Counseling
The first core area chosen for this presentation is counseling. Counseling is exceptionally important for clients to better understand themselves and heal from the trauma they might have encountered earlier in life. As a humanistic counselor, my job is to ensure I emphasize positive feedback, unconditional praise, empathy, and understanding in my practice.
My goal is to develop client-counselor relationships built on mutual respect and compassion, which is why I strive to keep an open mind in regard to each person’s background, preferences, or cultural influences. Counseling serves a crucial purpose of creating a safe space for the clients to feel comfortable in, which implies that there is no place for ignorance and biases (American Counseling Association, 2014). My primary career goal is to be a culturally competent counselor educator, adopting a patient-centered approach in my practice, which would allow me to confront clients or students in a positive manner. Thus, the area of counseling is extremely important for me to reach these aims.
Supervision
Supervision has been an exceptionally important part of my journey of growing as a counselor. In accordance with the Discrimination Model, there are three main factors to address in the core area of supervision: process skills, conceptualization skills, and personalization skills (Bernard, 1997). Personally, I have integrated the Discrimination Model together with the Life Span Developmental Model. The role of a supervisor is rather complex, often referring to a combination of similar yet distinct roles such as the role of the teacher, the role of the consultant, and, finally, the role of the counselor. Supervision remains important to me as I aspire to share the knowledge and insights I have with practicing students, which would require me to become a licensed supervisor.
In regards to teaching as a core area, it is important to acknowledge its importance. After all, a counselor educator is responsible for providing others with the tools needed for efficient and ethical counseling practice. My preferred teaching approach is the one which prioritizes student-based activities and interventions similar in its essence to humanistic counseling, which I admire. Furthermore, I believe it is crucial to implement active learning practices in my classroom. Active learning has many advantages, including the fact that having students engage in such a type of learning “results in higher achievement, greater retention, more positive feelings by the students about each other and the subject matter, and stronger academic self-esteem” (Johnson & Johnson, 2008). Developing and reinforcing my unique teaching philosophy is integral to me in relation to my goal of becoming a counselor educator. All interactions with students should originate from a place of compassion, respect, understanding, and genuineness.
Research and Scholarship
As for research and scholarship, it is important to mention that my long-term goal is to create a support and advocacy initiative for first aid agencies. I plan on working closely with the community of first responders to gain invaluable insights about the struggles its members face in order to then advocate for change and design feasible solutions. Research and scholarship are exceptionally important as a part of my path of reaching the goal of becoming a counselor educator. This is why I plan on continuing to mentor cohorts.
Improving my skills as a researcher would allow me to grow further as a counselor, as the knowledge gained would most likely contribute to any potential success in applying for grants or presenting my research findings to colleagues (Asrowi & Obura, 2014). I propose a study focused on examining real-life experiences and cognitive patterns of those working in law enforcement and tasked with providing first aid to people. This research would allow me to delve deeper into the reports and data needed to potentially expand the research or even possibly use it as a basis for an effective counseling development program, which would take into consideration the needs and struggles of individuals working in law enforcement.
Leadership and Advocacy: Leadership
Leadership is exceptionally important in counseling as the latter usually implies the articulation of a certain vision, which leadership skills help to make into reality. It is my role as both a counselor and a leader to guide my clients and direct them toward self-love and self-awareness. In addition to this, leadership in counseling implies the ability of a counselor to advocate for their client. In this regard, I can confidently say that I have enough experience dealing with people affected by trauma who come from different backgrounds and are victims of unique circumstances. Thus, I already have the knowledge and understanding needed to assist my clients in facing discrimination and prejudice, which they can become affected by due to the existing stigma surrounding those seeking mental health care.
Research notes that the most appropriate time to tackle stigma-associated opportunities is training (Overton & Medina, 2008). Thus, I am ready to dissect my own personal prejudices and biases – the process that will most likely be supported by conversations with educators and discussions with doctoral students. I regard transformational leadership as the most suitable framework for me as it not only corresponds with the basic principles of a patient-centered counseling approach I choose to adopt in my practice but also promotes advocacy.
References
American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics. Web.
Asrowi, D., & Obura, D. (2014). The development of counseling skills to enhance the effectiveness of individual counseling. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Bernard, J. M. (1997). The discrimination model. In C. E. Watkins, Handbook of psychotherapy supervision (pp. 310-327). Wiley.
Johnson, R. T., & Johnson, D. W. (2008). Active learning: Cooperation in the classroom. The Annual Report of Educational Psychology in Japan, 47, 29–30.
Overton, S. L., & Medina, S. L. (2008). The stigma of mental illness. Journal of Counseling & Development, 86(2), 143-151.