INSTITUTE OF PSYCHO MANAGEMENT STUDIES

PAPER IV - TECHNIQUES OF COUNSELLING

 PAPER IV - TECHNIQUES OF COUNSELLING

INDEX

Page No.

Chapter I Introduction 1

Chapter II Counselling Expectations and Goals 17

Chapter III Interpersonal Communications 22

Chapter IV The Counselling Relationships 32

Chapter V A Model of Counselling 43

Chapter VI Crisis and Development Counselling 58

Chapter VII Educational, Vocational Development 65

and Career Counselling

Chapter VIII Group Counselling 74

Chapter IX Evaluation of Counselling 93

 CHAPTER - I

INTRODUCTION

Life may be reduced, from a gross biological point of view, to a simple

continuum: birth, maturity, reproduction and death. Even the biologists have
acknowledged that many life events occur along the way. Every individual
experiences these four biological stages.
Many forces either external or internal operate to inhibit as well as
facilitate one's definition and perception of world and oneself. Because
individual feel distressed, ineffective, bewildered, anxious, disturbed, or
uninformed about themselves and their world, they turn to others for aid in
simplifying reality so that they can effectively cope with it.
In the past, human feared the catastrophes of nature, such as plague,
drought, and feminine. Today a person fears, perhaps equally realistically,
enervation through mechanical equipment. Also people are searching for help
that is more personal and individual. The objects of people's apprehension have
changed, but the basic theme remains the same. Adversity and its attendant fear
and anxiety have to be managed and mastered. Individuals therefore look for
help to overcome unfavorable situations, to establish unity in life, and to
achieve integration of self.

What is Counselling ?

Many individuals describe why they do use the title counsellor. This
rather indiscriminate use of the title has been detrimental to the attempts at
specifying clearly defined functions for those on whom the title has been
conferred. The title counsellor is preceded by another word or words used to
describe the setting, the function, or the behaviour primarily dealt with by that
counsellor. For example, school counsellors are those who practice in schools.
Regardless of the setting the counsellor perform certain functions : Wrenn

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 has summed up the counsellor's function in a useful way these are :
 To provide a relationship between counsellor and the counselee, which is
based on mutual trust of each other.
 To provide alternatives in self-understanding and in course of action open
to the client.
 To provide some degree of intervention with the situation in which the
clients find himself and with "important others".
 To provide leadership in developing a healthy psychological environment
to his clients and finally to provide improvement of the counselling process
through constant individual self criticism and extensive attention to
improvement of process through research.
Lets look at the definition chronologically that can be profitably
examined for changes and meanings.
 The early emphasis was on cognitive concerns whereas more current
definitions stress-affective experiences as well as cognitive dimensions.
 Earlier definition identified counselling as a dyadic interactions, whereas
as today counselling incorporates one or more than one counselee.
 Earlier definition identified counselling as a dyadic interactions, whereas
as today counselling incorporates one or more than one counselee.
 The definitions vary according to the importance placed on the relationship
established between the counsellor and the client.
 The definition vary in their description of the participants: the counsellor
as a professional or as an older or as a more matured or as possessing
special knowledge, the client as troubled, anxious, upset or frustrated.
 The definition varies in specifying the expected outcomes of counselling.
Some years ago, Patterson noted that it is sometimes more useful to
approach a definition by exclusion, mainly of misconception surrounding
counselling can be identified. Among Patterson's exclusions are those
counselling -

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 Is not the giving of information, though information may be given in
counselling.
 Is not giving advice, suggestion, and recommendations.
 Is not influencing attitudes, beliefs, or behaviour by means of persuading,
leading, convincing, no matter how indirectly, subtly, or painlessly.
 Is not the influencing of behaviour by admonishing, warning, threatening,
or compelling without the use of physical force.
The nature of counselling, according to Patterson, is to be found in the
following characteristics -
 Counselling is concerned with influencing voluntary behaviour change on
part of the client.
 The purpose is to provide conditions that facilitate voluntary change.
 As in all relationship, limits are imposed on the counselee.
 Conditions that facilitate behavioural changes through interview.
 Listening is present in counselling but not all counselling is listening.
 The counsellor understands clients, counselling is conducted in privacy
and the discussion is confidential.
 A final crucial characteristic Patterson cites is that counselling involves
behaviour change. As interview conducted in private in which the
counsellor listens and attempts to understand the client, and in which it is
expected that there will be change in the client's behaviour in some ways
that he/she chooses or decides.
Finally two characteristics necessary for relationship to be labeled
counselling are :
 The clients have a psychological problem, and
 The counsellor is someone skilled in working with clients with psycho-
logical problems.
Biocher's definition of counselling is -it is an interaction of self and
environment and results in the establishment and/ or clarification of goals and

