What is Counselling

Counselling is the process of assisting and guiding clients, especially by a trained person on a
professional basis, to resolve especially personal, social, or psychological problems and difficulties.

Professional Counselling reduces confusion. It allows the client to make effective decisions that
lead to positive changes in behavior.

Professional Counselling is not based on giving advice. It is not related to the existing situation as if
the counsellor were the client. The ultimate aim of counselling is to enable them to make their own
choices and to reach their own decisions to enable them to act on these new found feelings for their
own benefit.

Core Conditions in Counselling

Carl Rogers was a pioneer of person-centred or humanistic therapy in the 1940s. He helped to lay
the foundations and theory for the practice of counselling by non- medical practitioners. His
approach recognised an inbuilt tendency of humans toward ‘self- actualisation’, a positive view of
human psychology that accepts our innate desire to grow and engage in a meaningful self-
exploration of feelings, beliefs and behaviour and to facilitate the client in a growth process,
empowering them to face current and future challenges.

“It is the client who knows what hurts,  what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what
experiences have been deeply buried.” – Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View
of Psychotherapy.

Rogers believed that to create the conditions for change for the client; the counsellor should be
warm, genuine and understanding. Above any techniques, the humanist approach to counselling
prizes the relationship between the client and the therapist. Rogers therefore identified three core
conditions that would enable this relationship to work in a therapeutic setting:

 Congruence (genuineness): This implies that therapists are real; that is, they are genuine,
integrated, and authentic during the therapy hour. They are without a false front, their inner
experience and outer expression of that experience match, and they can openly express
feelings, thoughts, reactions, and attitudes that are present in the relationship with the client.
This communication is done with careful reflection and considered judgment on the therapist’s
part. Through authenticity the therapist serves as a model of a human being struggling toward
greater realness. Being congruent might necessitate expressing a range of feelings including
anger, frustration, liking, concern, and annoyance. This does not mean that therapists should
 impulsively share all their reactions, for self-disclosure must be appropriate, well timed, and
have a constructive therapeutic intent. Counsellors can try too hard to be genuine; sharing
because one thinks it will be good for the client, without being genuinely moved to express
something regarded as personal, can be incongruent. Person-centered therapy stresses that
counselling will be inhibited if the counsellor feels one way about the client but acts in a
different way.
 Unconditional positive regard (acceptance): The second attitude therapists need to
communicate is deep and genuine caring for the client as a person, or a condition of
unconditional positive regard. For the client to grow and realise their potential, it was vital
they were valued as individuals. This entailed acceptance of the client by the therapist without
judgement. The caring is non-possessive and is not contaminated by evaluation or judgment of
the client’s feelings, thoughts, and behavior as good or bad. The greater the degree of caring,
prizing, accepting, and valuing of the client in a non-possessive way, the greater the chance
that therapy will be successful. Therapists value and warmly accept clients without placing
stipulations on their acceptance. It is not an attitude of “I’ll accept you when…” rather, it is
one of “I’ll accept you as you are.” Acceptance is the recognition of clients’ rights to have
their own beliefs and feelings; it is not the approval of all behavior.
 Accurate empathic understanding: One of the main tasks of the therapist is to understand
clients’ experience and feelings sensitively and accurately as they are revealed in the moment-
to-moment interaction during the therapy session. The therapist strives to sense clients’
subjective experience, particularly in the here and now. The aim is to encourage clients to get
closer to themselves, to feel more deeply and intensely, and to recognize and resolve the
incongruity that exists within them.
Empathy is a deep and subjective understanding of the client with the client. When therapists
can grasp the client’s private world as the client sees and feels it—without losing the
separateness of their own identity—constructive change is likely to occur. Empathy,
particularly emotionally focused empathy, helps clients (1) pay attention to and value their
experiencing, (2) process their experience both cognitively and bodily, (3) view prior
experiences in new ways, and (4) increase their confidence in making choices and in pursuing
a course of action.

Rogers hypothesized that no other conditions were necessary. If the therapeutic core conditions
exist over some period of time, constructive personality change will occur. The core conditions do
not vary according to client type. Further, they are both necessary and sufficient for therapeutic
change to occur.
 Core Counselling Skills

Communication Skills: An excellent counsellor can convey information in a concise way that
ensures that a client understands the counsellor’s concerns, advice, etc. This way, a client can leave
a session without feeling confused and assured that the counsellor answered all of his or her
questions.

