Summary
Shawn L. Spurgeon, in the article “ Counselor Identity- A National Imperative” , asserts that professionalism is the primary concern to attaining the subject (Spurgeon, 2012). According to the article, some scholars argue that the counseling as an identity profession has developed itself as an ideal profession placed differently from other professions. The use of conferences such as “ 20/20: A Vision for the future of counseling” were incorporated to help spearhead counselors' profession and understand better its mandate for future professional counselors. To help get along with smooth operations in the counseling profession, representatives met in 3-year span to initiate on ways in which, the professional training will be in the year 2020. During the meetings, the representatives defined and selected essential measures for the long-term development goals towards unified counseling profession. According to Spurgeon (2012), the counseling profession identity established its root in 1952 determined to acquire extensive and diverse counselors' body. Counseling professional identity can be attached to applied psychology, social work, humanism, assessment, multiculturalism, and medicine. Counselors-in-training needs to acquire the required professional identity before they turn out to practice the same.
Lawson, Trepal, Lee, and Kress in the article “ Advocating for educational standards in counselor licensure laws” argue that professional counseling identity must be consistent from one country tot eh other (Lawson et al., 2017). Lawson et al. (2017) state that trajectory developments of social work and psychology have led to national standards and increased consistent licensure titles. The article asserts that time has come for social work and psychology to drop their historical dilemmas and develop mental and wellness counseling profession. It proposes an advocacy model applied before to conduct successful individual counseling identity at the advocate of peoples' grass root levels. According to Lawson et al. (2017), profession counselor personnel entails different characteristics including an accredited training program, specific body knowledge, ethical code conduct, practitioner licensure credential and other recommended standard of excellence. Other private and public departments, such as the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) have participated in developing the counseling profession as an independent body (Lawson et al., 2017). To succeed in attaining future counselors’ licensure laws, the representative bodies have taken into implementing a formal project development plan starting with developing an advocacy disposition, advocacy relationship and knowledge, defining advocacy limitations, establish an action plan; implementation plan and lastly evaluation and celebration.
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According to Shook in the podcast on “ What makes a counselor a counselor?” the spirit of the counselors' occupation is presumed as the solidification of its profession identity (Shook, 2017). However, the establishment of professional counseling identity is quite challenging; the significance of the professional identity remains benevolent to humanity. Counseling professional identity comes with several challenges as well as implications as trainers prepare for a future task other than its significances. Unified professional counseling identity is essential as it serves multiple benefits for the training professionals. There existed a common belief among the above groups of academic professions that all human life endeavors for mental health and wellbeing; the belief played a significant role in developing the counseling profession. The podcast directs that counselors in training should invest much of their time into advocacy to help attain their legal operation licensure for future counseling identity profession. The new emerged professional counselors should be determined to serve as resource and referral for needed information and data (Shook, 2017).
Reactions
In my understanding of professional identity; I believe that it is the well versed and articulated knowledge to solving an impending certainty to attain a healthy mindset. Professional counseling identity is quite an extended subject that deals with the human psyche, health, and cultural values, among others. It should, therefore, acquire licensure laws to help in guidance for smooth services and acquisition of resolutions whenever there arise an interest. Coordination among the different educational disciplines like psychology, mathematics, social work, and health sciences will help project professional counseling identity to the next level as anticipated in the future ( Hansen, 2018) .
Regarding challenges witnessed in the establishment of professional identity, team building is highly recommended. Both private and public departments interest in human beings wellness should collaborate and work as unties to help push for requisite professional identity laws to govern the profession. Just like the U.S. DOD and other sponsorship have emerged to serve the interest of the people through professional counseling identity; many more partners can come in to help overcome the challenges faced by profession ( Hansen, 2018) .
A lot of useful information has been illustrated both in the articles and the podcast provided. It is clarified that professional identity is the primary pillar of humanity and a healthy lifestyle. The counseling profession is depicted to have associated closely with other academic disciplines to enhance human dignity and performance through healthy mental and wellness. Reading through the articles and listening to the podcast, I learned that professional counselors' training is marred with lots of challenges and clear plans need to be implemented to attain smooth operations. Other significant areas to look at in professional counseling identity should be the peoples’ perception about the importance of counseling and the required profession for the same.
References
Hansen, J. (2018). Ideas on the margin: Professional counseling and ideological insularity. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, 32, 214-224, doi: 10.1107/s12337-010-9102-4
Lawson, G., Trepal, H.C, Lee, R. W., Kress, V. E. (2017). Advocating for educational standards in counselor licensure laws: Counselor Education and Supervision, 56 , 162-176.
Shook, M. (Producer). (2017, February 8). What Makes a Counselor a Counselor? Professional Identity and Other Musings with Carl Sheperis [Audio Podcast]: The Thoughtful Counselor . Retrieved from http://wp.me/p7R6fn-8u
Spurgeon, S. (2012). Counselor identity: A national imperative. Journal of Professional Counseling, Practice, Theory, and Research, 39, 3-16.
