...Why I chose to become a mental health counselor Counseling others is a difficult job that requires people to listen, take notes, and respond in ways that are positive and helpful. It is important that trust be built between the counselor and the patient so that the patient will feel comfortable speaking about issues that are private or embarrassing. There are many different types of counselors including drug counselors; marriage counselors, grief counselors, job counselors, diet and exercise counselors, and others that can help people improve their lives in different ways. Counselors are trained to offer advice and listen to issues that may be bothering other people. They are not allowed to prescribe medication or expected to provide medical advice. Approximately 25 percent of North Americans suffer from diagnosable mental health issues each year. With the increasing awareness of the related social, political and economic impacts of these problems, there is a greater need for professional mental health counselors. Additionally, health care insurance providers, driving the demand for more qualified professionals, recognize most mental health counseling. After earning a master's degree in mental health counseling, most people choose to get licensed or certified in a specialty such as: • Rehabilitation counseling • Substance abuse counseling • Marriage and family counseling Mental health counselors work with individuals, groups and communities on a variety of mental health...
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...for Seniors – Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Meal Boxes - Adopt-A-Family for Christmas gifts. WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE FROM OPEN ARMS MISSION? Anyone expressing a need from our townships is eligible for 2 days of food per family member on a weekly basis. OAM has served 20,257 individuals between the months of January and June 2012. The items we provide at no cost may be supplementing SNAP (food stamps) or assist in reducing the cost of groceries allowing an individual/family purchase medication or pay rent, gas, utilities, etc. Counseling Each week our intake counselors listen in an effort to service our clients in a holistic way. When a need for counseling is identified, the client talks with a director to determine a plan. The majority of our clients are without medical insurance; counseling is one area they cannot afford. We are fortunate to have two local counseling practices that partner with us, allowing us or the client to pay a subsidized amount. Senior Mobile Support Program Many of our older neighbors struggle...
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...dealing with, they also face a deficit in the world around them; a lack of equal opportunity for many when seeking employment. Career counseling for those who have a disability is an essential task that should include the community as well as the client. Zunker (2012) states, “The overarching counseling goal for persons with disabilities is to maximize each individual’s potential for life and work in the 21st century” (p. 268). This is a task that the counselor should undertake with their clients who have added challenges, as well as advocating to the community to assist with acceptance; “Ideally, a cooperative effort between teachers and counselors promotes an effective school program that is supported and recognized by the community” (p. 269), this further supports all continued efforts and opportunities for our clients. Mental Health and Disabilities: “There is a plan and a purpose, a value to every life, no matter what its location, age, gender, or disability” Sharron Angle; American Politician. All individuals with the capabilities and will to work should be offered equal opportunities to do so. Unfortunately, those with disabilities – physical or mental – face not just the condition they are dealing with, they also face a deficit in the world around them; a lack of equal opportunity for many when seeking employment. Career counseling for those who have a...
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...The objective here that is seeking to be answered is, "If a counselor is an associate Pastor on staff or even just solely a counselor should the Senior/Sole Pastor be made aware of details on every client, since it is important for the Pastors to know their flock in order to best know how to lead and tend them, or does confidentiality apply always strictly between counselor and counselee". It is important to start off understanding what Counselor confidentiality is at its most fundamental nature. It is the responsibility of a therapist or counselor to hold any proprietary or personal information supplied by a patient in the strictest of confidence. It is a generally accepted ethic that breaking counselor confidentiality by revealing the type of information stated above, without the expressed permission of the patient, is considered highly unethical. Keep in mind, however, that in Standards B.1.d, the ACA Code of Ethics requires counselors to fully inform their clients of the limits of confidentiality (ACA, 2005). Also, HIPPA- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-actually gives a list of nearly two pages of things where confidentiality may be breached legally (hhs.gov). Counselor confidentiality in a "classical" setting, which is the viewpoint we have been speaking from thus far, is designed to allow patients the freedom to share information about themselves that is private in nature, but is important to the process of helping the individual...
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...Accomplished, achievement-driven and results oriented individual, seeking entry into Masters of Science in Mental Health Counseling with a Forensic Counseling specialization. Personal/Professional Goals I am interested in furthering my degree, so I can advance in my career and more effectively help people with mental health disorders within the judicial system. After I earn a Master’s of Science in Mental Health Counseling I want become a licensed clinician. My focus primarily will be on helping youth that are court adjudicated into residential therapeutic facilities, such as KidsPeace. At KidsPeace they accept adjudicated clients but there is not a specific program in place to effectively treat these individuals. It is my goal along with the program director of the organization for myself to develop and pioneer a conduct disorder program and establish it within the KidsPeace organization. The reasoning behind choosing this field is my work experience and some of the population I have been exposed to. Through my observation violence is a learned behavior, and unfortunately young victims of violence generally become perpetrators of crime and develop mental health disorders. Many times if juvenile offenders are not adjudicated to the correct residential therapeutic facility; that specializes in conduct disorder programming. When this happens these individuals are more likely to cycle through the judicial system and become career criminal, which leads to over populated correctional...
