Mental health counseling Study Summary

Mental health counseling Study Summary counseling - "Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals" -held many connotations over the years -describes many different activities a counselor does such as educate, coordinate, advocate, etc. -used to be known as "promoting adjustment/mental health" characteristics: -short term (Less than 6 months) -wellness model -improve quality of life -focus on the here and now -goal of change -counselor as collaborator -applies a process-oriented, theoretically based approach (humanistic-existential, cog beh., psyhcodynamic, systemic, etc.) -addresses client knowledge and skill needs in areas such as change, grief, loss, adjustment to normal dev challenges -focuses on dev and wellness approaches to help with coping/dev 5 important elements: 1) counseling is a profession that requires grad level education, compliance to ethical standards, licensure, organizational involvement etc. 2) counseling is holistic and concerns itself with treating the entire person 3) counseling focuses on healthy functioning indiv who are experiencing difficulty 4) counseling is based on theoretically sound underpinnings and interventions 5) counseling involves the facilitation of behavior, cognitive and emotional change guidance - referred to guiding or helping others make choices about vocation, lifestyle, or education guidance vs. psychotherapy psychotherapy - assumed a medical model, meaning the person receiving help was somehow ill. The goal of psychotherapy was to alleviate the sickness, with the therapist as expert using information about the client's past to provide insight into thoughts previously kept out of awareness. Characteristics/differences from counseling -long term (up to 2 years) -uses a medical model -aims to alleviate symptoms -past is most important -goal of insight -therapist as an expert -deals with serious conditions such as personality disorders, complicated bereavement, sex abuse, trauma how do counselors differ from psychologists? - psychologists: -needs a doctoral degree -more focused on testing and assessment, longer-term psychotherapy and more serious emotional/personality disorders Counselors: -need masters degree - both are licensed by the state both may practice/do clinicals in inpatient settings how do counselors differ from social workers? - social workers -training on focuses more heavily on identifying systemic barriers to client success and identifying and accessing resources that will help clients overcome those barriers. all provide similar individual/group interventions to clients Wellness perspective - the goal of counseling is not just to relieve the client of problematic symptoms (i.e., the medical model, which focuses on curing symptoms), but rather to strive for optimal functioning and health in life -may be referred to as self-actualizing (maslow) -or fully functioning (rogers) -both terms focus on striving for a state of satisfaction and reaching one's full potential, instead of on meeting immediate needs and alleviating symptoms. -discussed the use of such a wellness model in counseling and offered the following as areas of concentration within a wellness perspective: -spirituality -self direction -work and leisure -friendship -love developmental perspective - is the second characteristic underlying the basic premise and philosophy of counseling. Professional counselors understand the issues clients bring to the counseling relationship within a human developmental framework problems are viewed as: 1) normal repsonses 2) abnormal reactions 3)transitory issues in response to change Events that occur as expected are considered ON TIME, whereas events that occur earlier or later than expected or perhaps not at all are considered OFF TIME. empowerment - Definition: The process by which people, organizations, or groups who are powerless (a) become aware of the power (b) develop the skills and capacity for gaining control OF lives, (c) exercise this control without infringing upon the rights of others, and (d) support the empowerment of others in their community. -A third focus unique to the counseling philosophy which is aligned closely with the emerging paradigm of client advocacy -clients can gain the confidence to navigate their future lives and problems without becoming dependent on the counselor each time a new issue arises Jesse B. Davis - (1907) The first to establish a guidance curriculum in the public schools. teachers should provide a lesson each week focusing on character, problem solving, and prevention in an effort to restore the moral fiber of American Clifford Whittingham Beers - (1908) recounted his time as a patient in a mental health facility where there was abuse during treatment -wrote the book A Mind that Found Itself -provided the framework for the mental-hygiene movement Mental-Hygiene Movemenet: movement was pivotal in shifting society's view of the mentally ill from irrevocably sick individuals to individuals in need of help. The movement helped society focus on early intervention, prevention, and more humane treatment options for people who were mentally ill Helped lead to the National Mental Health Association in 1909 Frank Parsons - considered the father of the American guidance movement (became founder of vocational bureau of boston in 1908) was the first to propose that to be happy and successful in a particular career, a person must consider one's interests and skills and take into account the qualifications and compensation for the preferred line of work in order to make an informed and rational decision. Davis, Whittingham, and Parsons - changed the meaning and formation of mental health care and guidance. Their influence ultimately resulted in the development of the counseling profession. Sigmund Freud - Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis. Wilhelm Wundt - german physiologist who founded psychology as a formal science; opened first psychology research laboratory in 1879 -Not only did Wundt inspire James, but Wundt also influenced the field through his work in measurement, which established data collection as a norm in the field. William James - modified Wundt's design and incorporated it into practice in the United States. James was interested in the whole person, cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally, and used a laboratory-type setting to gain insight into the reasons for human behavior. James Cattell - coined the term mental test -studied intelligence -Binet Simon Scale (Standard Binet) psychometrists - The use of such large-scale testing services created a need for more clinicians equipped to administer and interpret the tests Journal of counseling and development - was originally founded within the National Vocational Guidance Association