C4- Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment Planning

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the procedures and processes to assess, diagnose,
and formulate treatment/intervention plans for clients/consumers/students.
During my time at IVRS completing my practicum hours I was able to work with people
with disabilities and worked with an IVRS Counselor on developing plans and identifying
interventions for each job candidate. The information I learned was extremely helpful. An
important lesson learned was that not all job candidates with the same diagnosis need the same
interventions or supports. Intervention plans at IVRS take into account the clients natural
supports and their job goals. I do not consider myself an expert as an IVRS counselor, but I am
comfortable going through the process of asking questions and gathering data to develop a plan.
When I first began working with clients, I often found myself wanting a checklist addressing
certain interventions specific to people with certain disabilities. In retrospect, a checklist with
interventions based on a clients disability goes against the values of IVRS, since job candidates
are viewed from a holistic approach and not one approach is the same for all job candidates.
My second artifact consist of a meeting I had with Lacey Cherniss, a School Counselor at
Indianola Middle School. During our conversation, she shared her knowledge regarding
interventions with middle school students in an educational setting. She shared how difficult it
was at times to work with kids on interventions when her time in many cases is divided between
teaching a careers class, managing the cafeteria during lunch time and working on district wide
initiatives. She did share how much she enjoys working with kids on an individual basis. She had
a kid whom every time he felt as if he was getting upset his intervention required him to go and
see Lacey.

Diagnosing consists of identifying certain symptoms that are either socially inappropriate
or are distressing an individual. The evolution of the DSM is a great example of how symptoms
in different years may be diagnosed as something different. For example, homosexuality was
considered a diagnosis by the DSM, the DSM was updated in 1980 and homosexuality was
removed. As I conclude my educational journey, diagnosing is an area of development for me as
I believe in having sufficient information to make a diagnosis is essential. I will continue to work
on my ability to diagnose and develop treatment plans by participating in any webinars offered
by any of the counseling associations.