Clinical mental health counselors, like doctors and lawyers, practice in specialty areas. These areas are specific to client issues or populations for which the counselor has had advanced clinical training and experience. Often, counselors enter a training program with an idea of client issues or populations for which they have a passion to work. These specialty areas include, but are not limited to, drug and alcohol treatment, eating disorders, trauma, crisis management, depression, and anxiety.

At this time, you may have an idea of the client issue or population with which you would like to specialize. You explore your choice in this Discussion to help you either confirm your choice or help you realize that your true passion may lie with a different issue or population.
To prepare for this Discussion:

Review Chapter 12 in the course text, Orientation to the Counseling Profession: Advocacy, Ethics, and Essential Professional Foundations, focusing on client issues. Think about the client issues and populations with which you would and would not be interested in working.

In the Walden Library, choose a video that demonstrates a client population or client issue that interests you. Think about why you selected this video.

Review the media, noticing what the clinical mental health counselor does during the video.

After reviewing the video, reflect on anything that surprised you in the video.

Think about any insights you gained or conclusions you drew about client issues and this population from the video, noting specifically if anything reinforced your desire to work with this client issue or population.