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...mainstream ideology of psychoanalytic and behavior counseling modalities to a client-based approach. Although this counseling modality was initially called nondirective counseling and underwent four main development/evolutionary stages, Rogers maintained his belief that it is ultimately up to the client, not the therapist, to become the agent needed for self-change. Rogers was a humanist who believed that people are ultimately trustworthy, they have the potential to understand themselves and resolve their own problems, and much of the clients’ ability to change lies in the relationship found between they client and the counselor. Philosophy: The main philosophy behind Person-Centered Therapy is that the client is capable of becoming fully functioning individual, whom is responsible for creating change to help resolve issues they face in their lives; people can worked toward self-awareness and self-healing, without the direct influence and techniques used by a therapist. Person-Centered Therapy treats every client as a unique individual and has respect for the client’s subjective world. This approach also believes if a person enters into a positive, genuine relationship with a counselor, every person attains a natural potential to actualize and finding meaning in their life. The client-therapist relationship is based in allowing the client to implement change and focuses on creating a genuine experience between the client and the therapist. Other philosophy concepts found...
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...As Christian counselors, it is vital for the long-term validation of our field of work to be respected by professional psychological institutions to provide empirical scientific studies of our treatment programs. Most of us will be lay counselors, some of us will move to become licensed in order to be allowed conduct professional counseling. However, professional psychological institutions base their counseling doctrine based upon empirical scientific research and study. Therefore, as Christian lay, and hopeful licensed Christian counselors it is imperative for us to also evaluate ourselves to the same standard as our professional psychological peers do as-well. To be able to prove that Christian counseling models are effective we must conduct...
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...Coun. 6100-9, Introduction to Mental Health Counseling Kevin Feisthamel Pattie Smith November 13, 2014 Life of a Counselor As a mental health counselor one can choose what theories of practice they follow or they can have an eclectic combination of theories they utilize determined by the client and what their needs are. The professional counselor can choose what demographic of the population they want to work with and specialize in that. Or the professional counselor can broaden their practice and work with all different clients, experiencing encounters with different ages of people with different diagnosis. The truth is that a day in the life of a counselor is like no other day before. Days are always changing and there are new experiences with each client. When speaking with Dana Woods LPC, she shared what her days were like. She does in-home care as well as holding clinic hours twice a week and helping in a free or reduced-cost clinic. She travels about 3000 miles a month in order to go into areas that have little access to counseling and provides service for the rural clients. She sees both adults and children, mostly of adolescent age. They all have different issues that take different styles of counseling, however she stated that she uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with many of her clients. A typical day for Dana would be checking in at the office for messages and reviewing the files of the clients that she is scheduled to see today. Having...
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...A Review of McMinn’s Text: Psychology, Theology and Spirituality in Christian Counseling Ashley Pasquale Liberty University Online Christian Counseling Summary Written by Mark R. McMinn, Psychology, theology, and spirituality in Christian counseling (2011) contains a vast amount of information regarding the use of prayer, scripture and spirituality in counseling; beginning with the explanation of interdisciplinary integration versus intradisciplinary integration. Interdisciplinary integration includes the integration of psychology and theology in order to provide better counseling. Intradisciplinary includes both of those as well, but goes further to include spirituality within the scope of Christian counseling (McMinn,...
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...Online counseling is also filling the unmet need for clients located in areas traditionally under-served by traditional counselors. Rural residents and expats along with under-served minorities often have an easier time finding a suitable therapist online than in their local communities.[2] These access issues are solved with online counseling resources and result in clients receiving culturally or linguistically relevant treatment that they would not have otherwise been able to receive. African Americans tend to have an elevated rate of stress-related diseases and have lower access to traditional face-to-face treatments.[5] Online counseling has also been shown to be effective for clients who may have difficulty reaching appointments during normal business hours. [6] Additionally, research is demonstrating that online counseling may be useful for disabled and rural people that traditionally under-utilize clinical services. [2] Effectiveness Some in the psychology community have argued that online therapy can never replace traditional face-to-face therapy.[7] Research from G.S. Stofle and J. suggests that online counseling would benefit people functioning at a moderately high level.[8][9] Severe situations such as suicidal ideation or a psychotic episode might be better served by traditional face-to-face methods. [10] Although further research may prove otherwise.[2] Cohen and Kerr conducted a study on the effectiveness of online therapy for treatment of anxiety disorders...