Listening and Attending: Counsellors need more than excellent listening and comprehension
skills. During a session with a client, counsellors must also project that they have a vested and
genuine interest in the client’s well-being. They do this by making eye contact and using
appropriate body language – counselling skills and techniques that also apply to the psychiatry and
therapy fields.

Focusing and Paraphrasing: When a client first meets with a counsellor, he or she may not know
their problems’ root cause(s). The counsellor must identify the client’s issues and help the client
decide which are causing the most harm. This way, the counsellor and client can focus on those
issues and develop solutions.

Validating and Challenging: As counsellors provide mental health services, they must make
clients feel validated – that it is normal to feel upset, nervous, angry, etc. However, counsellors
must also challenge clients to adopt actions or mindsets that go against these feelings, ones that
clients may not want to give up. Effective challenging requires excellent interpersonal and
diplomatic skills.

Multicultural Competencies: Counsellors, especially guidance and school counsellors, must

possess multicultural competencies. In other words, a counsellor should understand how a client’s
racial, cultural, and socioeconomic background affects them. Counsellors can use this knowledge to
better empathize with clients, gain their trust, and develop effective solutions.
Characteristics of Effective Counsellors

 Your counsellor seems competent and experienced enough to help you with your issues and
does not appear overwhelmed by them. While it is possible you may see a counsellor who
does not have the training or experience to help you with your problems, they should always
let you know if that is the case.
 Your counsellor explains the therapeutic process and how you can benefit from it, without
guaranteeing your success or promising that “everything will be okay.” The bottom line is
that no one can make such guarantees—neither the counsellor, nor you.
 Your counsellor always maintains professional business practices by keeping the focus on
you. They prepare ahead of time for your sessions by reviewing notes or action items from
previous sessions. They keep your appointments; are generally on time; and demonstrate
they are paying attention by not answering their phone, checking their email, or otherwise
becoming distracted during your sessions.
 Your counsellor provides a diagnosis if necessary but remains steadfastly focused on
helping you to manage any such diagnosis and get better. The diagnosis remains the
backdrop for therapy, not the focus of it.
 Your counsellor understands and communicates to you that there are many effective
approaches to therapy, and no one approach can meet the needs of every client. They model
open-mindedness about other approaches to therapy.
 Your counsellor explains what psychotherapeutic technique they plan to use, welcomes and
answers any questions you may have about a specific technique, and requests your
comments for any technique that may be new or different for you.
 Your counsellor is active in the therapy community and regularly interacts with other
professionals. It is this regular collaboration with other professionals that keeps your
counsellor up-to-date and able to provide the best therapy for you.
 Your counsellor provides insight and knowledge that you otherwise might not have seen.
This insight clearly comes from experience and training.
 Your counsellor maintains a good balance between your thoughts and your feelings without
neglecting or diminishing either one.
 Your counsellor always demonstrates a balanced and appropriate level of emotion during
sessions. Because good counsellors are empathic and genuinely care for their clients,
sometimes they express emotion when learning about a client’s experience. For example, if
the client has experienced the loss of a loved one, the counsellor may show sadness. While
 some emotion is appropriate, an abundance of emotion is generally not okay. Good
counsellors maintain their focus on you and not their own emotions.
 Your counsellor helps you to work through highly vulnerable feelings or memories in a safe
and therapeutic way that does not re-traumatize you. Because of your work together, they
know when it is safe to deal with these feelings or memories and when it is not. They neither
push you to “go there” nor do they prevent you from “going there.”
 Your counsellor has also experienced being in therapy. Many counsellors choose this field
because they’ve had positive therapy experiences themselves, and they want to do the same
for others. For those who have not experienced therapy prior to entering a counsellor
education program, most curricula require counselling students to participate in therapy,
even if briefly so. This allows counsellors to understand therapy from the client’s
perspective.
 Your counsellor explains to you that therapy is always your choice. They should make you
