I have wanted to be a counselor since my freshmen year of high school and in the counseling field there are many specialties that I can focus on. I am fairly certain that I want to specialize in helping people with substance abuse and their families. I have always focused my studies, interests, and work on things that will help me in this field and I have a lot of qualities that help to enhance me in my eventual career. There are difficulties when I get to practice also like what people perceive as correct counseling style, challenges with my gender and race, and finally creating my own counseling style and plans. Currently I am studying for my psychology degree and planning on finishing with my bachelors’ degree in 2014, I have faced …show more content…
100).” This cycle is broken through detoxifying the body of these substances and then dealing with withdraw symptoms. Withdraw is usually the most trying time in recovery, common symptoms are nausea, nightmares, seizures, depression and hallucinations (Renner, et al, (2011) p.102). Another challenge I face is one of my own, my age, race, and gender. By the time I graduate I will be at least 22 years old and most people that become addicted get that way at a young age. The younger the child that tries the drug, the more likely they are to become addicted (Berger, (2006) p.456). As a Caucasian woman I will most likely be dealing with African American men, because they have the high numbers of inmates in prison for drug-related crimes (Roger & Merkle (2005) p. 7). My gender and race may make it hard to overcome differences and gain their trust, but I hope to break through to them enough so that they can open up to me in therapy sessions. I plan to do my best to understand them and help them as much as I can so that they can see that I am serious about helping them. Another problem many counselors with run into is that people are many times forced to choose between prison and rehab, so those in rehab may not want to be there. Again I will need to overcome their attitude and gain their trust. As I said earlier, a substance abuse counselor helps people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, but I am looking to not only help those
Post acute withdrawal syndrome happens after detox and the duration can last for days, weeks, and/or months. Detox usually last about 5-7 days and that involves the extreme dope sickness. The syndrome’s symptoms include the inability to think clearly, memory problems, emotional overreactions, sleep disturbances, and depression. I have always heard that the major reason that people relapse is because of the dope sickness. Scott Farnum stated
The licensing/certification and the responsibilities of addiction counselors vary from state to state and job to job. The licensing /certification may or may not be required for particular job. This license/certification is proof that one has received the proper education and training to pass the exam to receive the license or certification. The responsibilities may include group or individual therapy. The maintaining of personal records for each client’s case may include individual treatment plans and objectives as well as progress reports or notes. Being available for interventions and family sessions may also be a required. The demand for this type of job is growing. Corporations are seeing the benefits of retaining or adding addiction counselors to their benefit plans, or staff. This field offers a variety of job titles
With a lot of thought, I have decided that I want to become a substance abuse counselor. Substance abuse counselors spend a lot of time writing. While studying I will have to write many research papers, persuasive essays, and mock write ups. In the actual line of work most of my writing will consist of patient information; whether that be plan of procedures, treatment plans, notes, and diagnoses.
My greatest success is fighting my addiction. I suffered from addiction for fifteen years. I experienced several occurrences in rehab within two years. By the time, I turned twenty I endured two overdoses. First, I was sober for five years. Then, I relapsed after my twenty-fifth birthday. Finally, I have maintained my sobriety for two years. Meanwhile, I have no urges to consume drugs or alcohol. I struggled to overcome my addiction. My goal is to become a substance abuse counselor. One obstacle I faced in my sobriety occurred when working at a festival. DelFest is a music festival it comes to town once a year. Each person I waited on was drinking, doing drugs, or both. The booth I ended up working in, produced greasy fried food, hand-dipped
According to the National institute on drug abuse, the first age of alcohol typically begins at age 12 (Xavier Becerra). Pursuing a career as a drug and alcohol counselor is an intriguing choice for someone who wants to benefit society, wants to earn good benefits and a good salary, and provide a solid job outlook.
In my career as a substance abuse counselor I met this amazing women. To look at her she appeared to be beaten and broken down by the choices that she made in life. She was a heroin addict, prostitute, daughter of a broken home, mother to a child she abandoned, mother to a child that was conceived by rape, and a sex trafficking victim. In the time I counseled her, she told me many things. However, the one thing that stuck out was the time that she prostituted herself and ended up chained to a radiator in an abandoned building for two weeks and raped repeatedly by several different men. Regardless of her choice to be a prostitute she became a trafficking victim when she was held against her will and raped. The man that held her captive sold her body for sex to any individual willing to purchase it. While, this amazing woman has suffered from these terrible atrocities she has rekindled the broken relationship with her family, worked through her trauma, and has been in recovery from heroin for over two years.
