The Counseling Profession Is A Complex And Constantly Changing Field

How does one develop a professional identity? What characteristics are need to be considered to professional? The world is full of individual who aspire to reach a certain level of professional identity and counselors are no different. As a professional counselor, we are called to help clients to deal with various issues that include stress management, addictions, marital problems, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, self-esteem problems, etc. The insights and information that we provide to our clients during their sessions will have enabled them to make positive choices and bring about changes that are crucial in assisting them to realize their future goals. At the end of the counseling sessions, we anticipate that the client would have been helped to rectify or prevent conflicts. In an environment where an infinite number of problems are presented and solutions developed, counselors face countless ethical dilemmas. This paper briefly describes how I plan to create my professional identity as a professional counselor.

According to the American Counseling Association (ACA) website the organization’s mission is to help society by offering well trained professional counselors. In the process, assisting counselors develop into the contingent professional’s in which society can depend upon, at the same time stimulating human self-worth and diversity. When counselors are trained in graduate school the aspects that goes into becoming a professional counselor, is they equipped with a vast amount of knowledge. Some of the basics include how to work with diverse populations, acknowledging their own biases, how to advocate for the client who is among an oppressed population, congruency with their clients, empathic listening and communication skills, knowing when to refer a client to the appropriately trained counselor and many more. All of these elements and more are just some of the tools, professional counselors are required in order maintain the standards the American Counseling Association’s mission statement entails.

The philosophy that underlies the counseling profession is unique among mental health professionals. According to Remley & Herlihy (2014), the philosophy is made up of four components. First, counselor 's view mental health challenges through a positive, wellness-oriented lens. The primary goal of the wellness model is for the client to achieve the highest degree of mental health possible. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers follow the medical model of mental health. The goal of these clinicians is to cure the client’s illness, which differs drastically from counselor’s view of clients.

As the standards of the counseling profession are continuously being shaped, I desire to play a role in the educating

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.

Counseling is defined as ”the use of therapeutic strategies to help clients address personal concerns and mental health issues” (Nystul, 2016). Pursuing counseling as a career involves many years of formal study and certification or licensure. After receiving licensure to practice as a professional counselors it is a requirement to maintain involvement and certification in certain associations in order to hold your license. These association often require further education and/or professional practice in order to maintain membership in these associations. It is quite obvious that counseling requires a large amount of commitment and passion in order to pursue it as a career and maintain a title as a counselor. I have conducted an interview with a professional counselor in order to further understand the experience of being a counselor. The interview that I conducted explores the requirements of maintaining and receiving a counselling career, the experience of being a counselor, and what characteristics or skills a professional may have. The Individual who agreed to the interview was a counselor by the name of Susie Facio. Susie Facio, through this interview, will be giving us a look at what influenced her to become a counselor, what her work entails on a day to day basis, and what qualities and skills she has acquired in order to become a successful counselor.

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.

This paper will provide the reader with a reflection of my professional identity. This will focus on the role of a professional counselor and the differences between a professional counselor and other related professionals. It will also integrate how religious and spiritual beliefs can impact professional counseling. It will summarize my beliefs and values and what I plan to do so that I will not impose my beliefs on clients. Also, I will reflect on what I have learned during this course and how it will impact my future as a counselor.

The profession of counseling has a rich and bold history, evolving through the years from varied disciplines and birthing diverse specialties and branches along the way. Often referred to as the youngest of the counseling specialties is clinical mental health counseling. Despite physical health’s grasp on the nation, mental health has been a major focus at various times throughout history and continues to become an ever growing concern for people in general. As people come to better understand mental health issues and the demand for services grows, it is important to look at how clinical mental health counseling, and the counseling profession in general, has developed over time and how it has advanced to meet the needs of those seeking services.

It is my belief, a school counselor must have the personality characteristics of an effective counselor and have a personal approach to treatment. Personal characteristics of an effective counselor are as follows: making life oriented choices, being authentic, sincere, and honest with students at all times. Other characteristics consist of appreciating the influence of different cultures and being passionate with students as they are counseled. Having the respect for others, regardless of culture, race, and ethnicity are also characteristics of being a great counselor. Being authentic, honest, and sincere helps build a great rapport with students, parents, and co-workers. Students need someone to be passionate and show genuine concern when helping them through their educational journey. Each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. It should be a counselor’s desire along with teaching staff to help students meet their needs to their fullest potential in these areas by providing an environment that is safe, supports risk-taking, and invites shared ideas.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the counseling profession and its ability to work on cases in multidisciplinary teams. A variety of scholarly journal articles were taken into account in order to gain insight into the field of counseling and some of its specializations. For this paper, the focus was, aside from general counseling, on marriage and family therapy as well as addiction counseling.

According to Dr. Linda Seligman (Laureate Education, 2012), Scholar- Practitioner world of Counseling Arena helps a counselor or therapist understanding that you have to know the key elements of theories. Plan out a ” Road Map” that would be successful in helping the client development according to Dr. Linda Seligman, in the media video’s( Laureate Education, 2012), that discusses important to know the elements of a theory and creating a common language for success, Integrate role researching, in your practices. While using these elements of theories help your clients to have a successful outcome inside and outside of the Counseling Arena. According to (Capuzzi, 2011), you have to incorporate the helping relationship understanding the various factors that affect client-Counselor relationships you have to know the strategies, knowing when and how to use them, the different stages, and the issue of diversity between client-counselor. Understanding the different model of such as personality development that explain the past and present behavior in clients, finding a treatment plan

The main concept of this study is to effectively display Multidisciplinary Teams and the role they have on the field of Mental Health. MDTs have been proven to be an effective format for collaboration of Mental Health Clinicians to exhibit the core concepts of wellness, resilience, and prevention for the overall health of the patient. Evidence has been shown to prove that when MDTs are being practiced in the field of study, Mental Health Clinicians exhibit enthusiasm of the skills and ideas being learned. In addition, MDTs deliver clinicians a significant amount of chances to collaborate with different clinicians to learn new skill sets and therapeutic approaches to provide exceptional and complete care for the patients. Even though MDTs

From the time we are little, our upbringing and life experience shapes us into who we are as adults. Part of us that is shaped is our philosophy and beliefs. We develop philosophies of how we think of the world. When we attain these attitudes they may be positive or negative depending on the person and their upbringing. As we get older these viewpoints alter and may grow either stronger or weaker.

     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.