School of Rehabilitation Services & Counseling

The Hidalgo County Commission voted Tuesday, April 19th to support a proclamation recognizing April 30th as National Therapy Animal Day. 

National Therapy Animal Day was created by Pet Partners, the leading therapy dog organization to recognize all the exceptional therapy animals who partner with their handlers and can be found helping people of all ages in a variety of settings including hospital, schools, and nursing homes. The organization has more than 10,000 registered therapy animal teams, which make more than 3 million visits each year.  

Denise Silcox, a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Services and Counseling presented the proclamation to the commission while speaking about her experiences with therapy animals. 

“We know that a visit from a therapy animal will not fix the serious problems in our Nation and our County, but they are always willing to lift a helping paw in trying situations.  With Covid coming to an end, the time to advocate for therapy animals and to encourage facilities and volunteers to get involved is now” 

RGVision Magazine

Therapy Dogs - November 3, 2021 - Denise Silcox has served as a volunteer evaluator and instructor with Pet Partners for nearly 15 years and has one of her three dogs active in the Therapy Animal Program. To enroll, a person and their pet must complete a handler’s workshop, then be evaluated as a team to ensure they work well together. Read the full article here.

  Our Rehabilitation Counseling Program is ranked #13. 
All the health rankings are based solely on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to deans, other administrators and/or faculty at accredited degree programs or schools in each discipline. All schools surveyed in a discipline were sent the same number of surveys. Each school's score reflects its average rating on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding), based on a survey of academics at peer institutions.  Read more...

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been ranked #8 for the Best Online Bachelor's Degree in Substance Abuse Counseling

Faculty like, Dr. Eluterio (Jr) Blanco, our Addiction Studies program coordinator, was recently announced as the Texas Association of Addiction Professional’s (the largest association of addiction professionals in the state) 2020 Terry B. Hale Professional of the Year at their annual state conference. 

• The Master of Science Degree In Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Student Handbook

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