Clinical Mental Health Counseling - Professional Fit Statement

Historically, the counseling profession has played an integral role in assisting people and families toward change and improved quality of life. Clinical mental health counseling, in both training and profession, can affect a counselor’s personal and professional life. The preparation of a counselor for the career is critically important and needs to be addressed as a student enters a graduate-level education program.

The following areas have been designated as the core requirements for a mental health counselor as adapted from ACA, CACREP, and collegiate standards. Please self-reflect and process the areas listed below and write a personal statement based on these core requirements including the areas where you are proficient and the areas where you need to build both personally and professionally. Essays should be around 1,500 words in length.

1. Commitment to Wellness: This refers to the decision to pursue a wellness model both personally and professionally, with an ongoing choice to become the best one can be in various environments. Include information regarding personal and/or professional experience implementing a wellness model, and goals related to education and vocation.
2. Commitment to Learning: This can include: the ability to prioritize while managing a variety of commitments, time and stress, critical thinking skills, problem solving, and decision making. Graduate students will build an understanding of assessment, theory and scale development, assess risk of aggression, danger to others, self-inflicted harm, suicide, procedures for identifying and reporting abuse. Students will also identify evidence-based counseling practices, develop qualitative and quantitative research skills, and utilize statistical methods in conducting and interpreting research results. This can include the ability to self-assess and self-correct based on learning needs and subsequently seeking new knowledge, as well as research abilities.
3. Professional Ethics: This refers to a commitment to excellence as a professional as demonstrated through adherence to the ACA Code of Ethics (https://www.counseling.org/knowledge-center/ethics), including but not limited to counselors’ roles and responsibilities as members of interdisciplinary community outreach and emergency management response teams, and the role and process of the professional counselor advocating on behalf of the profession. This can include personal and moral standards that align with the professional code of ethics.
4. Academic and Professional Competence: This refers to a commitment to excellence as a student and aspiring professional as demonstrated through adherence to the ACA Code of Ethics (https://www.counseling.org/knowledge-center/ethics), including but not limited to striving toward social and cultural competence like researching and understanding multicultural and pluralistic characteristics within and among diverse groups (nationally and internationally), following models of multicultural counseling, and understanding the impact of heritage, attitudes, beliefs, understandings, ability, bias, and acculturative experiences on an individual’s views of others. This can include an assessment of your level of cultural competence, identifying resources for continued learning, and ability to conduct or synthesize research.
5. Professional Identity: This refers to one’s motivation for choosing the counseling profession. Developing a professional identity means being aware of various approaches for conceptualizing the interrelationships among work, mental well-being, relationships, and other life roles and factors while adhering to a set of approaches that guide practice. Professional identity has many factors and can manifest through face- to-face meetings with clients as well as through technology. Describe your professional identity, understanding of approaches, and additional aspirations.
6. Personal Maturity and Responsibility: This is demonstrated through completing commitments and being accountable for actions and outcomes. This can refer to work habits, attitudes, reliability at field placements, and other areas of student performance. Students should be able to apply ethical standards in real life situations.
7. Interpersonal Skills: This refers to an ability to interact effectively with clients, colleagues, and other professionals. This can refer to an individual interaction or group dynamic. Thus, students should exhibit openness to criticism, tolerance to differences, and ability to seek out appropriate feedback from faculty and supervisors. This can include how feedback has been utilized to expand skill sets, interpersonal skills, and ability to collaborate in the field.
8. Communication Skills: This refers to an ability to communicate effectively and to develop appropriate therapeutic counseling skills. Speaking, body language, reading, writing, and listening are areas that will influence the role of the counselor and counseling process, treatment planning, and intervention. This can include information regarding personal strengths and growth areas around communication.
9. Problem-solving: This refers to the ability to recognize and define problems, analyze data from varied sources, and implement solutions. Such skills will influence the role of the counselor in the counseling process and in treatment planning with individuals, families, and groups. This can include information regarding personal strengths and growth edges around problem-solving.
10. Self-Care: This refers to identification of stress that may impact personal and professional functioning and effectively developing coping behaviors. Existence of appropriate boundaries between personal stressors and professional performance is key. This can include personal strengths and growth edges around coping skills and self-care.