Pursuing A Counseling Career

The choices we make early in life have an enormous impact on our future. I have always known that I wanted to directly impact people’s lives and my personal experiences have set me on the school-counseling path. In the future, I would love to influence another generation of students to soar for their dreams.

In this report I hope to successfully talk about the results I received from surveys I have taken online and on paper. I would also like to talk about the career I believe is best fitted for me and what classes and activities I must complete in order to be able to do the career I’m doing this report on. I hope that I as well as anyone that reads this learns more about the career I chose and that they become as interested in it as I am.

Often times choosing a career path that is compatible with a persons personality may not be as easy as one might believe it to be. On the other hand, once a person is fortunate to figuer out excaly what career path fit’s their personality, finding the job that best suits there finacial expectations usually becomes less of an mental strain. There are countless careers for all of us to choose from and if you enjoy’s helping those in need you may want to look into becoming a mental health counselor or a clinical social worker. However if you aren’t inerested in being too hands on with individuals in need there are two other careers that one may be interested in, which is Clinical management or Medical and Health management. These four professions are similar but different.

Counseling psychologist work with people of all ages. They can work with individual people or families. They work with people

Obtaining a career focus is valuable in any college student’s lifetime; therefore, it would be profitable to meet with a career counselor to discuss occupational goals and interests. Moreover, involvement with the Focus 2 assessment is another contributing factor used to guide the career decision making process. The Focus 2 is comprised of five simple tests that will analyze compatible careers for the individual taking the assessment. Mr. Richard Glass, the career counselor that agreed to meet with me, believes that the work interests assessment produces the most promising results. For instance, my work interests fall under the social, artistic, and investigative categories. Through computerized analysis, I was given a list of occupations that would agree with the data received. The content of this paper will evaluate the results of the Focus 2 assessment, in addition to the major points discussed by Mr. Glass. Come the end of this paper, the reader will gain a better understanding of my work

As I go down this road which is considered my life. I have realized that I have chosen the path of the person that I am today. My life up to this point was not an easy road and still has bumps in my future. In my past I have faced physical and emotional child abuse from my parents, death of my younger brother at a young age, my house burning down making my family homeless, Department of Family Services placing my brother and sisters into foster homes, and me becoming homeless again while trying finish high school. All of this led to me to joining the Army to realize there were different options in life. Learning from the past hardships is what led me to want to help others figure out to show they also can overcome hardships and that their past does not have to dictate their future. Throughout this paper I am going to take you through my journey by leading you through the concept of counseling as a professional identity, key characteristics of a counselor, duties and functions of the different areas I could pursue as a counselor, then the four career paths I would pursue, followed by the top two career paths I would enjoy, and top two professional settings that I would like to work.

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.

With the variety of majors and interests college offers, the decision of choosing a career holds a heavy weight. There are many paths one can go to have a successful, fulfilling job for the rest of their lives; this is where college can explore a person’s likes and dislikes. From taking taking the self-assessment, it resulted careers that revolve around medical and/or as educators to help others. These choices seemed very very accurate and possible that I want to pursue. I have always been passionate of caring for others in some source. The four careers that I decided to further research are: occupational therapist, social and human service assistant, pharmacist, and veterinarian.

My career goals are to become at license professional counselor, license chemical dependency counselor and a certified crisis counselor who specializes in trauma and career counseling. The steps I will take to achieve my career goals are, finish my degree and pass the required exams required by the state of Texas. In addition, I have to take 3, 000 supervised hours for the state of Texas to be license as a professional counselor. Since, I already have my LCDC-I, I just need 4,000 supervised hours to complete my chemical dependency counselor license. My personal growth is; I would like to growth as a professional counselor. I want to be able to be knowledgeable in the different approaches that I uses doing my practice. I believe the best way

Life is full of decisions. You have the choice to decide what you want to do for a career. Some may have jobs they wish they could change or made the decision before to have done something differently. The career you choose should be something you love, along with aspects that fit your values the best. Interest, skills, financially that you know you can excel in. A plan for life is important, so it’s best to know or have an idea on what you want to proceed in.

Create a "career map" as you think about your next career move and learn as much as you can. After you have researched specific occupations and decided on your goals, you need to research. Identify credible sources of information for your target profession and identify the academic requirements and experience you will need for the job you want. Research career-focused undergraduate and graduate programs. Make a "gap analysis" after you've identified the skills experience and knowledge you already have that you would need for your future career. A gap analysis will help you figure out what you still need to learn and do. Make a plan to close those gaps to ensure you can meet the requirements and expectations of your target profession. If you're

With such a large number of choices, the decision of a career major can appear overwhelming. Do you follow example of your parents? Do you take after the way your friends are taking? When you have a career major decision narrowed down, what do you think about that profession? Do you know what a designer, medical attendant, broker, welder, or agriculturist truly does? What salary will you be paid in this profession? The best approach to discover these responses is by asking individuals who know. Here are approaches to look into and increase encounter in diverse career fields.

Based on my survey results I have learned that I want to have a career where I work with technology. The survey was important because it pointed out the direction that I am headed in. It also tells me that some of my strengths are working with technology involving math and science. It also points out to me some of my weaknesses that I need to work on like interpreting, reading, and following directions and figuring out what the directions are asking for. The top career that the survey picked for me was Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In this career, I would be planning and managing scientific research. The second career choice that the survey picked for me was Information Technology. In this career, I would be designing and developing softwares and hardware. I agree with the results of the survey because even though I have several strengths I still have things I could get better at. I also agree with the survey because the top careers that the survey picked for me were the career clusters that I thought I would get in the beginning.

In order to pursue my dream career in being an addictions counselor, I require a higher level of schooling to ensure that I will be doing a good job and be the perfect fit for my clients. There is a lot of courses that one can take in order to be an addictions counselor, but for me I got my eye on three. Firstly, I will need to have more studies in maths, this can be about any high level math class like algebra or business mathematics. For example, Indeed shares that you need to use math to understand how to build successful statistics (Ring). Thus, as an addictions counselor, I must be able to calculate factors like a drugs dosage and what it means to my client quickly in my head. Secondly, I will need to know about alcohol and drug abuse to be an effective counselor, this class is essential to be an addictions counselor.

Finding a specific career path can not only be difficult, but it can also induce bouts of anxiety, anger, and sadness over a crucial part of an individual’s life. Settling on a career can be unnerving when thinking about the fact that this is the career that you spend thousands of dollars on in college, that this is the career you will work in until you retire. With this course, I’ve found that it has been easier to narrow down a goal towards finding a career. Through career assessments, different assignments and discussions, I have realized what my barriers and strengths are. Overcoming these and improving these skills or applying them to an actual career assisted me in narrowing my goal as well. I am now able to clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of my career goal and to think clearer about the next steps that I will take after this course.