News and Announcements
Special Games
Self-Advocacy Workshop Series
Group Counseling Offerings
COUNSELING 252: Career/Life Planning - Disability Awareness & Advocacy
In 2012, DSS has launched some exciting and helpful group forums for students with disabilities to encourage more confidence and success in their academic, personal, and professional endeavors.
DSS now offers a self-advocacy workshop series, group counseling, and a course specifically for students with disabilities and students seeking to assist individuals with disabilities in their professional career.
Give us a call at 657-278-3112 or come in and sign up in UH-101 for any of these opportunities today!
Please note DSS also offers similar training for faculty and staff who are interested in learning more about how to collaborate with students with disabilities on campus.
Self-Advocacy Workshop Series
1. Disability Disclosure and Self-Advocacy during the Job Interview
This introductory workshop addresses students with disabilities’ concerns about disability disclosure during the interview. Students learn how to strategize the disclosure of their disability and build confidence as well as self-advocacy skills during their job search. The American’s with Disabilities Act is also introduced as a lead-in to the next workshop.
2. The American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Students with disabilities often do not know that their rights are protected under the ADA and tend to provide unnecessary personal information during an interview which could in turn hinder their job placement opportunities. In this workshop, students learn to be educated self-advocates by exploring and discussing a variety of examples from the ADA website and sharing their own professional work experiences.
3. Developing Your Professional Self Esteem
We live in a society in which human beings tend to determine their self worth by comparing themselves to others, engaging in competitive practices, measuring their social and professional worth, as well as utilizing other external value systems. In this workshop, students learn the basics of intrinsic human worth and apply it to their own lives as confident and persistent job seekers.
4. 30-Second Commercial (Sell Yourself in 30 Seconds!)
Are you ready to network? Anyone you may meet could be part of the hiring process for your dream job. It’s important to be able to sell yourself in 30 seconds to a minute in an interview or during a networking event. Students learn to develop their own personal 30-second commercial to increase their chances of making a professional connection.
5. Social Security Disability Insurance/Social Security Insurance Benefits
Many students are afraid of losing their SSDI/SSI benefits if they return to work. Students will be able to learn more about benefits and returning to work from a professional benefits specialist. Students may also make individual appointments with the specialist after the presentation to look at their specific benefits and returning-to-work plan.
6. Stress Management Techniques for Interview Preparation
Job searching and interviewing is a stressful process and can often feel overwhelming at times. In this workshop, students learn basic stress management techniques to move through their job search in a more productive and healthy manner.
Group Counseling Offerings
Interpersonal Development Group
In order to develop friendships, professional connections, and reach important life goals, human beings learn that it is important to show interest in others and invest in them. Developing interpersonal communication skills is a lifelong process which can begin today. This group meets once a week for 1.5 hours. Sign up in DSS (UH-101) today!
Interpersonal Development Group Outline
California State University, Fullerton
Aliah K. Mestrovich Seay, MA, MFTI (IMF 67829)
1. First Impressions and Small Talk
How do I present myself to others in a genuine way? I want to approach people, but I don’t know what to say. I want to reach out, but I feel shy and I freeze up. How can I create a connection? How can I share about who I am and learn about what makes the other person tick? Should I bring up my disability? How do I know what the other person is thinking if I can’t “read” them? Students learn first impressions and small talk techniques and share their experiences.
2. Active Listening
In order to develop friendships, develop professionally, and reach important life goals, human beings learn that it is important to show interest in others and invest in them. One way to do this is by learning active listening techniques. Have you ever felt like someone is hearing your words, but not really listening to what you have to say? That can be frustrating and also destroy a relationship. In this workshop, students learn how to actively and empathetically listen to each other and then go out and try it in the outside world.
3. Acknowledging Self Worth
We live in a society in which human beings tend to determine their self worth by comparing themselves to others, engaging in competitive practices, measuring their social and professional worth, as well as utilizing other external value systems. In this workshop, students learn the basic laws of intrinsic human worth and apply them to their own lives on personal, professional, and academic levels.
