BY: ROCIO MADRIGAL Dr. Kathy Lanthorn, EdD, LMHC, CFMHE from Lanthorn Couseling

Background She was a school teacher for 10 years prior to deciding to become a counselor. Once she obtained her masters in counseling she worked for Catholic Family and Child Services. Where she became a branch manager while being also attending clients as a therapist. She has also taught college students. She is currently in charge of her own practice for the about 8 years.

Certifications Licensed Mental Health Counselor Child Mental Health Specialist Minority Mental Health Specialist/Latino DSHS LIST Certified Interpreter/Spanish, Level Certified Forensic Mental Health Evaluator She has also participated thought the community with presentations for the community.

What services does the organization offer? Assessing and evaluating mental health clients. Provide forensic mental health evaluations for attorneys, courts and individuals. Provides expert testimony and forensic evaluations for child custody, immigration, return to work, competency and other cases referred by attorneys.

What is a typical day? Most important thing she does is set time aside in the morning to call people back. Her first client is usually at 10 a.m. she takes her lunch and returns to client meetings from 1 p.m. to about 6 p.m. Each client meeting is 50minutes long. Between the client meetings she takes small brakes to refresh.

What does she like most about her job? She likes listening to people stories. She found those stories very interesting as she has worked with different kinds of people. For example she has worked with the flat head Indians in Idaho. She expressed that she was fascinated to learn about them as people and their culture.

What does she like less about her job? She does not like that fact that she needs to bill people for her services. She hates having to deal with insurance companies that sometimes does not pay all of it and then has to try to collect it from the client.

Child abuse and neglect She thinks the main cause of child abuse and neglect is due to the family and friends not being attentive to them, and having bad parenting skills. When she sees a case where a child has been abused or neglected she works with the entire immediate family. Those family members who are very involved with the recovery tend to recover faster than those parents who are not.

Continue……. She explained that a lot of times she is evaluating adults because of the history they had as victims of child abuse. She also explained that some cultures have a hard time with child abuse. One important things she told me was that some people think their children is the problem but in realty it’s the family or parents that are the problem.

Advice she would give to future counselors Really know who you are. Go see a therapist yourself. This will allow you to learn who you are and know what its like to be the patient. Accept and give positive regards to the people you see as clients. Having supervision when you are new at the job is very important because they way you can ask your supervisor if you ever have a question or have doubts. Giving clients homework so that they can work on their problems from home. Examples are readings and visiting websites.