1. In your opinion, what is consultancy and what purposes does it serve? Professional counseling has emerged as a descriptor for the treatment of interpersonal and intrapersonal problems in U.S. culture (Hackney & Cormier, 2013). Counseling takes the form of individual and group counseling which tends to include both internal and relational concerns. The American Counseling Association or ACA defines career counseling as the application of psychological and systematic mental health intervention strategies that address well-being, personal growth, and career development, as well as pathology (American Counseling Association, 2005). Counseling is intended to help clients gain greater understanding, appreciation, and wisdom regarding life's many potentials. Counseling also helps the client to change when life situations have become destructive causing unhappiness, stress, dissatisfaction and anxiety. Counseling can be designed as a preventative measure to help clients avoid predictable, stress-producing life events. In our class discussion on this topic we identified that counseling helps clients with coping mechanisms that result in greater happiness across the lifespan. Another alternative view would be that counseling could help correct pathology when counseling is viewed from a clinical perspective. According to our text, clinical counseling traditionally refers to care provided at the bedside of a sick patient and is used to provide psychotherapy and diagnosis of mental illness.2. What are the characteristics of an effective consultant? The characteristics of consultants are an integral factor regarding the consultancy process. A counselor's self-awareness and uncertainty... at the center of the paper... story within counseling. (1) Help counselors find unity and relationship within the diversity of existence. (2) Forces consultants to examine relationships they would otherwise have overlooked. (3) It provides counselors with operational guidelines to work within and helps them evaluate their development as professionals. (4) Helps advisors focus on relevant information and tells them what to look for. (5) Helps counselors assist clients in effectively modifying their behavior, cognitions, emotional functioning, and interpersonal relationships. (6) Finally, it helps counselors evaluate both old and new approaches to the counseling process. In our class discussion of this question we identified that theories within counseling serve as the road map, epicenter, or centerpiece of therapy and distinguish how counselors work and not work..