licensing, advocacy, education, and professional development.
Vision: The Idaho Mental Health Counselors Association has a Vision Statement with the consistent standards of education, training, licensing, practice, and ethics, will be the state organization representing: Licensed Mental Health Providers, Licensed Professional Counselors, and other licensed clinical mental health providers recognized by the association. This is accomplished through empowering counselors with the knowledge, skills, and resources to promote their success in the profession.
IMHCA Board Inclusivity Statement: Our members and our clients come from all walks of life and so do we. IMHCA is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive board by celebrating the unique contributions that each individual brings in terms of education, nation of origin, opinions, race, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, age, languages spoken, veteran status, color, religion, ability, and sexual orientation.We recognize that it is an ongoing process to cultivate a safe place, whether it is in the counseling office or on a professional association board, and we encourage all our members to continuously do the work in stretching their understanding of their own intersectional privileges. All IMHCA board members are committed to doing our own work in examining our privileges and how this may manifest in the counseling office or at a board meeting. As an organization, we are committed to showing respect for all and encouraging open communication and collaboration. We are all learning to do better.
Welcome from the President-
Hello IMHCA members!
I am very excited to serve as your 2021-2022 IMHCA President. This past year has brought us a lot of lessons. We were challenged to shift and adapt to new circumstances. I am very proud of how we, as counselors, showed up in our communities. IMHCA wants to recognize you and your devotion to your clients. Moving forward, we want to better serve you in the most beneficial ways in your work as a counselor.
This year IMHCA is going to focus on bringing awareness to mental health in our communities.
What this will look like:
1. Ethics Training. IMHCA has been a continuous and essential resource for ethics CEs in the past. This year we will be hosting a live ethics training and will also work toward developing a way to provide you with “on-demand” ethics CEs, which you will be able to purchase directly from our website.
2. Membership Satisfaction. We know there are more ways to serve you; we just need to hear more from you, our members. Therefore, we will be sending out periodic surveys to help us better tailor the information and services we provide.
3. Community Outreach. IMHCA would like to be more visible in the community. We want to be a resource that the general public can look to for finding mental health services. We hope that individuals throughout Idaho will know who we are and our efforts to bring mental health into the light through social media, advertising, and events.
IMHCA will continue to:
• Bring awareness to mental health needs in Idaho through letter-writing events, community events, use of listserv, etc.
• Sponsor a distinguished speaker at the ICA Conference and Support Professional Development.
• Provide scholarships for students to attend the ICA conference.
• Provide high-quality workshops/training.
• Facilitate a members-only peer consultation group worth up to 10 CEs over a 24 month period.
• Maintain our presence at the IDOPL meetings to provide updates from the board’s discussions on issues that impact our members.
• Provide FREE student memberships to help our future counselors have access to our many resources.
We want to welcome any graduate students or professionals that are interested in getting involved with our board. You will have the opportunity to follow your interests and show your strengths in whatever committee you find exciting. Please reach out to info@idahomhca.org for more information.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Breitenstein MC, LCPC
info@idahomhca.org
