WEEK 3

Lesson 2 Professionals and Practitioners in Counseling

Objectives
1. To show an understanding of the roles and functions of counseling and value
rights ,responsibilities , and accountabilities
2. To identify specific areas of specialization of counselors and career opportunities for
counselors
3. To distinguish between ethical and unethical behaviors among counselors
*Recall
Instructions:
1. You recall as many roles and functions of counselors that you are aware off.
2. Write your answers in the notes box below.
3. Choose one role/function and identify the competencies required of role / function.

Open Notes

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STUDY TIME!
*Roles and Functions of Counselors
According to Gibson and Mitchell (2003) a helping profession is composed of members “who are
especially trained and licensed to perform a unique and service for fellow human beings”.
Roles / Functions Description
Individual Assessment Seeks to identify the characteristics and potential of
every client ; promotes the client’s self-understanding
and assisting counselors to understand the client better
Individual Counseling Considers as the core activity through which other
activities become meaningful. It is a client –centered
process that demand confidentiality. Relationship is
established between counselor and client.
Group Counseling and Guidance Groups are means of providing organized and planned
assistance to individuals for an array of needs.
Counselor provides assistance through group
counseling and group guidance.
Career Assistance Counselors are called on to provide career planning and
adjustment assistance to clients.
Placements and Follow -Up A service of school counseling programs with emphasis
on educational placements in course and programs.
Referral It is the practice of helping the clients find needed
expert assistance that the referring counselor cannot
provide.
Consultation It is the process of helping a client through a third party
or helping system improve its service to its clientele.
Research It is necessary to advance the profession of counseling;
it can provide empirically based data relevant to the
ultimate goal of implementing effective counseling.
 Evaluation and Accountability Evaluation is a means of assessing the effectiveness of
counselor’s activities.
Accountability is an outgrowth of demand that schools
and other tax-supported institutions be held
accountable for their actions.
Prevention This includes promotion of mental health through
primary prevention using a social – psychological
perspective.

