Final Course Project : Adolescent Girls And Counseling Essay

The value of empirically based knowledge versus applied knowledge is used by professional counselors to answer various questions concerning their clients and themselves. Empirical knowledge gained from observation and experiments is “explanatory and it proves explanations that help to answer the questions” (Broderick 32). Applied knowledge is acquired through learning to help the counselor to provide solutions and answers for the questions.

For the purpose of this paper, this writer, will use the APA Task force on Evidence-Based Practices (2006, p. 273), definition, beginning with the foundation and expanding it to mental health, defined evidence-based practice as “the integration of the best available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture and preferences” (Norcross, Hogan, & Koocher, 2008). According to Dr. Norcross, counseling is a dynamic process, with many moving parts, and the clinical experience is the integration of parts (pillars), the actual work in progress, which creates an opportunity for the best clinical outcomes and improved quality of life (Laureate Education Producer, n.d.).

We live in an era ruled by social media, primarily when it comes to teenagers, social media is used for everything. From communicating with family and friends to being used as a news outlet, and even advertisement for business and companies. This article is titled “Social Media: What's Not to Like,” written by Alison Pearce Stevens. The topic of this essay is the effect social media can have on teenagers. Social media, on one hand, can be used as a great way to share with the world and boost teens’ self-esteem. On the other hand, social media can be used as a place for bullying, body shaming and can cause depression or even suicide in teens.

Despite the large amount of people that feel confident and comfortable in expressing themselves freely, many adolescents have a deteriorating concept of self because of the belief that they should have to conform to their peer’s ideals. The identities of these children are being dictated by a need of acceptance from prominent social groups in their environment; however, teenagers must realize one’s own individuality as something beneficial and recognizing that conforming can become problematic in certain situations.

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

In today 's society, there is a great deal of research and practice about evidence based practice. Most of this is highly sought upon in the field of psychology, where evidence and decision making is key to accomplishing new ideas of treatments for people who retain psychiatric problems. The meaning of evidence-based practice in psychology is that it involves making very educated and supported decisions based on punctilious, unambiguous, and astute evidence (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016). With evidence-based practice, it assists in raising and deriving the issue of what evidence really is, the strength of the evidence, and how practitioners can improve the quality of their evidence (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016). Evidence is a major factor because it may either enhance or hinder the practitioner 's ability to make decisions and construct their practices on patients (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016). Evidence-based practice began in the 1980 's with the goal to combine the practices of scientific evidence with physician education and clinical practice. The issue with this was that medical schools did not have the ability to teach their own specific approaches to clinical problems (Rousseau & Gunia, 2016). As an effect to this cause, three main issues quickly arose about the effectiveness and quality of evidence-based practice. First, since other fields were advancing growth in

Bruce A. Thyer, P. (n.d.). What Is Evidence-Based Practice? Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Vol. 4, No. 2, 167-176.

Research helps understand the current state of the environment around school counselors, and most importantly the students that they help on a daily basis. If one chose to ignore research and chose to live in a box filled with their own experiences and perceptions of what they believe is correct, then it could be more harmful than helpful because they are disregarding their student’s views and are unwilling to get in touch with their student’s. Lastly, School counselor conducting their own research to help administration understand the importance of their position by helping them understand how emotional/social state of an individual can affect academics, but having qualitative data to help support their case will provide some security to their own

Dear Past Murray, this is your present-day self. I am writing this letter to help guide you in your journey through the Masters of Counselling graduate program. You are going to experience a fundamental shift in your perspectives on human nature and the nature of change. Currently, your point of view and insights are limited to a behaviorist context (Skinner, 2012) and to a behavior analysis approach (Fee, A., Schrieber, E, Nobel, N. Valdovinos, M, 2016). This has served you well in your work with youth and young adults with challenging behaviors. However, as you start this journey you have started to ask yourself what theory to follow. The answer to this question will be found when you take a step back from the various models of counselling to look at what really makes a difference to client outcomes and to develop a

All counselors have the ability to bring new perspectives and research into the field. It is an expectation that new counselors will continue to improve mental health counseling. “Some emergent theories were developed for specific purposes. For example, motiva-tional interviewing is an approach designed to work with individuals struggling with chem-ical dependency. Brief and solution- focused counseling provides a framework for working in a time- limited, perhaps managed care, counseling environment” (Erford, 2010). I would first review the data behind a new theory. Careful review of a theory would allow me to understand its purpose in my practice. I would also ensure that the new theory would benefit my client without creating further distress in his or her life. My goal would be to keep my client informed and involved in their therapy. While new theories are important a counselor has to closely evaluate the effectiveness of that theory.

Research is a very essential tool regardless of one’s occupational profession and or background. Research is a systemic investigation that involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information in a sequential manner in order to increase our understanding of the phenomenon of interest (Sheperis, Young, Daniels, 2010). Without it, professionals would not have the scholarly ability and or knowledge to preform professionally in their desired career fields. In addition to research there are several models as the Scholar Practitioner Model and the Scientist Practitioner Model that are used to increase the effectiveness of counselors. Therefore, with research being an essential tool within the counseling profession, research also have several roles.

Instagram has been introduced to the community around 6 years ago as a social networking app for sharing photos and videos from smartphones. Along with the growth of technology and the Internet, Instagram is now gradually become more and more popular in many social media websites, especially for teenagers. However, many types of research and studies state that Instagram may cause several negative effects on the individuals who use them usually. As the report “Instagram Is Killing Teen Girls’ Self-Esteem”, the author states that almost every girl teenager feels isolated and unsatisfied with what they have. Indeed, they often feel envious and have inferiorities when they see someone have a beautiful dress or living a luxury life (Kohli). Moreover, Instagram users often compare their lives to other people on social media and try to build the perfect platform on social media. If teenagers overuse Instagram for most of their time, it may lower the self-esteem of teenagers, damage the body image, lifestyles, or even affect the mental systems in life satisfaction.

In today’s society social media, movies, magazines, and television have negatively impacted young adults self image by showing pictures that are digitally enhanced. Therefore, the pictures are not a true representation of the individual.

Backing psychology with scientific studies also benefits psychology itself. P. C. Kendall (1998) asks what would happen if this was not the case. “To what category would the professional practice of clinical psychology be assigned: to philosophy, psychic reader, advisor?” Patients who need psychological treatment want to go to a psychologist who they know will help them. In fact, to stay relevant in the modern health care climate, “evidence-based clinical practice will become essential” (Sanderson 2003). Empirically supported treatments provide a higher standard of care for patients.

The thoughts and feelings we hold about ourselves involves self-esteem (Myers, Willse, &Villalba, 2011). Challenging boundaries, discovering our beliefs and values, and exploring who we are as people starts in adolescence (Arnett, 2013). Usually personality and self-esteem conflict is often challenged at an increased rate in females in the midst of this period of transition (McNeely & Blanchard, 2010). By definition we are designing a group proposal to develop and expand the self-esteem in adolescent females through delving into and reconnoitering the numerous facets of one’s identity and educating and incorporating new abilities in the course of development. This proposal will deliver contextual material of group counseling and self-esteem. A framework of the prospective group program and analysis of the details of the group will also be discussed. How the group will be conducted in an ethical manner will be discussed as well as closing reports.