Free Essay Sample on Studies in Counseling Psychology

Psychology and its counseling

Numerous studies, especially on issues that affect the overall well-being of people, take place in counseling psychology. One of such studies is by Clement et al. 2014 who look at the stigma of seeking help for mental health patients. They identify that people will delay seeking professional help and they categorize stigma as one of the main reasons the situation remains so. They work on the identification of the association between stigma and seeking help especially for mental health patients, the level to which stigma becomes a barrier towards seeking help and the processes that define the interaction between stigma and seeking for help. It also identifies communities where stigma stands out as a barrier to seeking mental help.

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They looked at up to one hundred and forty-four studies that involved more than ninety thousand participants. They identified stigma as the fourth highest cause of avoidance of seeking help. The study found out the stigma has a small to moderate effect on influencing how people seek help. It means that to some level, the stigma will prevent mental health patients from seeking help and mainly due to influence by various aspects like culture. The study, therefore, builds on the importance of addressing stigma about seeking help to ensure the overall well-being of people in society.

A similar study is carried out by Vogel et al. 2013. They look at the issue of stigma and how it influences the way people seek help for mental health issues. Counseling psychology is a form of help that is often at the disposal of those who are mentally ill. The study identifies that there are two types of stigma and these are the public stigma and self-stigma. The researchers identify that sources will indicate the cause of self-stigma to be a public stigma. Therefore, the study aimed at an examination of the relationship that exists between self-stigma and public stigma across time. The study through its participants measured the perceptions of the participants on the issue of public stigma and personal stigma.

The authors conducted an analysis of the views of self-stigma and public stigma among four hundred and forty-eight students from colleges. Their results showed consistency with the hypothesis that public stigma will lead to the development of self-stigma. They also discovered that the reverse was not true. The study also identified that it is necessary to deal with self-stigma at the individual level using different psychological procedures. The aim should be to eliminate the self-stigma and the public stigma to prevent its adverse effect on the person. The study clearly indicates the effect of the various types of stigma and the consequences on the human well-being. The aim should, therefore, be to address it as soon as it is detected.

An occupation in psychology of counseling

I would love to become a child counselor. It is because of the passion I have for children and helping them out. I feel that children experience a lot of issues in today’s society, but people lack a way of explaining these child issues. I, therefore, feel like I would help in highlighting child issues and eventually getting to learn more about the children I will work with. Child counseling demands for a significant amount of training and skills. An individual engaging in this type of counseling needs to have the basic skills in counseling including training on the counseling process, contracting in counseling, various ethical issues in counseling. He or she needs to understand issues on assessment and psychological testing. The counselor also needs to have knowledge of the various theories of counseling and how to apply them (Lin & Bratton, 2015). Counseling psychology demands that one needs to have a high level of self-awareness. Self-awareness will help in understanding and empathize with the client even more because he or she knows who they are, their strengths and weaknesses, their competencies and how far they can go with the client. Supervision is also necessary for child counseling and personal therapy.

Apart from the basic counseling skills and competencies, the individual needs to understand how child issues work. He or she needs to have training on how to deal with children issues to the highest-level education accessible to them. Children, unlike adults, will not readily talk with the counselor. However, counseling depends on talk therapy, and that is why it is often referred to as talk therapy. For a child, the therapist needs to know and have skills in the use of play therapy and significant knowledge on observational counseling (Lin & Bratton, 2015). He or she needs to know how to interpret drawings made by these children because in many instances child counseling will demand that the child draws and the therapist can interpret. It will demand ethical issues including informed consent especially from the parents or guardian because children are under their care. The therapist is also expected to exercise the highest level of confidentiality even to the parents of the child. He or she is expected to keep the needs ofthe client first and keep the child safe.

Child counseling issues

Due to the passion I have towards child counseling, I often ensure that I gain as much as I can on how to deal with children. Therefore, learning theoretical concepts and training on sensitive child counseling issues like its skills and techniques have been efficient in developing my competency. I often identify any training opportunity that will build or my child-counseling outlook and therefore I take advantage of any seminars or training camps that deal with child counseling. Internship opportunities are ever present within the community, and I often take the bold step to identify them and work with various child counseling professionals to develop my skills and understanding of the career. I often visit playgrounds and parks just to observe how children play and see if I can identify and any of the issues available in theory concerning child play. I have also identified a supervisor who is an excellent professional in child counseling, whenever I feel I am stuck on any issue, I often consult my supervisor. Personal therapy is also an integral part of my career plan, and therefore I often visit a therapist to uncover and deal with any issues that might come up during my practice and interfere with how I deal with the client. I am also aiming at advancing my education in child counseling to the highest level possible to acquire the knowledge and skills that will add on how I interact with the children.