PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES OF A PROFFESSIONAL

COUNSELLOR AND ITS IMPACT ON COUNSELING

PROCESS: A REVIEW.
Shabanda I.; Itodo A.U. and Abubakar, M.N *
Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Kebbi State University of Science and Technology
Aliero.
*
Department of Chemistry, FCET, Gusau
.
Corresponding Author1 Email: itodoson2002@yahoo.com
Tel: +2348073812726, +2348039503463
Abstract
It is quite obvious that people in one time or the other need some kind of
advice in their educational, social or psychological problems. Purposeless
and ill acquired education by our youth often leads to faulty aspirations,
and also lack of proper consultations and advice from experienced
individuals sometimes results to psychological & social instability. The
thematic arrangements of information was employed to review and to find
out how personal attributes of a professional counselor affects his/her
services to the society. Certain personal attributes ranging from Empathy,
sense of humor, patients & understanding, Friendliness, Neatness:
Sympathetic attitude, Common sense and Genuiness were uncovered in
this review.
Key words: Personality Attributes, Professional, Counselor, Review.
The traditional Nigeria society was a community of hearts that found
its epitome in the family structure .In this society, people did not see
themselves as individuals, each with his own rights & liberties, rather they
saw themselves in as groups, one larger than the other, like concentric
circles such as family, Village, town, clan, or ethnic group with the

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family in care as the basic social unit. There exist an observable and well
pronounced spirits of brotherhood (Durojaye,1978),.
The relationship for all member of the family’s welfare rested on one
another. Infact, there is high integration in the traditional society. The
individual is considered as a community man; the needs of the society
were viewed as communal responsibilities and so discharges high stability
of the society values and norms.
Unfortunately, the basic structures described above has changed
considerably. The family social unit which usually lost itself into the
extended family system is more or less resolving into an independent
social system. Thus the tendency now is to work unbridled individualism.
Even the societal value systems and norms are constantly being question
and reviewed by individuals. This change has resulted to in ability in the
community as well as in the life of the individuals crisis, tension, anxiety,
worries, hatred for others, which the individual of the former society knew
nothing about (Anselem, 1983).
Based on these social changes, there are also social problems arising,
which made guidance & counseling services very necessary. As the need
for personal social guidance is becoming necessary to both youth and
adults in the society, the need for the establishment of guidance &
counseling personnel, units or departments can not be over
emphasized(Durojaye,1978).
The history of modern guidance & counseling movement could be
traced back to the first decade of the 9 th century. An organization of the

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vocational bureau in Boston, was formed by Frank persons in 1908 which
was aimed at providing vocational services to young people and to train
teachers to serve as vocational counselors in their respective
schools(Anselem,1983).
Guidance and counseling is a new discipline in Nigeria and is now
becoming a profession in the Nigerian educational system. Modern
guidance & counseling was formally introduced in Nigeria back to the
early 60s when few religious sisters of saint Theresa college, Oke-Ado,
Ibadan realized the need for vocational guidance for their school leavers
(Idowu ,1986).
Since we are aware that not only the young individual’s needs
counseling services, but people of various social classes may need it in
order to store their social and psychological problems.
There is going to be a lot of development in our society when
the talents and potentials of our youths are discovered early enough and
channeled to appropriate carriers (Anselem,1983). The professional
counselor must be able to function in a way that provides his client an
atmosphere, conducive to discover his needs e.t.c such proper functioning
of the counselor could only be possible if he possessed apart from his
training as a professional, some personal attributes desired by the people of
the environment he finds himself.
At last, one can see that apart from the training a counselor has
recovered. He should also posses some personal attributes before he could
be able to function well as a counselor. This research work focuses on how

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certain attributes affects the role of a professional counselor in his
counseling process.
MATERIALS/METHODOLOGY
In this work, the researchers decided to restrict themselves to review
of related literature which does not requires the use of questionnaire and
interviews. The restriction to the review of literature is associated with
limitations, imposed by limited sources of information and time.
Since this work will rely on works written by specialists in the field
of counseling, the thematic arrangements of information will be used to
analysed data collected for this study(Durojaye,1978 ; Idowu ,1986)).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.
Some specialists regarded counseling as part of guidance. As such, it is
limited in scope. Anselem, (1983) defines it as “a psychological process of
helping an individual to achieve self direction, self understanding and
mental balance necessary to make the maximum adjustment to the school,
home and society. It is a process in which one assists another, in a person
to person encounter (Olayinka, 1972).Durojaye (1978), observed that
counseling can be primarily regarded as a service by which one human
being (Counselor) can be of help to one or more other human being
(Counselee) to grow into integrated harmonious personalities. However,
counseling is a personalized interview between two persons the counselor,
who is trained and experienced in the psychological theory and practice of
comprehending and changing human behavior. He plays a major role of
assisting individuals through counseling relationship to outline his own

