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Theory and practice of counseling
Theory and practice of counseling
Theory and practice of counseling
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As I reflect on the decision I made to apply for my Master’s degree within the school counseling field, I began to become more grateful. School counseling wasn’t nearly the major I chose upon entering college for my undergraduate level. I wanted to be a pediatrician. As a senior in high school, I would ponder often about my potential career goals. I wanted to work with children, but I loved Science. My love for Science was undeniable. Majoring in Biological Sciences, and then entering medical school was my goal. A pediatrician seemed like the likely career path to choose, being that I loved children and science. However, my decision began to waver as I continued within my degree. I went from a Biology major to a Teaching of English major. …show more content…
I researched several programs and schools. I was torn on so many levels. Many school counseling programs consisted of me taking the GRE exam. I did not want to take the GRE exam. I was hearing several negative things about the GRE, and I believed I wasn’t prepared. I began to connect with individuals who were in the counseling field already. I would interview them, and they would speak about their experience. Every school counselor I interviewed expressed their love for it. They even expressed how it was a fulfilling position that they didn’t desire to do anything else, and that it was a career that they could retire within. While speaking with the school counselors, I learned that many of them received their degrees at National Louis University. Each counselor loved the program. Shockingly, I had already been researching this school. I did more research, and participated in an informational session about the program. I was sold on it. I knew I needed to immediately enroll, and work towards gaining my school counseling degree. I knew that I needed to not procrastinate any further, because I had taken two to three years off from school. National Louis University’s is an accredited university that has a CACREP counseling field. I chose school counseling because I wanted to work within the educational field. I was currently employed working in several high schools in Chicago, and I wanted to continue my path in education. I figured clinical counseling would limit me only within the social emotional piece of counseling. However, National Louis University offered the school counseling field that would allow school counselor’s to sit for the National Counselor Exam that would allow me to become a licensed professional counselor as well. To me, choosing the school counseling field was receiving the best of both worlds. I knew that if I didn’t enjoy schools, I would be able to
Individuals’ perceptions of their life/worth have the power to control the goals that they can carry out and meet. Every day we are learning new things and everyone has his/her own unique ways of learning. My strong desire to help students with their academic, personal, and social needs make me a strong candidate as a school counselor. While completing my undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Program Administration I learned a great deal about myself. I have a passion for learning and want to share and express that love for learning with students. I feel that the Master of School Counseling program provides a direct path to my career goals of helping students to comprehend subject matter while learning to love learning as I do. Not only will
I cannot recall a more rewarding experience than helping facilitate a child’s education while enabling parent participation alike. These experiences have drawn me to my current position as an Educational Assistant where I am constantly interacting and establishing relationships with students, learning about their goals and aspirations. It is that same desire to empower our future students that has steered me towards a career as a school counselor. By enrolling in the Masters in counseling program, I aspire to develop methods and experience to become an effective, experienced, and adaptable school counselor that promotes self-awareness, allowing students to realize their full potential and impetus them towards a promising future. I want to learn skills that facilitate personal and career development, ensuring that our students grow accomplishing their goals and ambitions.
Throughout high school and during my undergraduate studies, education was never a top priority for me. Only during the past two years, in the "real world", have I realized the importance of education. I look back at those years and wish I had done more and realized all the potential I had in my hands and not wasted so much time. During my undergraduate career my social activities consumed my life. My friends were not motivated to do well in school so I followed their lead. My grades were low, and I did not even care. After I graduated in 1997 with a Psychology B.A. and lost touch with my old friends and old ways, I have realized that I should have spent more time doing some soul searching and thinking what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I liked Psychology but what I really wanted to do was work with children more closely. I had spent my junior and senior years involved in internships at Head Start and at a High School in a Program for teenaged mothers. I loved my work there. At Head Start I was a Teacher Aid for the pre-school, teaching the children to read, numbers etc. And at the High School I counseled the teenaged mothers, took care of their kids while they went to school and after the school day I tutored them with their homework. After being out of school for a while, I started to miss that. The feeling that I was teaching something those kids, the feeling that I was making a difference. I was determined to find a job in education, with my background in Psychology, how hard could it be? I found work at a residential school for runaways and abused teenaged females. It was great! I was ready to go, I was going to change the world and change those girls lives. What I didn't realize is that will alone does not make me a teacher and that I needed training, a lot of training. I made a lot of mistakes in that job. I got discouraged and decided to forget about working with children, forget teaching and do something else that paid more. So, I got a job as a Secretary, I did that for about two years. Teaching, working with children was always on my mind.
I look forward to attending graduate school for school counseling. Attending the University of North Carolina will allow me the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to aid students facing a variety of difficult situations. I am ready to take the next step in my career as a school counselor.
My college career started with me just going to school to take PE classes while neglecting my main required core classes and always pushing them aside without any urgency to succeed in finishing school. A couple of years would go by with little to no progress and lack of motivation to succeed in finishing my college required classes. Soon landing a career oriented job and finding myself dropping out of college to focus on my work career. From this point and time I would learn the importance of school and the value of finish college through my years of experience at work. This awareness of value in finishing college would motivate me to want to go back to school. Soon I would find myself at American River College counseling center. Here I was coming back to school unsure of myself and in an environment where I previously never found success in school. After meeting with my counselor I was recommended to take a college success course. This course is part of a program called the Accelerated College Education (ACE). Because I was able to learn along the years being out of school the importance of gaining an education I gained a new motivation for school, signed up for this ACE program, and enroll in the college success
Making a decision for the future can be hard, but it can be even harder when people are torn between their passions and meeting other’s expectations. In today’s generation, most students are expected to have their career chosen by the time they are out of High School. They are trained to plan and map out their entire lives. Yet, college students still end up having an undecided major by the time they start their freshman year in college. A huge issue that is present in today’s society is that college students chose their major for the wrong reasons. Parents pressure students to pursue careers in business, medicine, politics, and law; however, unless practiced with passion, those careers are pointless.
