I. Where Are We Going?
While reading this week’s assignment I contemplated issues the counseling profession may face in the future. After reading about multicultural awareness, one matter that came to mind was the increase number of gangs in the United States. According to the FBI, gangs contribute to about 48% of crime and include over 1.4 million American members as of 2011. With 33,000 gangs across America, counselors everywhere will be faced with people who are affected by gang related crime (FBI, 2014). How will we handle this gang war? This is a frightening issue in which I have no idea where to begin unraveling. What I do know is students in my school may be pressured to join a gang or already have. Being aware of these students and helping them before they make the life changing decision to join a gang is something I need to put on my top priority list.
Chapter 2 in The World of the Counselor suggests that counselors need to have increased understanding of differences (Neukrug, 2012). A major difference that has been filling the news recently is on same-sex marriage. I believe family counselors will see the biggest impact on this issue, as Christian families seek help for their loved ones. Same-sex marriages are not going away for 17 states have made it legal (Gaymarriage.procon.org, 2014). Professional counselors need to prepare by being non-bias while also help any family member dealing with disagreements over a recent same-sex marriage. The counselor needs to work against discrimination and uphold their high ethical standards.
II. A Look Toward the Future
A. Technology within the 21st century seems to be everywhere; people are constantly linked to the internet. It is no wonder the counseling profession is moving...
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...hics. (2014) (1st ed.). Alexandria. Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/docs/ethics/2014-aca-code-of-ethics.pdf?sfvrsn=4
FBI,. (2014). Gangs. Retrieved 16 May 2014, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs
Gaymarriage.procon.org,. (2014). 18 States with Legal Gay Marriage and 32 States with Same-Sex Marriage Bans - Gay Marriage - ProCon.org. Retrieved 17 May 2014, from http://gaymarriage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004857
Haberstroh, S., Parr, G., Bradley, L., Morgan-Fleming, B., & Gee, R. (2008). Facilitating Online Counseling: Perspectives From Counselors in Training (1st ed., p. 461). Journal of Counseling & Development. Retrieved from https://blackboard.ecu.edu/courses/1/COAD6400601201440/content/_7017852_1/Article-OnlineCounseling.pdf
Neukrug, E. (2012). The World of the counselor (4th ed.). Australia: Brooks/Cole.
Schmidt, L. M., & O'Reilly, J. T. (2007). Gangs and Law Enforcement: A Guide for Dealing with Gang-Related Violence. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.
The American Counseling Association is the largest professional counselor association in the world and serves over 56,000 helpers by providing resources and tools to utilize for best practices in the counseling field (ACA, n.d.). As an ACA member, professional counselors have access to professional journals, webinars, forums and other mediums that can strengthen and enhance helping skills and best practices. It would be of great advantage for both graduate students training in a counseling field, as well as professional counselors working in their field to take advantage of the being a member of the ACA.
In 2003 as a response to communities with a large amount and growing number of youth gangs the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, initiated the Gang Reduction Program (GRP) (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The formation of gangs is seen as a response to system failures and community dysfunction. As a result, one of OJJPD’s anti-gang initiatives is to make communities safer and have a pro-social environment (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). Furthermore, OJJDP plans to provide economic and social opportunities that gangs often promise to new recruits which are often obtained in an illegal and dangerous fashion (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). OJJDP believes that the GRP is capable of addressing the underlying issues for the increasing popularity and intensity of gang activity in specific suburban and rural neighborhoods (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The program takes an integrative approach to dealing with the issue of increasing membership and participation with gangs. The following will discuss the program’s goal, theoretical basis, methods of operation, and overall effectiveness. After reviewing these major aspects of the GRP I will personally assess the value of this program and conclude whether or not the evidence supporting the program’s efficiency is strong enough for me to recommend it for implementation.
Pesce C. Rosario; Wilczynski D. James. “Gangs prevention”. Nasponline. Np. Nov 2005. Web. 28 Jan 2014.
In the last couple decades, crimes has been increased rapidly all across United States. Street gang’s activity and violence are becoming and growing problem in our society. Many organizations have an effort to keep street gangs off the street but street gang has found their way into our schools and our neighbors. People are joining gangs every day. They join gangs for many different reasons, but the main reason is because of their reputation, their needs, protection and attention from other people (Gang Program Alternatives). Most of them are come from urban area where poverty and poor families present. Sometime gang recruiters start looking and recruit members in school, and teens are becomes their target. The gang recruiters understand why they like to chose young teens to be in their gang. They know teenagers are easy to fall for all the temptation of drugs, fame, money and being a cool person. After a short period join in the gang, these kids starting to see money is easy to make and they can use these money to help their struggling families and love ones, but they do not realize that they will end up being forced to commit all type of crimes, and they might caught up in a middle of violent activities if they still staying in the gang. Join in a gang is seem very easy, but what about leaving? Unfortunately some people want to get out but they cannot get out, because their gang leaders indicated that once you jumped in therefore you cannot leave, but if you do leave then there are some tragedies are waiting for you. Sometime you eventually get killed for living. But if you stay, you end up addicted to drugs, locked up in prison or even dead. There will always be violence and ...