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resources and his environmental opportunities in the process of self
understanding, planning, and decision making and coping with problems
related to his development needs and to his educational and vocational
activities (Sewat, 1978). A clients or counselee, is the person who might
have either educational, vocational occupational or personal or social
problems and require assistant. The relationship between the counselor and
client is mutual and its aims at assisting the counselee realize and resolve
his problems.
Ipaye (1983), says that there are three ways through which a
counselee could come to the counselors viz ; (i) self referred counselee
where the counselee, having identified his problems, need some guidance
or help and come to the counselor himself. (ii) counselee’s invited by the
counselor: Here the counselor may observe certain behavior or problem
upon a counselee that needs intervention and he invites them for
counseling (iii) counselees, referred by others :here, parents, teachers or
close one may discover problem and send them to counselors, The
counselor needs, skill & common sense to relate with the clients or they
could become defensive and uncooperative on the counselee’s side.
counseling is effective if the person can express their thoughts & feelings
i.e. not children’s (Sheltzer and stone, 1971) .in any counseling that
involve children, the approval & involvement of parents is very important
because of their influence on the children’s life and development. likewise
the aged persons needs counseling because he experienced changes in his

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life, like retirement, physical infirmities etc which he may be unable to
cope adequately.
The social status, sex and motivation and variable that are very
important to be considered on the counselee’s side, for the counseling
process to be effective. Likewise the age, experience, sex and personality
characteristics of a counselor should also be confirmed for the counseling
process to be effective.
WHAT IS A PROFESSION? Musaazi (1982),saw a profession as being
intellectual and carrying with it, a great personal responsibility and not by
mere routine. It is also practical rather than simply academic or theoretical.
It was development and growth in science & technology that brought
profession in the world.
Now a professional counselor is one who is equipped with
specialized knowledge and skill in the guidance and counseling
programme, which he regards as a life long vocation because of the
satisfaction he derives from it. A professional counselor can render
services to the society in areas like information services, appraisal services,
counseling services, planning placement & follow up services, others
include evaluation and sustenance for positive result longevity.
Apart from the professional training a counselor had received, for his
work to be effective to the people he find himself he is expected to possess
certain personal attributes as:

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(i) Empathy:- i.e. a counselor putting himself in the
counselees shoe, or feels to a near exacts, as the counselor
is feeling
(ii) sense of humor:- i.e. capacity to sense or feel amazement,
this will help the counselee or encourage him to talk
freely.
(iii) (iii) patients & understanding: a counselor must be patient
and not rush himself or counselee, this is because he is
bound to come across someone, who is slow to express
himself whether by nature or due to his problems.
(iv) Friendliness: he should be friendly and be able to control
his temper in case of abnormal behaviors for shyness in
the counseling process so as to make counselee feel at
home to express himself
(v) Neatness: A counselor must be neat & smart and also
keep his office neat and well arranged in order to make a
counselee feel safe & confidence in him.
(vi) Sympathetic attitude:- A counselor should be concern on
the counselee’s problem even on the way he listen to him,
this will give the counselee, a relief that he has somebody
who understand the extend or gravity of his problem.
(vii) Common sense: A counselor should have a common
sense that will help him to do things at the right time and

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 place and to equally say the right word. He should be able
to control his tongue to avoid saying unnecessary things.
(viii) Genuiness: He should be real, do what he says, this will
encourage his client to have more confidence in him.
CONCLUSION
Personality attributes of professional counselors has a severe or great
impact in the counseling process in other words the success of counseling
services rendered by a professional counselor depend largely upon his
personality attributes.
In conclusion the research work has shown that apart from the
variables of both the counselee and counselor, other variable such as the
professional training received by the counselor, which qualifies him or her
to render guidance and counseling services to counselee’s are very
necessary for the success of a counselor. All the variables mentioned are
not enough to make the counselor successful in performing his duty, even
though we are aware that an ideal counselor does not exist because ideal
combination of strengths cannot be found in a pension for the success of
his career. As a counseling officer, personality attributes has a great role to
play and should not be underestimated. Finally, the focus of this research
has been on the importance of personality characteristics of a counselor
and its impact in counseling services. Thus outlining some of the problems
the counselor may encounter if not careful in his dealings with the
counselee.

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References
Anselem, U. (1983). An introduction to counseling .A book of readings Ile – Ife
University of Ife press Nigeria.pp 62.

Arthur, J. J (1970) Principles of guidance, sixth edition, New York: McGraw Hill
books company. PP 109-111

Durojaye M. O. (1977). Psychological guidance of the child Ibadan: First Ed. Evans
brothers Ltd. Pp 16

Idowu S. (1986). Basic of guidance & counseling. First Ed: Ibadan Signal
Educational press limited.pp. 98-102

Makinde,O.,(1983).Fundamentals of guidance and counseling. London. Macmillan

publishers.pp 201

Paye, T. (1983). Guidance & counseling practices: Ile – Ife .University of Ife
Press.pp 77

Shertzer,B d Stone,S.C.,(1976)Fundamentals of guidance.3rd Ed.Boston Mifflin

publishers.pp 52-54
.
Steward (1978).systematic counseling Eaglewood cliffs. N.J Prentice- Hall.Inc.pp 39.