Counselor’s Role
Counselors are those who listen and help resolve difficulties (Gladding, 2007)). Nonetheless, most people have a vague idea on what counseling is about. This is rooted to how counseling is done in the past. Counseling exists in different trades as advisers or experts in the field. As a profession, counseling is important since it focus on the growth and wellness of people who suffers from mental disorders. It differs from psychotherapy and guidance.
Guidance is achieved through helping the person find the best choice. Whereas, counseling is about helping the person create changes to overcome his present condition. Psychotherapy involves with analytic therapy that try to create constructive changes that can take several sessions. It deals with serious mental disorders that are compounded by emotional, social, physical issues and conflicts that was experienced, is experiencing and perceived by the individual (Gladding, 2007).
According to the American Counseling Association, (as quoted in Gladding, 2007), counseling is concerned about an individual’s wellness, pathological concerns and personal growth, it is done in a short-term (not more than a year), their therapies are largely theory based and the process requires developmental intervening. The responsibilities of a counselor to his/her professional association is on the way he/she conducts counseling which is based on his/her intention and/or purpose (Gladding, 2007)). The counselor must be able to establish rapport.
He must have enough background knowledge on what was to be counseled, for instance family problem or child delinquencies. The counselor must identify the problem then assess how it will be delivered. In the process of problem solving, the counselor must be open-minded for alternative actions since everything depends upon the client’s reaction/s and participation. It is the ‘responsibility of the counselor to inform the client/s of the confidentiality that an organization (Gorlin, 1999)’ or one’s professional association place on counselors.
Counselors must respect the client’s right to know the results, the interpretations made, and the bases for their conclusions and recommendations (Pope-Davis and Coleman 2001). To be able to promote the awareness of the profession to consumer groups and organization, a counselor can try to create blogs and articles regarding how they resolve problems. Counselers can write in news or magazine articles giving out their opinion and somehow differentiating their role from psychologist, educators and trainers (Gllading, 2007). They must engage in public presentations during seminars of civil groups and clubs.
They need to make themselves known and how they different from psychologist and educators. Voicing out their opinion on what needs solving and attention could be a great way to promote the awareness of people regarding their profession (Gladiing, 2007). For instance, counsellors in university can affect the behaviour of the institution concerning color and racial discrimination. When as student ask for their help regarding the matter, most specifically, if a professor made a discriminatory claim, the counsellor can ask the institution for proper actions (Pope-Davis and Coleman, 2001).
Through extending their influence to political matters, counselors can best benefit by subjecting the law through their findings and observations to limit the chances that the problems that they resolved or trying to resolve would happen again. Through being informed about the laws, counselors depends their position regarding certain issues (Pope-Davis and Coleman, 2001). Laws about abortion would help the counselor chose the most effective way to resolve a young girl’s dilemma. Establishing connections with prominent legislators would also advance interest.
Understanding the political jargon would give a counselor an edge if he/she wants to propose certain changes in law. Lastly, through being persistent, a counselor might affect how legislator think (Gladding, 2007). References Gladding, ST. (2007). Counseling: A Comprehensive profession. GGS Pearson Education, Inc, New Jersey.. Gorlin, R. (1999) Codes of Professional Responsibility. BNA Books. Washington D. C. Pope-Davis, D. and Coleman, HLK. , (2001). The Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender in Multicultural Counseling: Implications for multicultural counselling. Sage Books. Michigan.