4. Social Skills Hierarchy of Needs
What’s the difference between a close friend and an acquaintance? How do I talk to them and engage them in conversation? How do I develop an acquaintance into a friendship? Students try out different communication techniques utilized in conversations with varying relationship levels. Non-verbal communication as well as the keys to maintaining healthy long-lasting relationships are explored. Students share their past and present relationship experiences.
5. Self-advocacy
How do I approach my professor and discuss an accommodation? How much personal information do I need to disclose about myself? What is self-advocacy and how can I become a better self-advocate? Students learn to implement different self-advocacy techniques and share experiences. Topics include appropriate assertiveness, a general understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the differences between aggressive, passive, and assertive behaviors.
6. Conflict Resolution
How can I peacefully resolve a situation in which I feel I have been wronged without destroying the friendship I’ve built? How can I get my point across and also place value and listen to what the other party is saying as well? What do I do when I am feeling frustrated and hopeless when my communication with others goes wrong? The answer is conflict resolution techniques! Students learn how to develop a plan to successfully resolve conflicts that arise in their personal and professional live. By “fighting fair” and using a “Win Win” approach, students reframe an initially negative situation into an opportunity for relationship growth.
7. Dating in 2012
How has dating changed in the past 10-20 years? How do I adapt to this? What do I look for in a date? How do I show the other person I am interested? How do I reach out? How do I know that the other person is interested? Am I more comfortable with group dating or asking someone out exclusively? What’s the difference between casually dating and having a boyfriend or girlfriend? What personal qualities make a long-lasting relationship work? How do I choose whether or not to disclose to the person I’m dating that I have a disability? Students explore the different stages of romantic relationships from flirting to intimacy in order to determine their own comfort level with pursuing romantic interests in their adult lives.
DSS Networking Group
Have you ever wanted to get to know other students with disabilities while sharing your goals and challenges at CSUF? DSS offers a supportive environment for group counseling to interested students. Please call or sign up for information at the DSS front desk in UH-101.
COUNSELING 252: Career/Life Planning- Disability Awareness & Advocacy
(3 UNITS)*
Disabled Students Services is launching a Counseling 252 course in the fall on Thursdays from 4PM to 6:45PM focused on Career and Life Planning as it relates to Disability Awareness and Advocacy. It is geared towards individuals who have disabilities and/or those professionals who plan to serve others with disabilities. In addition, this course teaches students to become advocates who create professional and academic opportunities which transcend traditional career development.
*Open to any student with a disability or students who plan to serve individuals with disabilities in their future careers. Students affiliated with departments such as Disabled Student Services, Human Services, or Special Education are also eligible to participate.
1. What are the key lessons to be learned from Counseling 252?
“Discriminators” are defined as all those individuals that have not been educated yet. If individuals with disabilities and their support network learn about disability rights, disclosure and advocacy, we will create a world of community educators that act based on the desire to educate “discriminators” instead of acting based on fear of societal discrimination. When we educate, we motivate others to celebrate diversity.
2. What are the major experiences from the community of students with disabilities that will be addressed?
Self-advocacy involves strategy whether it be in the world of work, school, or in one’s personal life. Many students with disabilities have missed out on professional and academic opportunities because they did not know how to advocate for themselves or know their civil rights. They were unable to achieve their true potential because of society’s lack of education involving diversity issues. Instead of being motivated by their own passions, many students have been motivated to remain silent based on their own fears of discrimination. Multiple real life examples that have been resolved with a positive outcome once the individual learned basic self-advocacy skills are presented. The Americans with Disabilities Act is also introduced.
3. How does Counseling 252 challenge the status quo to build more fully inclusive communities?
When working with individuals from diverse populations, the last thing an advocate should do is think within a specific box which has been created by societal norms excluding individuals with disabling conditions. Instead, it is important to know what this standard box looks like, and the traditional, out-of-date, societal rules that the box dictates in order to develop strategies to begin to create an all-inclusive circle. Students and the instructor collaborate to create a whole new circle which includes and celebrates equal opportunity for all people.
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