Mental health counselors work with individuals, families, and groups to address and treat mental and emotional disorders and to promote mental health. They are trained to address a wide range of issues, including depression, addiction and substance abuse, suicidal impulses, stress management, problems with self-esteem, issues associated with aging, job and career concerns, educational decisions, issues related to mental and emotional health, and family, parenting, and marital or other relationship problems. Mental health counselors often work closely with other mental health specialists, such as psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, and school counselors. (US Department of Labor) …show more content…
There are issues of confidentiality, understanding what’s in the client’s best interest, the rights of the client, and using the techniques to best assess the client. It is also important to maintain a professional relationship with clients.
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.
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.
References
Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs
http://www.counseling.org/cacrep
Second, counselors believe most mental health challenges are developmental in nature. Therefore, counselors must have an understanding of human growth and development to be effective in their work. A client may experience developmental challenges that resulted in emotional dysfunction and the development of maladaptive coping skills. Counselors view this process as normal and natural in the development of human beings.
Why do you believe you are a good candidate for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Argosy University?
Cognitive-behavioural therapy is widely short-term and concentrates on enabling clients to deal with very particular problems. Often six weeks to six months sessions of course depending upon the problem it is pacifically goal directed and places great weight upon self-help as a long term coping tool that the client can take away with them and successfully use. Cognitive-behavioural therapy believes that clients can learn the wrong ways of developing and making sense of information during their cognitive development. This can often lead to distortions in the way they identify reality, it’s the job of the therapist to enable them to work this out.
As the standards of the counseling profession are continuously being shaped, I desire to play a role in the educating
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.
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.
Mental health counseling was not the career path in which I envisioned myself embarking on. Becoming a mental health counselor has many challenges and benefits. Along my career path I have had the pleasure of getting to know a variety of positions within mental health. Finding the definition of a mental health counselor can be defined as having compassion, being inquisitive, and having the need to help the mentally ill. Mental health counselors must have in place the right tools in order to properly aid those who are seeking mental health counseling. Mental health counselors
Heather believes the primary differences that separate a clinical mental health counselor and other mental health professionals such as: a social worker and psychologist are due to the type of work they focus on primarily. Although, social workers, and psychologist may counsel clients, the majority may have more in depth specification of study. Social workers are likely to work in case management and psychologist work closely with
Having a private office is usually required due to the confidentiality between therapists and their clients. “Mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists work in a variety of settings, such as private practice and mental health centers. Most work full time” (bls). There is often stressful situations presented in this career as the therapist tries to diagnose their patient.
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.
When mental health counselor’s work at outpatient mental health facilities; it is inevitable they will work with numerous clients who have multiple issues with multiple diagnosis. It is also favorable to say that mental health counselors wear many hats when working with their clients who can experience different crisis on a day to day basis.
Counseling is a relatively young profession when compared to other mental health professions. In my brief personal and professional experience with the field, I have come to define counseling as a process of engagement between two people, both of whom are bound to change through a collaborative process that involves both the therapist and the client in co-constructing solutions to concerns.
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