Counselors Vs. Social Work

Counselors and Social workers both stem off from similar areas of interest. Counselors have a different focus than Social work. Counselors will rely more on the client and work with them to fix their issues, whereas for social workers the main focus is getting resources that will help the client get better. Counselors share more characteristics of their work with psychologists since they deal with a form of therapy – short term rather than getting other professionals involved in that individual’s life (Erford, 2014).
Social work was recognized as a distinct profession many years before counselors. Counseling got its start in the 1900’s by Frank Parsons. Parsons was viewed as one of the founding fathers of this time period for the counseling movement. He wrote a …show more content…
. Counselors focus on the well-being of the individual. Unlike social workers who try to find outside factors as to why a client may be behaving and experiencing these symptoms. Social workers believe that there are other triggers that cause the individual to be in the state that they are in. Many of the triggers are social outside forces. This philosophy is shown to counselors by 4 common characteristics. The first is Wellness perspective, where the counselor’s goal is to help the client attempt for a healthy lifestyle once cured. The second is a developmental perspective. Counselors know that the client is reacting normally to an abnormal event that has occurred in their life and this really shows the difference in technique compared to social workers. The third characteristic is labeled as empowerment. Counselors realize that the client’s condition might be temporary and want them to learn to be strong and independent once they have been through therapy. The fourth is that it’s warranted the counselor needs to believe that everyone can even in early stages of crisis a client can seek counseling (Erford,