Counselor Identity Report

Abstract

Often in life it is important for us to reflect on what career path we will take. It helps to better define who we are as individuals, what we stand for, it allows others to know your background, why you are so passionate about it, and why you chose to follow a certain path in life. This paper will answer several of these questions as we delve into wondering when was the first time I recall an individual applying counseling skills with me, my feelings, and the outcome of the encounter, and how has that influenced my counseling perspective. We will identify what I believe is the best type of help for me when I am in a personal crisis. Describe the first time that I considered counseling as a career and what was happening in my life at that time. It will determine how that has influenced my counseling perspective. We will discover what I consider are the ideal personal attributes of a professional counselor, find out which of those traits I already possess and how do I plan to acquire those traits that I do not currently possess. We will find out what I believe promotes positive change and lastly, learn how my life experiences have prepared me to be a counselor.

My Emerging Counselor Identity

The purpose of this paper is to better understand myself as an individual, allow myself to realize my strengths and weaknesses, understand my thoughts as to what I feel a counselor should be, and also analyze whether there are other things I should work on to make me a more well rounded counselor.

I can honestly say that before the age of 10, no one in my life played any type of role as a counselor. I would say that I grew up in an environment where we were the children and things were supposed to be done a certain way because we were told to do it that way. The adults were the authority and there was no choice in how or when we wanted to do something. In talking over my parents method of child rearing with my sister, we both agree that having had someone to verbalize things to at that age would have made a big difference in both of our lives. We both struggle with the inability to fully verbalize the things that we feel. A lot of times growing up we would have these different emotions and feelings of anger and rage but not know what it was that brought us to this level and more importantly, how to handle it. Over time however, we both were able to find boyfriends who helped to bridge that gap. These boyfriends had serious shoes to fill because we would lay out every feeling and emotion that we had to them. They sometimes had to deal with our dark, vulnerable times when we experienced break downs of not being able to deal with certain moods. When I got to high school, we told our mother that we wanted her to seek us help. I recall our session that we had. I began to talk about all these things bothering me, all the negative things my father had done, all my mixed feelings began to run out. I found myself in tears. I am not sure if the counselor quite knew what to do with us. We never set up another appointment but I began to understand how much stronger I felt after I began to verbalize these things. As time went on I began to also play the other role in listening to others. I did it because I knew how great I felt after doing the same. Helping others in their time of need began to bring me a sense of joy and completion. At that point I began to steer further away from the medical doctor path and on to the mental doctor.

My summer after my first year in college, still planning to be a medical doctor, I was accepted into a medical program on the campus of Duke University Medical School. I attended this for a full six weeks preparing for all types of things such as the MCAT, hospital rotations, surgeries, etc. It was not until I was watching a toe amputation that I fainted and decided that this type of doctor was no longer for me. I immediately changed my major to psychology. At that instant was when I realized that these were not just classes I was taking, but actually something I enjoyed and was genuinely interested in, I knew my calling had been found. Everything about it just clicked.

I feel that a professional counselor should have several ideal personal attributes. They should be astounding listeners. Counselors should also hold themselves to a very high ethical standard, even in their own personal lives. Additional counselor attributes, skills and techniques that have been identified as important to the counseling process include, congruence, concreteness, immediacy, paraphrasing, reflection, problem solving, challenge, confrontation, and positive nonverbal communication (Pope-Davis, 2002, p 356). A counselor should also explore and practice getting started, contracting, gathering information, eliciting the client’s story, and being sensitive to the timing of interventions. (Pope-Davis, 2002, p 356).

I am equipped with the ability to thoroughly and effectively listen. It is not just about hearing what the client is saying. You have to also be able to listen to what the client is not saying. All too many times do we ask others “How are you today?” It takes someone with a sixth sense to truly feel if that person is saying what they mean. I definitely feel this and am able to empathize with my clients. I also feel that a counselor should have a way about themselves where they appear strong and flawless. They must be the one the client tries to emulate. They should not have problems and issues that can clearly be seen from the surface. I also have led this same type of lifestyle. Life will constantly throw things your way. That is the “game” of life. There is no drama that surrounds me and if it does, it is usually addressed an solved very quickly. All of these characteristics will help me to become the best counselor I can possibly be.

Skills that need work in my department are not being so biased on issues that I feel strongly about. For example, If my client was a pedophile who had caused harm to children and I was supposed to help him seek help. This case would be tremendously difficult for me. I think it would take sitting down and addressing someone else in the field that has had experience