Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Professional and Clinical Issues surveys an array of issues and challenges every clinical mental health counselor (CMHC) needs to be familiar with to develop their professional identity and succeed in practice. The opening chapter offers an overview of relevant issues needed to begin the development of a professional identity as a CMHC, including credentials held, professional memberships, accreditation, roles and functions, evidence-based practice (EBP), common factors important for client outcomes, and nine characteristics of the effective CMHC. The chapters that follow first focus on critical professional issues and then on important clinical issues. In order, the chapters discuss history and current issues; professional associations in mental health counseling and related fields; common settings where one finds CMHCs; credentialing of CMHCs and related professionals; ethics; culturally competent counseling; abnormal "atypical" behavior, diagnosis, and psychopharmacology; case conceptualization; case management; consultation and supervision; and program development and evaluation. A book that is both comprehensive and down-to-earth, Foundations of Clinical Mental Health Counseling is filled with vignettes, interesting stories, and reflective exercises. It is an ideal text for courses and programs within the discipline. A Statement from the Author in Recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month 2023 "Gun violence, trauma, disasters, crises, suicide, substance abuse, and more. It seems like things are worse than ever, and the need for mental health counseling, to treat a whole range of problems has become critical. The pandemic seems to have made things worse and has left us transitioning to a new, unknown world where technology is taking an ever-larger role in our lives. Transitions are always difficult, and there is little question that today we need licensed clinical mental health counselors more than ever to assist people in navigating these changes. In my 40 years as an educator and therapist, I've never seen as many requests for licensed therapists as I do now, and I also see a concomitant increase in applications to become clinical mental health counselors (CMHC). Foundations Of Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Professional and Clinical Issues seeks to provide the kinds of information that helps new students develop an identity as a CMHC and ease into a profession that is increasingly critical to the mental health of individuals, our communities, and our country as we move to a new way of living."