ABSTRACT
This chapter provides terminology, frameworks, and commentary to help you lead and advocate directly, indirectly, and at all points in between through means that empower clients and sustain our profession. We begin our discussion by introducing and clarifying constructs that define our lens as clinical mental health counselors (CMHCs) and establish the context for related activities based on the Pair of ACES (Ellis & Dietz, 2017) and Social Determinants of Mental Health (Shim & Compton, 2020) models. Next, we share our vision of the impact CMHCs can have individuals and communities when equitable development and well-being guide our activities. We then apply these concepts through applications to some high occurring scenarios CMHCs encounter and conclude with a conversation about the importance of self-care and other career-sustaining activities.
