Mental Health Counseling

As the world around us continues to evolve, individuals are often exposed to natural and man-made disasters, crises, and other trauma-causing events. Satcher, Friel, and Bell (2007) predicted a significant increase in the overall “prevalence of mental health and behavioral disorders” within the population resulting from factors to include, but not limited to an increase in the occurrence of disasters, both natural and man-made (p.2540). This increase in the occurrence of disasters directly correlated with an escalation in environmental causes as well as violence of all forms. Shallcross (2012) further posited that exposure to traumatic events will be experienced by a majority of the world’s population. This probability of exposure to traumatic and disaster events, the increase in the …show more content…
In the article by Shallcross (2012), the author explained that counselors must not respond to those that have experienced such events with common counseling approaches. Therefore, it is integral that counselors be competent and knowledgeable with approaches specific to responding to disaster events to promote competence and effectiveness when assisting the population. After all, the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics (2014), identify that an ethical counselor is one that is competent in their knowledge, skills, and abilities and constantly seeks out training as well as education allowing the counselor to apply “best practices for working with diverse populations” (p. 9). To provide ethical and competent services, a counselor must continually strive to possess adequate knowledge and training to meet the needs of the clients especially including an understanding of the approaches tailored to specific