Hello from beautiful Albuquerque, NM where I just landed and am patiently awaiting the availability of my hotel room so I can begin taking a substantial nap.

I was looking for fellow conference attendees on my flight from Denver to Albuquerque and, of course, found them. Given that my faith in humanity is teetering on the brink right now, it was so cool (and reassuring) to meet fellow counselor educators and feel their vibes–vibes that distinctly vibrate to the frequency of big motivation to help others lead happy, meaningful, and healthy lives. Thanks, Sharon, for initiating a conversation using your extraversion skills!

This is a small conference populated with people who have big and empathic hearts. Let’s savor that for a moment.

Speaking of savoring, I have two presentations tomorrow. The first is with Dr. Ümüt Arslan of the University of Nebraska–Kearney. Dr. Arslan is a former doc student at UM, who used to refer to himself as “the only male feminist in Turkey.” He is a magnificent person and counselor and professor and I am honored to co-present with him.

Tomorrow afternoon, I’m flying solo and offering a presentation titled: “The Future of Counseling is Counseling for Happiness.” To save on paper, I’m posting the ppts here:

I hope we can all grow our hearts so they metaphorically become as large as the hot air balloons floating around Albuquerque this weekend, but may they be full of empathy instead of hot air.