*Competencies of Counselors
Seven distinct competence areas of counselors. There might be other areas but we will focus on the input
of McLeod (2003).
1. Interpersonal Skills –counselors who are competent display ability to listen, communicate ; empathize
; be present ; aware of nonverbal communication; sensitive to voice quality , responsive to expressions
of emotion, turn taking, structure of time and use of language .
2. Personal beliefs and Attitude- counselors have the capacity to accept others, belief in potential of
change, awareness of ethical and moral choices and sensitive to values held by client and self.
3. Conceptual ability – counselors have the ability to understand and assess client’s problem; to
anticipate future problems; make sense of immediate process in terms of wider conceptual scheme to
remember information about the client.
4. Personal Soundness – counselors must have no irrational beliefs that are destructive to counseling
relationships, self-confidence ,capacity to tolerate strong of uncomfortable feelings in relation to the
clients, secure personal boundaries, ability to be a client ; must carry no social prejudice, ethnocentrism
and authoritarianism.
5. Mastery of Techniques – counselors must have a knowledge of when and how to carry out specific
interventions, ability to assess effectiveness of the interventions, understanding the rationale behind
techniques, possession of wide repertoire of intervention
6. Ability to understand and work within social system – this would be compromise of awareness of
family and work relationships of client the impact of agency on the clients, the capacity to use support
networks and supervision ; sensitivity to client from different gender, ethnicity , sexual orientation, or
age group.
7. Openness to learning and inquiry – counselors must have the capacity to be curious about client’s
backgrounds and problems; being open to new knowledge
*Career Opportunities and Areas of Specialization of Counselors
1. Marriage and Family Counseling – refers to the efforts to establish an encouraging relationship with
couple or family and appreciate the complications in the family system.
2. Child and Adolescent Counseling – is a developing area of expertise in counseling profession. The
counseling strategies focus on helping children and adolescents acquire coping skills through promotion
of resiliency, positive attachment relationship, emotional and intellectual intelligence, and other qualities
that promote optional development.
3. Group Counseling – is the dynamic field in the counseling profession. Group counseling as a
practice can be located in most counseling programs and became the essential part of counselor’s
system. Group counseling offers the following : opportunities to members to learn from observing other
group members ; can functions as helpers and helps ; opportunities to discover that you others have
similar concerns ; members are encouraged to offer help to others ;opportunities to enhance
interpersonal skills; the therapeutic climate created similar as the client’s family origin.
4. Career Counseling –is an evolving and challenging counseling field. This type of counseling aids
individual on decisions and planning concerning their career. The counseling approach includes
integrating theory and practice. Adopted Savickas ( 1996 )as cited Nystul ( 20003 ) adopted the model of
Wagner ( 1971) on structural analysis of personality to the realm of vocational psychology. The model
consist of vocational career services, occupational placement , vocational guidance , career counseling ,
career education , career therapy, and position coaching.
5. School Counseling- refers to the process of reaching out students with concerns on drugs, family and
peers or gang involvement. The job requires sensitivity to individual differences and considers diversity
in enhancing educational perspective. The job requires skills on consultation, counseling’s exceptional
students and with the ability to handle problems such as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, divorced or
single parents, dropping out of school.
6. Mental Health Counseling - is manifested in the challenges posed by its clientele with mental
disorders. Mental disorders include serious depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. Mental
health counselors have to be inventive, and creative to address these problems. The job requires
patience, humility, kindness and compassion.
*Rights and Responsibilities, and Accountabilities of Counselors
Code of ethics help counselors to remind them of their rights, responsibilities and
accountabilities in the counseling profession. The rights, responsibilities and accountabilities of the
counselors are based on the counselors associations of Code of Conduct.
The code of ethics of the counselors is divided into seven sections, namely , (a) counseling
relationship, (b) confidentiality (c) professional responsibility (d) relationships with other
professionals , (e) evaluation, assessment, and interpretation, (f) teaching ,training and supervision (g)
research and publication.( Gladding , 2000 ). We shall only presenting in details three of the seven areas,
namely, counseling relationships, confidentiality, and professional responsibility. The following three
tables below provide a sample code of ethics of the American Counseling Association.
Areas Description
The Counseling Relationships
1. Client welfare Counselor’s primary responsibility is to
respect the dignity and promote the
welfare of clients. They are also expected
to encourage client’s growth. Counselors
and clients are expected to work together
in crafting individual counseling plans
consistent with the client’s circumstances.
2. Respecting Diversity Counselors do not engage in
discrimination based on age, color,
culture, disability, ethnic group, gender,
race, religion, sexual orientation, marital
status and socio economic status.
Counselors shall respect differences and
understand the diverse cultural
backgrounds of their clients.
3. Client Rights Counselors shall disclose the purposes,
goals, techniques, procedures, limitations,
potential risks, benefits of the services to
be performed and other pertinent
information to the client throughout the
counseling process. Counselors offer
clients the freedom to choose whether to
enter into a counseling relationship and
determine which professional will provide
counseling, except when the client is
unable to give consent.
4. Clients Served by others In cases where the client is receiving
services from another mental health
professional, with clients consent, inform
the professional person already involved
to develop an agreement.
5. Personal Needs and values Maintain the clients and avoid actions that
seek to meet their personal needs at the
expense of the clients. Counselors shall be
aware of their values, attitudes, beliefs,
and behavior and how these apply in a
 diverse society and avoid imposing their
values on clients.
6. Dual Relationships Counselors are aware of their influential
position over their clients avoid the
exploiting the trust and dependency of the
clients. Counselors should not accept as
superiors or subordinates clients’.
7. Sexual Intimacies with Clients Counselors should not have any type of
sexual intimacies with clients and do not
counsel persons with whom they have
sexual relationship. Counselors should not
also engage with sexual intimacies with
their former clients within a minimum of
two years.
8. Multiple Clients In cases where counselors agree to provide
counseling services to two or more
persons who have a relationship,
counselors clarify at the outset which
person or persons are clients and the
nature of relationship they will have with
each other involved person.
9. Group Work Counselors screen prospective group
counseling / therapy participants to
determine those with compatible needs. In
group setting, counselors take reasonable
precautions to protect clients from
physical or psychological trauma.
10. Fees Prior to entering the counseling
relationship, the counselors clearly explain
the clients all financial arrangements
related to professional fees.
Source: Gladding, 2000

Areas
Confidentiality
1.Right to Privacy  Counselors respect a client’s right to
privacy and avoid illegal and
unwarranted disclosures of unwarranted
information.
 The right to privacy may be waived by
the clients or their legally recognized
representative.
 The general requirement that the
counselors keep the information
confidential does not apply when
disclosure is required to prevent clear
and imminent danger to the client or
others or when legal requirements
demand that confidential information is
be revealed.
 Counselors who received information
confirming that a client has a disease
known to be communicable and fatal is
justified in disclosing information to an
identifiable third party, who by his/her
relationship with the client is at high
risk of contracting the disease.
 When court orders the counselors to
release confidential information without
client’s permit, counselors request to the

