Counselling in Social Work Practice {The Role and Applicability}

Introduction and Overview

Social work originated as a community help measure in the 19 th century and has
since then become an organized discipline that aims to support and empower those
who suffer from social unfairness. Apart from helping the disadvantaged to live
with dignity, social work aims at achieving social inclusion and has been found to
be effective in correcting disparities and in helping individuals to overcome
impediments that arise from different aspects of life; apart from those that require
knowledge of the physical and medical sciences. Social work practice has, over the
years, become integral to Nepal’s working life and current estimates put the
number of active social workers in the country at significantly more than one
million. (Parrott, 2002)

Whilst social workers can be called upon to assist all sections of the community,
the majority of their assignments concern helping individuals in stressful situations
and those experiencing difficulties with issues that relate to emotions,
relationships, unemployment, work, disabilities, discrimination, substance abuse,
finances, housing, domestic violence, poverty, and social exclusion. Such a range
of applications has necessitated the development of (a) a variety of skills and
techniques, (b) methods to transfer these skills to social workers, and (c)
procedures for the delivery of social work in a variety of settings, which include
schools and colleges, households, hospitals, prisons and secured homes, and
training and community centres. (Parton, 1996)

Social work practice focuses on dealing with the problems of service users. The
maintenance and improvement of their social, physical, and mental states is often
dependent upon the effectiveness of social work intervention. (Miller, 2005) Users
of social work services are largely economically and/or socially disadvantaged, and
the vulnerabilities, which arise from these circumstances, frequently contribute to
the nature of their relationships with service providers. (Miller, 2005) Social work
makes use of a broad range of knowledge and incorporates information obtained
from several disciplines; it empowers social workers in practice to use their
acquired knowledge and skills first to engage service users and then to bring about
positive changes in undesirable emotional states and behavioural attitudes, or in
positions of social disempowerment. (Miller, 2005)

Counselling forms one of the main planks of social work practice and constitutes
the chief mode through which social workers directly engage service users; it is
considered to be the public face of the activity and is an integrative course of
action between a service user, who is vulnerable and who needs support, and a
counsellor who is trained and educated to give this help. Face to face and 121
interactions between social workers and service users take place mostly through
counselling activities. Apart from the directly beneficial effect that occurs through
counselling, much of the social work approach that needs to be adopted in specific
cases for other interventionist activity is decided on the basis of feedback provided
by counsellors. This assignment aims to study and analyse the importance of
counselling in social work practice.

Commentary and Analysis

Social work practice, in the UK, has evolved along with the development of the
profession, and with the progression of social policy, ever since the first social
workers were trained at the London School of Economics, at the beginning of the
20th century. (Parton, 1996) Whilst social policy, formulated at the level of policy
makers, defines the broad routes taken to alleviate social inequalities, the actual
delivery of social work occurs through social work practice, an activity carried out
by thousands of social workers all over the United Kingdom. (Harris, 2002) Social
work makes use of a range of skills, methods, and actions that are aligned to its
holistic concentration on individuals and their environments. (Harris, 2002) Social
work interventions vary from person-focused psychosocial processes that are
focused on individuals, to participation in social policy, planning and development.
(Harris, 2002) These interventions include counselling, clinical social work, group
work, social academic work, and family treatment and psychotherapy, as well as
efforts to assist people in accessing services and resources within the community.
(Harris, 2002) Social workers, in their everyday activity, need to assume multiple
roles that aim to balance empowerment and emancipation with protection and
support. (Harris, 2002) Balancing this dilemma is often a difficult process; it
depends upon the needs of service users and requires social workers to assume
more than one role. (Harris, 2002) These roles, whilst being versatile and flexible,
broadly consist of seven broad categories, namely those of planners, assessors,
evaluators, supporters, advocates, managers, and counsellors. (Harris, 2002)

Whilst social work practice is spread over these broad functions, this assignment
aims to examine and analyse the significance and application of counselling in
social work, especially with reference to (a) the complexities involved in its
practice, (b) combating oppression and discrimination, and (c) from the viewpoint
of service users.
Counselling, whilst being a catch-all term, used for describing of various
professions, is, an important component of social work practice. (Rowland, 1993)
It is a developmental process in which one individual (the social work counsellor)
provides to another individual or group (the client), guidance and encouragement,
as well as challenge and inspiration, in creatively managing and resolving
practical, personal and relationship issues, in achieving goals, and in self
realisation. (Rowland, 1993) Whilst the relationship of social work with poverty
and deprivation necessitates that most counselling activities relate to such issues,
counselling has now become an active and interventionist method to achieve
change in social situations and empower people to improve the quality of heir
lives. (Rowland, 1993) The activity depends upon client-counsellor relationships
and includes a range of theoretical approaches, skills and modes of practice. The
British Association for Counselling defined the activity thus in 1991:

“Counselling is the skilled and principled use of relationships to develop self

knowledge, emotional acceptance and growth, and personal resources. The overall
aim is to live more fully and satisfyingly. Counselling may be concerned with
addressing and resolving specific problems, making decisions, coping with crisis,
working through feelings or inner conflict or improving relationships with others.
The counsellor’s role is to facilitate the client’s work in ways that respect the
client’s values, personal resources and capacity for self-determination.” (Rowland,
1993, p 18)

