TAKE HOME EXAMINATION

SEMESTER MAY 2020

HPGD 2103

GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING

MATRICULATION NO : CGS02047926
IDENTITY CARD NO. : 910914146341
PROGRAMME : POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN
TEACHING
TELEPHONE NO. : 0167643578
E-MAIL : NAJMIFSPPP@OUM.EDU.MY
LEARNING CENTRE : MALACCA LEARNING CENTRE
INSTRUCTIONS
 Do not copy the question and instructions to your answer.
 Put the question number according to quetion answered.
 Type your answer using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1.5 line spacing.

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PART A
QUESTION 1 (a)
Counselling must be understood as a unique interpersonal process. Its
effectiveness depends on attitudes, skills and knowledge shown by a counsellor when he
deals with his client. There are five characteristics of the counsellor.
One important characteristics that a counsellor must have is the trust that every
human being is useful, valuable and unique. The client himself can feel a sincere
acceptance of a client and it is not merely an abstract explanation to him. This does not
mean we must accept his behaviour, or not accept it. In fact, as a valuable individual and
a useful human being, we have to show our sincerity and respect towards him. In
addition, a counsellor must try to understand that the self and world view of a client is for
him a reality. Any beliefs, attitudes, feelings and thoughts and their surroundings greatly
influence the way they react. As a counsellor, we need to focus our attention on this
perception as it shows the thoughts of the client and gives you an understanding of why
he reacts and acts in such a way. A counsellor who can exhibit that he accepts his client
in the counselling technique except any stipulations will inspire his purchaser to have
some hope and emotions of believe in his counsellor. There are a few non-verbal methods
to communicate this. For example, displaying a facial expression that is calm, having a
proper posture whilst pleasing the client, demonstrating seriousness in answering such as
now not stalling when responding and the usage of unthreatening voice intonation.
Next, counselling needs more than just the willingness to build a specific
relationship with the client, to recognize and respect the client, believing that the
consumer can exchange and having the understanding of how fantastic men and women
function. A counsellor also must have clinical skills that can help his consumers discover
the source of the dilemma that block their ability to trade so that they can feature at a an
awful lot desired level. Clients can be assisted in quite a number ways. What works at a
place and time may additionally no longer be capable to provide the a lot preferred
impact at some other vicinity and time. There are many approaches, techniques and
theories that can be used. As a counsellor in training, you are inspired to try out a few
processes whilst you are being determined by means of your supervisor. While you are
designing and expanding your counselling skills, you should seize the opportunity to

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behavior counselling classes to consumers from exceptional cultural backgrounds. This
experience is beneficial because it will help you understand when you ought to alternate
your method and to have interaction a suitable method for the relevant situation.
Besides, a counsellor must demonstrate his willingness to get involved in the
counselling process. Commitment and a readiness to share experiences are more
meaningful to a client than the allocated time and the effort needed to help the client.
This includes communicating with the client in a client-counsellor relationship,
demonstrating that nothing is more important than his client and the issue being discussed
during the counselling session. Commitment and the willingness to be involved with a
client will drive a counsellor to stay focused on his clientÊs inner thoughts, for example,
how he sees his problems. In this way, a counsellor can help his client understand
himself, the hindrances that he is facing and the change process required. At the same
time, the client is encouraged to take risks and to perceive the counsellor as a tool to help
him make the necessary change. When you, as a counsellor, feel self-confident, stable
and disciplined, all your weaknesses will be reduced and you will be more focused in
helping your clients. You may demonstrate a willingness to be involved with your client
by being understanding, accepting and showing sincerity towards your client.
Next, a counsellor need to have a wonderful self-concept and be capable to
sense at ease, cosy and secure. By demonstrating high-quality mental health, you can be
a function mannequin to your client. As a counsellor, you ought to be sensitive to your
very own feelings, mind-set and values and understand how all these play a role in
supporting others. A counsellor commonly has high social pastimes and strong
motivation to cooperate with others. You additionally want to have excessive tolerance in
managing defensive, uncooperative and downhearted clients.
Furthermore, as a counsellor, you must recognize how to resolve your own issues
and deal with any conflicts and stress. At the same time, you must also be aware of
your very own skills and limitations. A counsellor should be open to self-improvement
and self-development. To do this, you can extend your knowledge, skills and experiences.
Sometimes, as a counsellor you need to realize that you cannot help every single
individual who comes to you with a problem. In some cases, you might also have to refer
your clients to a relevant expert. The process that requires a counsellor to comprehend or

