Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Professional and Clinical Issues surveys an array of issues and challenges every clinical mental health counselor (CMHC) needs to be familiar with to develop their professional identity and succeed in practice. The opening chapter offers an overview of relevant issues needed to begin the development of a professional identity as a CMHC, including credentials held, professional memberships, accreditation, roles and functions, evidence-based practice (EBP), common factors important for client outcomes, and nine characteristics of the effective CMHC. The chapters that follow first focus on critical professional issues and then on important clinical issues. In order, the chapters discuss history and current issues; professional associations in mental health counseling and related fields; common settings where one finds CMHCs; credentialing of CMHCs and related professionals; ethics; culturally competent counseling; abnormal "atypical" behavior, diagnosis, and psychopharmacology; case conceptualization; case management; consultation and supervision; and program development and evaluation. A book that is both comprehensive and down-to-earth, Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling is filled with vignettes, interesting stories, and reflective exercises. It is an ideal text for courses and programs within the discipline.