Professional Counselor Challenges

INTRODUCTION
As professional counselors, there are a variety of challenges that are faced daily and throughout their career. The purpose of this article is to give some insight into these challenges and how professionals in the field transition through them. Some of the concerns we will look at include personal challenges, such as burnout, but also some of the challenges professionals face like agency policies, mandated regulations by the state and federal government, and the challenge of having the funding necessary to provide quality services to their clientele.
ISSUES
There are multiple types of issues one may encounter as a professional counselor doing the best you can provide services to people in your community. The first one I

This includes when you are talking with coworkers, family members, or anyone else, who the client has not signed a release of information form allowing you to discuss their treatment with. Another issue that can arise are dual relationships, when the counselor knows the client in another setting other than in the professional therapeutic relationship. Scott (2000) reports often in treatment facilities for substance abuse, often the counselors working there attend 12 step programs themselves. If the client attends the same groups the client may hear self-disclosure from the counselor, which could end up creating a dual relationship because of the therapeutic relationship as a counselor, but a peer relationship through the support group setting. Unfortunately, an issue that I personally have a hard time understanding, is when a professional counselor allows a sexual relationship to materialize. As graduate students, we become aware of our biases and prejudices and situations in which we may be vulnerable too, including sexual attraction to clients. Although, most of us would say I would never do this, it seems to be more common than we would think. Berkman, Turner, Cooper, Polnerow, and Swartz (2000) report “95 percent of

As professionals, we must be able to provide the services that are needed at the time (C. Hughes personal communication, October 12, 2016). The agency where I am currently doing some part-time work provides mostly group counseling, although they do offer individual one-on-one sessions. For the majority of the clients are court ordered for domestic violence or DUI classes, the majority of the agency’s clients participate in the groups. Although, there are a couple smaller groups, like anger management and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) groups, where occasionally there will be clients who are not court ordered. The methods used mostly at the agency I am located is CBT and client-centered therapies. Although, as I progress in the field of mental health counseling, I believe I need to operate from an eclectic approach. Since every client is different, it is better to have a variety of learned skills available at your disposal. The theories and models of therapy I would like to become comfortable employing are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), originally developed by Albert Bandura, and later critiqued by Aaron Beck. Butcher, Hooley, and Mineka (2014) reports, CBT has shown to be effective with anxiety, depression, and personality disorders, by helping clients recognize their distorted and negative thinking. Another theory I would like to utilize with confidence is the person-centered or