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perceive himself and admit the limits of his own abilities is important in counselling for
the following reasons. The primary reason is the more sensitive he is to his personal
feelings, ideas and acts, the easier it is for him to recognize others feelings, ideas and
acts. Another reason is when he is at ease with himself, he will be in a position to
communicate sincerity to his client. Hence, the customer will be more open to discuss his
problems and this will allow the counsellor to recognize how his customer perceives his
problems.
Lastly, as a counsellor, patience is a challenging skill to develop. Few people are
born naturally patient, so this skill is often developed over the course of a lifetime. As a
counselor, you must be able to help your clients move toward positive changes. This
process takes time, so you must be patient and willing to wait as your patient gradually
improves. You are unlikely to see major changes happen overnight with any client, so be
prepared to wait and celebrate the small victories.
To conclude, with the right skills and attitude, you can become the professional
counselor that clients want. Your entire goal is to help clients overcome their problems,
and developing these attributes will help. Even if you do not have these characteristics
now, it is always possible to learn them over time.

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QUESTION 2
Counselling and psychotherapy are two fields that are often viewed to be the same
and used interchangeably. Counselling, in specific situations, is offered as part of the
psychotherapy process; whereas a counsellor may work with clients in a
psychotherapeutic manner. There are THREE similarities and THREE differences
between counselling and psychotherapy.
The first similarities between the two fields which involve a special relationshiip
between an individual who wants to get help to solve his psychological problem (client)
and a trained person who provides that help (counsellor or therapist). The special
relationship is the same for both the counsellor and therapist. In fact, the techniques used
to help the patients and clients are similar. In addition, both fields are effective for a wide
range of people such as adults and children.
The second similarities between the two fields are psychologists and counselors
are both health care providers who assess the behavior of patients and determine their
level of well-being. Both types of professionals work with myriad types of clients —
groups and individuals as well as children and adults. Counselors and psychologists are
tasked with learning how their patients think, understanding their behaviors, and helping
them create more positive futures for themselves and their loved ones.
The third similarities between the two fields are both counselling and
psychotherapy require the therapist to have highly developed skills. Their paper on the
subject mentions. Consequently, counsellors and psychotherapists undergo lengthy
training or courses, often lasting several years. Their work is always supervised by
another practitioner who helps them to process and reflect on the issues of concern to
their clients. ”. However it has already been considered that different routes involve
considerably different levels of difficulty and length of training and supervision.
The initial differences between counselling and psychotherapy are stay to the
objective and duration of the procedure. The counselling objective is to help an individual
at any time to overcome his or her personal growth problems towards achieving his
optimum strength development. This objective is also accepted as the aim of the
psychotherapy process. However, besides solving the client’s growth problems,
psychotherapy also aims to solve the reconstructive change problem. Normally,

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psychotherapy is carried out over a long period of time (one month to two years) as
outpatient or inpatient. On the contrary, counselling is usually conducted over a short
period or time (less than six months) as outpatient only. However, both counselling and
psychotherapy have a similar aim, that is, to achieve the client’s aim.
The next differences between both fields are counselling is more on giving
guidance, support, and education to help people identify and find their own solutions to
current problems such as academic issues, parental issues and others. Meanwhile,
psychotheraphy is more on various techniques or approaches to psychotherapy that a
therapist can employ. These approaches notwithstanding require a therapeutic
relationship, communicating and creating a dialogue and working to overcome
problematic thoughts or behaviors or to improve group relationships (such as in a family).
Many different types of professionals with different qualifications engage in
psychotherapy regularly despite the fact that it is a separate discipline. These individuals
include clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, marriage and family therapists,
social workers, mental health counselors, occupational therapists and psychiatric nurses.
The final differences between both fields are the definitions and qualifications.
Counselling defines as the principled and skilled use of relationship to assist self-
knowledge, emotional acceptance and growth, and the optimal development of personal
resources and its goal is to work towards helping individuals live in productive life while
Psychotheraphy emphasises on more on treating mental illness and chronic physical and
emotional problems. In terms of qualification, the psychotherapist are eligible to become
a counsellor while the counsellor is not eligible to be psychotherapist due to lack of
training.
In conclusion, both counselling and psychotherapy are important in today society.
The counsellors and psychotherapists plays a very important role, which to solve the
clients and the patients problem.

