Accountability and outcome in the counseling profession

Accountability and outcome in the counseling profession A Client plays a crucial role in determining the outcomes of a therapy program. A counselor and a client must establish a good partnership in order to obtain the necessary information regarding client’s problems. The client should be actively involved in a decision making process when it comes to the choice of his/her therapy.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Accountability and outcome in the counseling profession specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In addition, a counselor should take into consideration client’s preferences and include them into a therapy program (Isaacs, 2003). In some cases, a client may require more information regarding therapy program but fail to make decision on the therapy program. Client may influence therapy outcomes by ending the therapy prematurely. He also determines whether he/she will go through the therapy process. Premature termination of therapy occurs when a clie nt stops receiving therapy before attainment of the required goal or objective (Loretta Howard, 2005). The information obtained by a client, either from the internet or the counselor, has impact on the choice of therapy he/she makes. A client involvement in the therapy process will determine the therapy outcome in addition to quality of the treatment choice (Kelly, 1996). Client can ensure the accountability by ensuring that he/she receives quality health services at an appropriate price. He should look for the most qualified and certified counselor to handle his/her condition. It is his jurisdiction to ensure that the medical procedures done to the client follows legal practices, and they apply approved therapeutic model in the therapeutic process (Loretta Howard, 2005). For counselors to be accountable, they should educate their clients so that clients are able to make informed choices on the therapy program. They should educate clients on how to manage their condition and, more important, the need for therapy compliance. They are incharge of client’s health and should take a responsibility (Randall Kelly, 2007). A counselor will determine outcomes of treatment through the aspects of his/her personality and the techniques he applies in the therapy programs. These aspects also determine his skills and his application of counseling models in solving problems. They also impact the outcomes of the therapeutic program (Randall Kelly, 2007).Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The information counselor gives to a client influences the type of therapeutic plan the client will choose. A more researched counselor will direct client on making an appropriate therapy choice. In addition, counselor’s relation with the client will determine patients transference (Kelly, 1996). He should create trustful environment for client to hav e confidence of him and be able to communicate freely in order to facilitate counselor’s exploration on client’s problem. Also, client’s attitude towards counseling affects the therapy outcome. In cases of stigma associated with seeking for a therapy, it can force a client to avoid the seeking therapy (Isaacs, 2003). A counselor should promote accountability by informing client on the purpose of the therapy process. He/she should orientate client to therapy process and engage him through the process. For a counselor, it is crucial to approach this process with honesty and responsibility in order to foster client’s trust in the therapy process and promote compliance (Randall Kelly, 2007). Collaboration between client and counselor promotes accountability; this collaboration may include client’s relatives and third party payers. It clearly bridges the gap between the parties. It also gives a room for collaborative problem solving and provision of cl ients with services from other care providers. Therapy program acceptance by both parties is an indicator of its success and reasonability. Third party payers have a role of funding and reimbursement of client’s bill. The significance of a client’s needs assessment is to promote his health through initiating change. After the needs assessment, the counselor determines the unmet needs and puts in place plans for improvement. He has to prioritize them and strategize on how he is going to meet them (Kelly, 1996). The significance for program evaluation is to determine if the objectives are met and if a program is within the laid time limit. It seeks to identify what working right for the client. It also establishes if the client is benefiting from the program and satisfied. It determines the effectiveness of the program. It also gives trust to the relatives and stakeholders on the program progress. It gives the counselor a basis for planning on future according to the ach ievement attained. Accountability is necessary to provide a stakeholder, as well as other members of supervising authorities with the necessary evidences about appropriate work of the counseling services. It provides connection between counseling practices and service impact.