Principles of Effective Counseling

As you learn more about this profession, you may also be interested in knowing and
understanding the principles that facilitate effective counseling.
Effective counselors exhibit a degree of respect, motivation, and encouragement that will
allow you to gain confidence to act on your situation. He or she will help you realize the value of
taking responsibility for your actions, word, and decisions, as well as their results or
repercussions.
In counseling, effective counselors will remind you that you are an indispensable
individual whose rights should be respected. Your counselor will also emphasize your good
qualities and may try to push you to your limits, so you can be on your full potential. You will
also be encouraged to exercise and improve your capacity to think and make decisions.
One important element in effective counseling is the client's feeling of unconditional
regard. This means that your counselor will be very respectful and accepting of your own
insights and personal feelings about

The Core Values of Counseling

Your values constitute your beliefs, which in turn affect how you view the person you
deal with and how you understand your situation. Hutchinson (2014) offered a synthesis or
moral values for effective counseling.
These include the following :
1. Each person is, in essence, naturally and good.
2. The primary role of a counselor is to give support so that the client will be able to
attain autonomy.
3. The essential values that will compel and sustain you in doing this work are love and
compassion
4. An effective counselor finds the job's intrinsic rewards more interesting than its
extrinsic ones.
5. Deal with life through an attitude of gratitude and forgiveness.