Part of the confusion regarding the actual nature of counselling activity stems from
the fact that the phenomenon is of recent origin and is becoming increasingly
popular both as a widely sought service and as a professional career. (Dryden &
Mytton, 1999) Whilst social researchers have floated a number of theories to
explain the growth in counselling in social work, most experts ascribe its
increasing usage to the diminishing impact of religion, the breaking and scattering
of family life, and the removal of previously existing family and community social
structures. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) Priests have ceased to become confidantes
and advisors; New modes of disempowerment have also led to the creation of a
vast range of emotional and physical stresses with adverse effects on the psycho-
emotional states of numerous people and their consequent need for counselling.
(Dryden & Mytton, 1999)

Counselling has its origins, both in the past, and as an up-and-coming discipline, in
various professions. It fills the intermediate gap between psychotherapy and amity,
and thus becomes a particularly useful tool for intervening and touching upon the
private, societal, professional, medical, and educational aspects of people.
(Rowland, 1993) Whilst it grew organically, its effectiveness in diminishing
distress led to its progressive assimilation in social work practice. Again the idea of
the social worker as a person, who works with or counsels persons, has been a
persistent concept in social work all through its emergence. (Pease & Fook, 1999)
Counselling has also been connected with some of the critical principles of social
work, particularly with regard to recognising the innate value of the individual and
respecting the human being. (Pease & Fook, 1999) Counselling and casework also
find favour with those who look at social work, in its entirety, as a process where
different components work synergistically with each other in helping and
supporting individuals. (Pease & Fook, 1999) Also inherent in the role of the social
worker, as a counsellor, is the idea that change will be involved in the behaviour or
outlook of the service user. It is in fact the diminution on the role of counselling
role, which has been one of the major apprehensions regarding provision of social
work through services. (Pease & Fook, 1999)

Counselling, in its basic form, involves the meeting of a counsellor and a service
user in a private and confidential setting to investigate the emotional and mental
difficulties, and distress, the service user may be having because of varying
person-specific reasons. (Rowland, 1993) Counselling, as is evident from its
increasing usage, has been found to be of great help in a variety of situations; in
treating people with mental problems of varying severity; in helping those
suffering from trauma, anxiety or depression; and in aiding people with emotional
or decision making issues. (Rowland, 1993) Whilst it has been found to be
applicable across different locales, for example, in schools and colleges, disturbed
domestic settings, and in workplaces, it has also proved to be effective in helping
people afflicted with serious illnesses like cancer and aids, victims of road and
industrial accidents, and people in various stages of rehabilitation. (Coney &
Jenkins, 1993)

Counsellors meet the requirements of people who experience traumatic or sudden

interruptions to their life development and to their social roles. (Dryden & Mytton,
1999) Prominent among these counselling functions are those in areas of marital
breakdown, rape and bereavement. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999) The work of the
counsellors in such cases can be clearly seen to arise from social problems, namely
from shifting social perceptions of marriage, reassessments of male and female
roles, and new patterns of marriage and family life. (Dryden & Mytton, 1999)
Counselling provides a route to helping individuals to negotiate this changing
social landscape. Counselling has also been found to be helpful in the area of
addictions. Specific counselling approaches have been developed to assist people
with problems related to substance abuse, gluttony and for giving up smoking.
(Pease & Fook, 1999) In some areas of counselling, which deal with addiction, for
example, with users of hard drugs, counsellors engaged in social work practice,
function side by side, with sets of legal restrictions and moral issues. (Pease &
Fook, 1999) The possession and use of cocaine, for example, is not just viewed to
be morally incorrect but also a criminal activity. (Pease & Fook, 1999) “The
counsellor working with a heroin addict, therefore, is not merely exploring ‘ways
of living more satisfyingly and resourcefully’ but is also mediating between
competing social definitions of what an acceptable ‘way of living’ entails.” (Pease
& Fook, 1999, p72) Some of the different objectives counsellors try to achieve in
their dealing with service users relate to (a) providing them with an understanding
of the origins of emotional difficulties, (b) enabling them to build meaningful
relationships with other people, (c) allowing them to become more aware of
blocked thoughts and feelings, (d) enabling them to develop a more positive
attitude towards their own selves, (e) encouraging them to move towards more
fulfilment of their potential and (f) helping them in solving particular problems.
(Pease & Fook, 1999)

The following example provides an instance of how counselling helps individuals

to overcome serious personal traumas.

