Siobhan D. Flowers Awarded $20,000 Counseling Fellowship From NBCC and Affiliates
The NBCC Foundation, an affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), recently selected Siobhan D. Flowers, of Fort Worth, Texas, for the National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Program (NBCC MFP). As an NBCC MFP Fellow, Flowers will receive funding and training to support her education and facilitate her service to underserved minority populations.
The NBCC MFP is made possible by a grant first awarded to NBCC by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in August 2012. The Foundation is contracted by NBCC to administer the NBCC MFP, as well as training and collaboration activities, such as webinars, that are open to all National Certified Counselors (NCCs). The goal of the program is to strengthen the infrastructure that engages diverse individuals in counseling and increases the number of professional counselors providing effective, culturally competent services to underserved populations.
“I am both honored and humbled to be awarded this fellowship from the National Board for Certified Counselors. To be able to further my education with the ultimate goal of increasing access to quality, mental health services to underserved populations has been a lifelong dream. I am truly thankful to be allowed the opportunity to help remove the stigma that is so often associated with receiving mental health services by providing preventative mental health and wellness especially for those within educational settings. I would like to thank my family, friends, professional colleagues and my professors at Texas A&M University-Commerce for their unending support which made this award possible,” said Siobhan Flowers.
The NBCC MFP will distribute $20,000 to Flowers and the 22 other doctoral counseling students selected to receive the fellowship award. Flowers is a graduate of the University of North Texas, in Denton, and of The University of Texas at Arlington, and is currently a doctoral student in the counseling program at Texas A&M University–Commerce. Flowers is currently interested in researching cultural perceptions within the counseling relationship, the lived experiences of single, African-American women in the context of delaying marriage and family, and interventions for the social and emotional barriers to academic success among adolescents and college students. She has received advanced training and clinical experiences in individual and group therapy working with highly diverse and underserved minority populations. Flowers currently works as a clinical counselor and adjunct professor at a local college and was previously the lead counselor at an area high school. As part of her doctoral program and established private practice, she has supervised master's level counseling students, collaborated with professors, presented at state counseling conferences, and coordinated a series of workshops, trainings and related services. This fellowship will allow her to expand her expertise and advocate for marginalized groups' access to preventative mental health care services, especially in the K–12 public school setting.
The Foundation plans to open the next NBCC MFP application period in September 2016. To learn more about the NBCC MFP and its fellows, please visit www.nbccf.org/Programs/Fellows.
ABOUT THE NBCC FOUNDATION
The NBCC Foundation is the nonprofit affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), based in Greensboro, North Carolina. NBCC is the nation's premier professional certification board devoted to credentialing counselors who meet standards for the general and specialty practices of professional counseling. Currently, there are more than 60,000 National Certified Counselors in the United States and more than 50 countries. The Foundation's mission is to leverage the power of counseling by strategically focusing resources for positive change.