What is Strengths-Based Counseling?

Strengths-based counseling focuses on the inherent strengths and skills that people
already have, and uses it as building blocks for future success and problem-
solving. Instead of just focusing attention on the problem or using language that
stigmatizes or makes people feel like a victim, a strengths-focused approach
empowers people by drawing attention to the positives that already exist within
and around them. This approach dictates that people aren’t defined by their
problem, diagnosis, or illness. Instead they are defined by their capacity for growth
and change.

The counselor and client work together to find past and present successes and use
these to address the challenges being faced. Assets identified may include:

1. Physical Health

2. Social Supports
3. Emotional Resilience
4. Spiritual Outlook
5. Vocational/Financial
6. Intellectual/Giftedness.

2. Rights-based Approach?
A human rights based approach means that individuals and communities should
know their rights. It also means that they should be fully supported to participate in
the development of policy and practices which affect their lives and to claim rights
where necessary.
3. Feminist Counseling
Feminist therapy is a set of related therapies arising from what proponents see as a
disparity between the origin of most psychological theories and the majority of
people seeking counseling being female. It focuses on societal, cultural, and
political causes and solutions to issues faced in the counseling process.