The Professionals and Practitioners in the Discipline of Counseling Adolescent development and counseling – covers middle and high
middle and high school
Role of counselor
1. Assist the person or persons (clients) in realizing a change in behavior or
attitude
2. assist them to seek achievement of goals
3. assist them to find help
Counseling
is a process and a relationship between the client(s) and counselor. The
role of the counselor is to assist the person/s (client/s) in realizing a change
in behavior or attitude, to assist them to seek achievement of goals, assist
them to find help, and in some cases, the role of counselors includes the
teaching of social skills, effective communication, spiritual guidance,
decision-making, and career choices. A counselor’s role may sometimes
include aiding one in coping with a crisis.
Functions of Counselors
-helping a client develop potentials to the fullest
-helping a client plan to utilize his or her potentials to the fullest
-helping a client plan his or her future in accordance with his or her abilities,
interests, and needs
-sharing and applying knowledge related to counseling such as counseling
theories, tools, and techniques
-administering a wide range of human development services
Philippine Republic Act No. 9258 (Sec. 2-3)
-defines a guidance counselor as a natural person who has been
professionally registered and licensed by a legitimate state entity and by
virtue of specialized training
Competencies of Guidance Counselors
-Counselors have the ability to administer and maintain career guidance and
counseling programs.
-They are capable of properly guiding the students toward becoming
productive and contributing individuals through informed career choices
with reference to appropriate stakeholders.
-They are capable of designing and implementing programs that expose
students to the world and value of work and guide, provide, and equip the
students with the necessary life skills and values.
-They can administer career advocacy activities.
-Guidance counselors are capable career advocates.
Guidance counselors can facilitate conduct of career advocacy in
collaboration with career advocates and peer facilitators.
Other Competencies that Apply to the Broader Counseling Work (Culley
and Bond (2004)
Attending and listening – attending and listening skills refer to active
listening, which means listening with purpose and responding in such a way
that clients are aware that they have both been heard and understood.
Reflective skills – these skills are concerned with the other person’s frame of
reference. For Culley and Bond (2004), reflective skills ‘capture’ what the
client is saying and plays it back to them – but in the counselor’s own words.
The key skills are restating, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
Probing skills – these skills facilitate going deeper, asking more directed or
leading questions.
Competencies of Guidance Counselors
Egan (2002) calls the other competencies of counseling as three-stage theory
of counseling
-Three-stage theory of counseling
Stage 1: What is going on?
Stage 2: What solutions make sense for me?
Stage 3: What do I have to do to get what I need or want?
Alistair Ross's three-stage model of counseling (2003)
starting out
moving on
letting go
Areas of Specialization where Counselors Work
Child development and counseling – includes parent education, preschool
counseling, early childhood education, child counseling in mental health
agencies, and counseling with battered and abused children and their
families.
counseling, psychological education, career development specialist,
adolescent counseling in mental health agencies, youth work in a residential
facility, and youth probation officer.
Gerontology – includes counseling of older citizens: pre-retirement
counseling, community centers, nursing home counseling, and hospice
work.
Marital relationship counseling – includes premarital counseling, marriage
counseling, family counseling, divorce mediation.
Health – offers possibility for nutrition counseling, exercise and health
education, rehabilitation counseling, stress management counseling, holistic
health counseling, and genetic counseling.
Career/lifestyle – includes guidance on choices and decision-making
pertaining to career or lifestyle; guidance on career development; provision
of educational and occupational information to clients; provision of various
forms of educational and occupational information to clients, and may also
include provision of needed skills in managing or going through job
interviews.
College and university – college student counseling, student personnel
work, residential hall or dormitory counselor, and counselor educator
Drugs – covers substance abuse counseling, alcohol counseling, drug
counseling, stop smoking program manager, and crisis intervention
counseling.
Consultation – covers agency and corporate consulting, organizational
development director, industrial psychology specialist, and training
manager.
Business and industry – include training and development personnel,
quality and work-life or quality circles manager, employee assistance
programs manager, employee career development officer, or equal
opportunity specialist.
Career Opportunities for Counselors
Educational and school counselors – they offer personal, educational,
social, and academic counseling services. The professionals often work in
elementary school, high school, or university settings to help students
assess their abilities and resolve personal or social problems, and do so in
tandem with teachers and school administrators.
Vocational or career counselors – These professionals facilitate career
decision-making. They aid individuals or groups in determining jobs that are
best suited to their needs, skills, and interests. In some cases, they may also
help clients who are already employed to improve their skills, including how
to manage work-related stress. This can also stretch to providing support to
individuals who have lost their jobs. For those seeking jobs, they also
provide skills such as practicing for an interview and developing a
meaningful and acceptable resume.
Marriage and family counselors – these professionals offer a wide range of
services for couples and families. They help couples and families deal with
social issues, emotional problems, and in some cases, mental health
treatment. They do conduct counseling sessions with couples or the entire
family unit.
Addictions and behavioral counselors – these professionals work with
people suffering from addictions. These may range from drugs, alcohol,
eating disorder, to gambling.
Mental health counselors – these professionals work with people suffering
from mental or psychological distress such as anxiety, phobias, depression,
grief, esteem issues, trauma, substance abuse, and related issues. They aim
at promoting mental health. In treatment centers or facilities, counselors
have physicians, psychologists, social workers, and other health care
professionals as their treatment team.
What Do Mental Health Counselors Do?
The practice of professional mental health counseling includes the diagnosis Rights, Responsibilities, and Accountabilities of Counselors
and treatment of mental, behavioral and emotional disorders .
Mood disorders Personality disorders Obsessive compulsive As registered and licensed professionals, counselors are protected. They
disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder are governed by scientific theories, practices, and processes as well as
Eating disorders Behavioral addictions professional standards and ethics.
Psychoses Anxiety
Depression 1. They are responsible for the practice of their profession in accordance
with their mandates and professional guidelines and ethics.
Rehabilitation counselors – these professionals are engaged with individuals 2. They are accountable to their clients, the professional body, and the
suffering from physical or emotional disabilities. Rehabilitation counselors government.
provide services such as evaluation of the strengths and limitations of 3. It is critical that the counselor and the client fully understand the nature
clients. The goal is to facilitate the rehabilitation process and prevent of the concerns, which leads to a contract to take action on a mutually
relapse. agreed upon problem.