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PART B
QUESTION 2(a)
Counselling is a process that develops and changes from one stage to another.
According to Brammer (1993), he expressed that counselling is a process in which clients
learn how to make decisions and formulate new ways of behaving, feeling, and thinking
in which counselors focus on the goals, their clients wish to accomplish. Thus,
counselling involves both decision and change, evolving through distinct stages such as
exploration, goal setting, and action. There are five stages in the counselling process.
The first stage of counselling process is developing relationship. In this stage, a
good counsellor-client relationship is required in order to build common trust. The
counsellor has to complete the four task in order to develop a special bonding with the
client in this stage. At first, by creating an ambience conducive for interaction. The
counsellor wants to make the client feel safe and comfortable to talk and encourages an
open and genuine communication. Next, the counsellor has to listen and watch for
nonverbal behaviour as signs of client’s emotional state and invite client to describe his
or her reason for coming to talk and the counsellor must allow client time to respond and
make the client indicate that you are keen on listening from the client. The third task is
structuring relationship. It should cover in three aspects; explaining the counselling
interaction process, providing information regarding time and duration of the session, and
explaining the aspect of confidentiality during session to the client. The last task is
building trust; a very important task which to ensure the success of counselling session.
The second stage is exploration. It involves the collecting and classifiying
information about the client’s life situation, inner strength, resource, pattern and way of
thinking. The counsellor must understand how clients perceive their issues of reference
and help solve problems or concerns that interfere with their daily lives. The counselor
should have the expectation to be an effective tool to help them move towards change.
The assessment refers to anything the counselor does to gather information and draw
conclusions about the client’s problem. This stage should feel that someone needs to
know who they are, the things that have shaped how they think, how they feel, and their
concerns such as their history, current lifestyle and life-giving problems.

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 The third stage is decision making. In this stage, the counsellor establishes an aim
for the client. It also means setting the direction to guide the client. At this stage, the
counsellor is trying to think of the best approach to help his client. There are two
important task to be completed. First, the counsellor and client to mutually agree on the
counselling aim. The aim is important for the counselling success because it gives
direction to where the session is headed to. After that, make decision on the counselling
strategies to be implemented.
Stage four is taking action.. It involves the use of intervention strategy by a
counsellor in order to help clients cope with their issues and guide them so they could be
function more effectively. There are different points of view concerning what a good
counselor can do or clients depending on the theorethical positions to the counsellor
subscribes. For instance, the person-centred approach suggests that while the behavioural
approach attempts to initiate, the counsellor gets involved rather than intervenes by
placing emphasis on the relationship.
The last stage of counselling process is termination which counsellor outlines
what has been going on and its outcome throughout the counselling sessions. When the
aims of counselling set in stage 3 is achieved, it is time the counsellor let go the client
and the follow-up is deemed necessary by the counsellor and client to serve as a check to
see if changes have been maintained and to encourage clients to revisit old issues or focus
on new issues later. For the purpose of this module, it is assumed that follow-up is not an
option for counselors-in-training who are participating in temporary counselling
placements.
In conclusion, to achieve successful counselling does not necessarily allow the
counsellor to advise the client over a long time span. There are cases which require
simple handling and advice over a short period of time and are still capable of producing
satisfactory results.

