Lennis Echterling, PhD
TLC Certified Trainer

Lennis G. Echterling is a Professor of Psychology at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he serves as Director of Counseling Psychology. Early in his doctorate training at Purdue University, he helped organize a volunteer telephone hotline and crisis center. Later, when tornadoes swept through the Midwest in April 1974, he worked as a disaster outreach volunteer. Since his graduation, Dr. Echterling has continued to do crisis intervention work, training, and research. He has helped design and implement programs to help communities respond to disasters and catastrophes that have occurred in various parts of the country. For 19 years, Dr. Echterling has been a member of a volunteer team that offers support to fire fighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical service providers. Following the 9/11 attacks, he worked as a Red Cross volunteer with survivors at the Pentagon.Dr. Echterling received the 2002 Counseling Vision and Innovation Award from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. He is also the recipient of the James Madison Distinguished Faculty Award, presented by the JMU Alumni Association. In 2010 Dr. Echterling received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. He has offered numerous presentations and workshops at local, state, regional, national and international conferences. His books include Crisis Intervention: Promoting Resilience and Resolve in Troubled Times and Ideas and Tools for Brief Counseling, both published by Prentice Hall, and Thriving! A Manual for Students in the Helping Professions, published by Houghton Mifflin.

Dr. Echterling presents the following courses:

Crisis Interventions

Learn what to do in the days following a trauma when crisis intervention may be needed. Tragedies, like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, leave behind devastation and destruction. Because victims are constantly reminded of the trauma, their state of crisis is prolonged and heightened. Very specific intervention techniques will be demonstrated which are designed to stabilize those in crisis in the days that follow exposure, at a time when specific trauma intervention would not be appropriate.

Resilience – Based Crisis Supervision: The Use of Play Therapy Techniques to Promote Resolution

This workshop will highlight the principles and practices of resilience-based crisis supervision (RBCS). This creative, strength-based approach harnesses the therapeutic power of play to prepare and support helping professionals. As mental health professionals, play therapists rely on supervisory relationships to promote their growth and development. Increasingly, our clinical and supervision work involves coping with clients in crisis. Crisis events may include real or feared acts of aggression or violence, high risk suicidal states, and moments in therapy when affect is heightened. Play therapists and supervisors conducting crisis work are at risk for compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious traumatization. Including respectful yet, playful approaches in supervision can mitigate these dangers by enhancing self-efficacy, promoting resilience, and instilling hope. Participants will explore a variety of strategies for integrating play into the supervision process. The workshop will include didactic presentations, playful demonstrations of crisis supervision, experiential exercises, and small group discussions.

Learning Objectives

Learner will be able to:

• Describe the supervision needs of helping professionals working with people in crisis.
• Explain the theoretical framework for resilience-based crisis supervision.
• Identify elements of crisis supervision that promote counselor resilience.
• Describe at least four play-based crisis supervision strategies.
• Practice play-based crisis supervision.
• Develop a personal action plan for implementing a new play therapy strategy in your therapy and supervision practice.