Assignment: Project Self-Reflection Guidelines
Overview
Reflective thinking provides counselors in training with the opportunity to process and apply newly acquired or understood knowledge about themselves and others. Thus, self-reflection and evaluation are critical components to becoming an effective practitioner. Understanding who you are personally and professionally will impact your approach to training by fostering and cultivating development.
In this assessment, you will be tasked with exploring who you are and reflect on how this knowledge will inform your professional orientation as a counselor in training. From a historical perspective, understanding the origins of counseling helps counselors in training ground who they will be as professionals, discriminate their role from the roles of other helping professionals, and inform their training to become a counselor. With this framework established, you will be able to explain how your interests align with the philosophy of counseling. Further, exploration of your areas of strength and growth, as well as your self-care, will provide the foundation for your identity in the counseling profession and the knowledge to set personal and professional goals to facilitate your continued development.
There are two parts to the final project: an ethical case study analysis and a self-reflection. The self-reflection represents an authentic demonstration of competency because reflective thinking provides counselors in training with the opportunity to apply knowledge about themselves and others. The self- reflection will be submitted in Week Nine.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
• Explain the historical influence and philosophy of the counseling profession as it relates to society
• Interpret licensure and credentialing requirements as they relate to the professional counselor
• Employ appropriate personal and professional self-evaluation strategies for promoting self-care in the counselor role
• Determine ethical standards and legal considerations in professional counseling as they relate to client case conceptualization
• Differentiate between various professional counseling organizations and their benefits for developing a personal identity as a professional counselor
Prompt
In this assessment, you will write a self-reflective essay addressing who you are as a counselor in training and where you intend to go professionally. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Introduction: In this section, you will describe yourself as a professional counselor in training and how you fit into the evolution of the counseling profession.
A. Explain your personal rationale for becoming a professional counselor. Why is this a professional fit for you?
B. Describe the history of counseling for how it influences who you are now, a counselor in training.
II. Philosophy of Counseling: In this section, you will begin to develop your own philosophy of counseling by considering your own professional interests and ethics.
A. Explain how your interests align with the field of professional counseling, as opposed to another social science discipline. Why are you a good dispositional fit for the profession?
B. Explain how your emerging professional identity ethically aligns with the ethics of the American Counseling Association.
III. Focus Area: In this section, you will describe specific factors associated with the specialty area of counseling that you're interested in practicing within.
A. Explain the specific requirements for professional counseling licensure in the state that you intend to become licensed in.
B. Describe the specific requirements for professional counseling licensure in the specialty area that you intend to focus on. Consider the necessary supervision, postgraduate hours, and so on.
C. Describe how your professional abilities are aligned with your intended licensing goal.
D. Describe a counseling organization that is specific to your intended specialty area.
E. Explain the professional benefits of membership in the organization that you have identified.
F. Describe specific ethical code factors that are considered when working in the specialty area that you intend to become licensed in.
IV. Self-Evaluation: In this section, using your knowledge of what it means to be a professional counselor, identify personal strengths and areas for growth that you will bring to the profession.
V. Goals: In this section, develop two SMART goal statements that capture the expectations of a personal and a professional goal that should be achieved as a result of your learning.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.