Module 2: Professionals and Practitioners in Counseling The Professional

Counselor Counseling is a profession that allows you to help others manage their
responses to life challenges. It is a career that provides you an opportunity to assists others in
developing their potentials and to encourage personal growth and learning. To better
understand the counseling profession, we begin by differentiating who are professional
counselor and who are informal helpers.
Professional counselors are expected to maintain a high degree of objectivity in doing
their job. To do this effectively, they must not have a personal involvement with their client. A
personal involvement with their client causes any preconceived idea about the client to affect
the counseling process. Hence, a professional counselor must avoid providing counseling to his
or her own family to avoid subjectivity. On the other hand, informal helpers need not consider
this. They may provide assistance to people who are personally related to them. In this
circumstance, informal helpers may be unaware of their personal biases' influence on the
assistance they provide
Second, counselors are guided by rules and regulations or what is called Code of
Ethics. In high recognition of the role of counselors in the Philippines, the Guidance and
Counseling Act of 2004 as client causes any preconceived idea about the client to affect the
counseling process. Hence, a professional counselor must avoid providing counseling to his or
her own family to avoid subjectivity. On the other hand, informal helpers need not consider this.
They may provide assistance to people who are personally related to them. In this
circumstance, informal helpers may be unaware of their personal biases influence on the
assistance they provide. Second, counselors are guided by rules and regulations or what is
called Code of Ethics. In high recognition of the role of counselors in the Philippines, the
Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004 as promulgated to support the improvement, and
protection of the guidance and counseling profession. Counselors are expected to perform their
duties and responsibilities according to the standards set by this law. On the other hand,
informal helpers may help people as encouraged by their personal rules. Third, counselors use
strategies and techniques to promote to promote the client's personal growth and development.
For example, the counselor may apply cognitive strategies to help a student who has a low self-
esteem. By using self-talk technique (a cognitive approach in counseling), the counselor will
help the client evaluate his or her thoughts about himself or herself and figure out thoughts
which are helpful or not. On the other hand, informal helpers are those who are not formally
equipped with standardized strategies or approaches. Usually, they rely only on providing
advice or tips they feel suitable.
Third, counselors use strategies and techniques to promote to promote the client's
personal growth and development. For example, the counselor may apply cognitive strategies to
help a student who has a low self-esteem. By using self-talk technique (a cognitive approach in
counseling), the counselor will help the client evaluate his or her thoughts about himself or
herself and figure out thoughts which are helpful or not. On the other hand, informal helpers are
those who are not formally equipped with standardized strategies or approaches. Usually, they
rely only on providing advice or tips they feel suitable. Given these differences between
professional counselors and informal helpers, professional counselors have the following
characteristics;
1. They have acquired body of knowledge, skills, or competencies through formal and
specializing training. Thus, professional counselors are competent to provide approaches or
strategies that promote personal growth of clients.
2. They are guided by standards of professional practice and laws. Thus, they maintain
confidentiality of their client's issues and concerns and act to the best interest of their clients
3. They are formally identified as members of the helping profession, competent in
promoting growth and personal change in their clients.
Roles and Functions of Professional Counselor
The counseling profession evolved as a response to various changes: economic, social,
and technological. Some examples of these are the increasing number of overseas workers,
many of whom are parents, better facilitation of students learning by addressing their behavioral
concerns, progress in knowledge and use of technology in the classroom, and cultural diversity
in the classrooms by having students from either different regions in the country or different
countries in the world. Given this situation, the guidance counselors are considered important
members of the educational team. They provide assistance to students' academic pursuit,
socio-emotional needs, career plans, and moral development. In this way, the guidance and
counseling program ensures that students are able to cope well with their circumstances. This
results in nurturing students who shall be responsible and productive members of society.
Erford (2014) emphasized that professional school counselors do not take rigid and
static set of functions in the educational system. This means that professional counselors
perform their roles in a continues state of transformation in response to the current challenges.
Therefore, professional counselors functions as follow;
1. Providers of individual and group counseling. School counselors take an active
role in counseling groups or individuals. In a school setting, professional counselors are
equipped not only in helping individuals understand themselves, but also in providing correct
evaluation for either behavioral or clinical problems a student may have.
2. Developmental classroom guidance specialists. Professional counselors also
prepare lesson and implementing guidance instructions to students. These are executed by
developing clear and measureable objectives to meet the needs of the students. To meet these
objectives, professional counselors deliver talks, seminarsworkshop, and other interesting
activities. Lastly, professional counselors improve their programs and mode of instruction
through consistent feedback and evaluation.
3. Leaders and advocates of academic success. Professional school counselors have
an ethical responsibility of promoting academic success by helping students identify barriers
affecting school performance. These barriers may be professional (example; living with an
absence or separated parents); socio-emotional (example : peer pressure), moral dilemmas
(example failing in an exam or cheating to pass an exam), or career-related barriers (example :
indecisiveness about a course in college). Professional counselors guide the students by
identifying strategies so they can positively cope with these challenges and see these
challenges as opportunities for growth.
4. Career development specialists. Professional counselors also provide activities that
will prepare students for the demands and requirements of their chosen profession. These
activities include formal writing of resumes, having proper responses to job interviews, and
knowing appropriate clothing for job applications. Furthermore, to ensure proper coping and
success in the workplace, professional counselor help student develop essential, basic skills
such as effective communication, creativity, decision-making, critical thinking and work ethics.
5. Agents of diversity and multiculturalism. Professional school counselors are
trained to deal with and address the needs of people from different cultural backgrounds. For
example, because of the ASEAN integration, the Philippines will now be more accommodating
of students from foreign countries. There will be an increasing number of students form other
Asian counties. The counselor may provide assistance to these foreign students through
activities that allow intersection with Filipino students, aimed at helping them demonstrate
hospitality, respect, and understanding for their foreign classmates.
6. Advocates of students with special needs and student-at-risk. Professional
counselors give attention to students with special needs—such as the athletes, honor students,
students with absentee parents, those with learning disabilities, and other clinically diagnosed
students. They are special groups who need additional assistance to help them cope better---by
providing comprehensive assessment programs to better understand and address their special
needs.
7. Advocates of a safe school environment. Conflicts which may lead to violence,
happen in some school communities. For instance, there are issues on bullying-physical, verbal,
cyber, psychological, etc., nowadays. Hence, a comprehensive school counseling program with
intervention components such as school bullying campaign and peer mentoring can address
this issue.
8. School and community collaboration specialists. To ensure student's holistic
development and success, professional school counselors work in collaboration with the other
school authorities and with parents of the students. For example, they cooperate with teachers
to better assist student with learning difficulties or behavioral problems. At times, school
counselors are tasked to prepare seminar-workshops to facilitate teachers' better understanding
of the personality dynamics of students. Through conferences, counselors collaborated with the
parents to best facilitate and promote excellent academic performance of the students.