feel comfortable with the choice to discontinue therapy or to choose another counsellor.
Some people decide to leave therapy before the counsellor thinks it is healthy to do so, and
your counsellor is obligated to express any concern if you opt to discontinue therapy before
the therapy has been “completed.” However, this concern should not make you feel as if you
don’t have the choice to leave.
 Your counsellor maintains your confidentiality at all times. While there are some occasions
when it’s necessary for a counsellor to break confidentiality, these are typically outlined
very carefully in the state’s or other municipality’s legal and ethical guidelines for
counsellors. Though the guidelines vary depending on where you live, generally speaking, a
counsellor can divulge the contents of a therapy session or sessions if the client or another
person appears to be in imminent danger, or if the court requires information for a legal
proceeding. You may want to check your own local and state guidelines.
 Your counsellor maintains the confidentiality of other clients as well. While your counsellor
may tell you anecdotal stories of other people’s experiences with counselling if there is a
therapeutic value to you, they should never reveal the identities of other clients or give you
any information that would allow you to identify them.
 Your counsellor regularly checks your progress against your goals and helps you to
understand where you are and where you may still need to go.
 You feel a connection with your counsellor that shows they really believe in you and in the
goals you have set for your life.
 Conversations with your counsellor seem natural and balanced. They neither talk too much
nor too little. They use terms and language you understand and explain any concepts that
may be difficult or confusing.
 Your counsellor helps you to see your own role in your level of happiness and recognizes
that, while some people in your life may influence you negatively, blame is a destructive
force and cannot be part of healthy choices.
 Your counsellor balances the day-to-day needs of managing your symptoms using effective
coping skills with the need to work through and resolve the underlying root causes of those
symptoms. By focusing on both, they are better able to help you progress and move forward
than by putting all therapeutic attention on one or the other.
 Your counsellor models the behaviour they are trying to help you with. They are thoughtful
with comments and responses. They remain calm and speak at a moderate volume and are
not antagonistic or aggressive with you.
 It is clear that your counsellor’s sole purpose is to help you—without focusing on meeting
their own needs, talking excessively about themselves, disclosing personal information that
does not hold some therapeutic value for you, or enlisting your assistance with anything that
is outside the purpose of helping you.
 Your counsellor recognizes they may not have all of the answers or be able to help you in
some circumstances. They freely acknowledge any mistakes, welcome your honest
feedback, and use these as learning experiences in order to better help you and understand
your needs in the future.
 Your counsellor maintains a professional relationship with you at all times. Their
demeanour could be friendly, but they never depict your relationship as a friendship.
 Your counsellor treats you as a “whole person,” an equal who is not defined by your issues,
and does not make negative judgments about you. You feel genuine care and concern from
your counsellor. One of the hallmarks of good therapy is known as unconditional positive
regard. This is an idea that is taught in counselling programs across the country; it maintains
that the counsellor should see clients in a positive light regardless of any behaviour,
lifestyle, or other issues.
 Your counsellor is respectful of your values and belief systems and does not exhibit an
agenda founded on personal values or belief systems. They are sensitive to your culture and
religion and use aspects of these as part of your therapy, when appropriate. If they lack
knowledge about your beliefs, they ask questions in a respectful way to gain better insight.
  Your counsellor knows you well enough to understand any physical boundary issues you
may have and does not “move into your space” or touch you without asking if it’s okay with
you.
 Your counsellor empathizes with you at an appropriate level, such as a natural or fitting
response or level of emotion to your life’s experiences, and not one that is either overdone
or exaggerated, or flat and almost non-existent.

Stages of Counselling

Counselling is the process of assisting and guiding clients, especially by a trained person on a
professional basis, to resolve especially personal, social, or psychological problems and difficulties.
Hackney and Cormier (2005) propose a five-stage model for defining the counselling process
through which both counsellor and client move

