Developing Your Professional Identity Is Good For Any Profession

In 1981, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs was established (CACREP, 2016b). Before its official establishment it went through challenges. These challenges were for CACREP to be an accrediting agency for masters- and doctoral-level programs and establishing a Commission on Standards Implementation (Sweeney, 1992). CACREP has six standards for which current and future accreditation programs must follow (CACREP, 2016c). The purpose of these standards are to have are able to define counseling and distinguish themselves from other behavioral health fields. Students and programs receive benefits from CACREP accreditation. Students who attend a CACREP-accredited program received the benefit of being taught by faculty members with a counseling degree from a CACREP-accredited program, core courses for the counseling profession, and later become faculty member in a CACREP-accredited program (CACREP, 2016d, 2016e). Also, programs receive the benefit of institutional support, faculty members with one set responsibility, and continuous evaluation (CACREP, 2016d, 2016g). Since CACREP creation, it has overcome many challenges. Now with a changing society, CACREP must move towards licensure portability and unified counseling profession.

Professional identity develops during the course of two to four years one devotes acquiring the master’s degree required for licensure as a professional counselor. Professional identity in general has been defined as “the possession of a core set of values, beliefs, and assumptions about the unique characteristics of one’s selected profession that differentiates it from other professions” (Weinrach, Thomas, & Chan, 2001, p. 168). A

According to the American Counseling Association (ACA) website the organization’s mission is to help society by offering well trained professional counselors. In the process, assisting counselors develop into the contingent professional’s in which society can depend upon, at the same time stimulating human self-worth and diversity. When counselors are trained in graduate school the aspects that goes into becoming a professional counselor, is they equipped with a vast amount of knowledge. Some of the basics include how to work with diverse populations, acknowledging their own biases, how to advocate for the client who is among an oppressed population, congruency with their clients, empathic listening and communication skills, knowing when to refer a client to the appropriately trained counselor and many more. All of these elements and more are just some of the tools, professional counselors are required in order maintain the standards the American Counseling Association’s mission statement entails.

The philosophy that underlies the counseling profession is unique among mental health professionals. According to Remley & Herlihy (2014), the philosophy is made up of four components. First, counselor 's view mental health challenges through a positive, wellness-oriented lens. The primary goal of the wellness model is for the client to achieve the highest degree of mental health possible. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers follow the medical model of mental health. The goal of these clinicians is to cure the client’s illness, which differs drastically from counselor’s view of clients.

A. My practical view of the philosophy of the counseling profession is that each session is a journey of self-exploration by the client, meant to increase his/her level of self-understanding and self-awareness.

“Counseling’s focus on development, prevention, wellness, and treatment makes it attractive to those seeking healthy life-stage transitions and productive lives” (pearson). In the early 1900’s, there was a movement within the counseling profession that centered on promoting the prevention and the objects that provided purpose in a person’s life. The idea was to help individuals avoid problems and “focus on wellness, development, mindfulness, meaningfulness, and remediation of mental disorders” (pearson). This was the beginning of one of the three philosophies that comprises the key philosophies of counseling.

As the standards of the counseling profession are continuously being shaped, I desire to play a role in the educating

Counseling is defined as ”the use of therapeutic strategies to help clients address personal concerns and mental health issues” (Nystul, 2016). Pursuing counseling as a career involves many years of formal study and certification or licensure. After receiving licensure to practice as a professional counselors it is a requirement to maintain involvement and certification in certain associations in order to hold your license. These association often require further education and/or professional practice in order to maintain membership in these associations. It is quite obvious that counseling requires a large amount of commitment and passion in order to pursue it as a career and maintain a title as a counselor. I have conducted an interview with a professional counselor in order to further understand the experience of being a counselor. The interview that I conducted explores the requirements of maintaining and receiving a counselling career, the experience of being a counselor, and what characteristics or skills a professional may have. The Individual who agreed to the interview was a counselor by the name of Susie Facio. Susie Facio, through this interview, will be giving us a look at what influenced her to become a counselor, what her work entails on a day to day basis, and what qualities and skills she has acquired in order to become a successful counselor.

Counseling is a tool that is widely used by many people. Merriam Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary defines counseling as advice and support that is given to people to help them deal with problems, and make important decisions. This paper examines the career of a Licensed Professional Counselor, the education requirements, certification and licensure levels or requirements, salary, and the future of this profession.

This paper will provide the reader with a reflection of my professional identity. This will focus on the role of a professional counselor and the differences between a professional counselor and other related professionals. It will also integrate how religious and spiritual beliefs can impact professional counseling. It will summarize my beliefs and values and what I plan to do so that I will not impose my beliefs on clients. Also, I will reflect on what I have learned during this course and how it will impact my future as a counselor.

Dollarhide, C.T., Gibson, D.M., & Moss, J.M. (2010). Professional identity development: A grounded theory of transformational tasks of new counselors. Counselor Education & Supervision, 50.

Nuekrug, E. (2014). A Brief Orientation to Counseling, Professional Identity, History and Standards. Brooks/Cole Cenage Learning.

Within this section, the responses from the four questionnaires returned will be shared and discussed. This is a small sample and all are based within one establishment so it is important to remember that the findings may only be applicable to this establishment and are not intended to be a generalisation or evidence about the development of professional identity in all schools.

Although professional standards were promoted throughout the 20th century in a wide range of settings (Centore & Milacci, 2008), it has only within the last quarter century or so that the counseling profession established a formal entity called the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) in 1981 for this purpose (Adams, 2006). A year later, the National Board for Certified Counselors, Inc. and Affiliates (NBCC) was established in 1982 to provide accreditation standards for counselor education as well as a method of assessing educational knowledge (Adams, 2006). In this regard, Juhnke (2009) reports that, "The NBCC was established through the American Counseling Association (ACA) in 1982. The reason for NBCC's original existence

The main philosophies of the counseling profession are wellness, prevention and resilience. With these philosophies, counselors will gain the knowledge needed to provide treatment (s) to their clients by working with the client to solve their emotional and personal needs. Mental health counselors have defined their work as “an interdisciplinary multifaceted, holistic process of (1) the promotion of healthy lifestyles, (2) identification of individual stressors and personal levels of functioning, and (3) preservation or restoration of mental health” (Seiler & Messina, 1979, p. 6). In the health care industry, mental health counselors tend to focus more on wellness and holistic philosophies, more so than on whether or not the clients’ issues