Role of the forensic counselor - Assignment Example

Role of the Forensic Counselor Forensic assessment and counseling is the mode of assessment by hiring psychologists to answer the specified legal questions of the clients. For instance, questions regarding any injury, adverse environmental condition and medical or neurological illness. Whereas, clinical assessment and counseling is regarded as the procedure based on which the clients are often provided with underline diagnosis and treatment plan. For example, a client’s attempt to any suicidal or homicidal ideation needs clinical assessment with proper actions.

In forensic assessment and counseling, clients and psychologists at certain times generate adversarial relationship, while in case of clinical assessment and counseling, the relationship is determined to be a therapeutic one. Clinical assessment and counseling results help in enhancing the efficacy of the treatment of the clients, while, the results derived from forensic assessment and counseling, are utilized for making effective legal decisions. Additionally, in clinical assessment and counseling, a counselor or a therapist generally makes assumptions that may be subjective, intuitive or empathic.

Conversely, in forensic assessment and counseling, an assessor has its own perspective of making any assumption based on objective and unsympathetic approach. Specially mentioning, the scope of forensic assessment and counseling is deemed to be quite narrow than that of clinical assessment and counseling (Guo et al., 2012; Goldstein, 2003; Ackerman, 1999). In order to discuss about how the aforesaid differences reflect the disparities and the similarities in the roles of forensic correctional counselor and clinical counselor, certain legal implications associated with these two conceptions have been taken into concern.

Justifiably, forensic counselors deal with such information that fulfills the clients’ assessment purpose, while clinical counselors seek for obtaining information about diagnosis and making proper action plans. In terms of similarity, both these notions tend to assess the psychological or physiological conditions of patients (Melton et al., 2008; Hugaboom, 2002). ReferencesAckerman, M. J. (1999). Essential of forensic psychological assessment. New York: Wiley and Sons.Guo, Y., Wang, S.

, & Johnson, V. (2012). Clinical assessment in the counseling process: a teaching model. Ideas and Research You Can Use: VISTAS, 1, 1-6.Goldstein, A. M. (2003). Handbook of psychology, forensic psychology. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Hugaboom, D. (2002). The different duties and responsibilities of clinical and forensic psychologists in legal proceedings. Undergraduate Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research, 5, 27-32. Melton, G.B., Petrila, J., Poythress, N. G., Slobogin, C., & Otto, R. K. (2008).

Psychological evaluation for the court: A handbook for mental health professional and lawyers. New York: Wiley and Sons.