AMHCA: Definition Of Mental Health And Crisis Counseling

Diana Schimenti
Ms. Reillo
English IV
17 February 2015
Mental Health/Crisis Counseling
Section 1

In 1976, the AMHCA, American Mental Health Counseling Association
, committed to

promoting and establishing professional mental health counselors. Also, in 1976 group of community mental health and private counselors founded the AMHCA as a professional association for a newly emerging group of counselors who said that their practice was “mental health” counseling. By 1979, the founders of AMHCA organized four major key mechanisms to define the new profession. The major keys are to identify a definition of mental health counseling, setting standards for education and training and a code of professional ethics, creating a national credentialing system, and start a professional journal which includes research
Now, people are more understanding and science is answering the hard questions of why someone is that way. Most people aren’t sent to insane asylums anymore to hide and die, now they are sent to rehab and given daily medication and therapy skills to help them get on with their day to day lives. Although there are still some people we deem as crazy due to their mental illnesses, for the most part the world has become more understanding to those

in which we don’t know what they are going through. Year by year our view on the world on psychology changes more and more and it is changing for the better. Now we have history and books and our electronics now a days that help us move forward in our world of knowledge.
Mental health counseling has become a huge part in our lives and I believe that it will continue to grow as our years go on. I believe this because everyday we hear new stories in the news of
“psycho killers”, people who kill because they have a mental illness ,like schizophrenia, that affects their judgement on their day to day lifestyle and because of that they do irrational things. In order to become a mental health counselor, there are certain training that they need
I would make a great crisis counselor because sadly I know crisis way to well. I honestly can not tell you what my strengths are, the only strength I have is that I have become accustomed to tragedy. The type of crisis counseling I want to get into for domestic violence/ rape victims, people who self harm, people with eating disorders, people who want to give up on life. Unfortunately I know all of these topics way to well, but that is what makes this profession great for me. Ever since I was younger, all I ever wanted to do is help and support people who need it, and once I’ve been through my own issues I realized that these people who we are paying to help us have no clue what they are talking about. When I become a counselor, not only can I show them that recovery is possible but I can also be there for them more than any other therapist or counselor could. This is something I want to do for the emotional benefits for my clients, not for the personal benefits for myself. The only thing I can without messing up horribly, is helping people. Over the summer I created a blog originally meant for myself to complain and vent, however, even though I started off negative the end of my posts would