THE EFFECTIVE

COUNSELLOR
UNIT - 1
INTRODUCTION
• Individuals aspire to become counselors for many reasons. For the
most part, “it attracts caring, warm, friendly and sensitive people”
(Myrick, 1997, p. 4).
• It is important that persons who wish to be counselors examine
themselves before committing their lives to the profession.
EFFECTIVENESS OF A COUNSELLOR
The effectiveness of a counselor and of counseling depends on
numerous variables, including:
• the personality and background of the counselor;
• the formal education of the counselor; and
• the ability of the counselor to engage in professional
counseling-related activities, such as continuing education, supervision,
advocacy, and the building of a portfolio.
THE PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND OF
THE COUNSELOR
• A counselor’s personality is at times a crucial ingredient in counseling.
• Counselors should possess personal qualities of maturity, empathy,
and warmth.
• They should be humane in spirit and not easily upset or frustrated.
THE PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND OF
THE COUNSELOR
Negative Motivators for Becoming a Counselor
• A number of students “attracted to professional counseling … appear
to have serious personality and adjustment problems” such as
narcissism or unresolved developmental issues (Witmer & Young,
1996, p. 142).
• Most are screened out or decide to pursue other careers before they
finish a counselor preparation program.
THE PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND OF
THE COUNSELOR
Negative Motivators for Becoming a Counselor
According to Guy (1987), dysfunctional motivators for becoming a
counselor include the following:
• Emotional distress—individuals who have unresolved personal traumas
• Vicarious coping—persons who live their lives through others rather than
have meaningful lives of their own
• Loneliness and isolation—individuals who do not have friends and seek
them through counseling experiences
• A desire for power—people who feel frightened and impotent in their lives
and seek to control others
THE PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND OF
THE COUNSELOR
Negative Motivators for Becoming a Counselor…
• A need for love—individuals who are narcissistic and grandiose and believe that all
problems are resolved through the expression of love and tenderness
• Vicarious rebellion—persons who have unresolved anger and act out their thoughts and
feelings through their clients’ defiant behaviors

❖ Fortunately, most people who eventually become counselors and remain in the
profession have healthy reasons for pursuing the profession, and a number even consider
it to be a “calling” (Foster, 1996).
❖ Counselors and counselors-in-training should always assess themselves in regard to who
they are and what they are doing.
❖ Such questions may include those that examine their development histories, their best
and worst qualities, and personal/professional goals and objectives (Faiver, Eisengart, &
Colonna, 2004).
MOTIVATORS FOR BECOMING A COUNSELLOR IN
INDIA
• Being intrigued by individual behaviour and curiosity to explore
• Learning to apply theoretical scientific knowledge to human welfare
• Learn and understand how positivity can bring change in life and
enhance wellness/ mental health
• Sensitivity towards people suffering from mental health issues
• Realization of virtues such as active listening, empathy
• Sense of enjoyment/ satisfaction obtained after helping people
suffering from pain/ trauma
MOTIVATORS FOR BECOMING A COUNSELLOR IN
INDIA
• Curiosity to understand and learn skills like gratitude, forgiveness
• Developing love for counselling due to identification with the teacher
• Understanding others without being judgmental
• Personal distress and dissatisfaction during teenage/ school/ college
life/ family life
• Accidently entering psychology and having no choice
Personal Qualities of an Effective Counselor
Foster (1996) and Guy (1987):
• Curiosity and inquisitiveness—a natural interest in people
• Ability to listen—the ability to find listening stimulating
• Comfort with conversation—enjoyment of verbal exchanges
• Empathy and understanding—the ability to put oneself in another’s
place, even if that person is totally different from you
• Emotional insightfulness—comfort dealing with a wide range of
feelings, from anger to joy
Personal Qualities of an Effective Counselor
Foster (1996) and Guy (1987):
• Introspection—the ability to see or feel from within
• Capacity for self-denial—the ability to set aside personal needs to
listen and take care of others’ needs first
• Tolerance of intimacy—the ability to sustain emotional closeness
• Comfort with power—the acceptance of power with a certain degree
of detachment
• Ability to laugh—the capability of seeing the bittersweet quality of
life events and the humor in them
Other Personal Qualities of an Effective
Counselor
• Stability, harmony, constancy, and purposefulness.
• Counselors’ personal togetherness
• The personhood or personality of counselors is as important, if not more crucial
in bringing about client change, than their mastery of knowledge, skills, or
techniques (McAuliffe & Lovell, 2006; Rogers, 1961).
• Growing as persons and are helping others do the same both personally and
globally.
• Sensitive to themselves and others.
• Monitor their own biases, listen, ask for clarification, and explore racial and
cultural differences in an open and positive way (Ford, Harris, & Schuerger, 1993).
• Practice what Wicks and Buck (2014) call “alonetime”—an intentional practice of
devoting periods in their lives to silence and solitude and reflectivity. These are
times when they improve self-awareness, renew self-care, and practice gratitude.
Other Personal Qualities of an Effective
Counselor
• Spontaneous, creative, and empathetic
• Research based practice
• Life experiences
• Successfully integrated scientific knowledge and skills into their lives
• Interpersonal and technical competence
Other Personal Qualities of an Effective
Counselor
• The ability to work from a perspective of resolved emotional
experience that has sensitized a person to self and others in a helpful
way is what Rollo May characterizes as being a wounded healer
(May, Remen, Young, & Berland, 1985).
• Thus, “counselors who have experienced painful life events and have
adjusted positively can usually connect and be authentic with clients
in distress” (Foster, 1996, p. 21).
Other Personal Qualities of an Effective
Counselor
• Intellectual competence—the desire and ability to learn as well as think fast and creatively
• Energy—the ability to be active in sessions and sustain that activity even when one sees a number
of clients in a row
• Flexibility—the ability to adapt what one does to meet clients’ needs
• Support—the capacity to encourage clients in making their own decisions while helping to
engender hope
• Goodwill—the desire to work on behalf of clients in a constructive way that ethically promotes
independence
• Self-awareness—a knowledge of self, including attitudes, values, and feelings and the ability to
recognize how and what factors affect oneself (Hansen, 2009).

