What
Demand Exists for Counselors?
As more and more people seek various forms of individual
counseling as a way to deal with life challenges,
an increasing number of people are choosing careers
which seek to help these people.
The U.S Department of Labor not only reports that
counselors held about 526,000 jobs in 2002, but also
reports that, overall employment of counselors is
expected to grow faster than the average (increase
36% or more) for all occupations through 2012. In
fact, there are usually more job openings than graduates
of counseling programs.
Certainly, there are many different methodologies
out there for helping and counseling others. A great
many of these methodologies place the counselor in
the role of analyzer, advice-giver or problem-solver.
Some counseling methods rest upon assumptions that
we cannot entirely control how we feel, and thus seek
to cope with emotions which are inevitable. Others
are predicated on the belief that getting the client
to change "problematic" behaviors will lead to that
person having the emotional experience they want.
Still others focus upon looking for ways to alter
or remove the offending "stimulus" that is "causing"
distress.
Our methodology is very different.
The
Option Institute - Our Philosophy
We believe that each individual is his or her own
best expert. That means that, even if we are struggling
or unhappy, we each have our own answers. After all,
only you have lived your life, thought your thoughts
and felt your feelings, so only you truly know your
reasons for feeling or behaving in the way that you
do. Thus, only you can make the ultimate decision
to become happier or change a perspective.
What's more, we believe deeply that everyone is doing
the best they can, with the best of intentions, based
upon the beliefs they hold. When we train people in
the Option Process® Dialogue, they learn how to
use our nonjudgmental, nondirective system of questions
to help people uncover the beliefs fueling their unhappiness
or seemingly ineffective behaviors.
The Explorer (the one answering the questions),
then has the opportunity to change his/her beliefs
and thereby change the feelings and behaviors fueled
by these beliefs. This often results in people discarding
beliefs they've held for decades-beliefs which have
fueled countless instances of distress, discomfort
and seemingly self-defeating behaviors.
Many times, Explorers replace such beliefs with
perspectives which produce long-term happiness and
behaviors that are much more effective at getting
them what they want.
In our programs, we use this process, the Option
Process® Dialogue, to help you to get very clear
and comfortable-an important prerequisite, we believe,
to reaching out effectively to help another.
At the same time, we have programs which are specifically
designed to teach you the attitudinal and technical
skills you need to use this process to help others.
Whether you want to train to be a certified Option
Process Mentor/Counselor, or you simply want to learn
the basics of the process to add to you repertoire,
we can offer you a program that fits your goals.
