The second class for Counseling in Community Agencies involved a nice discussion regarding the difference between a psychologist and a counselor. From there, we went on to discuss the sigma of counselors: is it “in fashion” yet to go see a counselor? How does history and culture relate to counseling? Did people close to the early 19th century needed counseling less in comparison to those living in modern time?
Our instructor asked us questions so that we would be ready to respond to certain clients concerning our ability to help the client. If the client continues to ask questions in regarding our qualifications, one of my classmates said she would ask them why he or she is asking the questions so she would know where the client is coming from. She mentioned that this is part of Adler’s therapy technique: to see where a client is coming from prior to assuming the counselor know what the client means. Another classmate said he would be honest with the client: say that we can look over the client’s hesitancy by stepping into his (the counselor’s) office. Only because precious time is going by and if one waste time on assuring credibility, that is the time that could have been spent in helping the client with whatever issues he or she is dealing with.
As for me, I had mentioned how “The Gift of Therapy” (Yalom’s book) mentioned to keep counseling transparent: state what counseling is. Counseling is about listening to the client and allowing the client come to a decision in his or her own: empowerment. Although diagnosing clients/patients is a part of counseling (mostly for billing purposes), counselors take on the wellness perspective (instead of the medical perspective). Counseling involves wellness in relationships, emotions, physical, social, environment, and similar areas. Counseling is not “mind controlling.”
The need for counselors appears to have increased because, like in America, many people have lost the social connections that were previously cherished prior to technology increasing. Because people fail to connect face-to-face, counselors often step in and can become the “face” that people often desire to talk to [summarizing a classmate]. However, society often views counselors as something that only rich people are able to afford (as one of my other classmates had mentioned). To remove this stigma would benefit the person (as in the person who decides to go see a counselor), his/her family, his/her friends, his/her job/school, and other relationships/environments. One classmate mentioned that connecting counseling with the client’s/patient’s culture would be a way to remove cultural guilt from going against cultural norms (ex: a counselor can encourage a Native American client/patient to speak to their chief or someone who they often go to within their tribe for “counseling” after speaking with a therapist/counselor).
We also discussed the pros and cons of using mental health labeling on clients/patients (using the DSM-5 to diagnose a client). Most of us had participated in a class debate the previous day in regarding this same subject. However, we were placed on sides (by coin toss) and didn’t get a chance to speak as a individual on which side we were on. As another classmate noticed, I also noticed a lot of us sided on the against side. I had mentioned how Yalom’s “The Gift of Therapy” mentioned about self-fulfilling prophecy: the client/patient taking on the symptoms after learning what he or she is diagnosed with.
This reminds me of how another classmate said that there is a difference between saying that someone has depression or someone is depressed. This is in relation to one of the psychotherapies I had read about in the my Theories and Techniques in Psychotherapy class but I cannot recall it right now (nor find it in my searching). When someone says they have depression, it is something that doesn’t consume them all the time; there are episodes when they are not depress. However, when someone says they are depress, this becomes the person; they are not separate from their diagnosis. To empower someone (to give them hope and not to allow them to feel helpless), one should avoid saying that they are a diagnosis but to say that their diagnosis doesn’t have to consume their identity.
belovedgeliebt 