Counseling Philosophy & Advocacy for the Profession

You are to develop a scholarly paper that presents your current understanding of your counseling
philosophy and the ways you will advocate for your clients and the profession.  This is your first
opportunity to organize a picture of your counselor identity.  There will likely be changes and adjustments
over the course of the program, as well as throughout your counseling career.  This is a work in progress
which seeks to define who you are as a counselor.  

As you write this assignment, keep in mind that this paper can inform your job or internship search and
your final portfolio project; therefore, this paper should represent your best work.  The assignment should
be written in APA format and the body text should be no more than 8 pages double-spaced, size 12,
Times New Roman.  The paper will be written with APA section headings utilizing each of the
following components.  A title page, and a reference page in addition to the body of the paper are
required. A minimum of 8 references is required to support your opinions. (At least five of your
references should be peer reviewed sources).  An abstract is not required. 

You should include, but are not limited to, your perspective on the following questions:   

1.What is your role as the counselor?  Discuss what you have learned about the characteristics of a
professional counselor 
2.How do you envision your personal attributes and gifts intersecting with your professional
counselor role? (I think my gift is the ability to be empathic, feel the person’s pain, energy,
feelings, high interest to help and support, be the one who a person can trust, no judging.)
3.What is the client’s role in therapy?  
4.What counseling approaches interest you the most?  Why? (Cognitive-behavioral, motivational
interviewing, person-centered therapy, positive psychology, solution-focused brief therapy
(SFBT), strength-based approach)
5.What fosters change in a client? How do you view this change to happen? 
6.How will you incorporate faith and spirituality into counseling? (I will always give a choice to a
client if he is interested in spiritual counseling or not. I will respect my client’s choice.)
7.What counseling areas and specialties interest you?  What populations interest you?  Why? (I am
interested in working with immigrants to help them adapt to a new culture, life in the USA and
help them go through this process of such a big change in their lives. I am an immigrant by
myself, so I know that it is not always easy to start life over in a different country, with a
foreign language, different mentality)
8.How will you be involved in advocating for your clients and the counseling profession? 
i. Conclude with a mission statement that sums up your counseling and advocacy philosophy

Below are links to several counseling philosophies.  You will see that there is no set standard of how to
approach such a statement.  Please use these as a sample (i.e., your statement should be unique to you).   

 http://www.exrx.net/Psychology/CounselorRole.html 
 http://www.psgoldsmith.com/philosophy.htm 
 http://www.safeharbor1.com/html/SHCC_Practice_Philosophy.php 
 http://www.mikegrisham.com/about/personal_philosophy.html 
 http://www.whitefish-counselor.com/whitefish-family-counseling-philosophy.html  
 http://www.hfmcounseling.org/counselingphilosophy.htm 

Granello, D. H., & Young, M. E. (2019). Counseling Today: foundations of professional identity, Pearson Education, Inc.

McMinn, M. R. (1996). Psychology, theology, and spirituality in Cristian counseling, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.