10.1177/0011000005282371THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST / January 2006Kaczmarek / STRENGTH-BASED REACTIONCounseling Psychology and Strength-Based Counseling: A Promise Yet to Fully Materialize

The author provides a reaction to the proposed strength-based counseling model for at-risk youth. The Major Contribution initiates a dialogue about how to define strengths and how to operationalize a strength-based model of counseling. Discussing how this model adapts to adolescents by capitalizing on this developmental stage’s uniqueness would strengthen the model. In addition, research needs to test the model’s efficacy. Smith (2006 [this issue]) comprehensively describes a strength-based counseling model for at-risk youth. She reports that both psychology and counseling psychology are moving away from a deficit model to embrace a more positive, strength-based approach. It is interesting to note that the strength-based approach is not a new concept. I believe that Smith has un-derstated counseling psychology’s contributions. Historically, the strength-based approach has been a cornerstone of counseling psychology, a specialty that prides itself on having an attitudinal and philosophical approach, which distinguishes it from the medical model and its more pathological-deficit approach. Gelso and Fretz (2001) identified that the majority of counselin