Essay on "Counseling -- Developing Professional Practice My Interest"

Essay 5 pages (1660 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Counseling -- Developing Professional Practice

My Interest in Drug and Alcohol Counseling

I believe that addiction to illicit drugs and alcohol are one of the most important areas of focus in contemporary counseling. That is largely because addictions are so disruptive to the entire nuclear family, and often to the extended family, of virtually every person who suffers from addiction. Addictions are also particularly tragic because they have the capacity to destroy lives that hold so much promise. The fact that excessive alcohol consumption is routinely encouraged in many social environments and that highly addictive prescription drugs are prescribed at a higher rate now than ever add to the importance of addressing drug and alcohol abuse.

What truly distinguishes drug and alcohol addiction as such an important issue in counseling is the potential for the behaviors associated with them to intersect so tragically with the lives of random strangers, such as in connection with violent crime and, especially, impaired driving. Unfortunately, I have witnessed both the tragic deterioration of lives that previously held tremendous potential in my community as well as the sudden and unexpected loss of life attributable to alcohol-impaired driving. Those experiences undoubtedly helped steer me into the current direction of my educational and professional interest in counseling.

Finally, in the last several years, I have become acutely aware of the increasing problem of drug and alcohol abuse among members of the U.S. armed forces after their return from long-term (or repeated) combat deployments. In many cases, soldiers who experienced significant trauma in the field have never fully acknowledged their reactions and sense of loss (Frain, Bishop, & Bethel, 2010). That is especially important with respect to military servicemen and servicewomen precisely because the military social culture rewards and promotes stoicism and so strongly discourages outward displays of emotions as "weakness" (Frain, Bishop, & Bethel, 2010).

Helpful Personal Values and Attributes

I am anticipating that some of the key skills and knowledge that will enable me to succeed as a placement counselor will be my active listening skills, my ability to reflect back meaningful conversational content, and my ability to establish and maintain rapport with clients and other stakeholders. I believe that I have begun to learn how to listen actively while guiding conversations passively (Cleak & Wilson, 2007). That skill will allow me to help narrow the focus of clinical conversations to clinically relevant issues but in a manner that does not challenge the client's perceived autonomy or create conflict, and therefore, resistance (Cleak & Wilson, 2007).

Naturally, those are approaches to counseling that are more conducive to eliciting information that is meaningful to placement recommendations or decisions than approaches that unnecessarily challenge clients or that otherwise put them on the defensive in clinical interactions (Cleak & Wilson, 2007). Similarly, I believe that I have developed the ability to recognize issues that have potential clinical significance and to pursue conversations and lines of questions in a logical manner. Those skills allow me to make productive inferential use of background information and to build productively upon interpersonal exchanges within conversations as well as over the course of multiple exchanges in different sessions (Cleak & Wilson, 2007).

Addressing Gaps in Substantive Knowledge and Clinical Experience

On one hand, I am fairly confident that I have developed several essential skills and that I have accumulated certain substantive knowledge that is relevant to and useful to placement counseling services. On the other hand, I also recognize that I am inexperienced and also that I must continue my formal studies in counseling to become a qualified and experienced professional placement counselor. Toward that end, I have already begun making the effort to read extensively in the field, particularly in connection with my main area of interest in drug and alcohol addiction counseling.

More specifically, I have sought out literature on a fairly broad range of counseling issues in relation to behaviors, contributing factors, potential barriers, and that is applicable to many different client populations. For example, I have read about gender-based differences in the ways that men and women experience and process negative emotions in relation to precipitating substance abuse, especially alcohol (Allen, 1994; Beckman & Amaro, 1986). That material is directly relevant to understanding the different gender-based connections between internalized negative emotions and addictive behaviors.

I have also explored literature detailing the ways that social roles and expectations in the typical male-dominated business culture actually enable alcohol abusers, making it even more difficult for so-called "social drinkers" who have addiction issues to acknowledge their problem, seek treatment, and return to the workplace without suffering a relapse (Cunningham, Sobell, Sobell, et al., 1993; Hajema, Knobbed, & Drop, 1999). Similarly, I have sought out reading material on the factors associated with the decision of street drug abusers to seek treatment (Siegal, Falck, Wang, et al., 2002), as well as literature pertaining to differences in addictive behavior associated with racial differences (Lundgren, Amodeo, Ferguson, et al., 2002). To supplement my reading in the effort to eliminate the remaining gaps in my knowledge base, I hope to attend professional workshops on a continual basis and to participate in career development seminars and other practical clinical training opportunities.

Anticipated Challenges in Entering the Placement Counseling Field

Despite my sincere interest in the field of placement counseling, it is not entirely without any reservations that I enter the field. First, I realize that I am not yet professionally trained or experienced. That realization carries with it a very natural concern about doing the right thing and making the right recommendations and decisions in any capacity in which I am called upon to do so. In that regard, I also have to resist the feeling that I may be sort-changing my clients because they may not realize how inexperienced I am.

On one hand, I try to remind myself that every dentist drilled his first tooth on a patient who did not realize that he was that dentist's first real patient. On the other hand, I admit to a certain sense of guilt that any client being counseled by me is not (yet) being counseled by someone with sufficient clinical experience and professional training to necessarily provide the highest level of service. Therefore, while I look forward greatly to the opportunity of experiencing actual clinical counseling sessions, I am equally concerned about the prospect of making mistakes. Naturally, I am hopeful that the programs in which I participate will provide sufficient counseling from more experienced professionals so that my inexperience does not actually cause harm to any pf my clients.

I am considerably more confident about my ability to apply ethical concepts such as protection of client confidentiality and discretion, mainly because those issues seem less dependent on clinical experience than on conceptual understanding of the issues. In my studies, I have devoted considerable attention to hypothetical ethical situations and dilemmas and I am fairly confident that I will be able to apply those concepts properly in the real world of the clinical environment.

Another potential challenge I expect to encounter as to do with the fact that I will be much younger than some of the clients with whom I expect to be dealing. I admit to being self-conscious about that and I hope that my personal awareness of my substantive knowledge base will help me overcome that challenge. Meanwhile, I am equally concerned about counseling clients who are very close to my age, possibly even more so than older clients. Whereas I can imagine older clients being more respectful, even "impressed" that I am working in the role of counseling them, I could imagine an entirely different reaction on the part of some clients who are much closer to my own age. Specifically, our relative similarity in age might provoke a defensive reaction. Should that occur,… READ MORE

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