Competency Vs. Incompetence in Counseling

The subject of competency can prove to be a controversial and difficult issue to solve. It is an important aspect of all individuals working in the helping professions, specifically counselors. Lacking competency can result in unethical counseling for the client because it poses threats for both parties; the counselor may lose their positive reputation, and, in extreme cases, their license. The client may head downward in terms of their mental state and stability because their counselor did not assist them in the proper, ethical ways. That is why competency is vital and depending on how many, and which, areas you want to specialize in, it is necessary to be competent in all of those areas. For example, if a therapist counsels adolescents, they will need to be competent in the very broad area of issues surrounding teenagers and teenage lifestyles. However, it should also be stressed that even one area alone opens the door to many others; a therapist may be competent in counseling adolescents, but maybe they are not competent in counseling adolescents of different ethnicities or those who struggle with problems such as drug abuse, homosexuality, pregnancy, etc. A good therapist will not let their personal values and opinions interject with helping a client in need and influence how they help that client. Alternately, a good therapist will also know when they are not competent enough to help the client and therefore begin the process of referring the client, a very ethical decision when not abused, that will again be in the best interest of both parties.

The following is an example of a case dealing with competency vs. incompetence.

Mrs. Cormac, a devout Catholic, was a therapist who specialized in adolescent behavior and counseling. She recently began working with a young female client, Brooke, who was 16 years old. Brooke was placed in therapy by her mother who believed her daughter was troubled after bringing home failing grades, exhibiting constant disobedience and an overall bad attitude. In the early sessions, Mrs. Cormac learned of Brooke's distress concerning her father's MIA status in Iraq. In the sessions to follow, Brooke revealed to Mrs. Cormac that she had never had a steady boyfriend and had been practicing promiscuous, unsafe sex. This was a shock to Mrs. Cormac, but being a strict, devout Catholic, she could not condone Brooke's actions; furthermore, she would not educate Brooke on different methods of contraceptives, nor encourage her to use any. Mrs. Cormac felt appalled and went on to let her personal feelings and values continue until she abruptly terminated her sessions with Brooke, disregarding the significant amount of progress they had made. Brooke's mother soon learned of the incident, where she informed her mother of the reason behind Mrs. Cormac's decision to terminate. The mother filed a complaint against her to her company, arguing that the therapist was incompetent and also failed to refer her daughter to someone more competent.

This illustrates the therapist's level of incompetence. Even though she specialized in adolescent behavior and therapy, her strict religious beliefs conflicted with her being competent enough to provide thorough assistance to her client. The APA Code of Ethics states that termination is to be used on the basis of the end of successful sessions, the client gaining no benefits from the sessions, a threat to the therapist, or harm being done to the client by the therapy. In addition to this, the Code of Ethics states that it is required of therapists to provide pre-termination counseling to their clients, just in case termination is to be used at a later date. It is also made clear that the therapist takes responsibility of the client's care; the fact that Mrs. Cormac terminated and did not refer Brooke goes against these principles.

A good portion of research has been done on the topic of competency in the field of counseling. Much of it revolves around competency concerning cross-cultural backgrounds; having the competency to provide therapy to different backgrounds, be it ethnical, social or religious.

According to Moore-Thomas and Day-Vines (2008), it is highly important that counselors, especially school counselors, have the competence of counseling and understanding that certain backgrounds, specifically African American, are defined by their strong ties and beliefs in religion. Therefore, a school counselor must know these religious views so they can use sufficient measures of helping a student in need. In some cases, particularly in public schools, religion and spirituality is not something that is freely and openly practiced, let alone discussed. When these instances arise, the therapist will need to not only cater to their client's needs, but must also be aware of the guidelines of the school pertaining to the religion and spirituality. This article introduces a case study about an African American girl named Chandra who attends a large urban middle school. She is sent to the school counselor because of her bad behavior in class. The counselor learns that Chandra's religious faith is a big part of her and she admits that her behavior is not acceptable to God. The counselor then allows Chandra to express her religious beliefs. Overtime, Chandra's family and the counselor develop a plan for church-based counseling, which will be in more of her favor.

Recognizing that in order to be good at one's job (being competent enough), you would have to first acknowledge the fact that you will be dealing with certain matters and issues that may not fit in with your personal value system. However, a competent school counselor will know this and have the ability to lay all personal opinions aside for the well-being of the students and be willing to work with both the student and the student's family to develop alternate strategies to better help the child.

Another article provides specific examples and criteria used by a teacher on her students when teaching them ways to develop clinical competency. The teacher requests that their students, all of which are practicing their fields in various placements, use the learned theories on their clients. It was stated that there is no one right theory to use when assessing a client (Lytle, 2007). The teacher requires that the students also keep a countertransference journal while working with their clients, in four different sessions; they could choose to keep the same client for all four, or choose four different clients.

The article, though informative of ideas of evaluating competency, did not provide enough useful data concerning relative importance or validity of competency. Regardless of its lacking, the article deemed very helpful for graduate students, as well as teachers, on their way to becoming professional competent counselors.

Moving towards the next article, it describes some very important facts about today's society. It states that that the majority of the labor force is made up of minorities; this means that the number of individuals who are seeking some type of mental health guidance will rise intensely (Cumming-McCann, Accordino, 2005). Because of this, counselors and therapists will not necessarily have to be of a minority, but attain the competence for correctly assessing and assisting minorities. Another important aspect that it points out is that to gain a higher amount of competency, one must be self-aware concerning one's own racial background and culture, including any misconceptions such as stereotypes. Aside from being self aware, it is necessary to gain the same knowledge of one's own culture as different cultures.

