Professional Identity In Counselling

Professional identity is a person’s self-concept of their professional selves. It is based off of beliefs, values, personal experiences, attributes, and motives within a person’s professional field (1). Though, the general consensus amongst the different careers is intellectuals discover their professional identity when they overcome the first obstacle within their specific career. From that, their professional identity progresses and matures throughout their entire career due to new experiences and advances in education. “Professional identity evolves from the individual’s definition of the work of the profession” (2). Defining one’s professional identity is crucial to succeeding in one's career (3). Counselling, health professions, and

Lacking professional identity deters learning advancements within a person’s career (1). The process of becoming a counselor is a great demonstration of the process and importance of developing a professional identity. When it comes to training to become a counselor, the depth of professional identity tremendously influences the quality of counselling services. Sharing a similar professional identity amongst each other is vital to the counseling career. A study was done to determine the intrapersonal and and interpersonal development of professional identity. Interpersonal identity development is the internal use of thoughts, and interpersonal is the communication of thought throughout many different people. Questions such as what professional identity means, how education in professional identity could improve, and what becoming a counselor means to them were asked to 43 participants. When the counselors in training were asked how they define counselling, overall they viewed it as a beneficial and trusting relationship between client and counselor that can push a person to achieve different goals. Counselors who were experienced however, defined it as a “facilitating growth through building on the client's strength rather than weaknesses” (2). The question of how improvements could occur was answered by the trainees as wanting the learning and experiences to enhance. On the other

Much like counselor training and health profession training, defining one’s professional self is vital to making accomplishments within a teacher’s career. According to “Examining the role of authenticity in supporting the development of professional identity: and example from teacher education”, one must define themselves as a professional before distinguishing their professional identity. In an attempt to enhance the formation of individuals professional identity development, framework that could aid the tracking of teachers’ professional identity development was proposed. Unlike the previous articles, this one focuses on a variety of learning experiences and how each had an effect of the professional identity of a teacher. “Professional identity develops from a person’s engagement within a community of practice.” (3). The highest development typically occurs in the initial phase of a person’s