I see myself 15 years from now as a Drug Counselor helping over a million people with their problems. I chose this career because I have lost a lot of family due to drugs and alcohol and i’ve been through it and no family should ever have to go through it.There are not enough drug counselors around the area for this many people to be doing drugs. Even though they shouldn’t be doing drugs in the first place. The satisfactions of me doing this job is not for the amount of money because drug counselors don’t make a lot of money. I would do it because i’ve learned a lot about drugs and the price that comes with it. I’ve learned a lot about drugs and there is still a lot more to learn . So i am going to pay extra special attention in health class.
A question that I was curious about asking dealt with how individuals in recovery function as substance abuse counselors. From experience, I have noticed that most substance abuse counselors are themselves in recovery. When I was in treatment, I related much better to
I will be talking with a client who is having issues with his career and drugs issues. Using the 4 principles from Motivational Interviewing (Rollnick & Bell, 1992) which is empathy, discussion of discrepancy, rolling with resistance, and support of efficacy, the interview aims at getting the client into the career-changing action they are contemplating. The client John is a 29 year old white male who seeks career counseling. He is employed full-time as a tester for a computer company and works part-time as a DJ for weddings and other social events at night and on the weekends (Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M.D.
The second Thing we will be discussing is the Job description of Drug counseling. What a counselor's job is to help others with their drug addiction. A drug counselor main job to do is to help or advice the abuser and prevent them from doing more (substance abusers and behavioral disorder counseling.) What this tells about the job is that people have to put an effort in trying to make the abusers try to stop, if people won't get help to stop their abuse than they would continue and not try to recover from the drugs. Another main example is where you are required to work as a drug counselor, there is many places where one can work but the main places are Hospitals, Health center,individual and family health services and state and local governments
I believe I possess the necessary skills and experience to become a Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialist. In my lifetime, I have encountered many individuals that suffer from substances abuse and have made It my main goal to help them through troubling times. I have attended many AA meetings as well as conducted family intervention. I have talked to addicts and tried to resolve their inherent grief or trauma that lead to their addiction. I have made it my priority to follow up with those individuals because I am aware of the importance of a strong support system for an individual during their weakest moments.
Becoming a counselor was not my first choice career. I have a vivid memory from my childhood, I am unsure at which age, I was coloring an activity worksheet where you were supposed to circle and color what you wanted to be when you grew up. I don’t remember what I chose, but I remember that I circled almost every profession on that coloring sheet. My college career started very similar to that worksheet; I wanted to pursue so many different fields of study that at one point I had planned that I would double major. My eventual goal when I transferred to UNT was to pursue my undergrad studies in Communication Design, but I would go back to school later on in my life and get my degree in Counseling. I had this plan mainly for
When analyzing both my Self and Environment sections, I believe I am on the right track in wanting to become a school counselor. I believe that I have interests that line up with what the field is desiring in its employees, and the assessments I took back this up. My work history shows that I am willing to advance myself as a professional, and I have multiple influences that have prepared me for the requirements that a school counselor should follow. Additionally, the research I conducted on the various job responsibilities, salary, job growth, and ethical conduct allows me to see that I am capable of being a school counselor. I currently love the field as a college student, and desire to continue the journey of advancing professionally.
I have always had an interest in psychology and counseling however, my passion to pursue a career as a school counselor developed because of my job I currently have. I am an admissions representative for an online university. I speak with many prospective students from all over the country and around the world. When I first started working an as admissions representative and listening to my prospective students stories, I was shocked that so many people were not helped in high school with preparing for a successful future after high school and were given no assistance with direction in life. One of my goals as a school counselors is to prevent this with my students so that they do not end up feeling the way some of my prospective
School counseling as always caught my attention. When I started my higher education, I had a focus on studying Elementary Education. However, after completing a college assignment for one of my psychology course, I found a very interested area in Psychology which is counseling. Since then, I have falling in love with counseling, and have spent a lot of time researching the career. I have conducted different interviews and have engaged in different counseling events that have helped me get to know the career. Therefore, when given this assignment, I felt more than prepared because I have spent a lot of time researching this career. However, I used the given source, ONET, to have more of a broad understanding about School Counseling.