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Mental Health Education

Education for Professionals and Community Members

Dedicated to improving our community’s mental wellbeing, CEC offers educational programs throughout the year for community members and professionals in the helping fields. Examples of Professional Trainings have included Resilience for Professionals led by Sydney Elks, LPC, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Basic Training led by Rivers Edge Institute, LGBTQ+ cultural competency training led by Loving Beyond Understanding. Examples of Community Trainings have included Trust-Based Relational Interventions parenting classes led by Raise the Future.

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What our participants say

The Resilience Program really teaches positive skills to reduce caretaker fatigue, compassion fatigue, burn-out, and stress. Helps individuals find tools to better meet the needs of clients and co-workers.
2019 Participant
I have been surviving in my organization for years. This program has given me tools to thrive.
2019 Participant
[This course] increased my productivity… That is a plus for employers!
2021 Participant
I feel this kind of training should be taught everywhere, especially for managers, supervisors, and senior employees.
2021 Participant
A must for people working high-stress jobs and in difficult life situations.
2021 Participant
The Resilience Program taught me skills on how to identify fatigue and [I] gained knowledge on how to manage it.
2019 Participant
I was struck by the variety of participants–parole officers, to pastors to senior care specialists to animal care workers. This provides perspective on the tools’ universal usefulness.
2019 Participant
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CRISIS RESOURCES:

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org

Veterans Crisis Line
Dial 988 then press 1
Text 838255

Colorado Crisis Service – https://coloradocrisisservices.org

© 2023 Counseling & Education Center - 501(c)3 Nonprofit

Karin Lee Hughes, MD Assistant Facilitator

Karin Lee Hughes is Board-certified in family medicine and hospice/palliative medicine. She has worked in end-of-life care for 20 years and currently focuses on mind-body medicine where she works with individuals and groups to foster resiliency and mind-body integration.

Karin has completed additional training in yoga (groups and individuals), mindfulness-based somatic therapy, post-traumatic growth somatic therapy, polyvagal theory, mind-body medicine, resiliency, Reiki, and meditation. She is very passionate about the care of the whole person and how nature affects health.

Dr. Karin Hughes has been teaching about wellness for many years, more recently focused on resiliency and mind-body skills. For this particular course, she will be the “teacher-in-training,” having attended the course in Fall 2021.

Syndey Elks, MA, LPC Facilitator

Sydney Elks holds a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and a Master’s degree in Medical Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam. She is currently a professional counselor in private practice in Grand Junction, where she specializes in trauma work with people of all ages.

At the heart of Sydney’s approach both as a counselor and resilience consultant and facilitator, is the firm belief that each of us has the internal resources to affect positive change in our lives. It is her joy and privilege to provide tools to help connect people to these resources.

Alongside two of her colleagues, Michelle Trosclair, MA/LPC, and Joan Mulleady, MA/LPC, Sydney developed and implemented a Resilience program geared toward helping professionals, focusing on building personal and professional resilience, and the prevention and mitigation of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma. The Resilience program has been offered yearly since 2018, providing support for more than 100 individuals in the Grand Valley.