“Paula had been driving her car. Her friend, Marian, was a passenger. Without any
warning they were hit by another vehicle, the car spun down the road, and Paula
thought ‘this is it’. Following this frightening event, Paula experienced intense
flashbacks to the incident. She had nightmares which disturbed her sleep. She
became irritable and hyper vigilant, always on the alert. She became increasingly
detached from her family and friends, and stopped using her car. Paula worked
hard at trying to forget the accident, but without success. When she went to see a
counsellor, Paula was given some questionnaires to fill in, and he gave her a
homework sheet that asked her to write about the incident for ten minutes each day
at a fixed time. In the next counselling session, she was asked to dictate an account
of the event into a tape recorder, speaking in the first person as if it was happening
now. She was told to play the trauma tape over and over again, at home, until she
got bored with it. In session 3, the counsellor suggested a way of dealing with her
bad dreams, by turning the accident into an imaginary game between two cartoon
characters. In session 4 she was invited to remember her positive, pre-accident
memories. She was given advice on starting to drive her car again, beginning with
a short five-minute drive, and then gradually increasing the time behind the wheel.
Throughout all this, her counsellor listened carefully to what she had to say, treated
her with great respect and was very positive about her prospects for improvement.
After nine sessions her symptoms of post-traumatic stress had almost entirely
disappeared, and she was able to live her life as before.” (Starkey, 2000, p37)

Counsellors need to keep in mind that socialisation leads to the development of

perspectives on issues like race and gender. (Moore, 2003) Many of these
perspectives are assimilated to such an extent that people have little control over
them and are bound to impact the working of counsellors if not understood,
isolated and overcome. (Moore, 2003) “In an anti-oppressive framework, these
views are broken into six main lenses; racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism,
ageism, and class oppression.” (Moore, 2003) People are regularly excluded on
account of their colour, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, age, and class. (Moore,
2003) Most of these factors do not occur in isolation and thus lead to multi-
oppression, for example an aged female from a minority background could face
oppression because of three factors, the whole of which becomes stronger than the
sum of individual components. Oppressive perspectives occur through a common
origin, namely economic power and control, and employ common methods of
limiting, controlling, and destroying lives.

The PCS model developed by Thompson, in 2001, argues, in similar vein that
inequalities, prejudice and discrimination operate at three levels, Personal,
Cultural, and Structural, and by constantly strengthening each other, create
powerful mental biases and prejudices against members of out-groups, people who
are disadvantaged by way of colour, race, ethnicity, religion and language.
Individual views, at the personal level, interact with shared cultural, historical and
traditional beliefs to create powerful prejudices. (Thompson, 2001) Dominant
groups within society constantly reinforce their superiority by driving home the
inferiority of other groups through a number of overt and covert methods. (Harris,
2002) Whilst movements that aim to dismantle such stereotypes are emerging
slowly, the biggest conflict is still within. (Harris, 2002) Internalised oppression is
the oppression that we impose on our own selves due to environmental pressures.
(Harris, 2002) The oppression is internalised from the prevailing society’s message
through various institutions like the media, existing religious infrastructure, and
other forms of socialisation. (Harris, 2002) Examples of such oppressive practices
are the pressure put on working mothers to run an efficient household, in addition
to putting in a full day at the office, or expecting mothers who stay at home to
work from dawn until late night. (Harris, 2002) These prejudices are further
strengthened by structural discriminations that are created by social and
governmental structures, (as evinced by diminished employment opportunities for
people with histories of substance abuse or the refusal of landlords to rent houses
to members of certain communities), and create a complex web of mutually
reinforcing social processes. Counsellors are prone to be oppressive because of
assimilated perspectives, stereotyping, and because they hold power over service
users. It is imperative that they recognise these imbalances and work towards
eliminating them in their work as well as in the promotion of change to redress the
balance of power. Looking at social issues through the perspectives of service
users is thus critical to counselling activity. Social workers often face ethical
challenges in their dealing with service users. There are many instances in social
work where simple answers are not available to resolve complex ethical issues.
Clients, for example, can inform counsellors about their intention to commit
suicide or inflict physical harm on their own selves, ask for reassuring physical
contact in the nature of hugs, and confide about their intentions to harm others.
(Langs, 1998) There is a strong possibility of sexual attraction developing between
counsellor and service user. (Langs, 1998) Such situations can lead to the
development of dichotomies between personal and professional ethics, and to
extremely uncomfortable choices. (Langs, 1998)

Conclusion

Counselling is a complex and demanding activity that demands knowledge,

experience and people skills, as well as compassion, empathy and understanding.
Above all counselling activity, as an integral component of social work, requires
commitment to social good. Counselling theories have evolved over the last half
century; they have multiple origins, are complex in their formulation, and whilst
having common features, need to be individually adapted to the needs of service
users. Whilst it is not easy to grasp and apply these theories, their comprehensive
understanding and application are essential to the effectiveness of counselling
work. Counsellors, by virtue of the nature of their work and their power in
counsellor-service user relationships exercise enormous influence over the
decisions of service users.

The diversity and heterogeneity of counselling reflects the sensitivity of

counselling to the enormous variations in human experience. Whilst understanding
of theory helps in discharging of responsibilities, counsellors are also limited by
assimilated perspectives on oppression, career and money demands, and their own
emotions. Their responsibilities are manifold, and include duties towards service
users, towards the profession, and towards the wider community. Apart from being
challenging, satisfying and rewarding, counselling also provides the opportunity to
make profound differences to the lives of other human beings.
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