Who are Mental Health Counselors?
Mental Counselors work in mental heatlh settings or private practice. They assist their clients to address a myriad of emotional, behavioral and interpersonal issues. They utilize evidenced based practices so as to be fully accountable to their clients reassuring them that the procedures, exercises and homework used in their counseling sessions are supported by research as being effective, efficient and life changing. Mental Health Counselor interface with their client's primary care physicians to insure that their physical health is not contributing to their emotional or mental health issues. Mental Health Counselors work along side psychiatrists if their clients should need psychopharmacological assistance in dealing with their mental health conditions. For this reason Mental Health Counselors are knowledgeable about the neuroscience of emotional well being and the most impactful findings of behavioral medicine. Mental Health Counselors work hard to be very cognizant of the cultural, vocational, familial, and social issue which their clients bring with them in facing their targeted mental health counseling issues.
The American Mental Health Counselor's Association states in their 2011 Standards that: Since the founding of the profession in 1976 the definiton of Mental Health Counseling was: “an interdisciplinary, multifaceted, holistic process of: 1)The promotion of healthy lifestyles; 2) Identification of individual stressors and personal levels of functioning; and 3) The preservation or restoration of mental health” (Seiler & Messina, 1979). Then in 1986, The AMHCA Board of Directors adopted a more formal, comprehensive definition: “Clinical Mental Health Counseling is the provision of professional counseling services involving the application of principles of psychotherapy, human development, learning theory, group dynamics, and the etiology of mental illness and dysfunctional behavior to individuals, couples, families and groups, for the purpose of promoting optimal mental health, dealing with normal problems of living and treating psychopathology. The practice of clinical mental health counseling includes, but is not limited to, diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders, psycho-educational techniques aimed at the prevention of mental and emotional disorders, consultations to individuals, couples, families, groups, organizations and communities, and clinical research into more effective psychotherapeutic treatment modalities.”
