A New Vision for Counseling

Abstract

Counselors, to their own and their clients’detriment, have been following the lead of psychiatrists, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to diagnose what psychiatrists have decided to call mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, clinical depression, and bipolar disease). But as of now, the psychiatrists have not provided evidence of brain pathology to support these diagnoses. Furthermore, psychiatrists, who completely disregard mental health, still claim to be members of the mental health establishment. This article suggests to the counseling profession that they publicize the fact that they are true mental health professionals who have been improving mental health for more than 50 years without drugs. The author, who has never prescribed a brain drug, suggests they take a close look at choice theory, the mental health concept he has now added to his reality therapy to help clients toward better mental health with no danger of doing any harm.