Preventive Counseling

Foundations of Preventive Counseling

This first section of Preventive Counseling contains three chapters that provide a needed foundation. These chapters are relatively lengthy because building a foundation is very important. (Subsequent chapters will be more moderate in length.)

Chapter 1, "Prevention in Mental Health," focuses on the history and evolution of prevention in mental health. Clarity about prevention is beginning to emerge, and this chapter traces various sources that have contributed to that clarity. It concludes with a definition of prevention that I intend to be contemporary and comprehensive. Chapter 2, "Everyday Prevention," is an entirely new chapter that contains a range of information supporting attempts by people to become their own preventive agents. Person-and system-centered skills and strategies are discussed, along with suggestions about how counselors and other professional helpers can assist people on an everyday basis to prevent significant problems and promote healthy functioning. Chapter 3, "A Conceptual Model," details the relationship among prevention, preventive strategies, and counseling and presents an integrating conceptual model for preventive counseling. This model is an adaptation of the original model in the first edition of this book (Conyne, 1987), updated to reflect current knowledge and practice. Now, on to Chapter 1, "Prevention in Mental Health."

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Prevention in Mental Health

Wellness, health promotion, prevention, subjective well-being, positive psychology, quality of life, healthy lifestyles-these terms emerge from the groundswell that is afoot in this country, felt among the general population and professional helpers alike. Every day increasingly larger numbers of people are joining the legions who are committed to leading healthy lives and avoiding sickness and disease.

In 1987, when the first edition of this book was published, it was obvious that the signs of this movement were all around us, and they have only grown in size and stature. A glance at the list of best-selling nonfiction books will typically show, as heading those lists, books on proper nutrition, aerobic exercise methods, stress management, parenting effectiveness, childhood development, self-esteem, organizational excellence, and other topics of interest to people who seem to be almost obsessed with the need for developing and maintaining personal health. Regular television fare, as well as programs beamed by cable or satellite, consistently carry lifestyle programming. A wide range of self-instructional, self-help cassettes is available for home viewing. The Internet has become a primary health-managing source for many. Self-help groups and study circles of all kinds are present in most large communities to help people not only cope better with crises and loss but also to assist them to function even better than they may be presently with such issues as communication, parenting, personal growth, and so forth. The mental health establishment is providing an increasing variety of educational programs in these same general areas that are meant to strengthen the healthy functioning of participants.

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Everyday Prevention

A young man went to the famous Sage and asked: "What can I do to be useful and happy?" He said he had tried everything: yoga, running, meditation, fasting, religion, psychotherapy, hard work, falling in and out of love, world traveling, deep discussions, psychedelic drugs, groups of all kinds, tantric sex . . . nothing had worked; he said he was still miserable and unproductive. The Sage listened carefully throughout. When the young man had finished, the Sage looked at him all-knowingly and whispered this advice: "Try optimism." 78 • Preventive Counseling American Counseling Association?