School Counselor

Now every town and city has a large number of counselors who offer treatments across a wide range of theories and methods. To help you sort through what seems like a confusing group of seemingly contradictory solutions to personal problems, we wrote this page in hopes of clarifying the counseling world.

There is a wide range of counselors available to treat all sorts of clients. Their counseling might be less focused on mental health and more on, say, learning to become a better student, parent, or worker. There are child counselors who specialize in youngsters, just as there are counselors who focus on the elderly or those suffering from substance abuse issues.

Counseling Approaches

Behavioral Approach

Behavioral therapy could be characterized as an outside-in approach. That is, most therapeutic approaches focus on a person's inner motivations, desires, and neuroses as a means of seeking wholeness and happiness. These other approaches seek to heal inner wounds to change outer behaviors and external outcomes. For example, if they are continually procrastinating their tasks, a counselor might look to deeper problems stemming from an autocratic father who instilled deep anxiety around performance.

Behavioral therapy, on the other hand, teaches clients to change their behaviors as a way to find inner happiness. Thus, the procrastinating patient might try new ways to reward herself for completing tasks in a timely fashion.

B.F. Skinner pioneered this approach, and his followers were so enamored of it that they would eschew any reference to the unconscious mind. Rather, they thought that human problems could be resolved by supplying the proper reinforcements for positive or desirable behaviors. Therapists often ask clients to monitor their behaviors and take detailed notes on their activities. They then work together to discover new activities that provide the sorts of rewards most needed by the client. When a client needs to learn new skills, they might role-play these new things with the therapist.

Humanistic Approach

This approach is often attributed to the work of Carl Rogers, a post-Freudian psychotherapist who founded his psychological thinking on the idea that human beings are fundamentally good. His emphasis on a person's positive traits is counter to many other approaches which see the human personality as a conglomeration of neuroses, sexual deviance, and childhood trauma. This approach can thus be helpful if a client is struggling with low self-esteem since it seeks to emphasize positive attributes rather than analyze them as a system of problems.

Humanistic sessions seek to uncover a client's positive inner strengths as well as their outer abilities and positive behaviors. Counselors have used the humanistic approach to treat a wide range of disorders, including depression, anxiety, addiction, schizophrenia, and all sorts of relationship difficulties.

Humanistic sessions also posit the counselor as an equal to the client. Their status is one of facilitator to the client rather than a dominating psychological authority. They seek to provide an atmosphere of acceptance and caring in an attempt to allow the client to trust them and the psychological process.

Psychoanalytic Approach

Sigmund Freud pioneered psychoanalysis in the early 20th century. His theory was that humans are motivated and often hindered by their unconscious minds. His theory of development played a huge role in the idea that adults are governed by influences experienced during childhood.

In a psychoanalytic session, patients might be asked to respond to a series of prompts with the first word that comes to mind. This word-association method is thought to help unlock the unconscious mind by easing the restrictions we place on thought when we are trying to portray a certain persona. This approach also becomes highly individualized since every client is sure to have special associations with certain words and thus idiosyncratic responses to the counselor's prompts.

This approach thus requires a great deal of trust and intimacy in the counselor-client relationship. Clients must be able to let their guard down enough so that they can explore their inner lives on a very deep level. The insights clients gain through this approach have unlocked great personal potential and have healed deep personal wounds and relationships.

Cognitive Approach

Cognitive therapy deals with the ways that we process and cope with information, thoughts, and feelings. This therapeutic approach focuses on a client's thinking as a way to address other problems. Clients learn to change the thoughts which might be excessively self-deprecating, or which tend to exaggerate problems. Rather than merely replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, clients learn to see problems through a realistic lens.

This sort of approach has proven effective for a wide range of problems. Since it relies on specific cognitive tools, if a client begins to backslide into their old patterns of thought and feeling, they can return to the methods learned from their counselor. Once a patient starts framing issues in a more rational framework, they are likely to find them far more manageable.

One very attractive feature of cognitive therapy is that studies have shown that it is as effective against depression as antidepressant medications. Since cognitive therapy has neither side effects nor the need for a prescription, this approach might be preferred for many who find themselves overwhelmed and depressed.

