Examination of Counselors’ Identity, Annotated Bibliography Example

The counseling profession is rather new, and it has formed on the basis of other helping professions, which at times complicates not the provision of counseling services, but the definition of a counselor as a professional. The professional identity of a person is often the defining quality that shapes his or her self-esteem, self-perception, and obviously self-advancement in the professional life. The most common mistake is to attribute the counseling profession to the field of psychology or social work; this ambiguity results in the identity misinterpretation not only by laypeople, but also by counselors themselves, which prevents the profession from autonomous and distinct formation and establishment. Hence, being aware of this problem, Mellin, Hunt, and Nichols (2010) conducted a study to reveal the identity perceptions of registered counselors, and to identify the perceived distinctions they thought their profession had from that of psychology and social work.

The impetus for the present study was drawn from the need for counseling to construct a cohesive professional identity. The inability to articulate the clear identity of the counseling profession was found to lead to a number of adverse outcomes, including the confusion existing regarding counselors’ roles and responsibilities, conflicts with related specialists regarding power and status, and the promotion of misleading stereotypes that hinder the inter-professional cooperation between professions (Mellin et al., 2010, p. 140). The key reason for such ambiguity is seen by the authors in the newness of the counseling profession; since the duties and responsibilities of counselors are so far unclear, the identification of a concise professional identity would help optimize the workload of counselors, and to facilitate the effective inter-professional collaboration on important social care issues (Mellin et al., 2010).

Mellin et al. (2010) emphasized the unique philosophical orientation of counseling that distinguishes it from all other professions; the counselors’ focus is usually made on development, prevent, and wellness of patients. However, this focus is seen as problematic for many counselors to adopt, since they are often oriented not as specialists with single identities, but as multiple identities such as being a counselor and a psychologist at the same time. The perspective from which counselors identify themselves is also essential, since some counselors prefer specialization as the defining factor, while others define themselves by the population they serve, or the setting in which counseling occurs (Mellin et al., 2010).

The authors stipulated that the importance of seeking for a single professional identity for counselors is of key importance for fostering the inter-professional collaboration; hence, it is essential to deal more closely with this issue. As one can see from the work of Mellin et al. (2010), there is a need to foster multi-disciplinary teams for the provision of multi-faceted care for patients. At present, helping professions experience evolution of approaches to helping their clients, since creative, more complex perspectives are taken to social and personal problems. Hence, the counseling profession, as the newest but nevertheless significant one, has to take its firm place in the inter-professional working teams suitable to the core principles of counseling.

Inter-professional collaboration is promoted and encouraged, since counselors are now addressing complex social issues an individual, a group, or the whole nation can come across; these issues include school dropouts, poverty, discrimination, substance abuse, chronic illnesses, disability, etc. (Mellin et al., 2010). The initial success of collaboration was noted in the fields of targeting problems of school attendees by school counselors who approached the complex problems of their clients by addressing the needs of schools, students, and their families. Moreover, the clinical mental health counselors succeeded in targeting the needs of their clients by establishing the effective collaboration with the clients’ families and community systems. Hence, one can assume that collaboration is an innovative and comprehensive solution to the numerous problems of counseling services (Mellin et al., 2010).

The research conducted by Mellin et al. (2010) was exploratory and qualitative in nature; there were 238 participants on the basis of whose replies conclusions were made. Two questions were of prime focus for the researchers: how counselors defined themselves as professionals (what definition of a professional counselor they could give) and what differences they saw in counseling, psychology, and social work. As for the first question, the answers were divided into three parts: 78% of respondents refined counselors by the focus on what they do at their workplace, and what services they provide to clients; 49% of respondents recognized the importance of counselor training and credentials, particularly on the subject of professional code of ethics; and 12% of respondents defined their profession as being based on the wellness and developmental focus determining their activities with clients (Mellin et al., 2010, p. 143).

The second question, the one about differences counseling has from psychology and social work, the answers were also categorized into three groups. Roughly a third of all respondents, 35%, emphasized that social workers are trained to provide case management services for their clients, and link them to appropriate community systems in contrast to counselors who did not do that (Mellin et al., 2010, p. 143). 31% of respondents, in their turn, pointed out that counseling is the only profession from the list focused on the “personal growth, empowerment, and wellness” (Mellin et al., 2010, p. 144). Finally, 23% of respondents admitted that psychology is more focused on testing and assessment of patients than counseling is. Among other differences pointed out by respondents, one should note the individual focus of counselors as compared to the global focus of social workers (10%), and no perceived difference noted (9%) (Mellin et al., 2010).

From the professional perspective, the findings of the present research are positive and fruitful for the field of counseling, since they show that counselors ascribe a certain set of identity features to their profession. Though those identities differ, there is a clear direction in which the counseling profession moves in defining itself and acquiring a distinct identity in the field of helping professions. It is notable that the focus on developmental, prevention, and wellness focus of the counseling profession is made by the majority of researchers and practitioners, which needs to be pursued by the research community in the effort to formulate the clear profile of a counselor as a professional, and counseling as a profession.

From the personal perspective as a counselor, I can admit that the search for identity is a positive phenomenon in the field of counseling; there is nothing strange in the fact that counseling as a new profession has not yet formed conceptually, and it is the task of practitioners and researchers to do so. Counseling is highly similar to psychology and social work, which is predetermined by their focus on helping people solve their complex social and personal situations. However, all three professions take those social issues from varying perspectives, and there is an urgent need to understand the distinctions between those perspectives in order to facilitate further cooperation between the helping professions’ representatives.

The modern approach to helping people is multi-disciplinary, and integration is observed in every aspect of human activity. Nowadays, patients do not want to be served by each specialist separately; the treatment-centered approach has long ago been substituted by the patient-centered one. Hence, it is the task of helping professions to help the client in the most effective, fast, and productive way. This approach can be accomplished only in case the representatives of different fields unite to generate the workable, optimal help plan. Therefore, it is essential for each specialist to realize his or her role in assisting clients, and to strive to improvement, advancement, and enhancement of his or her functions. Therefore, the issue of identity acquires exceptional significance in this context, and requires much more attention from researchers and practitioners in the counseling field.

References

Mellin, E. A., Hunt, B. & Nichols, L. M. (2010). Counselor professional identity: Findings and implications for counseling and interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Counseling and Development, 89, pp. 140-147.