Genetics counselors – these professionals operate in a very specialized
context of dealing with genetic information for individuals and the decisions
that come with it. The common area here is counseling parents who are
concerned with determining if their potential offspring might be at risk for
being born with an inherited disorder, or individual adults themselves who
may be at risk of developing a genetic disease such as heart disease and
breast cancer. They help individuals and families to make informed decisions
about their health and to assist them in finding the services that best meet
their needs.
Grief counselor - specialize in work with clients who are coping with
profound loss — whether this is the death of a loved one, a debilitating
injury, terminal illness, divorce, or other significant personal bereavements.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a Swiss American psychiatrist. She created the
Kübler-Ross model, the theory of the five stages of grief and loss
In her 1969 book, “On Death and Dying,” Kübler-Ross examined the five
most common emotional reactions to loss:
five stages of loss or grief
Denial- For some people, this may be the first response to loss.Denial is a
common defense mechanism. It may help you buffer the immediate shock of
the hurtful situation and as an immediate reaction, you might doubt the
reality of the loss at first.
Anger- Sometimes pain takes other forms. According to Kübler-Ross, pain
from a loss is often redirected and expressed as anger.
-During the anger stage of grief, you might start asking questions like “Why
me?” or “What did I do to deserve this?
Four Overall Ethical Principles that Subsume a Number of Specific Ethical
Standards:
Principle 1: Respect for the rights and dignity of the client
-Guidance counselors honor and promote the fundamental rights, moral
and cultural values, dignity, and worth of clients. They respect clients’ rights
to privacy, confidentiality, self-determination and autonomy, consistent
with the law.
Principle 2: Competence
-Guidance counselors maintain and update their professional skills. They
recognize the limits of their expertise, engage in self-care, and seek support
and supervision to maintain the standard of their work. They offer only
those services for which they are qualified by education, training, and
experience.
Principle 3: Responsibility
-Guidance counselors are aware of their professional responsibility to act in
a trustworthy, reputable, and accountable manner toward clients,
colleagues, and the community in which they work and live. They avoid
doing harm, take responsibility for their professional actions; and adopt a
systematic approach to resolving ethical dilemmas.
Principle 4: Integrity
-Guidance counselors seek to promote integrity in their practice. They
represent themselves accurately and treat others with honesty,
straightforwardness, and fairness. They deal actively with conflicts of
interest,avoid exploiting others, and are alert to inappropriate behavior on
the part of colleagues.

Bargaining is a stage of grief that helps you hold on to hope in a situation of

intense pain.
-You might think to yourself that you’re willing to do anything and sacrifice
everything if your life is restored to how it was before the loss.
-During this internal negotiation, you could find yourself thinking in terms of
“what if” or “if only”: what if I did XYZ, then everything will go back to
normal; if only I had done something differently to prevent the loss.

Depression- Just as in all the other stages of grief, depression is experienced

in different ways. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it, nor is there a
deadline to overcome it.
This intense sadness could cause you to feel different in other aspects too.
You could feel:
-fatigued
-vulnerable
-confused and distracted
-not wanting to move on
-not hungry or wanting to eat
-not able or willing to get ready in the morning
-not able to enjoy what you once did

Acceptance-Reaching acceptance isn’t necessarily about being OK with what

happened. Depending on your experience, it might be understandable if you
don’t ever feel this way.
-Acceptance is more about how you acknowledge the losses you’ve
experienced, how you learn to live with them, and how you readjust your life
accordingly.
-You might feel more comfortable reaching out to friends and family during
this stage, but it’s also natural to feel you prefer to withdraw at times.
-You may also feel like you accept the loss at times and then move to
another stage of grief again. This back-and-forth between stages is natural
and a part of the healing process.