Future Counseling Assessment

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.

Largely, the entire test proved thought provoking as this was a subjective test. Meaning everyone's values are not the same, everyone is not driven by the same motives. This could be problematic in obtaining valid results. It has given this writer cause to carefully examine assessments that are being administered clients. Reliability and validity have a great importance in how counselor should utilize assessments and can assist in finding appropriate instruments in order to be more effective with clients.

The Graduate Diploma in Psychological Assessment at Concordia University of Alberta initiated a desire to gain knowledge in therapy. I leant that knowledge of therapy is essential to tailor an assessment to each individual as otherwise a report is generic and abstract. I came to this realization during my personality assessment practicum. The practicum required interviewing, administering, scoring, interpreting and writing a report for a battery of three of the following: PDS, NEO-PI-3, PIA-2, and MCMI-III (write out names). Two of the three volunteers, I conducted my practicum on, presented with no psychopathology so I wrote a generic report. The third volunteer presented with psychopathology. In this report I would have liked a deeper knowledge of therapy to tailor treatment suggestions. Also a desire to conduct therapy initialed

Counseling uses two types of assessment to get a better understanding of their clients which are testing and diagnosis. Clients have the privilege to understand the purpose of what an assessment process involves and counselors are responsible to maintain the security test that they use and the proper supervision for the test-taking process (Remley & Herlihy, 2014, p.289). Chapter 11 discusses the dynamics of using psychological tests when assisting to resolve clients’ problems.

The ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) is a critical resource for counselors involving assessment. Section E in the ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) is devoted to explaining evaluations, assessments, and interpretation. E.1. states, “The primary purpose of educational, mental health, psychological, and career assessment is to gather information regarding the client for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to, client decision making, treatment planning, and forensic proceedings” (ACA, 2014, pp.11). Counselors should only use assessment tools in which the clinician has been trained.

An agency that provides marriage and family counseling will need all counselors to participate in assessments to help measure their competencies. The assessments will focus on knowledge, skills and abilities, culture, and behavior. The knowledge competencies involves the understanding of counseling through education, practice, training, seminars and past career

In conclusion as I mentioned before counselors must remain confidential in all aspects of their job including testing and assessment. The ASCA and ACA provide codes of ethics to follow. Counselors should follow these code of ethics to prevent misuse of test, releasing client information and many more. Now that we live in an era where technology is advanced school counselors must be mindful to ensure that their clients information will remain confidential. There are numerous of assessments that require proper training before administering. Counselors must be competent in an assessment before they can administer it. It is up to counselor to determine of they are competent enough to administer a test but there are sources that can help a counselor

The clarification and management of assessment instruments in counseling have been highlighted in multiple documents. One of the eight common core areas mandated by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) is assessments. It is emphasized in all counseling related code of ethics including the American Counseling Association (ACA). The ACA states that competence in testing obtained through training, education, and experience as well as master level counselors with course work in assessment are qualified to use objective measures. Verification of a test user’s training, level of education, and credentials are usually required by test publishers. The

One basic method of evaluating mental health outcomes from counseling is the matching model (Martin-Swartz-Kulstad, 2000). For example, counselors can use this model to determine the vocational, occupational, emotional or general well being status of a group of counselees years after therapy: this was done using a psychograph (Martin-Swartz-Kulstad, 2000). "A typical study… would follow up on a group of counselees to determine their vocational status some years after counseling… A panel of expert judges (typically experienced counselors) would then evaluate the 'goodness of match' between the counselee and the occupation, based on their reading of the counselee's case folder (which contained data for personal anaylsis) and their knowledge of the occupation and its requirements"

One of the skills I need to develop is a deeper understanding of formal and measurable assessment tools. While I place a high value on informal information gathering, as professional counselor, these assessment tools are available and respected. I need to learn how to implement and carry them out. One way to do this would be to attend trainings and workshops on these tools. I could also shadow colleagues who are more familiar in formal assessment measurement tools. Another skill that I need to develop further when it comes to assessment is staying on topic. Whiston (2013) stated, “In considering other information, clinicians need to focus on gathering relevant information. Counselors are human and have their own interests, which may influence their approach to an initial interview,” (p. 106). Because of the intricacies of personality, and the variety of information that can be shared when describing one’s usage history, staying on topic will be incredibly important; as well as the ability to distinguish what is important to the assessment process, and what can be addressed later during

Our textbook shows that some counselors believe that using assessments can have a negative effect but it never gives any quantities data behind it. They could give what culture biases affect those taking the assessments. Since the textbook talks about assessments creating labels tend to be harmful more information can be found how severe these labels on clients are. More research can be done on how to create more culturally inclusive assessments. Another thing that can be studied is which assessments are more effective. If counselors knew what assessments are more effective they could use this to better serve

Counselors understand that cultural and situational factors have to be taken into account when they assess people (Balkin & Juhnke, 2014; Wall, 2004). They understand that they should test a client only when the test administration is fair and the client knows about assessment and the implications of the test (Balkin & Juhnke, 2014; Wall, 2004). The counselor then explains the validity of the measure in terms of its ability to adequately measure what it is supposed to measure and its predictive power and how reliable the test is in terms of being able to repeatedly give the same results (Wall, 2004). The counselor makes sure to explain the results and what they mean in a way that is assessable to the client (Balkin & Juhnke,

The practical relevance in this class will be as I read through some of the theories in chapter 1, they basically talked about the development of personality of an individual throughout our lifespan. It is suggestive that a person can analyzes their surroundings, and people around them in the process, and the the cognition in returns helps them, to make an impact on their life if their aren’t any negative impact on it while growing up. So basically, everything that happens to us in childhood it affects us in adulthood. This is why I believe this course is important for me as a future counselor, as a child of abuse,I had a great counselor and I was able to break the silence, I also remember her saying the best way to destroy the deeds of darkness

As a future counselor I process patience to deal with my client. Provide room for them to express themselves and focus on their growth to mentally and physically. I have patience to allow the client to voice their opinion right or wrong. Establish boundries for their growth. During sessions using wisdom to encourage the client to grow with family for support. Provide patience values, family situation, environment must consider while allowing the client to express self empowerment and voice in the therapeutic process.

It should be noted that while the questions below are designed to assess John’s openness to counseling, throughout the entire session an assessment could/should be made as well. John’s verbal and non-verbal language, active participation