Clinical mental health counseling

Clinical mental health counseling is a distinct profession with national standards for education, training, and clinical practice. Clinical mental health counselors operate from a wellness perspective, which emphasizes moving toward optimal human functioning in mind, body, and spirit, and away from distress, dysfunction, and mental illness. Counselors also view wellness and pathology as developmental in nature, and take into consideration all levels of a client's environment when conducting assessment and treatment. Counselors also frequently take a team approach, collaborating with other mental health professionals to provide the most comprehensive care possible for the client.

Early Greek philosophy provides some of the earliest views of mental health and illness. Hippocrates, who is considered the father of medicine, related behavioral tendencies and a person’s temperament to the relative balance of their body fluids. He believed that imbalances of these fluids led to aberrant behaviors. Other Greek philosophers such as Plato theorized that aberrant behaviors stemmed from societal issues that required a community response. Promoting happiness and wellness was also a major theme for the early Greeks and Romans. The founder of hedonism, Epicurus, advocated for the hedonistic lifestyle, but he also warned that there was a risk of pain if the pleasures were withdrawn. Epictetus, on the other hand, believed that people were not disturbed by things, but by the view they took of those things, so he advocated for peace of mind to treat these disturbances.

There were both cruel and humane treatments developed in the Middle Ages for the mentally ill. Most behaviors that could not be explained were attributed to supernatural causes and that humans innately had a battle between good and evil happening inside of them all the time. People were tested to see if they were evil or with the devil using “water tests”. In Baghdad and Damascus, however, in the ninth and tenth centuries, humane treatments were being developed in which centers of care for the mentally ill were based in love and kindness. Humanity regressed again in the 16th century when hospitals known as asylums were developed to provide a place for people who were unable to care for themselves. These institutions were terrible and people were often kept in restraints and left there in their own waste. In the late 1700s, there were people who began to reform the system and developed something known as moral treatment at the time. Moral treatment included organized schedules of productive behavior, socializing, entertainment, education, exercise, and nutrition.

In the early 1900s, counseling had not yet developed into treatment of mental health issues and was more focused in education. Frank Parsons, known as the father of guidance, developed a plan to educate counselors and began the Vocational Guidance Movement. He was concerned with the problems of youth as youth unemployment became a major concern for adolescents as urbanization occurred and sustainable work and family income generated on family farms was not as prevalent. At this time, counselors were considered vocational counselors and this initiated the approach that began to form the more contemporary counseling process. Around the same time, Clifford Beers, a former patient of mental health hospitals, wrote a book exposing the terrible conditions of mental health institutions and he advocated for reform. Beers later founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, which later became the National Mental Health Association. Jessie B. Davis was the first individual to make guidance a regular part of the school curriculum. He was a superintendent or administrator and advocated for what became school guidance and counseling.

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