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values for future behaviour.

Personal Counselling

It is an interaction between counsellor and the counselee, where the

counsellor adopts certain attitudes and uses certain skills to introduce and
sustain in the counselee process of self-interaction leading to self-
understanding, leading to action, so that the counselee changes his behaviour
and solves his problems.

Student Counselling

It is to help the students to help themselves. From Dunsmoor and Miller

point view they describe the following purposes of student counselling -
 To give students information on matter to success.
 To set information about student, which will help them in finding solution
to their problem.
 To establish a mutual understanding between the student and counsellor.
 To help student to work out the plan for solving her / his difficulties.
 To help students know herself/himself better - her/his interests, aptitudes
and opportunities.
 To encourage and develop special abilities and right attitudes.
 To inspire successful endeavor toward attainments.
 To assist the student in planning for educational and vocational choice.

Counselling in Industry

Here it is helping people who have technical, personal and emotional

adjustment problems interfering with their work performance. Counselling must
be recognized as a basic part of industrial or business psychology as long as
people work with other people. However the counselling activity as it exists in
today's industry may be said to have emerged from the founding stages of the
human relations movement when the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric

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Company in Chicago installed a personal counselling programme.
The general objective of the manager or supervisor in counselling
subordinates is to help the individual remain effective in her/his job and
performance of her/his duties and responsibilities in the organization. The main
purpose of counselling in industry is to help employees in overcoming their
neurotic or emotionally based illness and that accounts for a substantial
problems of employees, absenteeism and turnover and their personal problem as
well as emotional disturbances that may seriously affect their job performance
which proves costly to the organization.

Levels of Counselling

Counselling is a term that is used quite loosely for face-to-face interview

in which the counsellor attempts non-coercively to help the counselee to make
personal decisions

Three Levels of Counselling Related to Training

1) Informal counselling : It is any helping relationship by responsible person

who may have little or no training for the work. For instance teacher
helping the weak student in her/his work politely.
2) Non-specialist counselling by professionals : It is the help provided by
physicians, lawyers, teachers, ministers, managers and others, who do a
great deal of face-to-face work with psychological problems in the course
of their work.
3) Professional counselling : It is helping another person with decision and
life plans, whether personal or educational - vocational, by a person
specially trained for this work. Professional counsellors are usually
psychologist. Professional means among other things the possession of
master's or equivalent degree with at least a year of supervision by a
trained professional and the acceptance of a professional code of ethics.

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Types of Counselling

There are three types of counselling which are divided on the bases of
nature of counselling and part of the counsellor.
1. Directive counselling or centered counselling
2. Non-directive or client centered counselling
3. Eclectic counselling
1. Directive Counselling or Centered Counselling - E. G. Williamson is the
chief exponent of this viewpoint. Such type of counselling involves six
essential steps :
i. Analysis : Collecting from variety of sources, the data needed for
an adequate understanding of the counselee.
ii. Synthesis : Summarizing and organizing the data so that they
reveal the counselee's assets, liabilities, adjustment and mal-
adjustments.
iii. Diagnosis : Formulating conclusion regarding the nature and the
causes of the problems exhibited by the counselee.
iv. Prognosis : Predicting the future development of the counselee's
problem.
v. Counselling : The counsellor taking up step with the counselee to
bring about adjustment and re-adjustment for the counselee.
vi. Follow-up : Helping the counselee with the new problems or with
recurrence of the original problem and determining the
effectiveness of the counselling provided to him. Here the
counsellor plays the major role; she/he does all that she/he can do
to help the counselee to make a decision in keeping with her/his
diagnosis. She/He tries to direct thinking of the client by
informing, explaining, interpreting and advising.
A considerable use of interpretation and direction by the counsellor has
led to this type of counselling being described as directive or counsellor-
centered method.

