Family Counseling Services: Field Agency Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the counseling profession and its ability to work on cases in multidisciplinary teams. A variety of scholarly journal articles were taken into account in order to gain insight into the field of counseling and some of its specializations. For this paper, the focus was, aside from general counseling, on marriage and family therapy as well as addiction counseling.

Family Therapy can be implemented in a different ways in a program that provides a facet of services, but it’s imperative that the approaches used are appropriate for the individual or families utilizing services. Functional Family Therapy is used to help deal with substance abuse in families but can also be used to assist with behavioral issues in children. A well rounded family service program can not only use this one approach but utilize other approaches to meet the needs of the population being served. And while implementing the service ethics will play a major role in the therapy being providing.

The services that are provided to the patient, its family and other significant individuals connected to the patient are strictly provided with a goal of meeting the complete needs of a patient. Procedures within the social services include: assessments, crisis intervention, support counseling, family counseling, bereavement and grief counseling and community referrals and core clinical services that are provided by the social workers. These services that are provided are available for patients and their families twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

ICM received a return phone call from Mr. Bonfonti and Mr. Rivas, therapist at City Wide Community Counseling Services. ICM had been attempting to reach Mr. Bonfonti in an effort to activate him for BHSI ICM services. During this conversation ICM discussed the services available to Mr. Bonfonti through BHSI. Mr. Bonfonti informed ICM that he was not interested in receiving services, stating that he was already receiving services through City Wide Community Counseling

You are setting up an assessment center to measure the competencies of current or potential counselors for an organization that provides marriage and family counseling for a population that consists primarily of immigrants and people with low-incomes. What types of assessments might you use? What competencies would you be looking for?

The American Counseling Advancement of Excellence in Counseling and Human Development serves to help expand the areas of mental health, career and education. The California Counseling Association is a branch under the American Counseling Association, which also runs as a non-profit association (CCA, 2017). A family friend, D.L. has been a member of this association to help gain knowledge on the mental health field. It all started off by volunteering for the California Counseling Association in his area. He chose to volunteer for the CCA community because it allowed him to get involved in community outreach and membership management. The benefits of joining this association allowed him to further develop his abilities and skills. The focus

Family Counseling Services of Northern Utah (FCS) is a non-profit agency which has been dedicated since 1966 to improving the quality of life for residents of Northern Utah by providing affordable counseling to individuals, couples, and families regardless of their income.

It is my belief, a school counselor must have the personality characteristics of an effective counselor and have a personal approach to treatment. Personal characteristics of an effective counselor are as follows: making life oriented choices, being authentic, sincere, and honest with students at all times. Other characteristics consist of appreciating the influence of different cultures and being passionate with students as they are counseled. Having the respect for others, regardless of culture, race, and ethnicity are also characteristics of being a great counselor. Being authentic, honest, and sincere helps build a great rapport with students, parents, and co-workers. Students need someone to be passionate and show genuine concern when helping them through their educational journey. Each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. It should be a counselor’s desire along with teaching staff to help students meet their needs to their fullest potential in these areas by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites shared ideas.

Approaches to Family Therapy: Minuchin, Haley, Bowen, & Whitaker Treating families in therapy can be a complex undertaking for a therapist, as they are dealing not only with a group of individuals but also with an overall system. Throughout history several key theorists have attempted to demystify the challenges families face and construct approaches to treatment. However, there have been key similarities and differences among the theoretical orientations along the way. While some have simply broadened or expanded from existing theories, others have stood in stark

The population I am equipped to work with are couples and families. This is a population that I can empathize with very easily, a driving force in my counseling career and one very dear to my heart. My life experiences has led to a great desire to help save marriages when they can be saved, work with families and especially children from divorced families. Relationships is another area I would love to specialize in to grow in my career. Very little effort is placed on "how to" do relationships, how to grow into a great husband, a great wife or mold great children who will become great partners in the future. These areas will be my main focus points and maybe one day I can write a book on the subject.

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.

Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

To develop a family foundation that fosters resiliency and bonding between members we have set up several options for the family as a whole and for each individual. The family systems theory emphasizes the importance of each individual being affected by others in the system. This is why we have not only found programs that would benefit the family as a whole, but programs tailored to each member of the family. Our programs focus on developing a sense of self, building communication practices, creating a safe environment, and having the family members take time to learn about one another.

When parents became stressed and overwhelmed by the burdening and demanding lifestyle of raising a child with disabilities, they lost sight of strong parent-child interactions (Guralnick, 2000). Moreover, the younger the child, the greater level of burdens the parent’s experienced (Aydin & Yamac, 2014). These burdens and demands that caused family-related stress are categorized by limitations and myriad challenges of the disability, financial strain on the family, time spent caring for the child, and changes in the family ritual (Guralnick, 2000; Parish & Cloud 2006; Schuck & Bucy, 1997). The child depended on the parent for 24/7 support of daily living tasks, with many of these responsibilities continuing through the adolescent and adult years (Tadema & Vlaskamp, 2009). All of these demands were taxing and overwhelming, often causing stress on the family. Yet how the parents coped and handled the demands of raising a child with disabilities defined how stressful their life were. When parents were not able to remain resilient to these stress-related factors, the outcome was detrimental to the child’s development. Studies showed that stress reduced parent-child interactions, social interactions, and a healthy and safe environment, all important to the child’s development and growth (Guralnick, 2000). Because researchers recognized the stress families endured, intervention programs were developed to support the child with disabilities and their family by

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).