Introduction
Clinical psychology involves the systematic study and implementation of psychology. The main purpose for clinical psychology is to comprehend, prevent and alleviate psychologically-grounded disorders, suffering or dysfunction and, support prejudiced healthy and individual growth and development. The key activities of clinical psychology include psychological evaluation and psychotherapy, though medical health care providers also participate in training, investigation, project establishment and implementation and forensic demonstration (Heppner, Leong & Chiao, 2008, p. 23). This paper will examine on clinical counseling psychology and the roles of research and statistics in clinical counseling psychology.
History and evolving nature of clinical counseling psychology
Conventionally, the main distinction between clinical psychology and clinical counseling psychology is their viewpoint and training. Clinical counseling health care providers center more on issues based on psychologically healthy person while clinical psychology centers on persons suffering from severe mental diseases or disorders. Clinical counseling psychology has developed from professional psychology and consists of a powerful educational element.
Basically, the idea of counseling has been in existence for ages, and it mirrors on the requirement for an individual to look for assistance from another individual. Therefore, the concept of counseling does not evolve from medical setting but it originated from social set up. However, the term counseling has been incorporated in the clinical setting and is referred to as clinical counseling psychology. This is a form of psychology which embraces study and has implemented task in different extensive levels: counseling procedure and result, management and teaching, profession advancement and counseling, disease prevention and quality health.
Clinical counseling psychology was developed due to the World War II. During the WW II, the United States armed forces had a great and powerful desire for professional placement and teaching. In the year ‘1940s and 1950s’, the management of Veterans formed an area of expertise referred to as counseling psychology. This provoked the desire in training individual for the purpose of counseling other people and counseling psychology courses were also developed. In addition, the profession and interpersonal requirements and predicaments of most of the veterans’ people and their relatives provoked the need to establish the counseling psychology.
Moreover, the extraordinary growth and development in higher learning enrollment led to an upheaval of study and investigation, particularly in the profession advancement areas and counseling orientations (Williams, Hayes & Fauth, 2008, pp. 267-270).
Healthcare providers within the field of clinical counseling psychology deal with health conditions which are less severe such as predicaments related to profession, marriage, education or family. In addition, clinical counseling psychology facilitate interpersonal and individual performance in someone’s life focusing mostly on professional, emotional, enlightening, managerial, social and developmental interests.
Through the incorporation of hypothesis, investigation and performance, with an understanding of the multicultural matters, this field embraces an extensive range of activities which assist individuals in improving their healthy living, lessen distress and mal-modification, determine conflict, and raise their capability to thrive more effectively functioning lives. Therefore, clinical counseling psychology is exceptional in its interest to standard developmental matters and to predicaments related with emotional, mental and bodily disorders (Plante, 2005, p. 56).
Roles of research and statistics in clinical counseling psychology
Research and statistics are significant in clinical counseling psychology since they help the health care providers in understanding whether the rate of individuals suffering from health conditions is increasing or reducing. Research regarding the counseling psychology procedure and result utilizes several methods of research in order to get answers on questions concerning the way and reasons counseling works.
Research in clinical counseling psychology helps the health care providers in investigating the efficiency of their training and supervision. As expertise, clinical counseling practitioners might train and supervise several physicians, therefore, research and statistics will help them comprehend where they ought to improve or design new strategies in delivering the information. In addition, research and statistics enable the counseling psychologists in studying modern and innovative techniques, and therapies, and assess their effectiveness. As a result, this assists them in implementing new methods in their services that improve the quality of life of an individual (Romano, Fitzpatrick & Janzen, 2008, pp. 496-500).
Research assist the psychologists in learning different processes and individual characters through observation, interviewing, analyzing data and recording information regarding the way individuals associate with the surrounding. In addition, statistics plays a greater role in clinical counseling psychology since the psychologists are in a position to compare different information and conclude on the effect of the activities on the results obtained.
In order for them to carry out this, the health care providers research for patterns which will assist them comprehend and forecast behavior by utilizing scientific techniques, principles or processes to measure their concepts. Therefore, through such research and statistical studies, clinical counseling psychologists are in a position to get more information which can assist in raising their comprehension between persons, cultures, behavior, learning institutions, firms and groups.
Conclusion
In conclusion, research and statistic in counseling psychology helps individuals in comprehending and interpreting ideas, character, sentiment and feelings. In addition, research results have mainly heightened people comprehension on the reasons as to why individuals conduct themselves the way they do. Therefore, as a result of clinical counseling psychology being developed during WW II, it has helped individuals by advising them on the way they can handle everyday predicaments which are related to marriage, family, education or society in order to assist them in improving the quality of health and life.
Reference List
Heppner, P., Leong, F., & Chiao, H. (2008). A Growing Internationalization of Counseling Psychology. Handbook of Counseling Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Plante, T. (2005). Contemporary clinical psychology (2nd Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Romano, V., Fitzpatrick, M., & Janzen, J. (2008). The secure-base hypothesis: Global attachment, attachment to counselor, and session exploration in psychotherapy. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(4), 495-504.
Williams, E., Hayes, A., & Fauth, J. (2008). Therapist self-awareness: Interdisciplinary connections and future directions. In S. Brown & R. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of Counseling Psychology (4th Ed). New York: Wiley.