As the name implies, substance abuse counselors concentrate on aiding people overcome dependency as well as dependence to drugs and alcohol. The participation of a substance abuse counselor normally begins in an intervention or intake setup. At this point, the counselor is attempting to figure out the severity of the problem and also any kind of extenuating scenarios that could assist or impede the procedure of recovery. Substance misuse counselors are responsible for establishing a details strategy for every customer based upon his or her one-of-a-kind scenario.

Elements that go into creating a healing plan include age, level of family or social assistance, degree of addiction, the drug(s) to which the person is addicted, as well as any kind of legal requirements according to the adjudication of a criminal sentence. These factors are identified, in part, by interviews with the affected individual in addition to his/her loved ones. Evaluations might be provided too, which the substance abuse counselor would certainly score, translate, and also talk about with the client. How a substance abuse counselor applies a healing strategy can take a variety of types: Private therapy services-- Therapy aids clients recognize the origin of their behavior, particularly the triggers that caused substance abuse. Customers identify favorable remedies to their issues and start to come to terms with the damages they have actually sustained on family and friends.

Counselors in this establishment often tend to be hands-on as well as job side-by-side with the customer in the recuperation process. Group therapy solutions-- Lots of people with a substance abuse problem react well to team treatment as a result of the common experience of dependency they have with other team members. Substance abuse counselors in this context might work as even more of a facilitator to help drive the healing procedure in a positive direction. Therapy courses-- Substance abuse counselors commonly instruct programs for addicted individuals, from those that help with skill building to those that concentrate on enhanced decision-making. It might also involve the involvement of enjoyed ones so regarding building up a strong network of individuals the customer can trust and trust throughout their recovery period.

Substance abuse counseling is one of the fastest expanding areas in mental health jobs. The Bureau of Labor Stats (BLS) forecasts the field to grow by 31 percent over the next half-decade. Part of this growth is because of the continued struggles that numerous Americans have with alcohol and drug dependency. Additionally, with the flow of the Affordable Treatment Act, numerous substance abuse therapy solutions are currently covered by insurance coverage. This has, subsequently, led lots of people to look for treatment that could not or else pay for to do so simply a few years earlier.

Furthermore, numerous jobs are appearing in the criminal justice system as a growing number of courts are moving towards sentencing drug culprits to therapy for incarceration. And since substance abuse counseling is such a high-stress field of work, there is a very high level of employee turnover, meaning, there are usually much more tasks in the field than there are qualified workers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Data, education and learning needs to function as a substance abuse counselor are incredibly varied, maybe more so than any other psychological wellness profession. In some states, an entry-level job can be done with little more than on-the-job training after high school. Workers with this degree of education and learning as well as training can not be called counselors, in itself, as state regulations generally preclude any person without a master's degree or higher to call themselves a counselor. Instead, substance abuse counselors generally have to have a master's level in psychology, therapy, social work, or a carefully relevant area. Although coursework is concentrated on dependencies and also psychopharmacology, greater focus has been placed on typical training in human behavior and counseling techniques over the last few years.

For some workers, acquiring a Ph.D. is advantageous, especially if they desire to participate in private practice or operate in a medical setup. Ph.D. programs in addictions and substance abuse therapy are plentiful, as well as typically take five years to complete. Individuals that operate in a clinical setting such as a private practice or rehabilitation center are needed by regulation to be licensed by the state in which they live. Various qualification programs are likewise provided for substance abuse counselors with different specializeds as well as varying degrees of education via the NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals.

Substance abuse counselors require a very certain set of skills. These include: Recognition of the illness processes of addiction. An exceptional understanding of causes and effects of addiction on both the private and within the larger area. This includes awareness of neighborhood social as well as cultural influences. Outstanding communication skills-- they must be able to understand and also relate to individuals in situations very different from their very own, they need to be able to get their trust, gather info as well as discuss services in a reliable way. Good situation monitoring skills-- their function may entail managing individuals in severe crisis situations, they must be positive in managing this (including self-destruction prevention methods).