1. Relationship building (Initial disclosure) - The counselling process begins with relationship

building. This stage focuses on the counsellor engaging with the client to explore the issues
that directly affect them. The vital first interview can set the scene for what is to come, with
the client reading the counsellor’s verbal and nonverbal signals to draw inferences about the
counsellor and the process. The counsellor focuses on using good listening skills and
building a positive relationship. When successful, it ensures a strong foundation for future
dialogue and the continuing counselling process.
2. Problem assessment (In-depth exploration) - While the counsellor and client continue to
build a beneficial, collaborative relationship, another process is underway: problem
assessment. The counsellor carefully listens and draws out information regarding the client’s
situation (life, work, home, education, etc.) and the reason they have engaged in counselling.
Information crucial to subsequent stages of counselling includes identifying triggers, timing,
environmental factors, stress levels, and other contributing factors.
3. Goal setting (Commitment to action) – Effective counselling relies on setting appropriate
and realistic goals, building on the previous stages. The goals must be identified and
developed collaboratively, with the client committing to a set of steps leading to a particular
outcome.
4. Counselling intervention - This stage varies depending on the counsellor and the theories
they are familiar with, as well as the situation the client faces. For example, a behavioral
approach may suggest engaging in activities designed to help the client alter their behavior.
In comparison, a person-centered approach seeks to engage the client’s self-actualizing
tendency.
5. Evaluation, termination, or referral -Termination may not seem like a stage, but the art of
ending the counselling is critical. Drawing counselling to a close must be planned well in
advance to ensure a positive conclusion is reached while avoiding anger, sadness, or anxiety.
Part of the process is to reach an early agreement on how the therapy will end and what
success looks like. This may lead to a referral if required. While there are clear stages to the
typical counselling process, other than termination, each may be ongoing. For example,
while setting goals, new information or understanding may surface that requires additional
assessment of the problem.
Furthermore, dialectical behavior therapy organizes treatment into stages and targets. Stages are
defined by the severity of the client’s behaviours, and therapists work with their clients to reach the
goals of each stage in their progress toward having a life that they experience as worth living.

Before beginning the therapeutic process, the counsellor explains to the client the treatment model,
shares an understanding of the client’s difficulties as identified from the assessment, and orients the
client to the expectations of counselling. This approach increases commitment and allows both the
counsellor and the client to identify obstacles that may need to be addressed.

Stage 1: Moving from being out of control of one’s behavior to being in control.

This is when the therapist and the client work together to get behavior under control
reducing problem behaviours, life-threatening behaviours, therapy-interfering behaviours
and increasing skills-based practice.

Stage 2: Moving from being emotionally shut down to experiencing emotions fully

This involves reducing any trauma-related symptoms including formal diagnoses of post-
traumatic stress disorder and other traumatic emotional experiences that may not fit the
criteria for PTSD. In addition, invalidating emotional experiences that clients may have
experienced when they were in childhood can be discussed here as well. This stage can be
thought of as turning up the heat because we’re processing traumatic histories and
intensifying emotion. The goal of Stage 2 is to help the client move from a state of quiet
desperation to one of full emotional experiencing.

Stage 3: Building an ordinary life, solving ordinary life problems

This stage focuses on problems in living, and the challenge is to learn to live: to define life
goals, build self-respect, and find peace and happiness. The goal is that the client leads a life
of ordinary happiness and unhappiness.

Stage 4: Moving from incompleteness to completeness/connection.

This stage is specifically for those clients for whom a life of ordinary happiness and
unhappiness fails to meet a further goal of fulfilment or a sense of connectedness of a
greater whole. The goal of treatment in this stage is for the client to move from a sense of
incompleteness towards a life that involves an ongoing capacity for experiences of joy and
freedom.
 Ethics in Counselling

Ethics are a set of moral principles or rules of conduct for an individual or group. The term ethics
comes from the Greek ethos meaning custom, habit or character. Ethics determine choices made. In
counselling, ethics underpin the nature and course of actions taken by the counsellor.

Reasons for Ethics in Counselling:

 Ethics are important in counselling, as they are a means to protect the welfare of the client
and counsellors by clearly outlining what is appropriate.
 Counsellors and therapists often come across some difficult and sensitive subjects. This
leaves the client in a vulnerable position. It’s expected of a counsellor to act ethically,
meaning adhering to what’s known as an ethical framework.
 They have a duty of care for clients, and by nature of the profession, counsellors are to act in
the best interest of their client, promoting client goals, protecting client rights, maximising
good and minimizing harm.
 Following a code of ethics means acting honestly as a counsellor.

Ethical Principles

Kitchener (1984) has identified five moral principles which often help to clarify the issues involved
in a given situation. The five principles are: autonomy, justice, beneficence, non-maleficence.

 Being trustworthy (fidelity)

It involves the notions of loyalty, faithfulness, and honouring commitments. Being trustworthy is
regarded as fundamental to understanding and resolving ethical issues. Practitioners who adopt this
principle: act in accordance with the trust placed in them; strive to ensure that clients’ expectations
are ones that have reasonable prospects of being met; honour their agreements and promises; regard
confidentiality as an obligation arising from the client’s trust; restrict any disclosure of confidential
information about clients to furthering the purposes for which it was originally disclosed.

