The Reflective Counselor

45 Activities for Developing Your Professional Identity

Michelle S. Hinkle, Meredith Drew

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780429515507
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This practical workbook contains 45 experiential and creative activities intentionally created to facilitate counselor professional identity development.

Each reflective activity is designed for students and supervisees to learn more about counselor professional identity, as well as integrate their knowledge of counseling skills and content with personal attributes and experiences. Individual and group process questions and group follow-up activities make this an ideal workbook to supplement classes or group supervision. Upon completion of the workbook, students and supervisees will have a journal of their process in the beginning stages of counselor professional identity development.

With chapters focusing on areas including counselor wellness, self-growth, personal and professional values, multicultural awareness, research and assessment, and more, The Reflective Counselor is an essential resource for counseling graduate students, supervisees, and new professionals alike.

CHAPTER 1

Professional Identity as a Shared and Integrated Philosophy of Professional Counseling

At the 2010 American Counseling Association (ACA) national conference, delegates representing various counseling constituencies voted and approved the following definition of the counseling process: “Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals” (Kaplan, Tarvydas, & Gladding, 2014, p. 368). This definition, endorsed by 29 of 31 ACA participating organizations (Kaplan et al., 2014), was the outcome from 2020: A Vision for the Future of Counseling. This 20/20 initiative stressed the need to strengthen the identity, and promote recognition, of counseling (Kaplan & Gladding, 2011). Creating this unified definition was an important step in legitimizing professional counseling as a distinct mental health discipline (Calley & Hawley, 2008) and provided a firmer foundation for counseling professional identity. Having a unified professional identity also aids in Medicare reimbursement, 3rd party insurance partnerships, and establishing licensure portability (Reiner, Dobmeier, & Hernández, 2013), as well as longevity as a distinct profession (Woo, Henfield, & Choi, 2014).

In addition to a unified counseling identity as a profession, building a unique professional identity is an essential and important part of being a counselor. Brott and Myers (1999) indicated that professional identity provides a cognitive context and structure for counselors to perform their tasks and responsibilities. Upholding a unified counseling philosophy that is endorsed within the profession, and of which new counselors are indoctrinated, undergirds professional identity. This philosophy is a summation of values and beliefs that are unique to counselors that inform their professional activities and responsibilities and helps them define their role among other mental health professionals (Calley & Hawley, 2008). This unified professional identity is useful for many reasons.

In an effort to define counseling and its associated tasks, Mellin, Hunt, and Nichols (2011) asked professional counselors how they distinguished themselves from psychologists and social workers. Participants in this study endorsed a unified professional identity built upon their specialized training and credentialing specific to counseling and identified a distinct focus on developmental, wellness, and prevention in their work with clients. Remley and Herlihy (2020) further embraced and expanded these distinct areas of focus for counseling by identifying the following philosophical tenets that counselors share when working with clients to resolve mental health issues: (a) using a wellness model of mental health is the best perspective to assist individuals, (b) as most issues and problems are developmental, understanding human growth and development is essential, (c) prevention and early intervention are superior to remediation, and (d) the goal of counseling is to empower clients and client systems to resolve their own problems and teach them to identify and resolve problems autonomously in the future (pp. 27–28). These assumptions, along with the approved definition of counseling, establish the foundation for the counseling profession.

Though knowing and working from the definition and philosophy of counseling are integral aspects of having a counselor professional identity, it is a multi-faceted and complex concept that includes other factors. Over recent years, researchers have studied counselor professional identity to identify its components. Woo and Henfield (2015) created the Professional Identity Scale in Counseling, which isolated six domains that construct counselor professional identity, including: (a) knowledge of the profession, (b) articulation of the philosophy of counseling, (c) established expertise required as a counselor and understanding of professional roles, (d) validate attitudes toward the profession and oneself, (e) be engaged in associated professional behaviors, and (f) interaction with other professionals in the field (p. 96).

Others scholars studying counselor professional identity have indicated that it includes not only an adoption of the shared counseling philosophy and specific training, but also an integration of personal attributes and beliefs with those of the profession (Auxier, Hughes, & Kline, 2003). Nugent and Jones (2009) concluded that counselor professional identity is a culmination of education and training, as well as personal traits that are demonstrated within a professional environment. This requires counselors to consider how personal attributes inform professional activities (Burkholder, 2012) and assess how their values exhibit a “goodness of fit” with those of the profession (Woo, Storlie, & Baltrinic, 2016, p. 285).

In sum, developing a strong counseling professional identity is both an interpersonal and intrapersonal process (Gibson, Dollarhide, & Moss, 2010) that begins in counselor training and continues to develop and strengthen with experience (Moss, Gibson, & Dollarhide, 2014; Prosek & Hurt, 2014; Woo, Lu, Harris, & Cauley, 2017). It requires counselors to be indoctrinated within a shared community of counseling via mentorship, supervision, and participation in professional organizations. Endorsing the shared definition and philosophies of counseling consistent with training, licensure, and credentialing is essential to obtaining professional identity. Further, self-reflection is important in order to know how personal attributes and traits fit with that of professional counseling and work to inform counselors’ unique expression of professional identity. Being able to articulate a specific counselor professional identity, which reflec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Author Biographies
• Preface
• CHAPTER 1. Professional Identity as a Shared and Integrated Philosophy of Professional Counseling
• CHAPTER 2. Self-Exploration
• CHAPTER 3. Counselor Wellness
• CHAPTER 4. Ethics and Counseling
• CHAPTER 5. Multicultural Awareness
• CHAPTER 6. Theoretical Orientation
• CHAPTER 7. Personal and Professional Values
• CHAPTER 8. Building Community Through Credentials and Professional Organizations
• CHAPTER 9. Career Exploration
• CHAPTER 10. Research and Assessment
• CHAPTER 11. Self-Growth and the Future
• Epilogue
• Activity 45: Termination Farewell Dinner