RADFORD – Radford University Counselor Education Professor Ellen Armbruster’s spring trip to Cuba will have a lasting impact on her students, their clients and on her. In May she taught a two-week graduate course on enhancing communication skills at a seminary in Matanzas.

“I had been to Cuba previously and had heard about a pastoral counseling program that was being developed at a seminary in Matanzas,” she said. “When I finished my Ph.D. a little over a year ago, I offered to teach a course in communication skills. However, it’s complicated for Americans to travel to Cuba, and I didn’t know until the last minute whether I would be able arrange the paperwork to go. I was thrilled when I learned, just a few days before the course was to start, that the trip was on.”

She went equipped with several textbooks, her RU laptop computer and a travel printer borrowed from the Teacher’s Resource Center in the College of Education. “I had everything I needed,” she said.

Armbruster has a keen interest in the people and cultures of Cuba and other Spanish-speaking countries. “Some of these places do not have the same access to counseling resources that we do in this country, although needs may be increased due to circumstances such as poverty and natural disasters. Much of the counseling that is available is done by pastors. I wanted to focus on skills that would be concrete and useful to my students and would help them serve their communities more effectively.”

“The graduate students travel to the seminary three times a year and stay for intensive two-week learning sessions. In addition to the communication skills course, they were taking three other graduate courses in theology, taught by other professors, during the May ‘encuentro’ (or encounter).”

(IN THE PHOTO: Ellen Armbruster (third from right) and students enrolled in her counseling workshop in Cuba.

Armbruster’s students included pastors who provided counseling in their local communities and were going back to school to obtain a master’s degree. Armbruster said they had not often had counseling preparation because, until recently, pastoral counseling education has not been available. “The students understood right away how important communication skills are in counseling and were very excited to have the opportunity to increase their knowledge in this area,” she said.

The course, conducted entirely in Spanish, had enrollment of individuals from a number of different countries and cultures and included students from Cuba, Uruguay, Haiti and Brazil. Armbruster said respecting and understanding multicultural aspects and diversity is at the core of the counseling profession. Cultural interchange for faculty and students who have academic and personal experiences is vital, she believes. “It helps move the world toward a better place and a more peaceful co-existence.”

Armbruster said, “I studied in Spain for a year as an undergraduate, and looking back on that, I think it was one of the most formative things I’ve ever done. It opened up the world in a completely new way. It helped me to learn about people and life in another place and culture very different from my own. Learning about other cultures increases our ability to see through the eyes of another person.” This understanding increases empathy, she said, which in turn makes for better counselors.

“Studying or working in another country provides an opportunity for increased cultural understanding,” she said. “Also, I have used my Spanish language skill in almost every job I've had.”

As a professional, Armbruster hopes the experience opens the door for more teaching in Cuba or Central America. She also hopes that RU students can eventually do service-abroad trips to that region.