PURYEAR TO LECTURE AT SCOTLAND YARD

Dr. Ann Puryear, associate professor in the department of educational administration and counseling at Southeast Missouri State University, will become the first American counselor-educator to lecture and study at Scotland Yard later this month.

"It is quite an honor to be extended this invitation," she said, "I am very excited about the opportunity."

Puryear will be housed in the London Metro Police Barracks in downtown London for two weeks and be given the opportunity to patrol at night with the officers to observe, firsthand, the experiences they encounter nightly. She also will learn about the in-house counseling programs provided to the Metropolitan police and their families and the welfare facilities available, she said.

This opportunity is a direct result of the counseling exchange program with Roehampton Institute in London that the Southeast Counseling Program was involved with for six years, Puryear said. During these trips, Puryear and the Southeast counseling students had the opportunity to take a day trip to Scotland Yard and meet with the counselors there.

This past summer, Ken Castle, head of the in-house counseling program at Scotland Yard, visited Southeast and spoke to former Southeast students who have participated in the Roehampton exchange and to counseling professionals at mental health clinics in Poplar Bluff and Belleville, Ill. Puryear, who coordinated Castle's visit, was, in turn, invited to visit Scotland Yard. Her trip is scheduled for Sept. 24 through Oct. 6.

Puryear will lecture on group counseling skills to the in-house counselors at Scotland Yard and participate in the British counselors' training on traumatic incident counseling. She says that the counseling model used in this country differs from the British model and she's eager to learn more about the methods used at Scotland Yard.

Accompanying Puryear on the trip will be Joyce Griffin, a graduate of the Southeast counseling program and director of the Cape Girardeau counseling agency office of CDC St. Louis.