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Accountability and outcome in the counseling profession specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Program evaluation helps counselors improve the effectiveness of service provision by care systemic examination methodologies and outcomes. In addition, it helps counselor to plan and implement counseling practice. It is also undertaken to improve counseling service and provide justification for existing program (Randall Kelly, 2007). Research is crucial for counselors when addressing the increased attention on accountability and evaluation based practices. As an educator, a counselor requires research and evaluatio n skills in order to train other counselors. Research enhances their clinical preparation of the upcoming counselors through equipping them with supervised experience in evaluation methods. It will also enable them to conceptualize and implement evaluations of counseling program on their own, and consult their fellow counselors. Also, it has impact on development of counseling profession through provision of understanding of counseling program evaluation model and practices (Randall Kelly, 2007). References Isaacs, M. L. (2003). Data-driven decision making: The engine of accountability. Professional school counseling, 6, 288–295. Kelly, K. R. (1996). Looking to the future: Professional identity Development, accountability, and change. Journal of mental health counsel Sexton, 18, 195–199. Loretta, J. B. Howard, B. S. (2005). The American counseling association practice research network (ACA-PRN): A new research tool. Journal of counseling and development, 83, 481-488 . Randall, L. A. Kelly, C.J. (2007). Program evaluation: The accountability bridge model for counselors. Journal for counseling and development, 85, 162-172.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More

Cultural and Ethnic Studies Essay Writing Guide

Cultural and Ethnic Studies Essay Writing Guide When writing an essay on cultural and ethnic studies, it is essential that you familiarize yourself with the subject matter of the essay, identify the right terminologies to use, and have a holistic approach of what the essay will entail. Professors in colleges give essays to scholars in the course of the school period, which is computed with the rest of the semesters course work. Essays in cultural and ethnic studies seek to achieve a specific purpose. Notably, this can be to argue out a particular point or to explain certain stages needed to complete a task. The scholar should write the essay in a clear and systematic way that allows for the easy flow of ideas, which will reveal a proper understanding of the subject matter. The essay should be precise and should be within the guidelines of the professor as defined in cultural and ethnic studies. In some cases, when writing essays in cultural and ethnic studies, the professor might present you with several topics to choose from wher eas, in other cases, you may be allowed to choose a topic for yourself. In such a case, you need to have an understanding of the way to select an ideal topic for your cultural and ethnic studies essay. However, for your professor to test your understanding of different issues in the subject area, he may decide to give you the topics to write. Writing of an essay might be challenging but this cultural and ethnic studies essay guide will help you write your essay with ease. Selecting a Topic for Cultural and Ethnic Studies: Prompts from Our Experts There are various issues that you should consider when choosing a topic for an essay in cultural and ethnic studies. These things include: Length of the paper: an essay in cultural and ethnic studies should have a basis of writing the paper. The subject area is wide and entails various issues that are intertwined with tradition and the various practices that are undertaken by different ethnic groups. Having a wide variety of cultures, it is advisable for the scholar to first determine the length of the paper as a guide to what topic to write about. Given that most essays are supposed to be brief and precise, it is advisable that the paper should be between five hundred and six hundred words. Therefore, it essential to choose a topic area that is narrow so that the essay is not too long and ensure that it does not have gaps and uncoordinated ideas especially when one tries to squeeze a big topic to a small essay. Topic complexity: it is good that you choose a topic that you can handle; in this case, the topic should be within your understanding. Topics in cultural and ethnic studies essays are complex depending on what level of study one is at; for example, there is a difference in the content that is covered in college, undergraduate or postgraduate studies. To reduce the stress level that can be induced by confusion caused by a given topic that you are not conversant with, chose a topic that you are conversant with; in this case, it should be one that you can write about with a lot of ease. Resource availability: look for all the sources of information on the topic of cultural and ethnic issues. The sources can be primary, secondary, or tertiary sources as long as you obtain the required information on cultural and ethnic issues. This is a crucial area in choosing a topic to ensure that you do not choose a topic that has limited sources of information since it will strain you when searching for the information required to write the paper. Prewriting tips you should consider: writing of an essay in cultural and