Professionals and Practitioners in Counseling

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1.Show understanding of the roles and functions of
counselors.
2.Identify specific work areas in which counselors work.
3.Identify career opportunities four counselors.
4.Value rights, responsibilities, and accountabilities.
5.Distinguish between ethical and unethical behaviors
among counselors.
 Roles/ Functions Description
Individual Assessment Seeks to identify the characteristics and potential of every client;
promotes the client’s self-understanding and assisting counselors to
understand the client better
Individual Counseling Considers as the core activity through which other activities become
meaningful. It is a client-centered process that demands
confidentiality. Relationship is established between counselor and
client
Group Counseling and Guidance Groups are means of providing organized and planned assistance to
individuals for an array of needs. Counselor provides assistance
through group counseling and group guidance.
Career Assistance Counselors are called on to provide career planning and adjustment
assistance to clients.
Placements and Follow -Up A service of school counseling programs with emphasis on
educational placements in course and programs.
Referral It is the practice of helping the clients find needed expert assistance
that the referring counselor cannot provide
Consultation It is the process of helping a client through a third party or helping
system improves its service to its clientele.
Research It is necessary to advance the profession of counseling; it can
provide empirically based data relevant to the ultimate goal of
implementing effective counseling.
Evaluation and Accountability Evaluation is a means of assessing the effectiveness of counselor’s
activities. Accountability is an outgrowth of demand that schools and
other tax-supported institutions be held accountable for their actions
Prevention This includes promotion of mental health through primary prevention
using a social psychological perspective
 Competencies of Counselors
Seven distinct competence areas of counselors. There might be other areas but we will focus on the input of
McLeod (2003).
1. Interpersonal Skills
✔ counselors who are competent display ability to listen communicate; empathize; be
present; aware of nonverbal communication; sensitive to voice quality, responsive
to expressions of emotion, turn taking, structure of time and use of language.
2. Personal beliefs and Attitude
✔ counselors have the capacity to accept others, belief in potential of change,
awareness of ethical and moral choices and sensitive to values held by client and
self.3.
3. Conceptual ability
✔ counselors have the ability to understand and assess client’s problem; to anticipate
future problems; make sense of immediate process in terms of wider conceptual
scheme to remember information about the client.
4. Personal Soundness
✔ counselors must have no irrational beliefs that are destructive to counseling
relationships, self-confidence ,capacity to tolerate strong of uncomfortable feelings
in relation to the clients, secure personal boundaries, ability to be a client ; must
carry no social prejudice, ethnocentrism and authoritarianism
5. Mastery of Techniques
✔ counselors must have a knowledge of when and how to carry out specific
interventions, ability to assess effectiveness of the interventions,
understanding the rationale behind techniques, possession of wide
repertoire of intervention
6.Ability to understand and work within social system
✔ this would be compromise of awareness of family and work relationships of
client the impact of agency on the clients, the capacity to use support
networks and supervision ; sensitivity to client from different gender,
ethnicity ,sexual orientation, or age group.
7. Openness to learning and inquiry
✔ counselors must have the capacity to be curious about clients
backgrounds and problems; being open to new knowledge
 Career Opportunities and Areas of Specialization of Counselors

1.Marriage and Family Counseling

✔ refers to the efforts to establish an encouraging relationship with couple or family
and appreciate the complications in the family system.

2. Child and Adolescent Counseling

✔ is a developing area of expertise in counseling profession. The counseling
strategies focus on helping children and adolescents acquire coping skills through
promotion of resiliency positive attachment relationship, emotional and
intellectual intelligence, and other qualities that promote optional development.

3. Group Counseling
✔ is the dynamic field in the counseling profession. Group counseling as a practice
can be located in most counseling programs and became the essential part of
counselor’s system. Group counseling offers the following opportunities to
members to learn from observing other group members ; can functions as helpers
and helps ; opportunities to discover that you others have similar concerns;
members are encouraged to offer help to others ;opportunities to enhance
interpersonal skills; the therapeutic climate created similar as the client’s family
origin.
4.Career Counseling
✔ is an evolving and challenging counseling field. This type of counseling
aids individual on decisions and planning concerning their career. The
counseling approach includes integrating theory and practice.
5. School Counseling
✔ refers to the process of reaching out students with concerns on drugs,
family and peers or gang involvement. The job requires sensitivity to
individual differences and considers diversity in enhancing educational
perspective. The job requires skills on consultation, counseling’s
exceptional students and with the ability to handle problems such as drug
abuse, teenage pregnancy, divorced or single parents, dropping out of
school.
6 Mental Health Counseling
✔ is manifested in the challenges posed by its clientele with mental
disorders. Mental disorders include serious depression, schizophrenia,
and substance abuse. Mental health counselors have to be inventive, and
creative to address these problems. The job requires patience, humility,
kindness and compassion
 Rights and Responsibilities, and
Accountabilities of Counselors
Code of ethics helps counselors to remind them of their rights, responsibilities
and accountabilities in the counseling profession. The rights, responsibilities and
accountabilities of the counselors are based on the counselors associations of
Code of Conduct. The code of ethics of the counselors is divided into seven
sections, namely ,
(a) counseling relationship,
(b) confidentiality
(c) professional responsibility
(d) relationships with other professionals ,
(e) evaluation, assessment, and interpretation,
(f) teaching ,training and supervision
(g) research and publication.

