Throughout this course, I was reminded of the collaborative nature of the counseling
process. The client and the counselor must work together in order to correctly work on
the assessment, the diagnosis, and the treatment plan. The counselor who is not attentive
to the client and working with the client often misinterprets the client’s motivations. The
initial assessment gives the counselor and the counselor room to create a healthy
therapeutic alliance with the client, and it also gives the counselor a more thorough
understanding of the client through the gathering of data and focusing on the strengths of
the client (Jenkins, 2018a). Additionally, this step allows for the clinician to accurately
form decisions, to determine the nature the client’s presenting problem, the client’s
prognosis, the factors and events that lead to the client into counseling, recognize the
advancement of the issue, the client’s characteristics, and any other circumstances that
are involved (Jenkins, 2018a). While this process of gathering this information is
necessary for the counselor, it is also vitally important for the client. Within this process
that gives clinicians a solid base line, the client can become more self-aware and