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2. Non-Directive Counselling - It is often called self-theory counselling,
client centered counselling or Rogerian counselling. Carl R. Rogers, its
originator, labeled it as client centered counselling. It originated in
America. Many in the helping profession, eager for new concepts and
tools, readily accepted it for the use not only with adults and adolescent but
also with children. It has also been utilized widely in group therapy.
Major concepts - This approach stresses the ability of clients to determine the
issue important to them and to solve their problems. The most important aspect
of the counselling relationship is to develop a warm and permissive, accepting
climate permitting the client to explore their self-structure in relation to their
unique experiences.
Individuals are thus able to face the unexpected situation without feeling
threatened and anxious. The individual thus move towards acceptance of
themselves and their values and are able to change those aspects of themselves
that they select, as needed modifying.
Concept of self - Fundamental to understand both client-centered counselling
and self-theory are the concept of self and concept of becoming or self-
actualizing growth. Roger states that the central concept of client-centered
counselling is the self, or the self as a perceived object in a phenomenal field.
The self is learned attribute constituting the individual's picture of himself or
herself. It is the one or but is not used by Rogers as a synonym for organization.
Rather it stands for awareness of one's being or functioning.
Self-actualization - Roger defined it as the inherent tendency of the organism
to develop its capacities in ways, which serve to maintain or enhance the
organism. This self-actualization according to Patterson, means that the human
behaviour is motivated by this single master motives or drive-enhancement of
the self and actualization of potential - rather than multiple motives or drives.
The counsellor and the counselling processes - It focuses on the experiencing
individual. In a process of disorganization and reorganization, of self, it tries to
reduce to a minimum perceived threat to the self and to maximize and sustain
self-exploration. Change in behaviour comes through realizing the potential of

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individuals to evaluate their experiences, permitting them to clarify and gain
insight into their feelings, which presumably leads to growth. Through
acceptance of the counselee, the counsellor enables that person to express,
examine, and incorporate previously consistent and inconsistent experiences
into the self-concept.
Interviews are usually for one hour and are scheduled once or twice a
week every effort is made to prevent the development of a dependent
relationship. In general the client-centered counselling the individual, not the
problem is the focus, feelings rather than the intellect are attended to. The
present is given the greater attention and the emotional growth takes place in the
counselling relationship.
The counsellor - The effective counsellor is one who holds a coherent and
developing set of attitudes deeply imbedded in her/his personal organization, a
system of attitudes, which is implemented by techniques and methods consistent
with it. The counsellor does not try to shift her/his role to a more directive one
or undertake responsibility for the counselee's reorganization for it is believed
that in doing so the counsellor will confuse and defeat the counselee.
Although the counsellor has values, insofar as possible they should be
kept out of the counsellor-counselee relationship to avoid their introjections by
the counselee. Hobbs has presented the activities of client-centered counsellors
involved in counselling -
 The therapist attempts to understand what the client is saying with
reference to content, feeling, and importance to the client and to
communicate this understanding to the client.
 The therapist interprets what the client has said by offering a condensation
of the expressed feeling.
 The therapist simply accepts what the clients have said with an implication
that what she/he has said, has been understood.
 The therapist defines for the clients, at moments when the issue is relevant
from the client's point of view, the nature of the therapeutic relationship,

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 the acceptances of the situation, and the limits of the therapist-client
relationship.
 The therapist attempts to convey to the client, through gestures, posture,
and facial expression, as well as through words, a sense of acceptance and
of confidence in the ability of the client to handle his problems.
 The therapist answers questions and gives information when such
responses are relevant to treatment, but she/he may refrain from giving
information when the issue of dependency seems involved in the question.
 The therapist actively participates in the therapy situation, keeping alert,
attempting to pick up nuisance of feeling, interrupting the client if
necessary to make certain that the therapist is understanding what the client
is saying and feeling. Client-centered counselling places responsibility not
only on the counsellor, but also the client. Although transference attitudes
may appear in the process, Rogers believes they will not develop into a
transference neurosis because counsellor understanding and accepting
leads to client recognition that these feelings are not the counsellor's.

