Use of Assessment in Counseling

Caption: Checklist on a Clipboard

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            According to Young (2017), assessment is a critical component in counseling for collecting information about a client and their presenting problems.  There are formal assessment methods, which include testing, questionnaires, and having clients fill out different forms (Young, 2017).  Informal assessment involves other ways for gathering information about a client, including observing and questioning the client.  Informal assessment is more of an ongoing process during therapy, whereas formal assessment may take place at a specific time.  Before a counselor implements any assessments with their client, they want to build rapport with their client.  Through the use of assessment, counselors are able to determine whether their counseling services are beneficial for a particular client or not.  Assessment also helps counselors gather crucial information in order to assist the client in setting realistic goals.  Learning about a client’s history helps counselors gain a better understanding of the background and experiences they come from (Young, 2017).

            Standard, Sandhu, and Painter (2000) discussed how the assessment of spirituality is becoming a popular area of interest in counseling.  Spirituality appears to be a contributing factor to good mental health and effective growth and development.  Through the use of assessment, the client and counselor are both able to gain a more accurate understanding of what the role of spirituality is in the presenting problems that brought the client to counseling.  Assessing spirituality also helps counselors determine effective interventions that incorporate spirituality. 

            Assessments are used to help improve the efficiency of career counseling (Super, Osborne, Walsh, Brown, & Niles, 1992).  It is imperative for counselors to have an understanding of the client’s level of career maturity in order to provide proper services.  Utilizing assessments in career counseling allows counselors to gain a better evaluation of where the client is at developmentally in order to help them.

References

Standard, R. P., Daya, S. S., & Painter, L. C. (2000). Assessment of Spirituality in counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 78(2), 204-210.

Super, D. E., Osborne, W. L., Walsh, D. J., Brown, S. D., & Niles, S. G. (1992). Developmental career assessment and counseling: The C-DAC model. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 71(1), 74-80.

Young, M. (2017). Learning the art of helping, 6^th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.