3. Roles, Functions, Competencies, Career, Audience

• Individual Assessment - Seeks to identify characteristics & potential of every client
• Individual Counseling - Core activity through which other activities become meaningful
• Group Counseling - Provides opportunity for clients to interact with others who share similar concerns or experiences
• Career Assistance - Counselors are called to provide career planning & adjustment assistance to clients
• Placement & Follow-up - Service of school counseling programs with emphasis on educational placements in courses & programs
• Consultation - Process by which counselor provides information & advice to another professional
• Referral - Practice of helping clients find needed expert assistance that referring counselor can't provide
• Research - Necessary to advance profession of counseling. Can provide empirically based data relevant to the ultimate goal of implementing effective counseling
• Evaluation & Accountability- Evaluation means of assessing the effectiveness of counselor's activities. Accountability is the outgrowth of demand that schools & other tax-supported institutions be held accountable for their actions
• Prevention - Includes promotion of mental health through primary prevention using a social-psychological perspective
• Career opportunities

  • Marriage & Family Counseling - Efforts to establish encouraging relationships with couples/family & appreciate complication in family system
  • Child & Adolescent Counseling - Developing area of expertise in counseling profession
  • Career Counseling - Aids individuals on decisions & planning concerning their career
  • School Counseling - Process of reaching out to students with concerns on drugs, family & peers, gang involvement
  • Mental Health Counseling - Manifested in challenges posed by its clientele with mental disorders.
• Client welfare - counselor's primary responsibility is to respect dignity & promote the welfare of clients
• Respecting Diversity - Counselors shall respect differences & understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of their clients
• Client Rights - Counselors shall disclose purposes, goals, techniques, procedures, limitations, potential risks, benefits of services to be performed & other pertinent info to the client throughout the counseling process.
• Clients Served By Others - Cases where the client is receiving services from another mental health professional, with client's consent, inform professional person already involved to develop an agreement.
• Personal Needs & Values - Maintain respect for clients & avoid actions that seek to meet their personal needs at the expense of clients
• Dual Relationships - Counselors are aware of their influential position over their clients & avoid exploiting the trust & dependency of clients.
• Sexual Intimacies With Clients - Counselors shouldn't have any type of sexual intimacies with clients & shouldn't counsel persons with whom they have sexual relationships
• Multiple Clients - Cases where counselors agree to provide counseling services to 2/more persons who have a relationship
• Group Work - Counselors screen prospective group counseling/therapy participants to determine those with compatible needs
• Fees - Prior to entering a counseling relationship, counselors explain to clients all financial arrangements related to professional fees.
• Clientele and audience

  Neurotic, psychotic, personality disorder

  People who; abuse drugs, use tobacco, abuse alcohol, has aids

  Women, LGBT
• Stage 1 


  Relationship building; genuineness, establishing trust, informed consent process, providing motivation
• Stage 2


  Assessment; obtain information about the problems, concerns, foundation for goal-setting and treatment planning
• Change process

  1. Precontemplation - “I really don’t want to change”
  2. Contemplation - “I will consider it."
  3. Preparation - "I am making a plan for it."
  4. Action - "I am doing it, but not regularly."
  5. Maintenance - "I am doing it."
  6. Termination- "I have no desire to go back to my own ways."
• Stage 3


  Goal setting; define desired outcomes, give direction, evaluate effectiveness and progress
• Stage 4

  Intervention stage
• Affective (Models) – Person-centered therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Body awareness therapies, Psychodynamic therapies, Experiential therapies
• Behavioral – Behavior therapy, Reality therapy, Cognitive-behavioral therapy
• Cognitive - Rational-emotive therapy, Information-giving, Problem-solving and decision-making, Transactional Analysis
• Interpersonal/Systemic – Structural therapy, Strategic therapy, Intergenerational systems
• Stage 5


  Termination and follow-up;

  conducted with sensitivity with the client knowing that it will have to end.
• Counseling success


  Clients own their problems, develop more useful insights
• Stage 6

  Research and evaluation;

  A plan for evaluation, Generating hypotheses, Trying intervention strategies, Determining if/when goal is met