Freshmen year of college had finally arrived, and I was ready to experience life through the lens of an adult. Just turning eighteen, I had it all figured out, my school of choice, my major, and my career. My plan was to graduate with a major in business administration and a double minor in psychology and political science, with hopes of becoming an attorney. It never ceases to amaze me how each semester of college has taught me to expand my realm of knowledge and to become more open to new experiences. After my very first semester, I decided to double major in business administration and psychology. As time went on, my sophomore year allowed me to delve into many major courses, which probed a thirst for knowledge that needed to be quenched. At this point, I wanted to receive a more thorough understanding of both academic disciplines, but it was not until my junior year that I realized my true purpose.
In high school, I was among those students who always indicated that I will be going college. However, unlike most people I seem to meet these days I did not know that I wanted to be a doctor. When it was time to head off to college, I was still unsure of what I wanted to pursue. As most college freshmen, I did not know what major best suits my personality. I desired a career that would define who I am and a career that is self-gratifying. However, the path that I should follow was unclear to me. Because of my uncertainty I failed to see that my parents dream became my reality. As I began my college experience as a nursing student, I felt somewhat out of place. I realized that my reason for majoring in nursing was my parents' influence on me. They wanted me to believe that nursing is right for me. I always knew I wanted to go into the medical field, but I felt that I needed to know how to choose a medical specialty that I feel is right for me. My first step was to change my major. I chose to change my major to biology. My love for science led me to this decision. I began to explore the opportunities open to biology students.
Theoretical Perspective: This semester in procedures of counseling class we discussed a lot of different types of counseling theories. We also did a lot of practicing with each theory with our partners. I found that person-centered therapy best fits my personal attitudes and style of counseling. I think this would be a good style of counseling for me because I can see myself better helping people as a whole than trying to fix an actual problem.
As a freshman, I was conflicted about what I wanted out of college. At the time, I naively believed that I would major in Neuroscience and Arabic while completing plenty of biomedical research on the side. Perhaps I would also sign up for a few clubs here and there and thus produce the perfect resume for medical school. In the following year, I realized that my heart was not into the breakneck agenda I planned for myself and I started to reevaluate just what exactly I wanted to pursue in my undergraduate experience. With the aid of many advising sessions I gained a clearer picture of my passions, which as I had come to realize, were what I truly wanted to work towards. Among my interests is Global Health -- in particular, I wish to learn more
A school counselor is a counselor who assists students in their personal, social, emotional, academic, and career development. In “Transforming School Counseling to Serve the Mental Health Needs of At-Risk Youth,” the paper asserts the significance of school counseling but claims that current school counseling programs are ineffective when approaching the mental health needs of at-risk youth. The article addresses the limitations and weaknesses of standard school counseling models, proposes a transformed model for school counseling, redefines school counselor role/functions, and discusses barriers to change. The paper criticizes the current model’s inadequate primary intervention methods, focus on positive development, lack of emphasis of systems-based
One of the most important decisions an undergraduate will make will be deciding what they will major in. This academic and life choice will ultimately decide how an individual will view their college experience and help guide them with their future career choices. Choosing the wrong major can be too stressful and overwhelming for a student with more course work than expected. On the other side of the spectrum, the wrong choice in a major will not challenge the individual to bring out their full potential. “Ideally, a major will leave a student academically successful, as well as fulfill academic, personal, and vocational goals “(“The Pennsylvania State University Division of Undergraduate Studies,” n.d.). For most college students choosing a major is a difficult decision, especially when they are not mentally and rationally matured. When choosing a major it is implied that most people are logical and rational, and that they weigh the pros and
Philosophy of School Counseling There are various factors which are causing an increase in students with academic, career and social deficiencies. It is imperative for counselors to follow the current guiding principles that specify counselors’ obligations and to be aware and practice ethical standards. Furthermore, a suggestion that is increasingly included in professional codes and training programs for a variety of dilemmas is increased consultation, which constitutes a different kind of breach of confidentiality to another professional under controlled and anonymous circumstances (Issacs, 2014). Moreover, counselors must exercise precaution when making decisions and it is imperative that they know and understand their options in regards
In order to be an effective counselor, one must remember to keep the client(s) in mind. The goal is to assist the client(s) in living the best life possible for that particular person or persons. With that being said, one cannot forget that they have their own set of morals, values, ideas, and the like. Social workers have to keep in mind that there will be cases that are complex and a favorable outcome may not be possible. In the instance that I am confronted with an issue that conflicts with my religious beliefs, I plan on assisting the client as much as possible by adhering the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics, NASW standards for the Practice of Clinical Social Work, and discussing my concerns with my supervisor while
One aspect I found striking was the role of advice giving in counseling. Prior to this class, I knew that counselors did not typically give opinions or advice to lead a client in a certain direction. What I did not know was the entire reasoning behind this. A counselor might avoid giving advice so that a client learns to make his/her own decisions, does not become dependent on the counselor, and to ensure that a client will not later blame the counselor if the counselor’s advice did not turn out well. In this context, I have a better appreciation and understanding of why therapists refrain from telling the client what to do.