Career Exploration - Medical Health Counseling - Research Paper Example

? Career Field and Occupation The occupation that I chose to explore is Mental Health Counselor. The O*NET SOC of this occupation is 21-1014.00. The Nature of the Work for this Career Medical health counseling mainly involves working with individuals to ensure ideal mental and emotional health. As a counselor, I will handle different kinds of issues such as marital problems, stress management issues, effective parenting and problems arising from teenage pregnancies. Therefore, the occupation mainly involves interaction with individuals of different characters. The major duties that I will handle in this occupation include intensive communication with the patients to ensure that I obtain full and detailed information from them (National Center for O*NET Development, 2010). In addition, I also have a duty to ensure confidentiality of the patients’ information, so that the clients can trust me. I also have the duty to organize counseling sessions for all the clients in order to ensure that each client is accorded ample counseling time. I also have to develop different treatment plans for all the clients based on their different problems. For instance, a client seeking counseling services about marital problems will not be counseled in the same way as a client being counseled about parenting issues. Therefore, as a mental counselor I have to organize the way in which I will handle each of these clients. Finally, I have the duty to prepare and keep treatment records of all the patients that I counsel. As a mental health counselor,my typical workday should involve a maximum of eight clients. The number of clients handled per day should not be high since this might lead to poor quality services. However, I should at least handle two clients per day. The activities of the day will depend on the client being handled. For instance, in some sessions we might engage in extracurricular activities such as games and sports. On the other hand, other sessions will involve reading books and magazines. Therefore, generally the activities that I engage in with the clients will also determine the number of clients that a handle in a day. Working Conditions for this career The work environment in this occupation mainly involves working during the day. This is because; some of the clients will be aggressive and uncooperative and thus, handling them during the night might be difficult. On the other hand, as a counselor, I need to spend a lot of time with the client and therefore, this might involve long working hours with minimal breaks(U.S. Department of Labor, 2012). In addition, counseling is not a king of job that can be sharedlike administering of drugs. In this occupation, one particular counselor can only handle one client. Therefore, working with other counselors is very rare, unless handling different clients. This occupation also has different psychological aspects. For instance, it is very stressing when handling an uncooperativeclient. Preparation and qualification for this career In order to be a mental health counselor, I should possess the right qualifications. I should well be acquitted with issues pertaining psychology. This implies that I should have the knowledge of the way I should handle different psychological problems such as self-esteem and suicidal attempts. As a counselor, I should also be proficient with Sociology and Anthropology (National Center for O*NET Development, 2010). I should also be fluent in the language that I will use to counsel my clients. Since I will be dealing with record keeping, I should also be efficient in doing clerical work. This will help me to be more organized in the way that I keep records for my clients. Since it is clear that the occupation mainly involves dealing with people, it is clear that I need to possess effective communication skills. Therefore, I should be a good speaker and listener. I should also be socially perceptive in order to ensure that I understand the position of my client. Critical thinking is also an essential skill that is should have when counseling all patients. This is because; this will helpme to understand when a client is lying. In addition, it will also help me to come up with different solutions for the clients’ problems. The occupation also demands experience since it is impossible to handle different characters without the required experience. Other personal traits that I should possess as a mental counselor include patience and kindness. I should be friendly to the clients in order for them to listen to my advice. Opportunities and future outlook for this career The occupation composition in this field already involves 69, 400 job openings(National Center for O*NET Development, 2010). Therefore, is clear that although the job opportunities might not be as many as those in other fields might, the opportunities are still many. This can be supported by the fact that individuals keep on having different problems each day and thus, they demand psychological help. In future, the opportunities are bound to reduce since; as the number of mental counselors available in the market increases, so will the opportunities reduce. For instance, currently the number of employees available doubles the opportunities available. Therefore, some of the employees are bound to remain unemployed. The job security will hence depend on the quality of services offered to the clients (Career OneStop, 2012). Economic and non-economic benefits of this career One key economic benefit of this occupation is the high wage rate. Employees are normally paid $19.27 per hour and $ 40, 080 per annum. This is a relatively high wage rate compared to salaries in other occupations.As an employee, I am also supposed to obtain other benefits such as sick leaves andvacations (National Center for O*NET Development, 2010). On the other hand, non-economic benefits in this occupation include few working hours since, as an employee I might not be occupied with a client every hour. I also obtain some personal satisfaction from this occupation since; I get to talk to a large number of people and I feel delighted when I help people solve problems. There are also psychological rewards in the occupation since; I get to develop myself when I handle different problems from my clients. However, some of the problems may affect me psychologically especially when I handle a traumatized client. For instance, when handling rape cases, I might be affected intensely by the client’s agony (Moodley, Gielen& Wu, 2013). Therefore, as a counselor I have to learn to be strong when handling my clients. Disadvantages and/or special situation for this career One key disadvantage of this occupation is the way in which the work is seasonal. Sometimes clients seeking counseling services will be very few and unavailable such that as an employee I will be rendered unemployed. Travelling to the patients also increase the work expenses in the occupation, this is because; unlike in other occupations where the employee is always in an office, in this occupation, sometimes I have to visit the clients at their homes (U.S. Department of Labor, 2012). Conclusion I have learnt that this career is very involving since; it involves dealing with clients with different characters. I have learnt that in the occupation as a counselor I have to be very social and communicative with the patients in order to fulfill all my duties. In addition, as a mental health counselor, I have also learnt that the occupation demands effective qualification(CareerOneStop, 2012). The occupational characteristics fit well with my current interests since; as an employee, I like communicating with many people and thus; this occupation will help me to engage with many different people. The occupational characteristics also fit in my career goals since; as an employee, I have the goal to assist people facing different problems in the society. O*Net has many advantages in the way that it assists a person to understand the tasks of his or her occupation. Therefore, as a counselor I can be able to clearly identify my key activities and duties. References CareerOneStop (2012).Careers and Career Information -. Retrieved  2013, from http://www.careeronestop.org/ Moodley, R., Gielen, U. P., & Wu, R. (2013).Handbook of counseling and psychotherapy in an international context.New York, NY: Routledge. National Center for O*NET Development (2010).21-1014.00 - Summary Report: Mental Health Counselors. Retrieved July 2, 2013, from http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/21-1014.00 U.S. Department of Labor (2012).Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition. NY: Sage. Read More