Mental Health Counselor Career Paper

Growing up as a child, many children would watch cartoons and play video games, but I took an odd liking into watching videos about different mental illness. For the longest, I have been fascinated with the human mind; trying to figure out how it works. Entering into my adulthood, I became an individual who was an open vessel for people to dump their problems into. I get gratification out of being able to help people with their problems and see them with a smile on their face. Being a counselor's is not just making someone's day or listening to their problems, but it is also about spreading mental health awareness to other individuals. I selected the Mental Health Counseling program because one day I seek to become a Mental Health Counselor. Having a Mental Health Counseling degree, will

I have wanted to be a counselor since my freshmen year of high school and in the counseling field there are many specialties that I can focus on. I am fairly certain that I want to specialize in helping people with substance abuse and their families. I have always focused my studies, interests, and work on things that will help me in this field and I have a lot of qualities that help to enhance me in my eventual career. There are difficulties when I get to practice also like what people perceive as correct counseling style, challenges with my gender and race, and finally creating my own counseling style and plans.

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.

A mental health counselor often helps their clients make positive choices and changes due to the decisions and insights they help facilitate. Many counselors work in hospitals with psychiatric patients or with mentally ill adults in continued day treatment programs. Some choose private practice or practice in counseling centers, government agencies, and corporations and youth homes. They usually work in pleasant and comfortable surroundings, working a standard workweek. Some counselors are available weekends or evenings for the convenience and needs of their clients. Mental health counselors are an extremely valuable part of the healthcare system.

Mental Health Counselors are some of highest interacting people in the career industry. Having the highest ability to communicate with peers, you are faced with new challenges every single day. Many different types of people bring many different problems to the table. They are not expected to close the door due to the fact of not knowing how to help one. You will need a very high comprehension of the world around you, to be able to achieve high success rates in this career.

After interviewing 3 professionals in different areas, I noticed more similarities than differences. All of these professionals have included the patient and their family members in the assessment and treatment process. According to the mental health counselor, she gathers information from the client’s family because it is crucial to their healing process. The special education teacher attends IEP meetings in which the parent can attend and provide information to help with the child’s success. Additionally, the nurse includes the client’s significant other when providing care.

As a mental health counselor in training, I look forward to continuing the process of being aware of my own beliefs and biases. I also recognize that I am human and anticipate some life issues presented by clients will present challenges that I encounter.

Throughout history in the United States, we have multiplied the amount of individuals who are considering or participating in the fields: social work and/or counselor. These career fields are not always positive because individuals see situations that makes them cringe. However, there is a lot of rewarding aspects of these specific fields, each individuals learns how to help individuals with hard situations, help parents understand about why a child is acting a certain way, and help individuals who are seeking help for a various of reasons. Having a career you are passionate about should not matter if you are getting paid a million bucks to a dollar, it should be about the love and compassion you have to help a person in need.

Human Services is a career that serves and helps the people from the community in time of crisis. Human Services helpers are designed to help people through crisis or chronic situations where the person feels they need help and guidance to move forward with their life and rediscover their personal power. People sometimes need help with food or housing the loss of job, and getting out of dangerous situation for example domestic violence, drug abuse. Some people also face an internal challenge such as depression, a physical or mental disability or a health crisis. As a human services helper we are there to assist people meet their needs and get them the services and support that they need.

Mental Health Counseling can use this specialization to help clients by understanding what stage they are in at that point in their life. A counselor has to understand the developmental state their client is in first because they cannot go back in stages only forward. This theory has cultural consideration, so a counselor needs to understand the cultural considerations that may have an effect on the developmental process of the client. At this current time I work with individuals in addictions and someone that is addicted will not be in the same development stage as someone the same age as someone that was not addicted, so this will help me work with them to progress to the stage they need to be in at this point in their life.

This has been an interesting online course and I am not sure if online is the way for me to obtain the education needed to become a mental health counselor. I must admit that I truly struggled thru this online program just learning how to move thru the different links. It is imperative in this field to realize that continuous education is the key in obtaining the required knowledge to provide top-notch counseling service to the clients that the mental health counseling arena has to offer.

A career as a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) is very rewarding because you’re making a difference in someone’s life but is also very stressful, as a counselor you have to be in the right state of mind in order to get the job done. Mental health is very complex in my opinion, I currently work within mental health and I have seen people get much better after they have been treated by one of our LCSW. One of the most important aspects of this field is that you build a relationship with your clients especially if you’re seeing them every week for a few years. The theory that I will be using with my clients after I graduate and I am licensed is the premises of existential counseling introduced by Victors Frankl. Mr. Frankl was an Austrian

I want to be a counselor because I hold a heart filled with love, a hand willing to help and ear to listen. In this social world, everyone has a story wrestling with emotion that needs to be heard. It just comes down to one person who is willing to be there.

Why do I really want to be a counselor? Growing up, I had a strong and supportive village to help me get through my emotional and psychological challenges of my own. There is an old familiar proverb that says “it takes a village to raise a child.” My village was, to my advantage, quite overpopulated. Filled to the brim with my parents, family, teachers, friends, guidance counselors, professors, various bosses, and supervisors, this overwhelming community ensured that my formative years were spent growing and learning about myself with the counsel of others at every step. I want to be apart of many people village and help assist them throughout their emotional and psychological challenges they may encounter.

     A mental health counselor in the state of Florida can expect to earn $22,000 and up. Private practice mental health counselors can earn a considerable amount more settings for mental health counselors may include hospitals, drug treatment centers, educational center, community organizations, state agencies, and in private practice. One of the issues in the future is the tightening HMO policies. HMO’s are tightening their restrictions on what they will and will not pay for. Another issue that was brought to my attention was the timeliness in which Medicaid pays. Medicaid has been known to be two to three months behind in paying claims.