Preparation and also business skills-- they will likely have to arrange their own caseload as well as patient record maintaining. They may also be involved in project growth and also management. Patience-- clients may display difficult actions as well as a substance abuse counselor need to have the ability to defuse such habits in the short-term however likewise work to redesign it in the longer term Attention to information and also observation skills-- they require to be able to run the risk of examine individuals that may not constantly be forthcoming with accurate details.

Good working understanding of pertinent regulations as well as legal methods-- to be able to provide precise help as well as insight. Analytical and also problem addressing capabilities-- every case will be different and also may well need them to assume 'outside of the box' to locate a service to suit their client. Ongoing personal growth-- should maintain updated with new areas of research study, approved practices and also new techniques. Ethical-- have to be able to keep stringent working ethics in addition to sticking to individual discretion issues.

Every school area in the country must be proactive in attending to drug as well as substance abuse in schools. The simple truth is that teenagers are revealed to drugs as well as substance abuse daily, so avoidance of these dangerous fads requires to be a top priority for all schools.

As a matter of fact, it is not just school counselors and also teachers that are required to take responsibility for this problem. School principals and also superintendents require ahead of their students and make sure they recognize exactly how their life might alter in the event they do not obtain correct help.

Every student that attends school for five hours a day requires to be shown just how to stop drug and substance abuse. The last thing that trainees need is to come to be a fact by being gotten by the courts for the 2nd time or having a dependency turn dangerous.

It depends on the principal and also school counselors to make sure that trainees recognize the seriousness of the problem. They should discuss with trainees how their lives can change if they do not obtain correct therapy and also aid.

In a lot of circumstances, school counselors have the understanding and tools to fight this problem. This consists of supplying assistance for moms and dads and also their young adults on exactly how to stop their youngsters from making use of drugs and substance abuse.

Schools should additionally supply support systems for trainees that are influenced by this problem. This group can include their moms and dads, friends, teachers, and also school staff.

School counselors also have the power to provide intervention programs that aid teenagers and also young adults obtain the aid they require. Parents need to comprehend the value of providing their teen's the best help offered.

Treatment programs have actually been revealed to enhance total grades, decrease the teen's danger of important abuse as well as alcohol addiction, and help them stay out of trouble. When a teenager gets this kind of aid, it has a profound effect on their life.

Students need to understand how significant drug as well as substance abuse are and also exactly how to prevent falling into the wrong crowd. Drug as well as substance abuse has actually ended up being a nationwide epidemic, so all schools require to be positive in discovering methods to provide treatment for their trainees.

The outcome of this is that school areas will be evaluated on just how properly they resolve the concern. Those that focus on prevention of substance abuse in schools stand apart from the rest.

Given that so many teenagers currently take into consideration a school as an important part of their life, school districts are dealing with a lack of success. Some schools are much more effective than others, however it is important that the emphasis is put on avoidance.

This can be done through mentoring, sporting activities, therapy, as well as a lot more. If the emphasis is placed on this concern, after that just advantages will come for trainees and school districts.

In addition, they are able to adjust as unexpected occasions or obstacles happen in their individuals 'lives. Providing people with checkpoints in their treatments enables them to identify their success and strive to proceed with their treatment program. Therapy is not practically consulting with people and leading them with their healing program. These duties may alter depending on the sort of business you function in.

As a drug abuse counselor, you really do play a responsibility in assisting individuals restore their lives in addition to finding happiness independent of medicines and likewise alcohol. It supplies the drive to continue aiming to help others as well as also use sources to those in need, one private each time. The success stories are genuinely what keeps inspiring drug abuse therapists to maintain doing what they do. Other Responsibilities Certified Alcohol Medicine Therapists recommend and also advise individuals with alcohol, cigarette, medicine, or various other problems, such as wagering and additionally consuming problems. May recommendations people, relative, or teams or associate with.

What is Your Career Choice Salary Earning Potential?

