, Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Who Are Counselors?..................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 2: What Do Counselors Do?.............................................................................................................................9
Chapter 3: How Are Counselors Trained and Regulated?...........................................................................................16
Chapter 4: How Do Counselors Integrate Personal and Professional Identity............................................................24
Chapter 5: How Do Counseling Students Get the Most from Their Graduate Programs?..........................................32
Chapter 6: How Do Counselors Use Theories?...........................................................................................................39
Chapter 7: How Do Counselors Use Research?...........................................................................................................46
Chapter 8: What Happens in a Counseling Session?...................................................................................................54
Chapter 9: Where Do Counselors Work?....................................................................................................................62
Chapter 10: How Do Counselors Promote Social Justice and Engage in Culturally Competent Counseling?...........69
Chapter 11: How Do Counselors Collect and Use Assessment Information?.............................................................78
Chapter 12: How Do Counselors Make Legal and Ethical Decisions?.......................................................................87
Chapter 13: How Do Counselors Promote Wellness in Themselves and Their Clients?............................................95
Chapter 14: Counseling Tomorrow............................................................................................................................103
Answer Key.................................................................................................................................................................110
iii
Counseling Today Foundations of Professional Identity 2nd Edition
,
, Interactive Activity
Students can use this Spotlight as a springboard for more exploration and discovery about the major tenets of
each of the helping professions.
Suggested Activities or Classroom Discussion Questions
1. Have individual students or small groups of students assigned to each of the professions listed in the
Spotlight. Have those students explore the profession further, through the website or other promotional
material, and make a short presentation to the entire class about what they learned.
2. Invite in guest speakers who are professionals from each of the helping professions discussed. Have the
speakers interact with the students (or each other) about what they perceive are the similarities and
differences their profession has with the profession of counseling.
3. Ask students to interview friends and family about their perceptions of each of these different professions.
How do public perceptions affect people’s willingness to seek assistance from professionals in each of
these fields?
Counseling Controversy: Coaching: A Unique Approach, or Counseling by Another Name?
Purpose
To introduce students to a current discussion in the field that has significant implications for the future of
counseling. Counseling Controversies are designed to help students recognize that this is not a static
profession that they must memorize “correct” answers about. Rather, the counseling profession is full of
excitement and energy and a diversity of opinions and ideas.
Interactive Activity
In this controversy, students are exposed to the idea of coaching, a term that has been used with more and
more frequency in recent years to describe interventions used by a variety of individuals who advertise their
services as professional coaches, life coaches, or wellness coaches. Counselors, counseling associations, and
counselor licensure boards are all struggling to understand how coaches fit into the helping professions and
whether coaching is truly a unique intervention that does not require regulation or licensure. Students are
asked to place an “X” on the continuum between the two sides at the place that best represents their current
thinking about the controversy and to make some quick notes about their reasoning.
Suggested Activities or Classroom Discussion Questions
1. Encourage students to mark in their books where they stand on this continuum and their reasoning.
2. Use a debate style in class, and have students take sides of this argument. Consider bringing in outside
resources or information to enhance the discussion.
3. Designate two ends of the classroom as the two points on the continuum of this debate, and have
students place themselves where they think they stand on this issue. Allow students at different points in
the continuum to articulate why they chose to stand in that spot.
4. Encourage students to take a broader view of this issue. Instead of the implied dualism of the debate
(e.g., either this side or that side is “correct”), what if both sides are right? Where would the middle
ground be? What if neither of these arguments is correct? The Counseling Controversy provides a
“teachable moment” about the complexities of the profession and the many diverse opinions and ideas
held by counseling professionals.
5. Revisit this controversy later in the term (this underscores the importance of having students make a
mark in their books at this point in the term so they remember where they started). Has anything
changed now that they have more information about the profession?
2
Counseling Today Foundations of Professional Identity 2nd Edition
Chapter 1: Who Are Counselors?..................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 2: What Do Counselors Do?.............................................................................................................................9
Chapter 3: How Are Counselors Trained and Regulated?...........................................................................................16
Chapter 4: How Do Counselors Integrate Personal and Professional Identity............................................................24
Chapter 5: How Do Counseling Students Get the Most from Their Graduate Programs?..........................................32
Chapter 6: How Do Counselors Use Theories?...........................................................................................................39
Chapter 7: How Do Counselors Use Research?...........................................................................................................46
Chapter 8: What Happens in a Counseling Session?...................................................................................................54
Chapter 9: Where Do Counselors Work?....................................................................................................................62
Chapter 10: How Do Counselors Promote Social Justice and Engage in Culturally Competent Counseling?...........69
Chapter 11: How Do Counselors Collect and Use Assessment Information?.............................................................78
Chapter 12: How Do Counselors Make Legal and Ethical Decisions?.......................................................................87
Chapter 13: How Do Counselors Promote Wellness in Themselves and Their Clients?............................................95
Chapter 14: Counseling Tomorrow............................................................................................................................103
Answer Key.................................................................................................................................................................110
iii
Counseling Today Foundations of Professional Identity 2nd Edition
,
, Interactive Activity
Students can use this Spotlight as a springboard for more exploration and discovery about the major tenets of
each of the helping professions.
Suggested Activities or Classroom Discussion Questions
1. Have individual students or small groups of students assigned to each of the professions listed in the
Spotlight. Have those students explore the profession further, through the website or other promotional
material, and make a short presentation to the entire class about what they learned.
2. Invite in guest speakers who are professionals from each of the helping professions discussed. Have the
speakers interact with the students (or each other) about what they perceive are the similarities and
differences their profession has with the profession of counseling.
3. Ask students to interview friends and family about their perceptions of each of these different professions.
How do public perceptions affect people’s willingness to seek assistance from professionals in each of
these fields?
Counseling Controversy: Coaching: A Unique Approach, or Counseling by Another Name?
Purpose
To introduce students to a current discussion in the field that has significant implications for the future of
counseling. Counseling Controversies are designed to help students recognize that this is not a static
profession that they must memorize “correct” answers about. Rather, the counseling profession is full of
excitement and energy and a diversity of opinions and ideas.
Interactive Activity
In this controversy, students are exposed to the idea of coaching, a term that has been used with more and
more frequency in recent years to describe interventions used by a variety of individuals who advertise their
services as professional coaches, life coaches, or wellness coaches. Counselors, counseling associations, and
counselor licensure boards are all struggling to understand how coaches fit into the helping professions and
whether coaching is truly a unique intervention that does not require regulation or licensure. Students are
asked to place an “X” on the continuum between the two sides at the place that best represents their current
thinking about the controversy and to make some quick notes about their reasoning.
Suggested Activities or Classroom Discussion Questions
1. Encourage students to mark in their books where they stand on this continuum and their reasoning.
2. Use a debate style in class, and have students take sides of this argument. Consider bringing in outside
resources or information to enhance the discussion.
3. Designate two ends of the classroom as the two points on the continuum of this debate, and have
students place themselves where they think they stand on this issue. Allow students at different points in
the continuum to articulate why they chose to stand in that spot.
4. Encourage students to take a broader view of this issue. Instead of the implied dualism of the debate
(e.g., either this side or that side is “correct”), what if both sides are right? Where would the middle
ground be? What if neither of these arguments is correct? The Counseling Controversy provides a
“teachable moment” about the complexities of the profession and the many diverse opinions and ideas
held by counseling professionals.
5. Revisit this controversy later in the term (this underscores the importance of having students make a
mark in their books at this point in the term so they remember where they started). Has anything
changed now that they have more information about the profession?
2
Counseling Today Foundations of Professional Identity 2nd Edition