QUESTION 2(b)
Every individual has different hopes and expectations according to his perspective
of the counselling process. For particular, after an individual has gone through a
counselling process with the counsellor, parents, teachers or school principals, he is likely

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to have a different perception regarding the ending that he hopes for. The counselling aim
depends on the client’s agreement with his counsellor. There are five counselling goals.
One of the counselling goals is facilitating the client’s behavioural change.
Counseling is meant at helping the client make certain behavioural changes that would
enable him to have a more productive and satisfying life. Before visiting a counsellor,
there must be an event that disturbs him, causing his relationship with others to be
unsatisfactory. Perhaps it could be the way that the client interacts with others, so much
so that it causes an adverse reaction from others. It is hoped that after completing a
counselling session, the client will understand and be able to effectively and satisfactorily
analyse and think of better ways to interact with his colleagues and able to minimise the
adverse reactions from them. The counselling aim here is to encourage and make it easier
for the client to change his behaviour to a more effective one.
The next counselling goals are enhancing the client's ability to start and continue a
relationship. Interacting with people is a big part of our lives. Unfortunately, many people
are having problems due to their inability to interact with others. This problem can be
linked to the client not having excellent communication skills or having a negative
personal image. In this case, the counsellor aims to find ways to enhance the
effectiveness of his client's interaction with other people. In each case, the counsellor will
try to find ways to help the client enhance his quality of life by improving the way he
interacts with others.
Next, another counselling goals are helping a client to manage problems and issues.
Another counselling aim is to help the client manage himself under challenging
situations. Each individual experiences difficulties in his life while growing up with the
ability to fulfil the expectations of every significant person in his life, for example, his
parents. Parents' expectations of their children have often caused unpredictable effects. A
child, for instance, will learn to experience a less efficient and less effective behaviour
when he is unable to fulfil his parents' hopes and expectations and he will bring this
experience into adulthood. Unfortunately, in specific situations such as at the workplace,
the behavioural pattern that he has learnt will not be of help but instead will cause
problems. In such situation, a counsellor will train his client to effectively manage
himself, especially in new situations and demands.

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 Another counselling goals are encouraging client in the decision-making process.
The process can be complicated for certain people. They are afraid of having to shoulder
the responsibilities in case they made the wrong choice or when they make decisions
without thinking of the alternatives. For clients, counselling aims to help them make
important decisions in their lives. It is vital to note that the counsellor’s role is to direct
the client to choose certain decisions. The final decision has to be made by the client. He
must understand and know why and how to achieve that decision. The client will learn to
estimate risks from that decision in terms of time, money and other aspects.
The final counselling goals are helping the client to develop potential
achievements. Helping a client to expand his potential has always been one of the vital
counselling aims. This aim provides the opportunity for a client to learn the various ways
of using his abilities and interests optimally. It also means that the client is taught how to
increase his effectiveness. Simply put, counselling aims to help a client improve or
overcome negative behaviours or emotions which hinder or retard his development of
potential achievements.
In conclusion, These goals are not mutually exclusive, nor are they equally
appropriate for every client at any specific time. Counselling goals can be classified
according to three categories: ultimate, intermediate and immediate. Ultimate goals are
philosophical ideals that can be reasonably expected from counseling. These goals
include helping individuals to realize their full potential or to become self-actualized.
Intermediate goals relate to the reasons for seeking counseling and usually require several
sessions to achieve them. Helping the individual develope to become and remain a well-
adjusted, mentally healthy person and to achieve his/her potentialities, would classify as
an intermediate goal. Immediate goals, on the other hand, are the moment-by-moment
intentions of counseling, for example, encouraging the client to verbalize an unexpressed
feeling.

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QUESTION 3(a)
A group is defined as two or more people interacting together to achieve a goal
for their mutual or common benefit. Everyone typically spends some time in group
activities each day. Given this situation, it is only natural for counselors to make use of
group counselling. Groups are an affordable and efficient way of connecting individuals
who have common interests and problems. There are four stages in group counselling,
namely, forming, norming, performing and termination.
The first stage of group counselling is forming stage. In the forming stage, the
group is formed, and efforts are made to make participants believe they are part of the
group. It suggests participants should be explicit about group intent, ground rules and
basic procedures before enrolling. We should also be informed about the risks involved,
our rights and responsibilities and the issue of limited confidentiality since we are in the
company of other people. For example, the ice-breaking session. The leader structures the
environment to make members feel safe by clarifying the group 's purpose by setting
rules, modelling suitable behaviours, and outlining a vision for the group. It is crucial that
both the leader and group members are clear regarding the purpose of the group to ensure
a feeling of trust. In this stage, the group members need to be involved and feel part of
the group. They need to voice out their expectations from the group.
The second stage of group counselling is the norming stage. In this stage, the
leader and group members try to find their place in the group and develop a sense of
cohesiveness. The leader reminds members of the rules and regulations when there is a
conflict between members (which unavoidably happens). The leader may use helping
skills such as active listening and linking to build trust and a sense of togetherness and
purposefulness. Members seek and receive feedback from each other and work through
critical issues together. Differences and similarities within group members are
recognised. Ideally, at this stage members are cooperative and share their goals and
objectives, and they are ready for the next stage, which is the performing stage. However,
members should be prepared in the event things do not work out.
The third stage is performing stage. At this stage, the group is ready to as a team
and members are become more trusting of himself and others. Members are more focused
towards achieving the goals of the group. Members concentrate on individual and group

