Diagnosis and treatment: some elementary considerations

Abstract

[Chapter overview]: Chapter 7. Diagnosis and treatment: some elementary considerations by Travis Gee provides an introduction to assessment and diagnosis issues for counsellors whose role has traditionally focused on helping, assisting, and supporting people who may have varying degrees of mental health or clinical psychological issues. Following on ethics, and clinical supervision, this chapter places centre stage professional mental health issues that counsellors need to be aware of, but that have also tended to be overlooked by many mainstream and popular textbooks in the field. This chapter is of particular relevance as it is written by a clinical psychologist and statistician, and so provides a valuable introduction to these approaches in clinical care for counselling practitioners and students. This chapter builds on the previous chapters of this textbook and challenges readers to grapple with the politics of diagnosis and treatment by examining ideas of impairment that may be linked to theories of social deviance, among many other theories. Readers are encouraged to dig deeper into their cognitive abilities as they engage with the text, and to sit with the ideas and concepts shared in this chapter. We encourage continued critical thinking and reflexivity on the part of the reader, and ask that you take these ideas into discussions in groups and with colleagues. We suggest that you examine the critical social issues involved in diagnosis, as well as engage with the content and logic processes suggested by the author. These issues are of great social importance, and may place counselling professionals into political hot seats as we become more aware of how our professions are expected to police the boundaries of the 'normal' verses the 'abnormal'. As the field of counselling evolves and takes on more responsibility in the mental health arena, we are increasingly asked to become aware of what may have been the traditional domains of psychology, clinical psychology, clinical social work, and psychiatry. While the field of counselling may highlight particular clinical specialisations and approaches to client care, in the real world of practice we are asked to work collaboratively and in interdisciplinary teams with other health professionals.