On March 30, 2023, Dr. Michele Kerulis, Mental Health and Sport Psychology Consultant for U.S. Soccer Federation, associate professor, and Director of Community Engagement with Counseling@Northwestern at the Family Institute at Northwestern University, was honored as a Fellow of the American Counseling Association (ACA) at their annual conference in Toronto, Canada.
ACA President Dr. Kimberly Frazier, Dr. Stephen Lenz, Dr. Michele Kerulis, Dr. Marty Jencius,
Dr. Emily Goodman Scott, and Dr. Mike Chaney.
Photo: American Counseling Association
Fellows of the American Counseling Association are recognized for careers that have advanced the counseling profession. Dr. Kerulis has served in numerous leadership roles within ACA including as their current Treasurer. Dr. Kerulis was also on the ACA Governing Council who approved initial funding for the Counseling Compact, and most recently approved an additional $1.2M. The Counseling Compact is an interstate compact that will allow counselors to practice in other compact states. This will allow more people to receive counseling services.
In addition to her volunteer work within ACA, Dr. Kerulis is Past President of the Illinois Counseling Association, previous board member of the Illinois Mental Health Counselors and Illinois Counselor Educators and Supervisors boards, and past Chair of the Midwest Region of American Counseling Association. Dr. Kerulis is also past Midwest Region Representative, 2016 Treasurer, and two-time member of the Executive Committee of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development.
Dr. Kerulis is well known in the field of Sport Psychology, is a Fellow of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and serves on AASP’s Ethics Committee. She is the Director of the award-winning Chicago Psyching Team for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Shamrock Shuffle, and Chicgo 13.1.
Dr. Kerulis began her clinical career serving children and teens in residential treatment centers where she focused on healing trauma and crisis. She developed a private practice where she continues her work with athletes and high-achieving individuals.
Another success of Dr. Kerulis’ is helping the public understand mental health concerns. To achieve this, she appears as an expert in the media, writes free workbooks, and has over 46,000 readers on her Psychology Today blog, Sporting Moments.
Dr. Kerulis is especially proud of her work with her graduate counseling students at The Family Institute at NorthwesternUniversity, where she serves as the Counseling@Northwestern counseling ethics expert.