Counselling

Aim of Counselling : is to help people make the right choice and to motivate them to act towards its
achievement. It is basically to help the counselee answer the question – what shall I do?

Counselling is:

1. The process that occurs when a client and counsellor set aside time in order to explore difficulties
which may include the stressful or emotional feelings of the client.
2. The act of helping the client to see things more clearly, possibly from a different view-point. This can
enable the client to focus on feelings, experiences or behaviour, with a goal to facilitating positive
change.
3. A relationship of trust. Confidentiality is paramount to successful counselling.

Counselling Skills:
Communication skills are obviously of utmost importance to counsellors, we have lots of further pages
covering these skills including: active listening, clarification, reflection and effective questioning skills.

The counsellor will attempt to build a certain amount of rapport with their client, but not to an extent that
would allow them to become emotionally involved.

Counsellors need to be empathetic, seeing things from the client’s point of view, rather than sympathetic
(feeling sorry for their clients). Empathy can help the counsellor to ask appropriate questions and lead the
client to positive conclusions.

Tyler : Counselling is a kind of psychological helping activity that concentrates on the growth of clear sense of
ego identity and the willingness to make choices and commitments in accordance with it. It is a process in which
client is helped to understand himself more completely in order to correct an environmental or adjustment
difficulty.

Definition of Counselling (by Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia)

Professional counselling is a safe and confidential collaboration between qualified counsellors and clients to
promote mental health and wellbeing, enhance self-understanding, and resolve identified concerns. Counselling
may be short term, long term, or over a lifetime, according to clients’ needs.

Counsellors are fully present with their clients, using empathy and deep listening to establish positive working
relationships. Counselling is effective when clients feel safe, understood, respected, and accepted without
judgement. Counselling is a profession with a strong evidence base. Counsellors use empirically supported
interventions and specialised interpersonal skills to facilitate change and empower clients.

Changes facilitated by counselling include: change in perspective, new insight, new ways of thinking about
situations, new awareness of feelings, enhanced capacity to tolerate and regulate feelings, new actions or
behaviours, and new decisions about life.

The British Association for Counselling (BAC):

Counselling is the skilled and principled use of relationship to facilitate self- knowledge, emotional acceptance
and growth and the optimal development of personal resources. The overall aim is to provide an opportunity
to work towards living more satisfyingly and resourcefully. The counsellor’s role is to facilitate the clients work
in ways that respect the client’s values, personal resources and capacity for self-determination. BAC (1986)

In 1993, Feltharn and Dryden, London :

Counselling is a principled relationship. It is a service sought by people in distress or in some degree of
confusion who wish to discuss and resolve these in a relationship which is more disciplined and confidential
than friendship, and perhaps less stigmatizing than helping relationships offered in traditional medical or
psychiatric settings.

Casey, 1996, page 176:

• Counseling deals with wellness, personal growth, career, and pathological concerns. In other words,
counselors work in areas that involve relationships.

• Counseling is a process that maybe developmental or intervening. Counselors focus on their clients’ goals.
Thus, counseling involves both choice and change. In some cases, “counseling is a rehearsal for action.

Source: Gladding, S.T. ( 2004). Counseling: A Comprehensive Profession (5th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Merrill/Prentice Hall. P 6-7.

Counselling is Not:
 Giving advice
 Judgemental
 Attempting to sort out the problems of the client.
 Expecting or encouraging a client to behave in a way in which the counsellor may have
behaved when confronted with a similar problem in their own life.
 Getting emotionally involved with the client.
 Looking at a client's problems from your own perspective, based on your own value system.
How counselling is distinct from other service professions?

Counselling:

Coaching:

Therapy:

Consulting:

Mentoring:

Training:
Five Major Goals of Counselling:

Model of Counselling – 5D
Ethics in Counselling
- Beneficence (doing good for others)
- Non-maleficence (not harming others)
- Autonomy (respecting freedom of choice of others)
- Justice (being fair)
- Fidelity (being faithfully)
- Not fulfilling your personal agenda

Role of Counsellor

Guidelines for Effective Counselling

The Core Conditions of Counselling

- Empathy
- Positive regard
- Genuineness
- Concreteness
Dilemmas of a Manager Counselling
- Different Priorities
- Difference in Power
- Owning the Problem
- Conflicting Views on confidentiality
- Ambiguity in the Situation
- Challenges in Good listening
Advance Skills in Counselling:
- Empathy
- Theme Identification
- Self-disclosure
- Perception Check
- Interpretation
- Clarification
- Confrontation
- Immediacy

Process of Counselling

Action Strategies:
Behavioural Techniques:
Counselling Tools: (For Reena to do)

Counselling Engagement :