DISS RW 2

1. Definition of Counseling.
 The process of guiding a person during a stage of life where reassessments or decisions
have to be made about himself or herself and his or her life course
 As a discipline, it is an allied to psychology and deals with normal responses to normal
life events, which may sometimes create stress for some people who, in turn, choose to
ask for help and support
2. Context and basic concept of Counseling
a. Peers as context
 Friends’ attitudes, norms, and behaviors have a strong influence on adolescent.
Many personal issues are often introduced to the individual by their peers. Parents
can have much influence over their adolescent children. Critical family issues involve
family roles, both positive and negative. In most cases, the impact of parent
influence can help counter the negative influence that peers have on the
adolescents’ issues
b. Neighbor as context
 The behavioral problems in a particular neighborhood require that family work
against crime and social isolation that may impact them. This is much easier in
countryside communities where a community network of parents, teachers,
grandparents, and civic leaders exist and where collaboration in raising the children
of the community forms part of shared ethos
c. Culture as context
 Culture provides meaning and coherence of life to any orderly life such as
community or organization
d. Counseling as context
 There is a deliberate
i. Client factors-clients bring so much to the counseling context and therefore it
remains imperative that they considered as an active part of the process
ii. Counselor factors-personality, skills and personal qualities of a counselor can
significantly impact the outcomes of the counseling
iii. Contextual factors-the context in which counseling takes place define the
outcomes so, counselors, therefore concerned with the environment and
atmosphere where to conduct sessions
iv. Process factors-the actual counseling undertaking
1. Developing trust-involves providing warmth, genuineness and empathy
2. Exploring problem areas-involves providing a clear and deep analysis of
what the problem is, where it comes from, what triggers it, and why it
may have developed
3. Helping to set goals- involves setting and managing goal-directed
interventions
4. Empowering into action-fostering actions to achieve set goals
5. Helping to maintain change-providing support and other techniques to
enable the client to maintain changes
 6. Agreeing when to end the helping relationship-assurances are there
that guarantee the process in being directed by the client and toward
independence
3. Goals and scope of Counseling-the general goal is to lead an individual client or group to self-
emancipation in relation to a felt problem. The scope is wide. Essentially, it involves application
of some psychological theories and recognized communication skills. It does not deal with
clinical cases such as mental illness. It is a professional relationship that requires an eventual
closure and termination of the counselee-counselor relationship
4. Principles of Counseling
a. Advise
b. Reassurance
c. Release of emotional tension
d. Clarified thinking
e. Reorientation
f. Listening skills
g. Respect
h. Empathy and positive regard
i. Clarification, confrontation and interpretation
j. Transference and countertransference
5. Core values of Counseling
a. Respect for human dignity-the counselor must provide a client unconditional positive
regard, compassion, non-judgmental attitude, empathy and trust
b. Partnership-a counselor must foster partnership with the various disciple that come
together to support an integrated healing that encompasses various aspects such as the
physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual aspects
c. Autonomy-entails respect for confidentiality and trust in a relationship of counseling
and ensuring a safe environment that is needed for healing
d. Responsible caring-means respecting the potential of every human being to change and
to continue learning throughout his/her life and especially the environment of
counseling
e. Personal integrity-counselors must reflect personal integrity, honesty, and truthfulness
to clients
f. Social justice-means accepting and respecting the diversity of the clients, individuals,
their culture, languages, lifestyle, identities, ideologies, intellectual capacities,
personalities and capabilities regardless of the presented issues
6. The foundation of ethical practice as expressed by The New Zealand Association of Counselors
(Ethical Principles for Counselors at nzac.org)