Resource 1: Guidelines for Orientation to Professional Counseling Theory Paper This paper is an opportunity for you to begin to articulate your own personal theory of counseling. The paper should reflect an understanding of the theoretical foundations that you have studied in this course. Most importantly, the paper should reflect your own story— your world view, experiences, and values that explain why the theory you selected makes sense to you and how you would use this theory to work with the population you hope to work with. It is important that you choose one theory that will represent the framework of your work. You may draw from the other theories and their techniques, but you must explain why you are using them within the context of the theory you selected. You must demonstrate a clear understanding of the theories concepts, strengths and weaknesses. You will do this by identifying a population you would most like to work with and applying your theory to this population. Each paper should be typed double-spaced, in APA format. Use citations as appropriate. Papers should be carefully proofread, should provide evidence of considerable thought, and must demonstrate your ability to develop your positions in a clear, logical and organized manner. Your paper should reference at least 10 sources from journals, books or interviews that are relevant to your topic. If you have not done a research paper in a while your local librarians can offer tremendous assistance on helping you find reference material. Your final paper should be 10-12 pages long. You may organize your paper in any way that you like; however, please think about the following concepts and questions and integrate them into your paper as appropriate: 1) What theory did you choose? Who is the main theorist? 2) How does this theory best fit with your value system and personal beliefs? 3) What population do you hope to work with? For example: chemically dependent, domestic violence, families, general mental health, severely mentally ill? Etc. Why do you think the theory is the best choice for this population? 4) Consider the environment you will be working in. Are their limitations to your theory based on the time constraints imposed by insurance, agencies or time limited sessions? 5) What treatment goals would you formulate with your client based on the theory you selected? 6) Within the theory you selected what is your role as a counselor? What is your client’s role? 7) What is the nature of client resistance in counseling and how would you work with resistance in a way that is consistent with your framework? 8) What kinds of therapeutic techniques would you employ, and how would you select them? Are they consistent with the rest of your counseling philosophy? 9) What are the limitations to the theory you selected? Please include any comments as it relates to diverse populations. 10) How will the theory you chose limit the kinds of clients you can work with or the kinds of settings you are likely to encounter in your career? 11) Will you require additional training to practice the theory that you have chosen? 12) What new awareness’s did you gain by studying this theory? This paper presents a challenging task, and you should not feel that the resulting product defines an approach that will guide your entire career. One of the most important attributes of a counselor is to be open, receptive, and able to integrate new information into one’s personal schema and to be able to learn and grow from personal and professional experience. This paper is one step on that journey At the present time, I work in the addictions field, and I plan to continue working in the addictions field. I feel as though I am at home in the field, I myself am in the recovery. I work on a Detox unit right now. I would definitely incorporate Gestalt theory, because it looks like spirituality in disguise. I have read about eastern philosophy,and am very fond of it. Focus is also on the present, the here and now the focus is the awareness and how to achieve self-actualization, which much of the population I work with really seem to lack in that area and it is an extremely important area that they need, and you can incorporate it without bringing religion or spirituality into it. Person – Centered, Adlerian, Evidence-based therapies will also have to be include, MET, CBT, REBT, Behavioral therapy, along with Reality therapy, and Multimodal therapy.