A substance abuse counselor is a type of mental health counselor who treats patients suffering from drug or alcohol dependency. They may also treat individuals who are concerned they are abusing drugs and alcohol in a way that might lead to addiction. These mental health professionals will work with both the chemically dependent client and their family to find coping strategies and plans of action to foster success for everyone. Family involvement can be an important part of the recovery and healing process. Substance abuse counselors are increasingly in demand and they are expected to continue to be so through 2026. People who enjoy helping others and have patience often make ideal substance abuse counselors.

To become a licensed substance abuse counselor, your educational and training requirements will vary from state to state. Most people will complete degree programs at accredited colleges and universities. Some states might only require a certificate; whereas, other states will require a degree. All potential counselors will require a certain number of supervised hours with clients, to pass an exam, and to clear child abuse and felony background checks. Majors for this career can also vary, however, most people choose an undergraduate degree in psychology and specialize in substance abuse as a minor when it is available. You might also have to complete the National Counselor Exam to become officially licensed in addiction and substance abuse within your state.

Some employers will hire former addicts without any formal education or training. These individuals are expected to have been clean and sober for a number of years, usually two or more. Those who employ these types of substance abuse counselors believe that the real-life struggle of someone who has overcome their problems can be highly beneficial to those who are currently abusing alcohol or drugs. Employment for these individuals is highly limited but you can always take accredited online courses to complete certifications and degrees while you work.

You will require a number of hard and soft skills to be a success as a substance abuse counselor and it can be helpful to have certain natural or experience-based characteristics. Your hard skills will be the right education, certifications, and job experiences. If you have not completed your supervised training, you are less likely to be hired. Individuals who are able to manage stress well, have superior social skills, possess the ability to maintain appropriate boundaries, and have experience with recovery are likely to perform well as a counselor. And the soft skills that help mental health professionals excel in this field are highly specific, such as confidence, a desire to help, empathy, and listening skills.

The growth of this profession is directly related to current social issues. The opioid addiction crisis continues to be a significant strain despite states working to implement prevention and treatment programs. Jails and prisons are overcrowded, influencing a move by judges to sentence more criminals to drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation rather than to jail or prison. Another trend is happening among employers; some are more likely to send their employees to treatment rather than to terminate them, particularly for those who can do video sessions rather than miss work. Schools are also taking a more proactive role dealing with alcohol and drug abuse in teens and even children who are raised by drug and alcohol abusers. All of these trends are leading to significant growth in the substance abuse counseling field.

Job Duties

The job duties of a substance abuse counselor will vary based on the employer and state. It is important to note that a counselor of this type will not be permitted to give psychological therapy or to prescribe medications. You will act as a mentor and an advocate for your clients to help them reach understanding of the reasons they have become dependent on drugs or alcohol. You might also help them find employment, help them establish support networks, create life improvement plans, and work with the family members who have been affected. The overall goal of this type of counselor is to help the client become self-sufficient without the use of drugs or alcohol.

• Evaluate the physical and mental health of a client.

• Identify situations and behavior that are counterintuitive to recovery.

• Provide a safe and nurturing counseling environment.

• Work with family members to help them with coping strategies to deal with the problems of their loved ones.

• Actively listen.

• Create a plan of action.

• Develop a support network.

• Make referrals for clients to alternative resources, tools, and services.

Career Outlook

The job outlook for a substance abuse counselor far exceeds that of nearly all other careers between 2016 and 2026. This counseling field is expected to grow by up to 23% during this time. This exceptional growth can be attributed to the trends of more substance abuse counselors in schools, more rehabilitation sentencing, more employer support, and the opioid crisis. The number of substance abuse counselors has already grown by roughly 30,000 jobs since 2012. These jobs are often considered highly fulfilling and in the top 50 of overall best jobs in the US and top 25 for the best health profession jobs.

An often-overlooked aspect of substance abuse counselors is the significant ways by which they positively impact society. These professionals are directly related to community improvements in several ways, including lower crime rates, fewer hospitalizations and accidents, safer roads, and less domestic violence. And these mental health professionals help to improve the lives of dozens of people through just one client, from family members to children. If you want to make a lasting, positive impact on the lives of thousands of people over the course of your career, you might just want to become a substance abuse counselor.