Professional Behaviors and Dispositions: Counseling Competencies and Lifelong Growth

Professional Behaviors and Dispositions teaches counselors in training (CITs) how to cultivate counselor competencies and critical thinking skills in support of lifelong professional development. CITs will first gain a detailed understanding of the professional behaviors and dispositions expected of all counselors. They will then learn how to evaluate themselves for these factors using a universal growth model that promotes holistic, ongoing assessment of oneself and one’s relationships. Next, CITs will be presented with concrete tools and activities that they can use to cultivate and retain counselor competencies. Finally, CITs are given a step-by-step guide for creating a professional growth plan they can use throughout their program and their clinical practice. Accompanying this text is a helpful online faculty guide for supervisors to use while working with CITs. Aligned with CACREP, ACA, and ACES standards, this textbook will be useful for all graduate students training to become counselors.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Professional Behaviors and Dispositions: What Is PB&D? 2. Self-Evaluation and Personal Growth: How Do I Know I Have "IT" 3: How to Exhibit Key Counselor Dispositions: How Do I Get "IT" 4. Lifelong Standards: How to Measure and Keep "IT" 5. Application to Challenging Work: The Lifelong Growth Plan Appendices Resources Glossary

About the Author :
Candace M. McLain, EdD, LPC, ACS, is a core faculty member at Walden University in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program and has worked as a clinician, faculty and administrator in higher education for over ten years. She is a licensed professional counselor in both Michigan and Colorado as well as an approved clinical supervisor. Dr. McLain served previously as a clinical coordinator, coordinator of assessment and remediation and has served on the ACES Guidelines for Online Learning. Joelle P. Lewis, EdD, LCSW (CO) is a core faculty member at Walden University in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program and has taught in higher education since 2000. She is a licensed clinical social worker in Colorado. Dr. Lewis had a private practice for ten years, specializing in adult survivors of childhood trauma, and was the executive director for a domestic violence treatment program. She also served as the director of a residential treatment center for at-risk adolescents and as a mental health therapist for residential treatment for the chronically mentally ill.

Review :
"Professional Behaviors and Dispositions is one of the most on point and creative approaches to creating awareness, on the part of both counselor educators and supervisors (CES) and counselors in training (CIT), of their responsibility to engage in continuous evaluation of their roles and responsibilities. This two-part text addresses topics such as self-evaluation, the relational aspects of professionalism, and lifelong professional growth in an intentional manner that promotes the attainment of CACREP, ACA, and ACES requirements for competency. I see this book as a fresh and unique resource that should be a required text for use prior to or during practicum and internship, as a source of renewal for counselor educators and supervisors, and for promoting a growing sense of identity and professionalism on the part of counselors in training." David Capuzzi, PhD, LPC, NCC, counselor educator and past president, American Counseling Association "Filled with definitions of critical terms, descriptions of competency standards, personalized worksheets, and real-life case studies, Dr. McLain and Dr. Lewis deliver a reader-friendly guide for orienting counselors in training (CIT) to the normal, yet critical, self-growth and professional identity process. Readers will find the personalized author stories engaging and motivating as they prepare for productive supervision and consultation. I wish this book was available when I was a CIT." Jason King, PhD, LCMHC-S, NCC, CCMHC, ACS, student development coordinator, School of Counseling, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Walden University