Blog of Chioce; Personal Growth

The progression of my counseling skills have come a long way in the past several months, prior to this class I worked as an instructional specialist III and taught medical microbiology at a local community and technical college and had a case load of 15 developmental students to advise.  I have since changed careers and now am a full time counselor with a case load of 80 students who have academic advisors, I actually get to counsel. I feel that this coupled with taking theories and techniques and then the practicum back to back has made a huge difference in my confidence.  I feel that my weakest point is still having the patience to allow that client arrive at the answers or goals instead of somewhat jumping the gun and rushing things.  I will always think that I talk too much, and will continue to work on that as well. 

Growth has been exponential in the last several years as stated in my earlier blog post today,  The metamorphosis of cultural and self-identity investigation caused a huge change in how I see myself, validating some things and rejecting a few that I have always told myself about how I see the world. Learning that the views I had were many times views instilled by family and not how I truly felt at all.  These are just a few of the things that have cultivated growth in myself and therefore growth as a counselor.  As a counselor I am compassionate, empathetic, attentive, and most of all genuine. I think I have traits that are indicative of a good counselor but caring isn’t enough to make me an excellent counselor. I have set a goal of attending at least one online webinar or podcast per quarter as well as taping sessions and reviewing them, myself and with my peers as a step to always cultivate growth as a counselor.  My thinking over the course of time to work through this degree is probably 180 degrees from where I was when I began.  Personal growth and understanding of self are two things I would not have achieved at this stage in my life and perhaps never would if I had not taken the classes in this program. I am grateful to all of the instructors who took part in my metamorphosis.