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accomplishments, using the ideas of the group to reach a resolution. The leader is less
involved in directing or structuring the group as members become increasingly more
responsible in running the group. The leader takes the role of helping members achieve
the goals by encouraging interpersonal interactions and modelling appropriate
behaviours. However, when inappropriate behaviour is displayed, the leader may remind
members of the group on the agreed goals and the limited time available.
The final stage of group counselling is the termination stage. This is the stage
where group members have completed their task and have accomplished their goals.
Before termination, members take time to reflect on the events and discuss what they still
need to do. Both the leader and members may actively remind each other about the
conclusion of the group counselling process. There would be farewell events if the
experience were pleasant and satisfying. Members are required to state verbally or in
written form what they have learned from the group experience. It hopes that everyone
will leave the group more energetic and better connected with other group members.
Other than that, follow-up is used in the group counselling to keep in touch with members
after the group has terminated in order to determine how well the members are
progressing on personal as well as group goals.
In conclusion, group counseling is indeed a very effective way to solve one’s
problem. It is a process through which severe problems can be tackled properly. In order
to carry out effective group counseling, one should keep group members respect and
dignity in mind.

QUESTION 3 (b)
In group counselling, there are differences between effective and ineffective
group leaders. Leaders who are authoritarian and aggressive are ineffective group leaders.
Such leaders can cause group members to drop out. Meanwhile, leaders who are caring,
who are good at structuring the group, who explain and clarify the thinking of members
have a positive effect on members. Effective leaders are people who are sincere,
enthusiastic, creative, have a presence and identity. There are five qualities of effective
leadership.

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 The first qualities of effective leadership in group are active listening. Of all the
interpersonal skills associated with group leadership, listening is the most essential.
Although it is a skill that is often taken for granted, listening is not an automatic or well-
developed skill for most people, but it can be mastered and refined. Active listening
requires that the receiver of a message assess what has been said on both verbal and
nonverbal levels. Other than that, body language includes mannerisms that reflect an
openness or closeness to others. For instance, if members of the group nod their heads in
agreement with what another member is saying, that member receives a positive message
of approval. To make sure they are accurately hearing, leaders should repeat or
summarize what they hear whenever possible before they respond.
The second qualities of effective group leadership are emphathising. It is a crucial
component of listening is empathy which it is the ability to feel with another or put
oneself in someone else's place. Leaders who show high levels of empathy in groups are
generally more attuned to group members (Roffers & Waldo, 1983), and they are
therefore more likely to attend to the needs of members and, in the process, to create
greater satisfaction and a better outcome for the group on all levels. An example of
empathizing is when a leader says to a member: "Sally, I hear the hurt coming through in
your words and voice. I realize you are feeling depressed about what has happened in
your life."
The third effective group leader qualities are questioning skills. Questions are
often overused in groups. When they occur too frequently, the cohesion and trust within
the group is eroded as members become defensive. They are especially germane when
they are open-ended and allow group members to expand on what they have just said. For
instance, in reaction to a member who expresses ambivalence about being in a group, the
leaders might ask: "What are your thoughts about being in this group?" In the same
situation, leaders who wished to ask a closed-ended question might say: "Do you want to
talk about your ambivalence more?" Leaders can also convert questions into statements
by responding in regard to the first case: "Tell us about ambivalence." The point is that
leaders can do a lot to help or hinder the development of their groups by the ways they
use questions and help others to use questions.

