The Importance of Counseling Competencies in the Counseling Profession

The first counseling competency that I believe is extremely crucial to develop for myself is building counselor self-awareness. Taking time to reflect on what my strengths and weaknesses are is very important in order to know what area to grow in. Everyone has some form of biases that they must become cognizant of in order to not be impaired when working in the counseling profession.

Each counselor should be aware of their key personality traits and tendencies in order to know how to approach the clients that they intend to serve. "Counselor’s self-awareness and personal development are some of the factors that contribute to the counseling and therapy process. For this reason, some practices are made to increase counselor self-awareness in counseling training" (Simsir 2021).

The second most important counselor competency, in my opinion, is advocacy interventions. I tend to think on a global impact level. Every client that is potentially helped with their healing process and therapeutic journey, will have the opportunity to change the world in their own way. The empowerment that we, as counselors, help provide, is foundational to the building up of the individual client and the community that they are a part of.

The goal for counselors should always be to work toward building awareness through community events in order to help eliminating suffering and oppression for the individual and local groups that may have previously been stigmatized. "From our point of view, counselors must deviate from the ingrained individual-level perspective that continues to guide the field of refugee mental health. Refugees encounter a plethora of postresettlement daily stressors, such as poverty, unsafe housing, unemployment, discrimination, and social isolation (Kondili, Interiano‐Shiverdecker 2022).

The counseling competency that I believe would be the most challenging is to fully understanding the client worldview. With a growing diverse population in America, there are lots of combinations of ethnic backgrounds, religious ideas, and familial experiences. Each client is so drastically unique. Their biases are predominately based on their personal experiences, many of which stem from childhood. As a counselor, I believe that it can take quite a lot of time and number of counseling sessions to glean the needed knowledge from the client to be able to determine what their privileges and/or marginalized status may consist of. 

When thinking of the counseling profession, I’m reminded of the following verse. Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." In essence, the field of counseling truly is about helping other's bear the emotional and mental difficulties that they may not be able to open up about with anyone else around them. I believe helping clients share, and build upon, their personal narrative that has led to their personal resilience is foundational for their empowerment. One of the greatest intrinsic gifts someone can receive is for their stories to be heard and validated with sincerity.

References

Kondili, E., Interiano‐Shiverdecker, C., & Hahn, C. (2022). Counseling and social justice advocacy interventions with refugees: Two case studies. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development., 50(4), 219–229. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12270

New King James Version Bible, 1982, Galations 6:2

Simsir, Z., & ŞİMŞİR, Z. (2021). Counselor Candidates’ Journey of Self-Awareness: Personality Theories. Kuramsal Eğitimbilim Dergisi., 14(3), 308–322. https://doi.org/10.30831/akukeg.862571