What Does a Counselor Mental Health Do?
Diseases Mental

What Does a Counselor Mental Health Do?

Published at 02/09/2012 18:48:53

Mental Health Counselor

What Does a Counselor Mental Health Do?

When one suffers from depression, abuse, unhealthy relationships and other psychological issues, one needs someone to talk to. If the one suffering from depression is not comfortable bringing it up to their friends and families, professionals are there to help.

Mental health counselors are experts with mental health issues. They are well trained professionals who are there to help understand each individual client’s struggles.

Counselors work in diverse community settings designed to provide variety of counselling, rehabilitation, and support services.

Duties

What Does a Counselor Mental Health Do?

Duties of counselors vary greatly, depending on their specialty. What mental health counselors do is they assist individuals with their personal problems in order to become more self sufficient. They help individuals deal with self-esteem issues, suicidal attempts, addictions, stress management, educational decisions and many other mental or psychological issues that may affect an individual. They work with individuals, families and groups to address and treat mental and emotional disorders and promote mental health.

They handle records and documentation of their clients’ cases to use these to work with other professionals to address and understand the clients’ needs. They often work closely with other mental health experts and professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers to make sure that all the patients’ needs are being met.

Here are some of the things that mental health counselors do:

• Maintain confidentiality of records relating to their clients case.
• They encourage patients or clients to express their feelings and discuss what is happening in their lives.
• Guide clients in the development of skills and strategies for dealing with their problems
• They evaluate clients’ physical or mental condition based on the review of client information
• Counsel family members of the client to assist them in understanding, dealing and supporting the patients
• They may also monitor the clients’ use of medications
• Evaluate and assess the effectiveness of counselling programs and the progress of the clients

These are just some of what mental health counselors do.

Education and Training

What Does a Counselor Mental Health Do?

If you want to become a mental health counselor, you must earn a bachelor’s degree in counselling, psychology, human services or social work before earning a master’s degree in mental health discipline.
It will take you at least four year to earn a bachelor’s degree. And an additional two years of full time study to earn a master’s degree.

After completion and graduation, mental health counselors must spend time in a clinical setting under the supervision of a licensed mental health counselor. This training is called internship or residency and usually takes at least two years to complete.

When and Where To Seek A Mental Health Counselor’s Help

If you are feeling burdened by something and you are uncomfortable sharing how you feel to your friends or families, seek a professional’s help instead. Professional counselors offer help in addressing many situations that may be causing emotional stress including but not limited to:

• Substance abuse or other addictions
• Eating disorders
• Sexual abuse
• Anxiety, depression and other mental and emotional disorders
• Family and relationship issues
• Domestic violence
• Death of a loved one

Signs or indicators of when you should seek counselling or professional help are when you are having difficulties at work, you are losing your ability to concentrate, when are isolating yourself and avoiding people and social functions. Other signals in wherein you should consider seeking a counselor’s help:

• When you spend 5 out of 7 days of feeling unhappy
• When you can no longer prioritize what is important in your life
• When you can no longer manage your stress

Once you’ve determined the need of a professional help, you may now locate a mental health counselor through:

• The yellow pages
• Referral from your physician
• Recommendations from your trusted friends
• Hospital
• Community mental health agencies

Counseling may require hard work most of the time but changes and progress do happen. Trust your mental health counselor he or she can provide your much needed help and support provided that you also do your part.

Comments

Most Recent Articles

  • Keeping A Journal For Mental Health
    A mental health journal is a journal that one keeps so as to track their mental health progress from day to day. This is especially important if one is undergoing therapy as this can help th...
  • About Mental Health Services For the Homeless
    Mental heath service for the homeless are services offered to people with mental disease which occur as a result of some organs failure in the head. This disorder can bring much complication...
  • How To Choose the Right Mental Health Course
    A mental health course is a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities. He is then able to cope with the normal stresses of life, he can work productively ...
  • How Can I Learn Nursing Mental Health
    Mental health nursing involves caring for the patients of different age brackets who may be suffering from mental illnesses such as anxiety disorder, depression, dementia, and bipolar disord...
  • Top Mental Health Facility in Washington Dc
    Almost everyone had their own share of frustrations, depressions, self pity and the feeling of being of less value. Because of the man’s emotional nature, the feeling of sadness and de...
  • The Best Center Mental Health
    Mental health centers are places that offer programs to help patients with mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depression, addictions, anxiety disorder and...
  • About Mental Health Information
    There is wide range of mental health information available in the public domain all with the intention of making it accessible to all, whether one is affected, directly or indirectly, or jus...
  • What Is a Mental Health Clinician
    Mental health clinician is the work of diagnosing and treating people who are not mentally fit and they are trying to avoid seeing a doctor. Although mental health clinician is a job like an...
  • Compare Private Mental Health Care To Public Mental Health Care
    Mental health care services or providers are for people with any sort of mental or psychiatric illness, be it big or small. Not too long ago mental health care was only considered an option ...
  • Los Angeles Jobs Mental Health Worker
    Los Angeles, California is also known as the City of Angels. People from all over the world have made this city their home and the total population of this city is 12.9 million people. The p...
  • A Brief Guide To Forensic Mental Health
    Forensic mental health can arguably be the meeting point of mental illness and the law process. It is where mental illness can play a role or leads someone into committing a crime and they m...
  • How To Hire Mental Health Therapists
    A mental heath hire is the act of hiring a person who has knowledge in the mental health field. This person is qualified in dealing with people who have mental and/or physical issues. There ...
  • Can Parents Put Adult Children in a Mental Health County Hospital?
    Early 19th Century in the United States, mental health county hospitals are some like “a house” were people is taking care of with chronic illness and mental health care was...
  • Top Graduate Programs For Mental Health
    It is very difficult to decide which type of graduate study to pursue when you want to work in the field of mental health. But surprisingly most students in psychology wish to do a graduate ...
  • What Is Treatment Mental?
    Mental disorders are classified as psychological condition usually marked by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, and emotions that seriously damage ones psychological and social...