This graduate-level, introductory textbook provides instructors and students with a comprehensive overview of the profession of clinical mental health counseling (CMHC). Designed to cover the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) 2016 Standards and to provide an inclusive overview of the work of professional counselors, the book offers an in-depth exploration of the professional knowledge, skills, current issues, and dynamic trends in professional counseling that are essential parts of the educational journey of emerging clinicians. It provides readers with practical, applicable, real-world information upon which they can build through-out their programs of study and practice. Issues such as strength-based approaches, the various settings in which clinical mental health counselors may practice, record keeping and documentation, advocacy, professional roles, third-party payers and managed care, and self-care and professional development are vitally important to new counselors, and these subjects often are glanced over in an information-packed curriculum. In addition, the book covers the topics of crisis, disaster, and trauma, which constitute relatively new areas of emphasis within the CACREP Standards. Conceptually, it book looks at the history, roles, functions, settings, and contemporary issues of counseling through the lens of human ecological and integrated systems-of-care approaches. Unique to this particular textbook, and in juxtaposition to an ecological perspective of the individual, a focus on integrated systems of care in clinical mental health endeavors provides students with knowledge and skills that can help them to move seamlessly into the current world of work as clinical mental health counselors. The textbook is comprised of five sections, spanning the following clusters of CMHC-relevant information: (a) Introduction to Professional Counseling and Clinical Mental Health Counseling, (b) Working With Clients, (c) Practice Issues, (d) Working Within Systems, and (e) Client-Care and Self-Care Practices.