MORE ON THE

COUNSELOR AS A
PERSON: PERSONAL
PRACTICES
Consider this…
◦ The counselor can only take their clients as far as
they have been themselves. (Donati & Watts, 2005).
The Importance of the Person of the
Counselor
◦ Counseling is unique because the qualities of the therapist are central to the
work of the therapist.
◦ This personhood is utilized for the professional role of the counselor.
◦ The counselor as a person is one of the most important therapeutic factors in
counseling.
◦ The personal and interpersonal qualities of therapists play an important role in
determining client outcomes, particularly in clients with complex issues.
Personal Practices
◦ Formal psychological interventions and techniques that therapists
engage with self-experientially over an extended period of time
(weeks, months, or years) as individuals or groups, with a reflective
focus on their personal and/or professional development.
Personal Practices Include
◦ Personal therapy
◦ Meditation programs
◦ Mindfulness programs
◦ Therapists practicing therapy on themselves and reflecting on the
experience
◦ Experiential personal development groups
Shift Away from Personal Practices
◦ This began in the advent of behavior therapy and later cognitive
behavior therapy and a technical-rational approach was used
◦ Technical-rational approach to therapy is the perspective that the
correct application of the principles and procedures of learning
theory and cognitive theory and other counseling theories was they
to alleviating mental health problems.
Current Realization
◦ The characteristics of the most effective therapists
◦ Facilitative interpersonal skills include
◦ Verbal fluency
◦ Emotional expression
◦ Persuasiveness
◦ Hopefulness
◦ Warmth
◦ Empathy
◦ Alliance-bond capacity
◦ Problem focus
Therapist Competency Models
◦ Tend to overlook the importance of personal competencies
◦ There is a need to incorporate more sophisticated understanding of
both personal and interpersonal therapist qualities and skills.
◦ Training and professional development need to balance the teaching
of conceptual and technical skills with a clear emphasis on personal
and interpersonal development.
Model of Personal Practices – Bennett-Levy & Finlay-
Jones
Other Qualities of Successful Therapists
◦ Mindfulness
◦ Resilience
◦ Professional self-doubt – tendency to engage in self-reflection
regarding one’s biases and limitations.
◦ Therapist’s attachment style
◦ Absence of occupational burnout
◦ Self-awareness
Self-Awareness
◦ Without a high level of self-awareness the counselor will
hinder the progress of their clients.
◦ As their focus shifts from meeting the client’s needs to
meeting the needs of the therapist.
Counselors must be aware of their:
◦ Needs
◦ Areas of “unfinished business”
◦ Personal conflicts
◦ Defenses
◦ Vulnerabilities
Motivations for Becoming a Counselor
◦ Counselors need to be aware of the possibility of working
to be appreciated instead of working towards the best
interest of the clients.
Tendency to Give Advice
◦ Can be especially harmful in a counselor because
◦ It can lead to excessive dependence on the part of the client.
◦ It may perpetuate the client’s tendency to look outside themselves
for answers.
◦ It may give a sense of power to the counselor and indispensability
to the counselor, and the counselor will keep on doing it in order to
maintain this sense of power and indispensability.
Ask yourself these:
◦ What are my motivations for becoming a counselor?
◦ What are my rewards for counseling others?
Interfering Motivations
◦ Goals of therapy can also suffer when counselors with a
need for approval focus on trying to win the acceptance,
admiration, and even awe of their clients.
Unresolved Personal Issues
◦ Counselors should be aware of their:
◦ Biases
◦ Areas of denial
◦ Unresolved issues
Personal Therapy During Training
◦ It helps to know what the experience of being a client is
like.
◦ Most of us have blind spots and unfinished business that
may interfere with our effectiveness as a counselor.
Issues that may surface during training
◦ A need to:
◦ Tell people what to do.
◦ A desire to take away all the pain away from their clients.
◦ Have all the answers and be perfect
◦ Be recognized and appreciated.
Issues that may surface during training
◦ A tendency to assume too much responsibility for the changes in
the client
◦ “I don’t take responsibility for their recovery because then I
have to take responsibility for their relapses. I just give them
what they need, guide and direct, but I don’t fix them”

◦ Too much fear of doing harm

◦ A tendency to deny client issues that relate to their own.
Ongoing Therapy for Practitioners
◦ Committed professionals engage in lifelong self-
examination.
◦ As a means of remaining self-aware and genuine.
Transference and Countertransference
◦ Need to completely understand these two
◦ The client’s general reactions and orientation to the
counselor and to the counselor’s action in response.
◦ They occur in most relationships
◦ How counselors handle the client’s feelings will have a
direct bearing on the therapeutic outcomes.
Transference: The “Unreal” Relationship
in Treatment
◦ Transference: the process whereby clients project onto their
counselors past feelings or attitudes they have toward significant
people in their lives.
◦ Client’s unfinished business produce a distortion in the way they
perceive and react to the counselor.
◦ They can experience love, hate, anger, ambivalence, depending on
their unresolved issues.
Countertransference
◦ The therapist’s total reaction to the client
Signs of Intersubjective Transference
1. Somatic reactions
2. Polarized emotional reactions
3. Unwarranted or unexplainable reactions – reaction
“came from nowhere”
4. Impulsive decision-making
Signs of Intersubjective Transference
5. Inappropriate roles and relationships – such as when the
therapist assumes responsibilities for the client that go
beyond the therapeutic contract
6. Ruts and routines – generalizations about the client
“This client always responds the same way no matter
what I do”