Introduction to Counseling Part-II: Know more about it.

“Counseling” is a very broad category that encompasses many opportunities in any number of counseling subfields. They are mainly divided as per the various fields. This allows people to choose the counselor as per their specific problems. Moreover, this assesses that the counselor doing the work is a specialist in the respective field. Though the job requirements of a counselor vary based on who they are counseling, it is the goal of all counselors to improve the well-being of their patients.

Following are the most common types of counseling:

1. Marriage and Family Counseling:

Couples therapists and marriage counselors treat some of the same issues as other psychologists, such as depression and anxiety, substance abuse, and PTSD. But their work focuses on issues that are specific to their target group, the family. Some common issues that family counselors encounter are marital conflicts, adolescent behavior problems, domestic violence and issues related to infertility.

Marriage and family therapists observe how people behave within the family, and identify relationship problems. They then come up with treatment plans so that each individual has his or her needs met and the family unit can work for the benefit and happiness of all.

Some types of issues that marriage and family therapists treat include:

● Child and adolescent behavioral problems

● Adjustment Issues

● Self Esteem/Ego Issues

● Narcissistic Issues in person

● Sex related issues

● Grieving

● Depression and anxiety

● LGBTQ issues

● Domestic violence

● Marital conflicts

● Substance abuse

On the job, marriage and family therapists:

● Observe how people interact within units

● Evaluate and resolve relationship problems

● Diagnose and treat psychological disorders within a family context

● Guide clients through transitional crises such as divorce or death

● Highlight problematic relational or behavioral patterns

● Help replace dysfunctional behaviors with healthy alternatives

● Take a holistic (mind-body) approach to wellness

2. Guidance and career counseling:

Career development is a lifelong process that actually started when you were born. There are a number of factors that influence your career development, including your interests, abilities, values, personality, background, and circumstances. Career Counseling is a process that will help one to know and understand themselves and the world of work in order to make career, educational, and life decisions.

Career development is more than just deciding on a major and what job you want to get when you graduate. It really is a lifelong process, meaning that throughout your life you will change, situations will change, and you will continually have to make career and life decisions. The goal of Career Counseling is to not only help you make the decisions you need to make now, but to give you the knowledge and skills you need to make future career and life decisions.

How does a career counselor help?

● Help you figure out who you are and what you want out of your education, your career, and your life.

● Be someone for you to talk to about your thoughts, ideas, feelings, and concerns about your career and educational choices, who will help you sort out, organize, and make sense of your thoughts and feelings.

● Help you identify the factors influencing your career development, and help you assess your interests, abilities, and values.

● Help you locate resources and sources of career information.

● Help you to determine next steps and develop a plan to achieve your goals.

3. Rehabilitation Counseling:

People with disabilities face challenges that require creative solutions. Whether a person has a physical, mental or emotional disability, rehabilitative counseling helps them achieve personal and professional goals, and lead their lives more freely.

Rehabilitation counseling is a systematic process which assists persons with physical, mental, developmental, cognitive, and emotional disabilities to achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals in the most integrated setting possible through the application of the counseling process. The counseling process involves communication, goal setting, and beneficial growth or change through self-advocacy, psychological, vocational, social, and behavioral interventions.

This type of counselling refers to a practice where the counsellor helps people with their emotional and physical disabilities. Furthermore, these counsellors teach these people ways to live independently and maintain gainful employment. It evaluates the strength and limitations of their patients. In short, they help people in guiding them and assisting them to lead independent lives.

As Alfred Souma, MA, a professional education rehabilitation counselor in Seattle, confirms, “Rehabilitation counseling deals with assisting people with disabilities to reach specific life goals and improve their quality of life. Most rehabilitation counselors specialize in a specific disability, such as spinal cord injury, blindness, deafness, head injury or psychiatric disability.”