A 2015 study (Brown, 2015) showed that the average American adult spends around 11+ hours on electronic devices per day. With an increasingly large amount of communication being done online, why not bring therapy into the electronic age? Online therapy has many benefits and has already proven to be effective. There are many trained professionals who are ready to provide different methods of counsel to many people. First I will discuss the benefits of e-therapy and how it’s already proven to be effective, next I will talk about the different methods of counsel available. Finally I will discuss some concerns surrounding e-therapy and possible solutions, and some problems that the movement still is faced with.
A Counselor may have their own belief system and can find that they are in conflict because of
Sometimes individuals consider becoming counselors after overcoming some major life challenge such as addiction or a history of bad relationships. Perhaps an individual has encountered a particularly effective counselor or therapist and has a desire to follow in those footsteps. Others may have had a bad experience with counseling and concluded that it can be done better. People do not think of this work so much as a job, or even as a career. More typically, a constellation of life experiences that demand explanation and a sense that others seek one out for assistance and emotional sustenance become driving forces leading one toward the counseling profession” (An invitation to). .
The streets of Philadelphia are rapidly becoming a home to violent acts and random homicides. Innocent lives are taken every day due to the strong presence of gangs, and the streets are run by unruly groups of fearless young adults. Gang violence in Philadelphia is a major issue, and the citizens will never be safe until gang prevention occurs. Gang prevention is not a simple task, but with the right resources available, it is possible. Gang violence is a problem that will contribute to the collapse of Philadelphia, and it has yet to be solved throughout many generations. With gang violence on the rise, the best solution to gang violence is to educate the youth and parents about gangs and use family support to prevent the creation of gang members from the problem’s core.
Counselling, coaching and mentoring are all ways to help people achieve success and as a result, they have many similarities; however, there are subtle difference distinguishing them from one another. Counselling does not have one singular definition, as it is prevalent in many different areas of psychology. Nonetheless, Feltham (2012) defines counselling as a way of focusing on a range of psychological and subconscious issues, to help people reach their potential. Counselling emphasises the enhancement of the clients’ psychological health through discussion of personal issues, helping clients understand the underlying cause of long-established problems. The counsellor uses constrained time to allow clients to examine their own challenges and
Values, Morals, and Beliefs are components that play a role in an individual’s self-identity. The establishment of these components shape human nature, behavior, and the development of an individual’s purpose. The basis of these fundamentals has contributed to my desire to become a counselor. This paper will discuss my views of human nature, factors of behavior changes, goals of therapy, the roles of a therapist, and the counseling approaches that I chose to incorporate in a practice.
Dr. Gonzalez discussed and posted insightful information about counseling on a college campus. The number one difference psychology and counseling is their focus on research and degree structure. The similarities are numerous and consist of being concerned with mental health including mental health including cognitive, affective, behavioral, and systemic function. This is working with students working on their master’s degrees in counseling and they focus on what are the concerns of college students. There are four concerns: psychosocial development, cognitive-structural development, person-environment fit and lastly mental health. The psychosocial development is about helping people create mature social relationships, develop individually
HS 43 Term Paper 4 Core functions of a Substance Abuse Counselor By Roslyn Smith Introduction This paper will discuss the following 4 Core Functions of a Counselor: Case Management, Client Education, Crisis Intervention, Referral and their primary purposes. Discussion Case Management According to IC & RC, Case Management is defined as, “activities intended to bring services, agencies, resources, or people together within a planned framework of action toward the achievement of established goals.
Although gang members insist that gangs are the only way to ensure success today, others maintain that the only way to survive is to eliminate them. Many gangs threaten the safety of everyone in their 'hood (territory or neighborhood). Innocent people living in gang war-torn towns live in constant fear of death. However, for children who have no one to look up to and no future to look forward to, gangs can become their surrogate family. Gangs are not only a set of friends or a nights activity. Gangs are a way of life. There is no way to eliminate them, but changing the violent nature of many gangs is possible. Admittedly, gangs cause many serious problems, but they could end up helping more people than they hurt.
This chapter puts forward the research literature related to the current study. In the course of this, different concepts, ideas and opinions that the researchers have provided are enriched and elucidated. The conceptual literature and research literature of the guidance and counseling and evaluating guidance and counseling programs was gat...