Mental Health Awareness & Advocacy:
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
NAMI Metro Suburban
Joyce Marter serves as a NAMI speaker and strongly supports their mission to help millions of Americans who face mental illness each day. Here’s how you can help:
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Advocacy Center
Hope for the Day
Hope for the Day’s tagline is “It’s okay not to be okay” and they provide education, outreach and action to break the silence around mental health.
iFred
iFred’s mission is to shine a positive light on mental health and eliminate stigma through prevention, research and education. Joyce Marter is friends with the Founder, Kathryn Goetzke, has had the honor of speaking at an iFred event, and is a big supporter of iFred’s initiatives.
Kennedy Forum
The Kennedy Forum is working toward lasting change in the way mental health and addictions are treated in our healthcare system. Visit www.DontDenyMe.org to enforce the Mental Health Parity Act.
Thresholds
Established in 1959, Thresholds provides healthcare, housing, and hope for thousands of persons with mental illnesses and substance use disorders in Illinois each year. Joyce Marter has been honored to attend the Threshold Gala each year for the past several years, and to be a donor, as I believe passionately about their cause. Thresholds Advocacy Opportunities
Professional Counseling Associations & Resources:
American Counseling Association
ACA does a tremendous amount of legislative advocacy for the counseling profession and the clients we serve. Joyce Marter strongly encourages membership for all counselors, including students. Membership provides access to information, resources, conferences for continuing education and learning as well as the opportunity to support legislation that affects counselors through Voter Voice. For the latest updates from ACA’s Government Affairs, please visit: counseling.org.
ACA offers a wonderful conference for professional counselors every July in Washington DC called the Institute for Leadership Training. The conference centers around how counselors can serve as legislative advocates and includes a Day on the Hill, where over 250 counselors meet with members of Congress and the Senate to ask for their support on bills that support mental health, school counseling, and services for the elderly and the poor by supporting counselor inclusion as Medicare and Medicaid providers. Joyce has had the honor of serving as the Chair of the Midwest Region of ACA and enjoys mentoring future leaders.
Show your support of ACA and the counseling profession by using hashtags #counselorsadvocate for posts about legislative advocacy and #counselorsempower for posts about social justice advocacy.
Illinois Counseling Association
ICA is a branch of the American Counseling Association and provides a rich community for support and learning within the profession. Joyce Marter has had the honor of serving as President of the Illinois Counseling Association (2014-2017) and enjoys mentoring others interested in leadership in the profession.
Illinois Mental Health Counseling Association
IMHCA is a division of ICA and provides tremendous legislative advocacy for the LPC/LCPC credential. Joyce Marter has been honored to serve as a President of the Illinois Mental Health Counselors Association for two terms (2012-2014) and as a member of the Insurance Task Force, which advocates for counselors with insurance companies and provides important updates on billing and credentialing. Joyce highly recommends the IMHCA test-prep courses for those sitting for the licensure exams.
Employee Assistance Services:
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) offer short term counseling services for assessment, brief treatment and referral for employees and immediate family members. Early in her career, Joyce worked for five years as an EAP counselor and is honored to be an EAP Trainer, providing workplace wellness seminars and corporate trainings for over 20 years. For more information about EAPs, please visit:
Employee Assistance Professionals Association
Northern Illinois Employee Assistance Professionals Association
Testimonials:
“I heard Joyce Marter speak last week at the American Counseling Association Leadership Training. She was authentic & vulnerable (the things we read about & strive to achieve) and was an excellent storyteller, full of wisdom. One thing that stood out was after years of practice, she still seems ever mindful of why she does what she does: the clients and the potential counselors have to impact for healing and good.”
“Joyce spoke for our local chapter of the Lewis and Clark Illinois Counseling Association, she is an inspirational speaker, and an amazing leader. Many counselors walked away from her talk "The Psychology of Success: How to Become a Leader in Counseling" with clarity and focus. Thank you, Joyce, for your pearls of wisdom.”