Clinician Competencies

I believe counseling is a collaborative partnership between client and counselor. Furthermore, this collaborative partnership is built from trust and acceptance of both client and counselor. I hope in conjunction with clients to understand the issues and concerns so to help them tap into their wisdom, creativity, and strengths to meet their current challenges. I believe in a comprehensive perspective through which clients can better comprehend themselves in the framework that our thinking about events can lead to emotional and behavioral upset. Moreover, counselors are to provide a safe environment for clients to explore their challenges and identify ways to move differently in overcoming these challenges.

Edward and Bess (1998), stated that in order to be a successful counselor, the counselor must be aware of who they are in the room with the client (Edwards & Bess, 1998). There are many ways to develop a therapeutic self however; this does vary from counselor to counselor. Some of the most important qualities that lead to a therapeutic self are as follows; empathy to show true understanding, genuineness to understand ones true self, commitment to show dedication, and purpose for understanding why one choose the career path of a counselor (Edwards &Bess, 1998). The counselor must understand where he or she stands in regards to these qualities. Coady and Wolgien (1996) stated that the most important thing brought into the therapy session is the counselor’s true

The counselor should have good listening skills, seek understanding by asking open-ended questions and being attentive to what the person is trying to convey. The counselor should be aware of his or her own body language and to use encouragers, such as nodding their head during the conversation. In many cases, if the counselor takes this extra step to have a positive working alliance successful job placement will be achieved. The working alliance can be developed through the counselor expressing warmth, respect, and show interest in the client (McCarthy, 2014, p.

It is troubling that other clinicians allowed her to continue to practice when her competency was questionable. The clinician is putting the clients at risk and not taking time to care for herself. My concern is that she is using client sessions to vent about her own personal problems. Currently, she has poor judgment and may refuse to refer clients out, which would be reported before things worsen. This situation can intensity her mental state if the board rules against her and considers her incompetent.

The professional identity of a mental health counselor is extremely important. When it comes to finding your professional identity, it is important to weigh out all options to make sure that the profession that is chosen, is what one would see themselves doing for a long time. It is more so of asking oneself if they feel they qualify for the career that they are about to take on. This paper will explain how to become an effective professional counselor, the roles and characteristics of the counseling professional, the different counseling associations, what is required to attain a state

I got the opportunity to interview two distinct professional counselors. I will be discussing their similarities and differences in their professional careers; Based on their professional identity, approach to therapy orientation, work setting as well as discussing unique experiences they have encountered. The interview experience was very insightful in understanding the work environment for counselors across the board is very diverse. Moreover, it was a great incredulity to my ignorance of the daily duties of a counselor on a daily basis. I had the privilege to interview two very distinct therapists with different licensure and outlook in their field.

I feel that a professional counselor should have several ideal personal attributes. They should be astounding listeners. Counselors should also hold themselves to a very high ethical standard, even in their own personal lives. Additional counselor attributes, skills and techniques that have been identified as important to the counseling process include, congruence, concreteness, immediacy, paraphrasing, reflection, problem solving, challenge, confrontation, and positive nonverbal communication (Pope-Davis, 2002, p 356). A counselor should also explore and practice getting started, contracting, gathering information, eliciting the client’s story, and being sensitive to the timing of interventions. (Pope-Davis, 2002, p 356).

They must provide a non-judgmental environment so that the client feel respected, and of value to openly discuss life events, behaviors, feeling, and thoughts. The Professional Counselor’s role is to create this climate for the clients to examine their emotions to arrive at solutions that is best for the clients. The professional’s assignment is to assist the individuals in finding solutions that are most corresponding with their own values, not to persuade the clients by imposing their values on the client.

The American Counseling Association defines professional counseling as “a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals” (ACA, 2015). Professional counselors work jointly with clients to help them identify goals and create a plan to reach those goals. Through sessions with a client, a counselor will help the individual(s) to work through solutions to problems that are causing disorder, learn effective communication skills to cope with those problems, and to increase self-esteem that will foster a healthier lifestyle. Counselors provide their clients with support and encouragement through an approachable and

Effective Clinical Mental Health Counselors develop and apply certain characteristics and behaviors with clients. Clients make the decision to receive services, creating an opportunity for counseling relationships to begin (Sheperis, D. S., & Ellis, C. M. (2014). Professional counselors bring their training, experiences, understanding and personalities into the process. While counseling takes place in stages of gathering information, application of theory to generate relevant goals, treatment, assessment, and termination. Clients and counselor develop a powerful relationship to facilitate changes in their life (Sheperis, D. S., & Ellis, C. M. (2014).

In terms of my personal growth, I developed certain personal and professional skills, one of which was patience. All counselors need to display patience, but in the setting of marriage and family counseling, I think this is particularly important. In a setting that also includes acute mental conditions, it is easy for families to become agitated and impatient with each other. A counselor will need to be sufficiently strong emotionally to absorb these agitated emotions and to help calm the atmosphere in the setting.

The most important thing a counselor can do to understand perception and worldview of a client is to maintain an acceptable and nonjudgement stance. At the same time, their

I believe that my strengths as an eventual counselor are, that I am trustworthy, have an innate curiosity about the world, believe that people can change, and have respect and understanding for others. I believe that when it comes to my weaknesses the areas that I want to work on the most are having a stronger sense of my own well-being and being able to take risks. I think that I need to find a balance between working and relaxing and understand that both are important to my well-being. I also want to be less anxious about taking risks and worry less about being prepared for everything. I think I also need an understanding of my own limitations. I need to come to a better understanding that you can’t predict everything, and what difficulties the next client walking through the door will

Schön (1983) describes as reflecting on the incident whilst it can still benefit that situation rather than reflecting on how you would do things differently in the future. This is a useful tool to use in disciplines where the professional has to react to an event at the time it occurs – rather than having the luxury of being able to think about what happened and make changes at a later time. The benefits of reflection on assessing learning and clinical competence would enhance self esteem through learning as well as opportunity to practice and improve skills. It provides opportunity for rapid and progressive refocusing of work activity, thus to improving decision. Competence need great attention for the best care and it is very important that

Counselors’ characteristics can have an impact on the success of treatment, which carries implications for a therapist’s preparation, as well as matching therapist characteristics to the setting that will yield the best results. If I had to agree with the findings of this research, I would say that this study has helped me to think differently about the nature of therapist personality and the length of treatment. Knowledge of how counselor’s personality characteristics affect the therapeutic process would be valuable to me because, being more aware of my own personality features, I can use them as guidance in identifying my strengths and deficits. Giving more attention to my introverted nature would allow me to intentionally engage in long-term therapy and create a more tailored approach to my clients, that would be associated with better therapeutic process and