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 The fourth group leader effective qualities are facilitating. Facilitating or
moderating is a regulatory skill used by a leader to govern the group interaction, ensuring
that all opinions are aired" (Trotzer, 1989, p. 203). If done properly, moderating has a
facilitative quality; it ensures that certain group members neither dominate nor withdraw.
Being a moderator and facilitator requires that group leaders stay objective. One way to
do this is to call on members who have not spoken up and solicit their opinions. For
example, the leader might say: "Claire, we haven't heard from you today. Tell us what
you are thinking." Another form of moderating/facilitating is blocking the output of
dominant or insensitive members. For instance, the leader might say: "Jeff, the group
values you and your opinions but, in fairness to everyone, we need to give others an
opportunity to speak. I'd like for you to listen for a while now before you contribute to
the group again."
Lastly, the final effective group leaders’ qualities are modelling. Modeling of
behaviors is done by group leaders both openly and closely. On open level, leaders may
try to teach members new life skills or correct ineffective or dysfunctional ways of acting
(Gazda, 1989). In these cases, personal instruction takes place on an interpersonal level.
On the close level, group leaders serve as models for others because of the status they
hold in the group. What they do is imitated or criticized by members of the group. If
leaders wish to help group members understand themselves better and facilitate a deeper
level of group interaction, they disclose their own reactions to processes and to people.
They also demonstrate appropriate ways of dealing with frustrations. For example, if
group leaders have received discouraging or exciting news, they may briefly share it with
the group before the group meeting/session begins or at another appropriate time during
the session.
In conclusion, leaders who are caring, who are good at structuring the group, who
explain and clarify the thinking of members have a positive effect on members are the
qualities of an effective leaders.

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QUESTION 4(a)
Communication skills is important during counselling session in order to establish
trust between counsellor and client. There are seven basic communication skills that the
counselor must be practiced during the counselling process as well as to be mastery of the
skills. In this question, I will explain five out of seven basic communication skills that
counsellors should be aware of.
First of all, the basic communication skills are asking open-ended questions. To
gain more information about the client, as a counsellor, you can use questioning which
can stimulate the client to explain further about the topic of discussion such as, “After the
fight, what happened next?”. Open-ended questions invite the client to answer more than
just saying “yes” or “no”. Furthermore, open-ended question encourages a client to share
information with you. The client has the freedom of choice in answering by not having to
adhere to your opinion or view. On the contrary, close-ended questions only produces
responses which are merely factual and not relevant to the problem, no more than just to
satisfy the curiosity of the counsellor. Open-ended questions are used during specific
situations such as the beginning of a consultation session, the session that the counsellor
helps the client to elaborate on certain matters.
The next basic communication skills are listening. Listening in the context of
counselling refers to receiving messages cautiously and giving accurate responses to the
message which was just heard. It requires a higher level of hearing than during normal
conversation. The listening skill of a counsellor is very important as it forms the basis of
counselling effectiveness. By listening to the statements made by the client, the
counsellor would be able to give feedback on the client’s feelings and thoughts.
Therefore, the process of listening needs the integration of restating and feeling reflection
skills. Listening actually has a therapeutic value where it is perceived by the client that he
is being heard and understood by someone. This might be the reason why the client feels
nurtured because there is someone who really listens to his dissatisfactions, tries to
understand him and his thoughts, and offer accurate responses, something which he may
not have experienced before.
The third basic communication skills are restating. It is related to listening skill.
The ability of the counsellor to restate the point of the message being conveyed by the