According to Holland (1997), specific personality types are attracted to and work best in certain
vocational environments. The environment in which counselors work well is primarily social and
problem oriented. It calls for skill in interpersonal relationships and creativity.
Maintaining Effectiveness as a Counselor
• Among the personal events counselors must deal with are aging,
illness, death, marriage, getting a mortgage, parenting, job changes,
divorce, loneliness, success, and a host of other common,
developmental, and unexpected problems and occurrences that fill
the lives of ordinary people.
• A critical issue is how counselors handle these life events. As Roehlke
(1988) points out, Carl Jung’s idea of synchronicity, “which he [Jung]
defined as two simultaneous events that occur coincidentally [and
that] result in a meaningful connection,” is perhaps the most
productive way for counselors to perceive and deal with unexpected
life experiences (p. 133).
Maintaining Effectiveness as a Counselor
• Other strategies counselors use for coping with crisis situations
include remaining objective, accepting and confronting situations,
asserting their own wishes, participating in a wellness lifestyle, and
grieving (Shallcross, 2011; Witmer & Young, 1996).
• Counselors who have healthy personal lives and learn from both their
mistakes and their successes are more likely than others to grow
personally and therapeutically and be able to concentrate fully and
sensitively on clients’ problems.
• Therefore, counselors, and those who wish to enter the profession,
need to adapt to losses as well as gains in life.
Maintaining Effectiveness as a Counselor
• Other ways effective counselors maintain their health and well-being include taking preventive
measures to avoid problematic behaviors, such as compassion fatigue and burnout (Grosch &
Olsen, 1994; Merriman, 2015; Morkides, 2009).
• Compassion fatigue is indifference and apathy to those who are suffering, as a result of frequent or
overexposure to people in need. It is characterized as an inability to react sympathetically or
empathetically to a crisis or need situation.
• Burnout consists of three components: emotional and physical exhaustion, cynicism, and decreased
perceived efficacy (Lambert & Lawson, 2013). Those who have burnout describe it as a state of
being emotionally or physically drained to the point that one cannot perform functions
meaningfully. Burnout may exist simultaneously with compassion fatigue.
• One of the main reasons involved in both is too much work and not enough downtime, hobbies,
distractions, or other activities outside of counseling.
• May also develop a negative self-concept and a negative job attitude. They often feel physically
exhausted and emotionally spent as well.
• Burnout and compassion fatigue are the most common negative personal consequences of working
as a counselor.
Maintaining Effectiveness as a Counselor
• Need to modify environmental as well as individual and interpersonal
factors associated with these conditions (Wilkerson & Bellini, 2006).
• For example, counselors need to step out of their professional roles
and develop interests outside counseling. They must avoid taking
their work home
• Creating new files; evaluating new materials; and contributing to the
counseling profession through writing or presenting material with
which they are comfortable
Maintaining Effectiveness as a Counselor
Other ways in which counselors can avoid or treat compassion fatigue and
burnout include the following:
• Associate with healthy individuals
• Work with committed colleagues and organizations that have a sense of mission
• Be reasonably committed to a theory of counseling
• Use stress-reduction exercises
• Modify environmental stressors
• Engage in self-assessment (i.e., identify stressors and relaxers)
• Periodically examine and clarify counseling roles, expectations, and beliefs
• Obtain personal therapy
• Set aside free and private time (i.e., balance one’s lifestyle)
• Maintain an attitude of detached concern when working with clients
• Retain an attitude of hope
Maintaining Effectiveness as a Counselor
• Auvenshine and Noffsinger (1984) concluded, “Effective counselors
must be emotionally mature, stable, and objective. They must have
self-awareness and be secure in that awareness, incorporating their
own strengths and weaknesses realistically”.
PLUS MATERIAL FROM COUNSELLING AS A PROFESSION (PPT AND
READING)
Bibliography
• Gladding, S.T. (2018). Counselling: A comprehensive profession 8th
edition. Pearson