ethnic studies and any other essay might prove to be a problem since most scholars face difficulty in translating ideas and thoughts into systematic words to write in the essay. Therefore, it is important that you clarify confusing and difficult issues before writing the essay. Planning, brainstorming, clustering, and outlining ideas are among the essential pre-writing cultural and ethnic studies essay tips that will ensure that you write an impressive essay in cultural and ethnic studies. These steps in writing of the essay will make it easy for you to arrange your ideas in a systematic way that will help you write a high-quality essay. The topics for the cultural and ethnic studies essays may include: Discuss the difference between xenocentrism and ethnocentrism. Discuss the different symptoms that are associated with interaction with new cultures. Explore the significance of racial identity. What are the different privileges that the whites had in history and still continue to enjoy. Examine the importance of mentoring the less privileged in the society. Planning: this entails properly writing and clearly stating the various issues in the topic chosen for cultural and ethnic studies. Arguments should have a strong basis and offer correct and reliable reference points. Planning for this paper helps an individual to work fast and know what to work on and at what time to work on it. Brainstorming: brainstorming on the topic chosen will help you to arrange your work in a coherent way and increase your understanding of the subject matter. In this way, you will be able to write the paper easily and connect one idea to another. There will be a good flow of ideas in your essay and this will make it easily understandable and enjoyable to any reader that will come across it. Free writing: this entails converting thoughts and ideas into words on a piece of paper. At this point, punctuations and grammar should be considered. However, it is important to note that when free writing, you are supposed to write the work in a formal language that will only require referencing and editing. Clustering: at this point, you gather your ideas together and arrange them in a way that there will be free flow of ideas. Clustering involves simple mind mapping and allows you to explore how ideas you have developed fit together. You can cluster your ideas through writing your cultural and ethnic studies topic at the center of a blank paper and drawing outer circles that you should complete with ideas on your chosen topic. How to Formulate a Thesis Statement A thesis statement summarizes the claim or main point of the essay. It should inform your intended audience the significance of your cultural and ethnic studies subject matter and provide a roadmap for the entire paper. If the essay is about ancient civilizations the thesis statement should provide an argument showing the impact of the ancient civilizations and offer a way to understand the concept. A thesis statement should: make a disputable claim or interpretation, be written as a single sentence at the end of the instruction segment of the introduction to present the writer’s argument, tell the reader your opinion about the essay and what it will prove, serve as the organizing principle of the essay, direct your audience to the major pieces of evidence you will explore in the paper. The body of the essay should organize information and evidence that convince the reader of the logic of your claim in the thesis statement. The following steps help in developing an appropriate thesis statement. Read and compare sources. Gather and organize information found in books, journals, articles, and online sources on the chosen cultural and ethnic studies topic. Look for relationships between ideas and concepts that constitute the topic and analyze the significance of the established relationships. Draft the thesis and consider the counter-arguments. Draft a statement that presents the basic argument of ideas that result from the analyzed sources, and which you are sure to support with scholarly evidence. Since you are likely to take a stand on one side of the chosen argument and ideas, consider the other side of the argument considering that the counterclaims help in refining the thesis statement. This strategy is more effective when writing an argumentative type of essay. Cultural and Ethnic Studies Essay Outline A cultural and ethnic studies essay may be persuasive, informative, or argumentative. Regardless of the type and purpose, the essay’s structure should be well organized, logical, and clear. The outline should entail: Cover page: the cover page text contains name, course, date, and instructor’s name. Some lecturers prefer essays with a cover page while others insist on the omission of the cover title. The formatting style should also dictate whether or not you should include a cover page. Abstract: the abstract in an essay should be brief but it should describe the essay, its content, and its significance. Similar to the cover page, tutor preferences will indicate whether to include an abstract or not. Introduction: The introduction is the first main part of the essay and should begin with a hook and a statement about the essay’s topic. Elements that characterize the introduction include: a short statement of the essay’s objective, thesis, and