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...Multicultural Awareness Multiculturalism has a vital role in counseling. According to Hays (2010) this type of counseling pays attention to the cultural diversities of clients in order to offer better services. To achieve multicultural awareness, the counselor has to know his or her own cultural characteristics. This article will contain the results of the multicultural-assessments I completed, my reflection on being “other,” as well as my statement of counseling identity and the explanation why multicultural awareness is important in the mental health counseling profession. Results of Self-Assessment Completing Petrone’s (2004) multicultural self-assessment was interesting and eye opening. In this test, choice number 1 means seldom, if ever; number 5 means almost always. Most of my scores were either fours or fives; these results tell me that I am interested in other people, paying attention to listen, and I am comfortable with new situations. I scored three threes in the following subjects: 1) I ask questions until I am sure I understand what others are saying; 2) If I were at an event with people who differed from me, I would make every effort to talk with them; 3) I try not to assume anything. Reaction to Self-Assessment After I finished the self-assessment, I immediately started thinking about the results. I realized that my not asking questions until I understand what others are saying is connected to the lower score about not assuming anything. Levitt (2010) talked...
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...place, adoption counselors often stay in contact with at least one of the families. They still provide the support and help them when they need it. They are usually life-long contacts. “Counselors are responsible for providing information and referral about social services to their clients, educating their clients about the adoption process, providing advocacy and case management services and acting as mediators to help facilitate legal arrangements”(Ashley Miller). Sometimes an adoption counselor will even meet with an adult who was adopted as a child. They can help them find their birth parents, or they can even provide counseling and assistance to them. Anything that can relate to...
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...Psychopharmacology and Mental Health Counseling Samantha Jackson Walden University Psychopharmacology and Mental Health Counseling Kaut and Dicknson (2007) states “a growing challenge for mental health counselors is to understand the potential benefits and limitations of many different types of drugs “(.p204-205). Drugs are prescribed to have an effect on the brain and behavior of clients. Mental health counselors are advised to be trained in how psychotropic medications can benefit and be at risk for their clients and to develop a collaborative approach to treatment (Kaut & Anderson, 2004; King & Dickinson, 2007). While mental health counselors cannot prescribe medication, they can recommend medication and educated their clients about them. A mental health counselor must stay within legal and ethical boundaries, while doing what’s best for the client. Recommending or Prescribing Medication A mental health counselor has no legal right to prescribe, dispense or administer any medication. When recommending medication it is important for a mental health counselor to stay within ethical and legal boundaries, while working with prescribing doctors. When a mental health counselor is informed about pharmacological interventions it benefits the client, the counselor and the prescribing professional (King& Anderson, 2004). Legal Limitation Mental health counselors can recommend any medication that they are educated on. Legally a mental health counselor cannot...
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...Online Therapy BSHS/352 February 3,2014 Online Therapy Therapy can be seen as a way for a client to work through an issue in their life. A client may find that they don't feel comfortable sitting in an office with a therapist discussing their issues or concerns but that they would rather obtain therapy by accessing the Internet and utilizing online therapy. With modern technology it makes it much easier to access different forms of online therapy. Online therapy has increased in recent years. Many individuals are looking for assistance from a therapist and have found that with online therapy they can do it from the convenience of their own home. A client takes into consideration the cost of the online therapy as well as their ability to get online and fit it into their busy schedule. When a client first looks into online therapy they will encounter many different online their fists available to meet their needs. It is the clients responsibility to research the online therapist as well as the services they have to offer client. You'll also need to research how the therapist will secure the information that they would be given to the therapist. It is also the clients responsibility to research the disadvantages and advantages of the online therapy that they will be receiving. Online therapies researched The first online therapy site and I've research was online their human factor Masha Godkin (Godkin 2013). She is based...
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...Case conceptualization as defined by Erford (2010) refers to “How professional counselors understand the nature of clients’ concerns, how and why the problems have developed, and the types of counseling interventions that might be helpful.” Additionally, “A good case conceptualization should effectively link a client’s presenting problem to a treatment plan as well as provide the basis for tailoring treatment to client need and expectations” (Sperry, 2005). Sperry continues by stating that “The purpose of a well-articulated case conceptualization is to better understate and more effectively treat a client or client-system, that is, a couple or family.” Assessment is the preliminary process of case conceptualization, which according to Barlow & Durand (2003) and Nystul (2006) includes “intake interviews, test and inventories, behavioral observations, and relevant information gather from other source.” A thorough assessment is important in collecting sufficient information in order to understand the underlining issue of the client. Erford (2010) argues that “a good treatment plan requires an assessment appropriate to the client’s presenting concerns and a case conceptualization that includes an understanding of what the problem is, how it developed, and how to deal with it”. Who, what, when, where, why, and how should be addressed in the assessment process and are pivotal in formulating a comprehensive case conceptualization. An accurate comprehensive assessment is...
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