Benchmark Counselor Impairment and Wellness Paper

 

 

Benchmark Counselor Impairment and Wellness Paper Assignment Instructions

Overview

In more recent years, the American Counseling Association (ACA) has recognized that professional counselors, like all helping professions, are at a higher risk for burnout, vicarious trauma, and impairment. The purpose of the Benchmark Counselor Impairment and Wellness Paper Assignment is for you to be able to objectively explain issues that arise from being a professional counselor and how to mitigate those through personal wellness and self-care strategies.

Instructions

For this assignment, you will:

Write a 6 page paper in current APA format with professional guidelines including a running head, title page, abstract, and reference page. The abstract must provide a brief, but detailed, overview of the paper in 150–250 words. The title page, abstract, and reference page do not contribute toward the page requirement.

Your paper should address the following:

Define Impairment: This section should include a discussion of how and why counselors become impaired, what that impairment looks like, and how it can impact the practice of counseling. It should be 2 pages long.

Implications of Impairment: This should include a discussion of ethical misconduct, specifically noting the most frequently occurring ethical violations in your state. The article below will give some guidance, but you are also strongly encouraged to research this on your state’s counseling board website. It should be 1 page long.

Impairment Prevention: This section should include a discussion of what counselors can do to protect against impairment. It should be 1 page long.

Wellness Plan and Reflection: You will assess your own risks and develop a personal wellness plan. This section should be 2 pages long. Begin by taking the assessments listed under the Benchmark Counselor Impairment and Wellness Paper Resources on the Benchmark Counselor Impairment and Wellness Paper Assignment page. Discuss the results of the assessments and in what ways you see your results reflecting your current life.

Develop a Wellness Plan as a result of your assessments. Include reflections of the following question:

What areas of your life need more or less attention?

What changes do you need to make?

What steps are you willing to take to reach your goal of implementing needed changes?