questions that the essay will answer, a placement of specific cultural and ethnic studies topics in the broader context but in a way that represents the essay’s arguments, a description of relevant and current literature on the subject of analysis, if necessary, a clarification of terms specific to the cultural and ethnic studies discourse. Body: The body of your essay should present a synthesis of the paper’s research and provide information about the paper’s topic to broaden the reader’s understanding of the issue you are exploring. The structure of the body segment depends on the goal of your essay. Consequently, no permanent conventions dictate aspects that need to be discussed or the manner in which they should be analyzed. Important Elements of the Body Section Divide the body text into segments and subsections that represent main ideas and supporting evidence. Each unique idea or argument should be in its own paragraph. Take note that a paragraph should have a minimum of four sentences. Use the paragraphs and topic sentences to develop your paper’s argument comprehensively and without repetition. Provide evidence for your arguments by quoting existing literature on selected cultural topics pertinent to the essay. If the paper is argumentative, quote certain claims and contrast them with your opinion or disapprove the claims. Do not forget to provide reasons for disapproving a claim. Reference all the analogous and literal text and idea quotations. In cases where further clarification and comments are needed but their inclusion in the text would disrupt the paper’s fluidity, insert the content as footnotes. However, the presence of the footnotes will depend on the essay’s specified writing convention. The composition of your text should be clear and logically comprehensible, and the structure will depend on aspects unique to the chosen cultural and ethnic studies topic. Provide reasons for your idea and criticisms instead of summarizing existing literature and gathering quotations. Moreover, only provide information that is relevant to the understanding of your essay issue. Conclusion: The conclusion should restate your thesis and summarize your main points of evidence for the reader. You should restate the topic briefly and explain why it is important and ensure that it is concise and clear. Restate the thesis statement, but not in the same words that were used in the introduction. Importantly, it should be narrowed and focused on your cultural and ethnic studies topic. Post-Writing Tips Proofread. The essay is not complete until you have proofread to correct grammar, sentence structure, and content errors. While all the errors can be corrected at a go during the first proofreading attempt, it is important to read through the paper twice or thrice to check for specific issues at each period. For instance, go through the paper to check grammatical errors and sentence structure mistakes. On the second reading attempt, read the paper aloud to point out incoherent contents and sentence structures. Furthermore, assess the term paper for content meaning, coherence, and logical flow of ideas and supporting evidence. Finally, ensure the paper is free of nested sentences, passive constructions, and unreferenced content.

George Mason Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

George Mason - Essay Example judge and statesman, a leader in the cause of American rights in opposition to British tyranny, author â€Å"Fairfax Resolves,† (1774), active in work leading up to 1787 Convention which framed U.S. Constitution. He has also been remarkable as he â€Å"did not sign Constitution and opposed ratification due to fear of inadequate limits on Federal power to prevent its becoming tyrannical; urged addition of â€Å"Bill of Rights;† was one of principal slave-owners (including Washington and Jefferson) who deplored existence of slavery and favored abolition, with compensation by government to owners of freed slaves.† (Mason). All these aspects of this great leader were, it seems, not enough to earn him a more respectable position in the pages of American history. A profound analysis of the life and works of Mason makes one recognize the impact of a true social and political leader upon the future of a great nation and this will also indicate the need for reserving a prime position to this influential leader in the unoccupied areas of American history. In this paper, an overview of this great American leader who, all through his life was steered by his belief in the rule of reason as well as in the essentiality of the natural rights of every man is undertaken. This has been significant an attempt in appreciating the natural leadership of Mason in the political and social aspects and recommends for a greater position for him in the American history. It is essential to have a basic awareness about the biography of Mason in order to appreciate the true leadership traits in his character. Thus, it can be seen that George Mason was born at the Mason family plantation at Fairfax Country in Virginia, to George and Ann Thomson Mason in the year 1725. After the death of his father when he was only 10 he was brought up by his uncle, John Mercer and soon he established himself as one of the important figures in his community. Mason married Anne Eilbeck in 1750 and had five children