Gladding , 2000
 We shall only present in details three of the seven areas, namely,
counseling relationships, confidentiality, and professional
responsibility. The following three tables below provide a sample
code of ethics of the American Counseling Association.
Areas Description
The Counseling Relationships
1. Client welfare Counselor’s primary responsibility is to respect the dignity and promote
the welfare of clients. They are also expected to encourage client’s
growth. Counselors and clients are expected to work together in
crafting individual counseling plans consistent with the client’s
circumstances
2. Respecting Diversity Counselors do not engage in discrimination based on age, color,
culture, disability, ethnic group, gender, race, religion, sexual
orientation, marital status and socio economic status. Counselors shall
respect differences and understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of
their clients
3. Client Rights Counselors shall disclose the purposes, goals, techniques, procedures,
limitations, potential risks, benefits of the services to be performed and
other pertinent information to the client throughout the counseling
process. Counselors offer clients the freedom to choose whether to
enter into a counseling relationship and determine which professional
will provide counseling, except when the client is unable to give consent
4. Clients Served by In cases where the client is receiving services from
others another mental health professional, with clients
consent, inform the professional person already
involved to develop an agreement

5. Personal Needs and Maintain the clients and avoid actions that seek to
values meet their personal needs at the expense of the
clients. Counselors shall be aware of their values,
attitudes, beliefs, and behavior and how these
apply in a diverse society and avoid imposing their
values on clients.

6. Dual Relationships Counselors are aware of their influential position

over their clients avoid the exploiting the trust and
dependency of the clients. Counselors should not
accept as superiors or subordinates clients’
7. Sexual Intimacies with Counselors should not have any type of sexual
Clients intimacies with clients and do not counsel persons with
whom they have sexual relationship. Counselors should
not also engage with sexual intimacies with their former
clients within a minimum of two years

8. Multiple Clients In cases where counselors agree to provide counseling

services to two or more persons who have a
relationship, counselors clarify at the outset which
person or persons are clients and the nature of
relationship they will have with each other involved
person

9. Group Work Counselors screen prospective group counseling /

therapy participants to determine those with compatible
needs. In group setting, counselors take reasonable
precautions to protect clients from physical or
psychological trauma

10. Fees Prior to entering the counseling relationship, the

counselors clearly explain the clients all financial
arrangements related to professional fees.
 Areas Description
Confidentiality
1.Right to Privacy Counselors respect a client’s right to privacy and avoid illegal and unwarranted
disclosures of unwarranted information.
The right to privacy may be waived by the clients or their legally recognized
representative.
The general requirement that the counselors keep the information
confidential does not apply when disclosure is required to prevent clear and
imminent danger to the client or others or when legal requirements demand
that confidential information is be revealed.
Counselors who received information confirming that a client has a disease
known to be communicable and fatal is justified in disclosing information to an
identifiable third party, who by his/her relationship with the client is at high risk
of contracting the disease.
When court orders the counselors to release confidential information without
client’s permit, counselors request to the court that the disclosure should not be
required due to potential harm to client or counseling relationship
2. Group and Families  In group work, counselors clearly define confidentiality and parameters for
the specific group being entered, explain its importance, and discuss difficulties
related to confidentiality involved in group work.
 In family counseling, information about one family cannot be disclosed to
another member without permission.

3. Minor Incompetent client When counseling clients who are minors or individuals who are unable to
give voluntary, informed consent, parents or guardians may be included in the
counseling process as appropriate.
4. Records  Counselors maintain necessary records for rendering professional
services to their clients and as required by laws, regulations, or agency or
institution procedures.
 Counselors are responsible for securing safety and confidentiality of any
counseling record they create, maintain, transfer, or destroy whether the
records are written, taped, computerized, or stored in any other medium.
Counselors recognized that counseling records are kept for the benefits of
the clients therefore provide access to record and copies of record when
requested by competent clients unless it contains information that may be
misleading or detrimental to the clients.
 Counselors obtain written permission from clients to disclose or transfer
records to legitimate third parties unless exception to confidentiality exist

5. Research and Training Use of data derived from counseling relationships for purposes of
training ,research , or publication is confined to content that is disguised to
ensure the anonymity of the individuals involved. Identification of the client
involved is permissible only when the client has reviewed the material and
has agreed to its presentation or publication

6. Consultation Information obtained in consulting relationship is discussed for

professional purposes only with persons clearly concerned with the case.
Before sharing information, counselors make efforts to ensure that there
defined policies that effectively protect the confidentiality of information with
other agencies serving the counselors clients.
 Areas Description
Professional Responsibility
1. Standards Knowledge Counselors have a responsibility to read, understand, and follow the
Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice

2. Professional Competence Counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence
based on their education, training, supervised experience, state and
national professional credentials and appropriate professional experience.
Counselors will demonstrate a commitment to gain knowledge, personal
awareness, sensitivity, and skills pertinent to working with diverse client
population
Counselors practice specialty areas new with to them only after appropriate
education, training, and supervised experience. While developing skills in
new specialty area, counselors take step to ensure the competence of their
work and to protect other from possible harm.
Counselors accept employment only for positions which they are
qualified by education, training, supervise experience, state and national
professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience.
Counselors continually monitor their effectiveness as professionals and
take steps to improve their skills and knowledge.
Counselors refrain from offering or accepting professional services when
their physical, mental, or emotional problems are like to harm clients or
others.