Counseling specializations and multidisciplinary teams

Running head: COUNSELING SPECIALIZATION AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS 1

COUNSELING SPECIALIZATION AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS 6

Counseling Specialization and Multidisciplinary Teams

Student’s name

Institutional Affiliation

Counseling Specialization and Multidisciplinary Teams

Part 1

Key philosophies of counseling

As a counselor, it is crucial for the counselor to know how to incorporate prevention, resilience and wellness. Wellness, as described by Descartes, is the total dualism of body and mind. When both body and mind are fit, they complement each other and result in wellness. Aristotle gave a simple description of wellness saying that it is the state in which a person has perfect health (Myers & Sweeney, 2008, p.482-490). The person wants to have everything in perfect proportions without anything being in excess. The other philosophy is resilience. Resilience is the drive behind the strength that people have when dealing with stressful situations. The last philosophy is prevention. Prevention refers to when the counselor shows the patient the ways to avoid stressful situations in their lives. Through history, counselors have tried to understand what makes a human being tick, that and what enables an individual to be healthy especially mentally (Mellin, Hunt, & Nichols, 2011, p.140-145).

How the philosophies developed

The three philosophies enable counselors to help their patients to achieve the total wellness. There are various models of wellness which help the counselors know how to help their clients. The best model so far is the Wheel of Wellness. This model gives insight to the counselor on a lot of information regarding the client’s well-being, his or her nature and how he/ she reacts to various stimuli. Since the model has twelve stages, the counselor can have a deeper understanding of the client. Therefore, they get to know the emotions, beliefs and the factors that push the client to perform some act (Myers & Sweeney, 2008, p.485-492).

Tests have been done that have shown that there is a very significant relationship between wellness and mental or psychological health. Those people who do not have wellness are more likely to suffer psychological problems. This is according to a study done. There were beliefs that wellness had a relationship with the spirituality of the individual in question. However, after several tests, it was proven that this is not true as even people with petite spirituality may have more wellness than those who claim to have a high level of spirituality(Gibson, Dollarhide, & Moss, 2010, p.21-27).

Specialization

Mental health is a concern that many people have tried to understand. Many people suffer from mental illnesses. However, because of the attitude that many people have towards the people who suffer these illnesses, very few people can understand what causes these illnesses and how to help people with these issues. Having few people understanding this issue is what prompted my specialization. The need for people to have physical, mental and emotional solidity is what prompted counselors to want to research and know all about mental health. Mental health counseling is based on the idea of understanding the human mind and the factors that contribute to a person becoming mentally ill. Family therapy is another type of counseling that goes hand in hand with psychological counseling (Mellin, Hunt, & Nichols, 2011, p.140-145). Hen families have issues; it is very likely that there is a deeper issue that causes the problem. Therefore, the two can work together and end up helping the individuals to find out what issues they have and how to solve the issues. Family counseling is a type of counseling that is very similar to that work of a psychologist. The counselor identifies the problem then sees if the clients have deeper issues other than whatever they are facing with their families. If a deeper issue is identified, then they are sent to the psychiatrist. Both deals with the problems that an individual or individuals are facing and they help the individuals overcome their problems. All these types of counseling, however, are based on the idea of attaining wellness of the individuals.

Part 2

Case study: Paul, professionals helping Paul

Paul has a lot of issues that need to be dealt with so that he can continue living a normal life. First, he needs to see a psychiatrist who will find out what exactly is disturbing Paul mentally. The psychiatrist will help Paul deal with the trauma that he must have from his three deployments. After getting to the bottom of exactly what is making Paul that anxious, the psychiatrist may consult a marriage counselor who will study Paul and his wife and figure out what the wife may be doing to make Paul uneasy and how she can help him to get back on his feet. The psychiatrist will study Paul and learn how the effects of his job are causing him to get drunk and feel anxious. The other important professional that the psychiatrist should consult is a psychologist. The psychologist will also be consulted so that Paul has somebody to open up to. This psychologist will find out what Paul is trying to forget by drinking and then share this information with the other two professionals so that each can figure out how to help Paul. The three should get together and study the case so as to formulate ideas on the net best move that they should make. The professionals can have scheduled meetings where they share their achievements with their fellow workmates. Since all of them have an interest in the mental health care of Paul, the can work together easily to attain it.

Communication and Collaboration

Paul should attend seminars for past soldiers who have come back from war. This should help him learn how to deal with the trauma. Plus being around people who have had similar experiences may make it easy for Paul to handle his memories. Another is to attend classes like Yoga which will help him learn how to be calm and how to avoid stress, this will help him to avoid drinking and reduce his anxiety. These two activities should have someone in both who keeps an eye of Paul so that he attends them and gets to gain something from both.

References

Gibson, D. M., Dollarhide, C. T., & Moss, J. M. (2010). Professional Identity Development: A Grounded Theory of Transformational Tasks of New Counselors. Counselor Education and Supervision, 50(1), 21-38. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2010.tb00106.x

Mellin, E. A., Hunt, B., & Nichols, L. M. (2011). Counselor Professional Identity: Findings and Implications for Counseling and Interprofessional Collaboration. Journal of Counseling & Development, 89(2), 140-147. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2011.tb00071.x

Myers, J. E., & Sweeney, T. J. (2008). Wellness Counseling: The Evidence Base for Practice. Journal of Counseling & Development, 86(4), 482-493. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2008.tb00536.x