Rehabilitation counselors work in a variety of state departments and community programs. They are also employed in the private sector in for-profit and nonprofit organizations, such as schools, colleges, residential care facilities and drug rehabilitation facilities.

Among the services that rehabilitation counselors provide are diagnosis and treatment planning; mental health counseling; career counseling, job-placement services, and other vocational guidance or support; life care planning; assistive technology consultation; case management and service coordination; and advocacy for the rights of those with disabilities to have access to opportunity (in education or work), appropriate environmental accommodations.

Rehabilitation counselors work with a variety of clients and in a number of different settings. For example, they may:

● Work in the school system providing or arranging for school-to-work transition services.

● Help workers injured on the job.

● Assist veterans in achieving employment and independent living goals.

● Provide services for elderly people who develop health problems and/or need accommodations as they age.

● Assist people with substance use disorders or other addictions.

4. Mental Health Counseling:

Mental health counselors are licensed professionals who treat the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional aspects of mental health and substance use conditions. They work with individuals, families, couples, and groups in a variety of settings.

A mental health counselor provides support to those experiencing mental or emotional distress. They may use a variety of therapeutic techniques to help a person manage anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions.

Mental health counselors can offer advice, support, and a safe space to talk about the problems a person is struggling with.

For example, they can help someone:

● understand their feelings

● identify issues that affect their mental health

● discover ways to overcome them

● learn new skills and coping strategies

● set goals for personal growth

● learn more about mental health conditions

On the job, mental health counselors:

● Work with individuals, groups and communities to improve mental health.

● Encourage clients to discuss emotions and experiences.

● Examine issues including substance abuse, aging, bullying, anger management, careers, depression, relationships, LGBTQ issues, self-image, stress and suicide.

● Work with families

● Help clients define goals, plan action and gain insight

● Develop therapeutic processes

● Refer clients to psychologists and other services

● Take a holistic (mind and body) approach to mental health care.

● All qualified counselors have received training to recognize the symptoms of anxiety.

Some counselors specialize in one or more of these areas. Counselors can also receive specific training to help people who have recently experienced trauma, sexual assault, or domestic abuse.

Mental health counselors can teach a person healthy coping strategies or self-help techniques, or they can simply give people a space to work out solutions for themselves.

If appropriate, a counselor may also refer their client to other services that may help, such as a doctor, dietitian, or support group.

5. Substance Abuse Counseling:

Substance abuse counselling is a form of counselling which helps people in treating them and supporting them from breaking free from their drug and alcohol addiction. It helps people discuss the cause of this addiction and reach to the root of it. The counsellor thereby suggests coping strategies which make a positive impact on their lives. Moreover, they also provide them with practicing skills and behaviors which helps in their recovery. They teach individuals how to modify their behavior with the intention of full recovery. Because clients are susceptible to relapses, many substance abuse counselors work with clients on an on-going basis.

Other duties include:

● Meeting with clients to evaluate their health and substance problem

● Identifying issues and create goals and treatment plans

● Teaching clients coping mechanisms

● Helping clients find jobs or reestablish their career

● Leading group therapy sessions

● Providing updates and progress reports to courts

● Referring clients to support groups

● Setting up aftercare plans

● Meeting with family members and provide guidance and support

6. Child Counseling:

Child counseling is a type of therapy that focuses on young children, teens, and adolescents with one or more mental illnesses. It also provides aid to youths, who have experienced trauma, and/or who are experiencing a dysfunctional or stressful home environment.

Many of the issues these children face mimic the issues adults face in their day-to-day lives. Some of these common issues include anxiety, depression, and grief. The goal of child counseling, however, is to break down problems into manageable parts, so children can better understand and cope with them.

Child counselors are mental health specialists, who offer invaluable insight into your child’s social and emotional development and mental health. It is important to understand that many times “glitches” in these areas may not be visible to the people closest to the child. That is where child counselors come in.

