CAREER COUSNELLOR

Career Cousnellor

Career Cousnellor

Clients often come to counselors to change their lives in some way, such as to become more assertive. As likely, clients seek counseling as a result of some change, prehaps a death or different working conditions. Clients ofren find themselves in the midsyt of some change they do not understand or over which they have little control. In its most general form, counseling provides a context for such change. How to evplain any change, how to assess its direction or to predictg irs effects, and how to understand the meaning any change may have for the client are questions the effective counselor must ask. The counselor relies on the concepts of human development to assess the client's level of functioning and uses different developmental theories as lenses through which to view the client. The professional counselor appreciates that people are different but users knowledge of developmental theory to understand these differences within the context of a universal human process.

Because so much of their work involves making decisions related to human development, counselors need to understand the assumptions upon which such decisions are made. Counselors need to understand all developmental theories and how these theories are applied to counseling to be effective.

Skills And Abilities

Guidance Counselors must understand that their job is as diverse as the student body of the school in which they are employed. Skills and abilities are not always concrete, tangible things. Often times it has to do with attitude (the counselor's) and perception (people who deal with that counselor). Gloria King, Personnel Manager for the St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education, states that guidance counselors must be striking and command attention in interviews. She feels that a resume is a tool that anyone can use to their advantage because “there are ways to make ...