 Autonomy

The essence of this principle is allowing an individual the freedom of choice and action. This
principle emphasises the importance of developing a client’s ability to be self-directing within
therapy and all aspects of life. It addresses the responsibility of the counsellor to encourage clients,
when appropriate, to make their own decisions and to act on their own values. There are two
important considerations in encouraging clients to be autonomous. First, helping the client to
understand how their decisions and their values may or may not be received within the context of
the society in which they live, and how they may impinge on the rights of others. (implications) The
second consideration is related to the client’s ability to make sound and rational decisions. The
principle of autonomy opposes the manipulation of clients against their will, even for beneficial
social ends.

 Beneficence

The principle of beneficence means acting in the best interests of the client based on professional
assessment. Beneficence reflects the counsellor’s responsibility to contribute to the welfare of the
client. Simply stated it means to do good, to be proactive and also to prevent harm when possible. It
directs attention to working strictly within one’s limits of competence and providing services on the
basis of adequate training or experience. There is an obligation to use regular and on-going
supervision to enhance the quality of the services provided and to commit to updating practice by
continuing professional development. An obligation to act in the best interests of a client may
become paramount when working with clients whose capacity for autonomy is diminished because
of immaturity, lack of understanding, extreme distress, serious disturbance or other significant
personal constraints.

 Non maleficence

Nonmaleficence is the concept of not causing harm to others. Often explained as “above all do no
harm”, this principle is considered by some to be the most critical of all the principles, even though
theoretically they are all of equal weight. This principle reflects both the idea of not inflicting
intentional harm, and not engaging in actions that risk harming others. Non-maleficence involves
avoiding sexual, financial, and emotional or any other form of client exploitation; avoiding
incompetence or malpractice; not providing services when unfit to do so due to illness, personal
circumstances or intoxication. The practitioner has an ethical responsibility to strive to mitigate any
harm caused to a client even when the harm is unavoidable or unintended.

 Justice

The principle of justice requires being just and fair to all clients and respecting their human rights
and dignity. Justice does not mean treating all individuals the same. Kitchener points out that the
formal meaning of justice is “treating equals equally and unequals unequally but in proportion to
their relevant differences”. It directs attention to considering conscientiously any legal requirements
and obligations, and remaining alert to potential conflicts between legal and ethical obligations.
Practitioners have a duty to strive to ensure a fair provision of counselling and psychotherapy
services, accessible and appropriate to the needs of potential clients. If an individual is to be treated
differently, the counsellor needs to be able to offer a rationale that explains the necessity and
appropriateness of treating this individual differently.

Some more important ethical principles are as follows:

 Veracity

This ethical principle known as veracity is referencing the principle of always being truthful. As
counsellors, we are not supposed to lie to our clients to make them happy or help them in their
journey. Counsellors are expected to be honest and truthful in a way that can help the client be
aware of the issues they are having and finding a solution to those issues. Clients need to be able to
feel the ability to trust their counsellor, trust that the counsellor will be honest always.

 Setting and maintaining boundaries

This is probably the most important ethical concern for a counsellor. It’s necessary to avoid
developing personal relationships with clients, due to privacy, confidentiality, and a duty of care.
Counsellors should also avoid working with family, friends, or people they know personally. These
ethical boundaries are in place to allow everyone a fair, unbiased therapy, where they can rely on
confidentiality to express their problems freely.

 Confidentiality

Another important consideration. Every counsellor is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality
of their clients. All personal information, and the disclosures made during sessions, need to be kept
not only secret but secure. There are a few exceptions to this, for instance when a therapist strongly
suspects immediate harm to the client or someone around them. But for the most part what is said in
the sessions, stays in the sessions. Counsellors are expected to communicate the parameters of
confidentiality in a culturally competent manner.

 Multicultural Competence

Counsellors actively attempt to understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of the clients they
serve. Counsellors also explore their own cultural identities and how these affect their values and
beliefs about the counselling process. Counsellors are encouraged to contribute to society by
devoting a portion of their professional activity to services for which there is little or no financial
return.