Career Application Paper Fabian Hernandez

When I first thought about psychology I thought it was the process of learning how to

read people’s minds. While I knew it wasn’t mind readings or saying “it’s not your fault”

multiple times like “Good Will Hunting” or even the idea that Snoopy and charlie brown gave

us. While learning “intro to psychology” I was lost and confused about what Psychology was.

Thankfully for my professor, they made it seem like a fun and exciting field to get into it along

with my own life experiences. I knew I wanted to help people.

The class that made me take an interest in psychology was learning and cognition as well

as Developmental psychology. This is due to me going through an ACE or an adverse childhood

experience at a young age which is what drew me to learn more about how it affects

development among younger children as well as how they grow up throughout their life. As a

teen, I believed that I would outgrow my trauma. This has led me to pick Clinical Mental health

counseling as my future career path but I specifically want to work with younger children instead

of adults. A clinical mental health counselor works hand in hand with psychiatrists, social

workers, and other mental health workers. They can diagnose mental and emotional disorders,

also they know how and what to look for when identifying addictions and behavioral problems.

From there they can make a care plan and be able to work with patients. While my end goal is to

become a Clinical psychologist I want to take the proper steps to be able to achieve this goal.

The main difference is education level because a mental health counselor only needs a master’s

and a Clinical psychologist(CP) needs a Doctorate. Some other differences are that a CP needs to

continue to do research and to publish their findings for others to study and learn from.

The ability to have research read and studied and have others build off makes it so much

of a motivator to reach that goal. During Undergrad I have been researching a lot of topics that

were all somewhat related to the concept of ACEs and how they affect the development among
Career Application Paper Fabian Hernandez

children. I feel that this undergrad along with psychology classes such as Research Methods,

Senior Sem, and Drugs and Cross-cultural psychology has prepared me to identify social issues

and tactics to combat them. When it comes to Mental health as a whole it has been ignored by

society and even in some cultures, it is something that does not exist. All races have different

views on what the causes for mental illness are but when it comes to treatment one’s race and

ethnicity play a huge role in how to deal with them (Jimenez et al., 2012).

I understand socioeconomics plays a huge role in the quality of healthcare one can

receive around the world. A person’s education level is an important factor in the quality of

healthcare they will receive because education leads to better jobs, money, insurance, as well as a

different community to live in(Hahn & Truman, 2015). I have personally worked with children

from multiple socioeconomic backgrounds as well as many different ethnicities. This happened

at the boys and girls club which most of the kids came from a “rough” background and many of

the children were not expected to do much. Which eventually became their thoughts and beliefs

because most of them did not want to go to college and most of them were not doing well in

school. Yet with the proper attention and care, I was able to change a few of the kid’s minds and

help them get their grades around. Another job where I was able to gain more experience was

Loras all-sports camp. This taught me how to work and just how different “privileged” children

were and just how different their issues were. Instead of being doubted by everyone they were

expected to do even more than they were doing, they acted more entitled to gain attention and

entitled to achieving things they could take to their parents.

This taught me that working with different groups of people didn’t mean that I needed to

treat people differently. While some did require a bit more attention than others it did not mean

that I was to treat them differently based on their backgrounds. From class like “Interpersonal
Career Application Paper Fabian Hernandez

Relationships,” we learned that we are naturally drawn to people with similar backgrounds so in

the mental counseling field I need to not have those tendencies when it comes to caring for

individuals from all backgrounds.

This quality of care for everyone is a moral principle that governs my behavior while

working or in other words, it is part of the code of ethics. According to the American

Psychological, 5 main principles should be followed which are: Beneficence and

Nonmaleficence, Fidelity and Responsibility, integrity, justice, and Respect for people’s rights

and Dignity. Beneficence and Nonmaleficence are in regards to how their actions affect others.

This is due to them working in a way that affects people’s lives and we need to be able to put

aside personal, financial, social, organizational, or political factors to truly help others. The

second principle is “Fidelity and Responsibility” . I must be able to uphold all professional

standards, as well as have appropriate responsibilities, and be able to manage conflicts that could

lead to harm. Also, I must be able to cooperate with others and not just think that my word is the

final judgment on things. The third principle of “Integrity” means that one must be able to be

truthful in all that they do so their work must be their own whether it comes from practice or

research. The fourth principle of Justice means that everything should be fair and equal for

everyone. If it’s research, treatment, or any other services one should be able to use the right

judgment to not make mistakes and provide unjust practices on someone. The final principle

“Respect for people’s rights and Dignity” is as straightforward as it sounds no matter the

background of someone they have the right to refuse any treatment and they have the right to

treatment.

To tie the principles and what I will have to do at the job setting. The first relates to

what's going on in the world today very much. Since I want to work with children their parents
Career Application Paper Fabian Hernandez

must be there and as we have seen people are starting to become very open about their view

points. I being a hispainc person might be told that I am not suited to treat their kids or those

same parents might have different views from me. Yet I cannot allow this to get in the way of the

real reason I am there which is to provide a service and apply treatment. Also I cannot just look

to only help people from the upper class because they have money as well as I cannot just help

working class families because it will look good. Everyone deserves the same quality of

treatment no matter their views, background, ethnicity, and beliefs, which just reinforces the last

principle. I feel the third principle of “Integrity” holds a lot of truth in a new and upcoming

worker. I have been a student for the majority of life and this has caused me to be very eager to

get into the working world. This could cause some people to “bite off more than they can chew”

which means taking on too much responsibility and to have too much confidence in one's own

abilities. To be able to admit this and to ask for a second or third opinion shows that the person

has a lot of integrity and well as a lot of self responsibility and putting the patient first.

While it may seem like a challenge to be able to implement all of the ethnic principles together it

really is what the job is about. As a mental health counselor one will see people from all walks of life and

one should be able to provide the best treatment they can give no matter what. Also this is a job that the

money is not the motivator because some of the topics that come up in consoling are tough to talk about

so no matter the money that will not be enough. A person pursuing this field must really want to help

people which is what I feel that I can bring to the job. I would like to give the help that I wish I had at a

young age because the world does not talk about Mental health enough. If they do, the main solution is to

just have people try medications that can numb people and change who they really are which is not my

goal. I want to be able to find and treat the root of peoples issues to make them better on their own

without medications. If I get to the point where I must do my own research I want to be able to stress the

effects of just blindly giving out medications if a patient fits a criteria. We see this with children who
Career Application Paper Fabian Hernandez

have experienced ACEs and they are given ADHD medication or other stimulants. I hope to provide a

great service and help expand the world's knowledge of mental health issues.
Career Application Paper Fabian Hernandez

Citations
Hahn, R. A., & Truman, B. I. (2015). Education Improves Public Health and Promotes Health
Equity. International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation, 45(4), 657–678.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731415585986

Jimenez, D. E., Bartels, S. J., Cardenas, V., Dhaliwal, S. S., & Alegría, M. (2012). Cultural beliefs
and mental health treatment preferences of ethnically diverse older adult consumers in primary care. The
American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric
Psychiatry, 20(6), 533–542. https://doi.org/10.1097/JGP.0b013e318227f876