This article makes plenty of sense; not simply in racial backgrounds and cultures, but it applies to all the dynamics and aspects of competency in counseling. Having self-awareness remains an essential quality even when it comes to personal issues; if a therapist is experiencing problems in their home, it will become necessary for the therapist to be aware of the problems and the extent to which they are affecting them. That way, they will be able to better judge if they are currently competent enough to go on and counsel a client, who may or may not be experiencing similar problems.

According to Blackwell, Strohmer, Belcas and Burton (2002), when an individual is receiving supervision, they are not to ever be judged in areas that the supervisor themselves are not competent in.

This is very fair, as the supervisor would not be able to provide accurate feedback based on specialties that they are not familiar with or do not hold. It should put the trainee at ease in terms of knowing that, at least in that particular area, they will not be misjudged or misrepresented by what their supervisor may have inaccurately recorded. This principle will be able to minimize common workplace biases by giving trainees the fairest chance possible.

CAMFT states a few things about general competency of a therapist: instead of blatantly offering the client solutions to their problems, a competent therapist will guide the client through a process of seeking solutions based on their own principles and values, not applying any personal opinions of the therapist as a method of therapy (2008). They also inform that competent therapists will only treat clients within the scope of their competency.

This sums up everything in terms of what to look for when searching for a therapist. It is the website's aim to assist those who are looking for professional mental help, specifically listing attributes of a competent therapist. This website serves as a helpful tool to someone who is new to the helping professions, whether counseling or seeking help. One who is seeking help will know what signs to look for when and if they have chosen a therapist; on the other hand, a therapist will be able to learn what those who are seeking do look for in terms of competency. A therapist will want to be able to be of the most help possible to their client or future client.

I conducted an interview with a female social worker, who I will address as SW. I asked her a set of questions regarding issues of competency in her workplace.

For the first question, I asked her if she has ever experienced any issues of her or other workers being incompetent on the job. She expressed that when she first started, a woman on the job appeared to have certain levels of incompetence because, as SW stated, there were things she should have known concerning the job, but actually did not. Interestingly, SW talked of a few people, all seeming to have different forms of incompetence. She went on to explain that when she first started her job, she herself felt inadequate and that she did not measure up to the standards and expectations of others who had already been working there. Even though there were in fact things she did not know, she set high expectations for herself, so she was able to achieve the level of competence she sought fit for the job; with that said, one will never cease to gain knowledge as long as they regularly evaluate themselves.

Concluding on everything gathered throughout this paper, competence is definitely something that must be learned; it is not something you will automatically have. Some people will naturally be more competent in certain areas than others, especially in multicultural competence, but everyone at some point will need to learn how to provide therapy in other areas. From the resources gathered, I can see that competence in multicultural aspects is a major plus for those practicing therapy, as clients will want a therapist who is familiar with their background. One problem I found with competency vs. incompetence was that in order to be fully competent, they would have to hold expertise knowledge in literally all areas, including multicultural, issues dealing with adolescents, drug abuse, child abuse, homosexuality, religion and many others. It would be difficult to become fully competent in all of these areas at once. However, I do understand that when therapists are in training, they must start out somewhere; by that, I mean that clients should not expect the therapist to be perfect. I completely agree with what the website I mentioned above states are the qualities of a good therapist. Though one may not be competent in all areas, their true competence will be proven by how well they are at not imposing their personal values upon the clients with the intention of solving the problem.

Reading through the American Psychological Association's Code of Ethics, I would add more details and guidelines of referring a client. The code supports cases of terminating a client, but they do not provide the same support for referrals. Cases do vary by unique circumstances, resulting in the therapist having to know when they need to refer a client, but with even a few simple statements in the Code of Ethics, it may make the subject and process of referring somewhat easier. Along with what was stated above, I would recommend that therapists in training choose two or three areas of interest that they would care to specialize in. Following, they could either choose to further their knowledge and training in those two or three areas, or, venture into more possible areas of interest. Also, it would be a good idea to remove the label of "incompetent" in most cases. I believe that each person going into the field of counseling or social work will naturally have some skills in their work; therefore, to label someone as being incompetent would be an unfair judgment call because although there may be areas where they are less competent than other areas, it would not make them incompetent as a whole. To assign a definition of an incompetent counselor, it would be one who does not have their client's best interest in hand and who does not show motivation, interest and a desire to learn more about their chosen profession.

Along with other issues like confidentiality and dual relationships, competence also affects the way helping professions are viewed. For instance, with a stigma already attached to therapists, levels of competence could also form stigmas based on assumptions that any normal, average person can be a therapist. Perhaps a therapist's skills could be underestimated, even though they have achieved the knowledge and education even as far as their doctorates. According to Alberta RN (2008), the majority of nurses, also part of the helping professions, indicated that they had already achieved their goal of competence, with a smaller portion only achieving part of their goal and wanting to continue to high competence, while and even smaller portion indicated they had not al all achieved their goal. Even though this data is from the perspectives of nurses, it is relevant in the sense that therapists can also feel this way in regard to their competency levels and when deciding which degree of competency they are content with having.

Regardless of any of the above findings, competency is an important aspect of counseling. Whether one is competent or incompetent, there is always room for higher education and skills.