Mental Health Counselor Research Paper

emotionally capable of making an informed decision regarding participation in this study. Of the participants, 250 were male and 300 were female. Participants were selected from general

Why do you believe you are a good candidate for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Argosy University?

I have chosen to enter the field of Mental Health Counseling at this particular time in my life because I would like to learn the skills needed to help people with their life and mental health issues. While attending the University of Saint Joseph during my undergraduate years I took various courses that have led me to making my decision. The courses I took focused on business, biology, social work, and psychology. After graduation I decided to take a year off and gain work experience in customer service and health care. I wanted to experience working with the people in my community. I was hired as a pharmacy technician at a Walgreens in Vernon. Working as a pharmacy technician has been a very rewarding experience for me and I learned a lot about people and their unique needs. I also learned about patient care and how to be pacient and understanding under stressful situations.

A mental health counselor is a counseling professional, whose duties involves helping individuals cope with difficult life events, managing mental illnesses, and referring patients to additional resources that can help them. Before they can start counseling, they need to follow their states specific requires. For instance, in Louisiana, one has to obtain a master’s degree from an accredited program, have the required hours of supervised practice and coursework, and pass the National Counselor Examination to be licensed and certified. In addition to receiving a license in this field, an individual has to complete an addition 40 hours of continuing education every year to renew their license. The Mental Health Counseling program, offered at Capella, would satisfy most, if not all, of the licensure requirements in Louisiana.

My main reason for wanting to counselor individuals, families, and groups is because I enjoy helping people and I would like to see them overcome their current issues. Also, I enjoy reading about psychology and counseling. Honestly, I am more passionate about studying the field of counseling than I am practicing it. I feel that my journey may lead me to researching. But throughout my career, I plan to display professionalism to help my clients.

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.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) is the most sizeable worldwide association for counseling professionals ("American Counseling Association.", n.d.). The American Counseling Association (ACA) is a nonprofit organization ("American Counseling Association.", n.d.). The American Counseling Association (ACA) is based out of Alexandria, VA ("American Counseling Association.", n.d.). It was founded in 1952, by the convergence of four different associations in Los Angeles, Ca ("American Counseling Association.", n.d.).

Becoming a mental health counselor wasn't an easy decision to come about. Hard to become prior to choosing to be a mental health counselor I have a desire to be a special-education teacher, specialize in working with children on the asperger's spectrum of autism. The reason I decided to choose to change my professional goals was because I thought as a counselor I will be able to work with children on different disabilities and adults on a one-to-one basis. Dream experience as a preschool teacher, many colleges have said that I have a sense of counseling and understanding when dealing with children and people. My previous class prior to this class give me a better understanding of what my goals are and how to reach them. So I truly believe

To begin with a mental health counselor you need to be a good listener and have a good patience (MentalHealthcounselor.org). Mental health counselors has to listen to their patient and wait for a person to be finish explaining their problems. Having this profession means that being able to support people in needed (careerinpychology.org). This is the most important part of this career. Supporting people is a really big part, having to et you’re patients know that you’re here to help them. Working with their career involves with telling are reading emotions, being able to diagnose you’re clients (BigFuture.org). Diagnosing your clients is the biggest part of this career, so the trait of being able to find and fix problems is extremely important. A mental health counselor cannot be judgmental and has to be self-aware (Mentalhealthcouselor-edu.org). If a counselor is judgmental then t could lead to a client leaving and beign self-aware, so that the counselor is aware of the situation and what they are saying or doing. Meanwhile being a mental health counselor has a lot of traits needed to be

Mental Health Counselor is the career I have decided to go for. It took me forever and a lot of thinking to decide exactly what I want to do with my life. I have dealt with depression, anxiety, self harming all within myself. I also dealt with watching my father abuse alcohol, and getting cancer and passing. My daughter is ADHD, ODD and suffers with anxiety. I also work in a group home taking care of mentally challenged people. Altogether I've dealt with a lot and I think experiencing everything I have, would make me understand and be a good mental health counselor.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) offers memberships for Mental Health professionals ranging from students and private practice to the retired professional who wants to remain connected with other professionals. The price of membership is $96 for the student, recently graduated, and retired and $171 for regular members, agency counselors, private practice, and counseling educators. Some of the benefits the ACA has to offer are several types of insurance, ranging from liability insurance to protect you in your practice whether it is for a private practice or if you are working at an agency for someone else. The ACA can also help you with insurance for your home, auto, dental, long term care, and disability insurance. There are also several other services where as a member you can obtain a member discount rates on some medical procedures such as labs, and imaging services, having prescriptions filled, hotels, travel, rental cars just to list as few. The best perk yet is the networking circle you have become a part of, get to know others in the counseling

The American Counseling Association (ACA) is a professional organization that was established after a series of independent associations coming together and establishing the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA) that eventually became the American Counseling Association (ACA) in 1992. The ACA has 20 divisions that represent specialty areas within the counseling profession. After research the ACA and its division, I have concluded that I would like to join the Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling (ACAC).

Theories play an important role in how a counselor serves their clients. Theories provide counselors with a foundation on which to build their counseling style. “Theories ground us as professional counselors. They provide a means to understand what we are doing, how we are serving clients, and how to explain counseling to clients” (Erford, 2010). Counselors are responsible for being aware of different theories in order to apply them appropriately within their practice. Established and new theories play an important and constant role in mental health counseling. Established theories in mental health counseling are based on “empirical or scientific foundations” (American Counseling Association, 2005). The best way to gain the most

When I first started my college journey I initially majored in Biology. Not knowing what I wanted to do, I was influenced by my advisor to enter the biology field. After my third year, I decided not to pursue biology anymore, and that’s when I discovered my passion for the Psychology field. After receiving my undergrad in psychology, I knew that I wanted to get my masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, but I had no idea of how broad this area is. This week assignment granted me the opportunity to interview someone who has been in this profession for 25 plus years who has worked in all sectors when it comes to mental health counseling. It allowed me to learn the pros and cons of this field and it even gave me more insight and clarity on exactly what I wanted to do. I found this week assignment to be very informative and I believe it is necessary for anyone that’s interesting in entering in this field. I am grateful for the knowledge and advice that I received during this week assignment.

     In my research or the counseling profession, it was stress to me that given the drawbacks, counseling was a very worthy and rewarding. The problems can be easily dealt with and planned for. It is important that one have a balanced life outside of their career. A balance life helps prevent compassion fatigue and help maintain that high level of physical and emotional energy that is needed to be an effective counselor.