2. Group and Families
3. Minor Incompetent client
4. Records
5. Research and Training
6. Consultation
Source: Gladding, 2000
court that the disclosure should not be
required due to potential harm to client
or counseling relationship.
 In group work, counselors clearly define
confidentiality and parameters for the
specific group being entered, explain its
importance, and discuss difficulties
related to confidentiality involved in
group work.
 In family counseling, information about
one family cannot be disclosed to
another member without permission.
 When counseling clients who are
minors or individuals who are unable to
give voluntary, informed consent,
parents or guardians may be included in
the counseling process as appropriate.
 Counselors maintain necessary records
for rendering professional services to
their clients and as required by laws,
regulations, or agency or institution
procedures.
 Counselors are responsible for securing
safety and confidentiality of any
counseling record they create, maintain,
transfer, or destroy whether the records
are written, taped, computerized, or
stored in any other medium.
 Counselors recognized that counseling
records are kept for the benefits of the
clients therefore provide access to
record and copies of record when
requested by competent clients unless it
contains information that may be
misleading or detrimental to the clients.
 Counselors obtain written permission
from clients to disclose or transfer
records to legitimate third parties unless
exception to confidentiality exists.
 Use of data derived from counseling
relationships for purposes of
training ,research , or publication is
confined to content that is disguised to
ensure the anonymity of the individuals
involved. Identification of the client
involved is permissible only when the
client has reviewed the material and has
agreed to its presentation or publication.
 Information obtained in consulting
relationship is discussed for
professional purposes only with persons
clearly concerned with the case. Before
sharing information, counselors make
efforts to ensure that there defined
policies that effectively protect the
confidentiality of information with other
agencies serving the counselors clients.
Areas
Professional Responsibility
1. Standards Knowledge
2. Professional Competence
Description
 Counselors have a responsibility to read,
understand, and follow the Code of Ethics and
Standards of Practice
 Counselors practice only within the boundaries
of their competence based on their education,
training, supervised experience, state and
national professional credentials and appropriate
professional experience. Counselors will
demonstrate a commitment to gain knowledge,
personal awareness, sensitivity, and skills
pertinent to working with diverse client
population.
 Counselors practice specialty areas new with to
them only after appropriate education, training,
and supervised experience. While developing
skills in new specialty area, counselors take step
to ensure the competence of their work and to
protect other from possible harm.
 Counselors accept employment only for
positions which they are qualified by education,
training, supervise experience, state and national
professional credentials, and appropriate
professional experience.
 Counselors continually monitor their
effectiveness as professionals and take steps to
improve their skills and knowledge.
 Counselors refrain from offering or accepting
professional services when their physical,
mental, or emotional problems are like to harm
clients or others.
POST ASSESSMENT
Act. 1 Count Me In, Count me Out: Will I Give up My Job or Not?
Instructions:
1. In the area of counseling relationships of the Code of Conduct, it states that “Counselors should
not have any type of sexual intimacies with clients and do not counsel persons with whom they have
sexual relationship. Counselors should not also engage with sexual intimacies with their former clients
within a minimum of two years.”
2. What if you are counselor and you have fallen in love with your client and the client has also
fallen in love with you. Since, it is unethical to pursue the relationship; you will quit your job. Your job
is also important to you. Now, what will be your decision? Write your answers at the back of this page
and label it as “ACTIVITY 1”.
Act. 2 Will I report My Client or Not
Instructions:
1. In the area of confidentiality of the Code of Ethics, there is a portion on client’s right to privacy. What
if the counselor, in his/her conversation with the client, found out that the client accidentally killed a
person, will you report the client to police or not? Explain your answer. Write your answers at the back
of this page and label it as “ACTIVITY 2”
.
Act 3. Essay
Instructions: Explain each question and write your answers at the back of this page and label it as
“ACTIVITY 3”
1. What are the importance of counseling?
2. If you give a chance to become a counselor are you going to grab it? Why or Why not?
Act 4. Enumeration
Enumerate the following. Write your answers at the back.
1. Roles of Counseling
2. Careers opportunities and areas of specialization of counselors
3. Roles and functions of counseling?