CEFS 500 Week 2 Counselor Identity Paper Example

Counselor Identity Paper: Becoming a Clinical Mental Health Counselor Who Is Also a Christian

Defining Professional Identity

Professional identity combines two things: the shared history, values and standards of a profession, and a person's sense of belonging to it and acting from its values. For counselors, Woo et al. (2014) note that a strong professional identity is linked to more ethical practice, a clearer awareness of counseling roles and, ultimately, the profession's ability to survive alongside larger mental health disciplines. This paper describes the identity of the counseling profession, the professional home of a clinical mental health counselor, and my own developing identity within it.

The Profession's Identity

Counseling grew from several roots. Granello and Young (2019) trace the profession to the vocational guidance movement of the early twentieth century, to the growth of school and college counseling, and to the influence of Carl Rogers, whose client-centered approach emphasized the therapeutic relationship and the client's capacity for growth. Licensure followed: Virginia led in 1976, and California's 2009 law made counselor licensure universal across the states.

Throughout this history, counselors have argued about whether they share one identity or many. Gale and Austin (2003), reviewing interviews with senior leaders of the profession, observed that the very standards that professionalized counseling, such as specialties with their own credentials, had made a collective identity harder to sustain, and they called for unity in diversity. The profession's answer came through the 20/20 initiative, which agreed that counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse people, from single clients to whole families and groups, to pursue goals in mental health, wellness, education and careers (Kaplan et al., 2014). Practicing counselors describe a similar core, grounding their identity in a developmental, prevention and wellness orientation that they see as distinct from psychology and social work (Mellin et al., 2011).

The wellness orientation deserves particular attention, because it is the part of counseling's identity that most clearly sets it apart. Myers et al. (2000) proposed a holistic model of wellness for treatment planning, organized around life tasks such as spirituality, self-direction, work and leisure, friendship and love, and they argued that counselors should help clients build strengths across these areas rather than only reduce symptoms. Notably, their model places spirituality at its center, which offers a point of contact between the profession's own framework and the faith that many clients, and many counselors, bring to the work.

A Professional Home

A clinical mental health counselor's identity is also built through organizations and credentials. The American Counseling Association represents the profession as a whole and publishes its code of ethics, and the American Mental Health Counselors Association speaks for the clinical specialty. CACREP accredits graduate programs and sets the preparation standards that this program follows. The National Board for Certified Counselors offers the National Certified Counselor credential and administers examinations that many states use for licensure. The state licensing board, finally, grants the license that allows independent practice, usually after a graduate degree, a supervised residency and an examination. Knowing these bodies is part of knowing who counselors are, and belonging to them is one of the ways a new counselor begins to take on the profession's identity as his or her own.

My Developing Identity

I come to counseling after six years as a youth ministry coordinator, where I learned that many of the young people I served needed more help than I was trained to give. I want to become a licensed professional counselor in Virginia and work in a community agency with adolescents and families. My faith is the reason I am in this field, and Clinton and Ohlschlager (2002) describe the kind of counselor I hope to be: clinically competent and spiritually grounded, with biblical truth and sound practice informing each other. My faith shapes why I counsel and how I care for clients, while the profession's code of ethics and my license will govern what I do in the counseling room. That means respecting each client's autonomy, using spiritual interventions only with informed consent, and referring when a client's needs exceed my competence.

I also expect some tension. Clients will sometimes hold values different from mine, and my identity as a counselor requires that I serve them with the same respect and skill I would give anyone, setting aside my own preferences in the counseling room. I see that discipline as consistent with my faith rather than opposed to it, since it reflects the dignity I believe every person has. Another tension is practical: licensure requirements differ from state to state, so my identity must include the habit of knowing and following the rules where I practice.

A Plan for the Next Two Years

Over the program I plan to join the American Counseling Association as a student member, attend my state counseling association's annual conference, seek a practicum placement that serves adolescents, and begin preparing for the National Counselor Examination. I also plan to meet regularly with a mentor who integrates faith and practice well, so that my professional and Christian identities grow together rather than apart.

References

Clinton, T., & Ohlschlager, G. (Eds.). (2002). Competent Christian counseling: Vol. 1. Foundations and practice of compassionate soul care. WaterBrook Press.

Gale, A. U., & Austin, B. D. (2003). Professionalism's challenges to professional counselors' collective identity. Journal of Counseling & Development, 81(1), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2003.tb00219.x

Granello, D. H., & Young, M. E. (2019). Counseling today: Foundations of professional identity (2nd ed.). Pearson.

Kaplan, D. M., Tarvydas, V. M., & Gladding, S. T. (2014). 20/20: A vision for the future of counseling: The new consensus definition of counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(3), 366-372. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00164.x

Mellin, E. A., Hunt, B., & Nichols, L. M. (2011). Counselor professional identity: Findings and implications for counseling and interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Counseling & Development, 89(2), 140-147. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2011.tb00071.x

Myers, J. E., Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, J. M. (2000). The wheel of wellness counseling for wellness: A holistic model for treatment planning. Journal of Counseling & Development, 78(3), 251-266. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2000.tb01906.x

Woo, H., Henfield, M. S., & Choi, N. (2014). Developing a unified professional identity in counseling: A review of the literature. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 1(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/2326716X.2014.895452