What Is Community Counseling?

Community Counseling is the work of professional counselors who assist individuals, families, and groups with diverse needs through challenges in their life journeys. Counselors take a developmental perspective that people grow and change throughout their lives.  Professional counselors understand principles of human development, psychology, mental health and change theories, and they establish effective helping relationships with people from diverse cultures. Counselors are skilled in the assessment of people and situations, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, and in the application of cognitive, affective, behavioral and systemic strategies to facilitate change.

Professional counselors practice in a variety of settings including:

•    Mental Health Clinics
•    Human/Social Service Agencies
•    Educational Settings
•    Hospitals
•    Businesses
•    Private Practice
•    Corrections

Professional counselors help clients explore their concerns and assist them in creating change.  They work with clients to implement personal goals and/or advocate for system-wide changes.  As professional helpers, counselors are respectful and responsive to clients and offer a safe place for people to share their experiences and to explore ways to cope.  Counselors are skilled in implementing therapeutic interventions designed to help clients challenged by a range of circumstances including: trauma, depression, anxiety, stress, unanticipated life events, interpersonal discord, social injustice, worksite disruption and career issues.

Our Community Counseling programs consists of courses designed to

•    apply appropriate individual, couple, family, group, and systems modalities for initiating, maintaining, and terminating counseling, including the use of crisis intervention, and brief, intermediate, and long-term approaches.

•    understand individuals and groups served by a variety of institutions and agencies that offer community counseling services and to promote access to community resources.

•    apply models, methods, and principles of service delivery for clients based on human development approaches

•    apply principles and models of biopsychosocial assessment, case conceptualization, theories of human development and concepts of normalcy and psychopathology leading to diagnoses and appropriate counseling plans, including the principles of diagnosis and the use of current diagnostic tools such as the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM),

•    promote effective strategies for client advocacy in public policy and other matters of equity, accessibility, and justice.

•    participate in community-based practicum and internship opportunities to gain experience in direct practice of counseling under the clinical supervision of site and faculty supervisors.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook offers more information on the profession of counseling, including a description of the types of work settings, job outlook, earnings, and required qualifications at:  http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos067.htm which covers information offered by the, 2004-05 Edition.  Additionally, the CACREP web site provides helpful information about at http://www.cacrep.org/index.html.