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client shows that the counsellor has listened attentively. This skill is also known as
paraphrasing a statement. The counsellor gives feedback of what has been said by the
client by using the counsellor’s own words. There are three purposes of paraphrasing the
client’s statements; namely, let the client know that the counsellor is trying to understand
him; to summarise clearly what has been said by the client; and to check whether what is
understood by the counsellor is similar to what the client wants to convey. Paraphrasing a
client’s statement is suitable at the initial stage of consultation because it encourages the
client to talk more openly and explain his problem more elaborately.
Next, the fourth basic communication skills are feeling reflection. This skill is
different than restating which the difference between restating what has been said by the
client and feeling reflection is from the aspect of its emphasis. Restating the explanation
by using the counsellor’s own words to check whether what the client said is exactly as
what the counsellor perceived. On the other hand, feeling reflection is to suggest a feeling
felt by the client when making a statement, to check the accuracy of the client’s feeling at
the time.
Lastly, the fifth basic communication skills are summarizing the feeling. The skill
of summarising the client’s feelings can be quite difficult to be conducted because of our
Eastern culture whereby expressing deep and profound feeling is not an easy thing to do.
When a counsellor tries to summarise a client’s feeling, there is a possibility that the
client will deny his own feelings. Therefore, the counsellor must use his mastery of
communication skills so that the counsellor and the client do not have contrasting
opinions. The aim of summarising the client’s feelings which were observed by the
counsellor during consultation sessions is to recognise and respond to the feelings which
were expressed by the client or those which were perceived by the counsellor. This type
of response allows the counsellor to observe and verify whether the response given by the
client is accurate and similar to what is being felt by him.
To conclude, every counsellor must have the basic communication skills for the
purpose of having counselling session with client with ease and build their trust during
session.

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QUESTION 4(b)
There are several strategies on how to help clients. A counsellor can use the
chosen strategy for the purpose of reinforcing a desired behaviour or eliminating an
unwanted behaviour. The selected strategies which are explained in the following are
only related to external behaviour. In this question, I will choose TWO out of FOUR
strategies; namely role play and token economy.
(i) Role Play
Counselors regularly use role play as a strategy to train clients in various
behaviours that they find very difficult to do before. Professional counsellors who adopt
the behavioural counselling method use role play while performing assertive practise,
modelling (imitating actions of others) and career counselling. Role play is the best
method for widening the consciousness of the counsellor and showing clients that there
are many solutions to certain people's behaviours. For instance, in order to encourage an
extremely shy student to speak in a group conversation, counsellors can use role play by
asking the student to give his counsellor an opinion. The rationale is to help students
practise giving out their opinions within a safe environment. Role play techniques can
also be used to help the student become more assertive especially when he finds himself
having trouble reacting whenever other people take advantage of him. Thus, role play
provides an opportunity for the person to try out a new approach in a healthier situation
or atmosphere before it is replicated in locations or environments where conflict
sometimes arises.
(iii) Token Economy (Rewarding Gifts)
One of the common behaviourism techniques used is the token economy or
rewarding gifts. This is an organised procedure where token or gifts for appropriate
behaviours are given as reinforcements. The token might be in the form of tangibles such
as plastic coins, points or something that can be cashed in for useful items or special
privileges and has been proved effective. It is used in many institutions including
hospitals, schools, and prisons. This procedure is very versatile and can be applied in
different conditions. For example, a counsellor should plan a token economy system in
the school environment to be used as rewards for positive behaviour students. On the
other hand, to list down the types of punishments, penalties or loss of privileges if a

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student breaks the rule or fails to carry out his responsibility. This technique is
particularly useful when dealing for people for daily behaviour problems or with more
complex behaviour. Users of this technique it is very appropriate to be used in particular
to remove maladaptive behaviours in moulding. Professional behaviourism counsellors
assert the effectiveness of the token economy strategy. However, they also agree that
some problems do exist in ensuring that the achieved changes are maintained and
sustained. Counsellors who plan and prepare the token economy structure must be
prepared to ensure that the changes can be maintained by implementing the following
steps:
a) Ask for assistance from other staff, such as the class teacher, teachers who have
taught or are still teaching the student, ask parents to dedicate themselves to
supporting and recognising the idea and the purpose of token economy;
b) Select behaviours which would most probably receive reinforcements from the
society and the environment;
c) Adhere to behaviourism modification principle such as incentive token or gifts
and be fair and consistent straight away;
d) The token or gifts used as a reward must have reinforcement value; and
e) Ensure that the modified behaviour is also a desired behaviour other than inthe
school environment.

To concluded, by using the behaviourism approach, counsellors will be able to

explore their clients’ problems based on the counsellors’ understanding of adjustive and
maladaptive behaviours. Several practical techniques such as role play, assertive practice,
token economy as well as self-management, self-monitoring and self-reinforcement are
effective to reinforce a desired behaviour or to eliminate an unwanted behaviour.

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