These individuals have the knowledge and expertise to recognize, identify, pinpoint, assess, diagnose, and treat a wide range of mental health conditions, adjustment issues (divorce, new school, bullying, grief, etc.), and psychological distress.

More specifically, child counselors, also sometimes referred to as child therapists and child psychologists (depending on the level of education and licensure), have been trained to “get into the minds of children,” so they can help them make sense of what is going on in their minds, bodies, and lives.

Child counselors perform many services to vulnerable youth. Most importantly, these mental health professionals have the know-with-all to help your child receive the help he/she needs to resolve his/her issues and resume a healthy and productive life. It is important to understand that children, who are suffering from mental health issues or psychological distress, may not share these concerns with their parents.

Therefore, the aim of child counselors is to help children better interpret the issues they are experiencing and/or the trauma that occurred – in a way they can process and understand. When a child’s social and emotional issues and psychological distress are left untreated, it can negatively impact his/her educational aspirations and developmental milestones.

More importantly, it can cause delays that persist well into adulthood. Keep in mind, however, that children of all ages, from toddlers and preschoolers to teens and adolescents, can benefit from counseling sessions.

Ultimately, this form of counseling aims to help children work through their emotions, so they can live normal healthy lives without the lasting effects of fear, confusion, anxiety, or trauma.

7. Grief Counseling:

Grief counseling, or bereavement counseling, is designed to help people cope with the loss of a loved one. A grief counselor can help one develop methods and strategies for coping with their loss and grief. Grief counseling provides bereaved people with an avenue to discuss their feelings and emotions, helping them discover ways to ease the grieving process.

Grief is challenging for every human being but grief counseling is recommended especially for individuals whose grief:

● Interferes with daily activities

● Causes feelings of guilt or depression

● Makes it harder to carry on with their own lives

● Causes problems in existing relationships

Apart from helping someone to cope with their loss, grief counseling lets you:

● Treat your trauma

● Express your emotions

● Address feelings of guilt you may harbor

● Build a strong support system to help you carry on

● Come to terms with your new reality

Living with the pain of unresolved loss is unhealthy and can lead to complicated grief, which is more severe, long lasting, and difficult to remedy.

Types of Grief

1. Anticipatory Grief: It refers to a sense of loss before the actual occurrence of loss. This can occur when a loved one has a terminal illness, or one is personally being diagnosed with a chronic illness, or when one faces the imminent loss of some human function.

2. Normal Grief: It is the natural experience of loss and emotions that accompany the death of a loved one, and usually subsides in intensity over time.

3. Complicated Grief: Grief that is prolonged and resultant in severe behavioral concerns such as suicidal ideation, addictions, risk-taking behavior, or displaying symptoms of mental health concerns. In these situations, more in-depth counselling and psychotherapy would be important in helping the individual recover from the traumatic loss.

4. Disenfranchised Grief: The grief that is not made known to others, such as in the case of a young mother who aborted her child without the knowledge of her parents or others. Another example can be in the case of an extramarital lover whose lover passed on. In these cases, the grieving process is compromised as they are unable to process through this grief with others and receive the social support they need to overcome their grief.

Grief Counseling Techniques

After the circumstances surrounding the loss have been successfully established, the grief counselor may move on to specific grief counseling techniques, which may include the following:

● Talking about the deceased person: Sometimes people who are grieving need to talk about their loss but are unable to find a safe space to do so. A grief counselor should encourage the grieving person to talk about the deceased’s life: what they were like, who they loved and who loved them or what were their hobbies.

● Distinguishing grief from trauma: If someone is feeling traumatized from the memory or the circumstances surrounding the death of a loved one, a grief counselor will help them to readjust their outlook on those memories and reframe their relation to the deceased to encourage healthier grieving.

● Addressing feelings of guilt: Some people feel guilty for things they did or didn’t do while their loved one was with them. A grief counselor should encourage the grieving person to let go of the guilt, or even to allow themselves to forget their loved one for a little while, so that they can remember the person fondly at other times.