---

---

Rick Balkin, Ph.D., LPC, NCC is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Leadership and Counselor Education at the University of Mississippi. Rick serves as the Editor for the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. Rick is a Fellow of the American Counseling Association, a past editor for the Journal of Counseling & Development, the flagship journal for the American Counseling Association, and past president for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Dr. Balkin began practice as a professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academe since 2003. Dr. Balkin has over 100 publications, which include textbooks on counseling research, assessment, and the counseling relationship; published tests and technical manuals; peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. He has published in the area of religious diversity and forgiveness and developed a model and measure for counseling clients through issues of forgiveness and conflict. He is the author of Practicing Forgiveness: A Path Toward Healing, published by Oxford University Press.