The counselee - Rogers presented eight criteria for counselling. These required
that the client -
1. Be under tension.
2. Have some capacity to cope with the circumstances of life.
3. Have an opportunity to have contact regularly with a counsellor.
4. To be able to express conflicts verbally or through other media.
5. Be reasonably independent of close family control.
6. Be reasonably free from excessive instabilities, particularly of an organic
nature.
7. Be dull-normal or above average in intelligence
8. Of suitable age - roughly from ten to sixty.

Steps in the counselling process - Rogers has described twelve steps -

1. The individual comes for help.

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2. The helping situation is usually defined.
3. The counsellor encourages free expression of feelings with regard to the
problem.
4. The counsellor accepts, recognizes and clarifies these negative feelings,
which is quiet fully expressed, they are followed by the faint and tentative
expressions of the positive impulses, which makes the growth.
5. When the individual's negative feelings have been quite fully expressed,
they are followed by the faint and tentative expression of the positive
impulsive, which makes the growth.
6. The counsellor accepts and recognizes the positive feelings, which are
expressed, in the same manner she/he has accepted and recognized the
negative feelings.
7. This insight, this understanding of the self and acceptance of the self, is the
next important aspect of the whole process.
8. Intermingled with this process of insight - and it should again be
emphasized that neither the steps outlines are mutually exclusive, nor do
they proceed in a rigid order - is a process of clarification of possible
decisions, possible. course of actions.
9. Then comes one of the fascinating aspects of such therapy, the initiation of
minute, but highly significant, positive reactions.
10. This is, first of all, a development of further insight more complete and
accurate self-understanding as the individual gain courage to see more
deeply into her/his own actions.
11. There are increasingly integrative positive actions on the part of the client.
There is less fear about making a choice, and more confidence in self-
directed action.
12. There is a feeling of decreasing need for help, and recognition on the part
of the client that the relationship must end.

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Criticism and Contribution - It emphasizes the affective, emotional, feeling,
detriments of behaviour but ignores or denies the intellective, cognitive, rational
factors. The use of information to help counselee is conspicuously absent for the
theory.
Because it has the same goal for all the clients - maximizing self - it is so
broad, general and sweeping. Although some evidence indicates client-centered
counselling is effective with a wide range of individuals and problems, that
evidence is not systematic or complete enough, particularly in respect to the
client who accepts little responsibility for their problem. While client-centered
counsellors are expected to be neutral, it is impossible to be valueless in
interpersonal situations.

Contribution

 It has established the counselee, rather than the counsellor, as the center
focus or deciding agent of the counselling process.
 It has identified and emphasized the counselling relationship as the primary
agent in facilitating personality change.
 It has placed in perspective the importance of the counsellor's attitudes,
rather than the techniques, in affecting the counselling relationship.
 It has offered a wealth of research findings and stimulated quantitative
investigations among other points of view, all of which have led to far
better understanding of the process than achieved ever before.
3. Eclectic Viewpoint - The leading proponent of the eclectic viewpoint is
Fredrick C Thorne. The word eclectic means to select, to choose appropriate
doctrines or methods from various sources or systems. The eclectic believes that
a single orientation is limiting and that the procedures, techniques, and concepts
from many sources should be utilized to best serve the needs of person seeking
help. From his or her knowledge of perception, development, learning and
personality, the eclectic counsellor selects the most appropriate for the particular
problem and the specific individual. Brammer has described the sequences by

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which counsellors develop eclectic viewpoint.
1. The counsellor resists emphasizing theory exclusively by observing and
assessing client and other counsellor behaviours.
2. The counsellor studies the history of counselling and psychotherapy to
build what is known.
3. The counsellor who evolves an eclectic viewpoint knows his/her own
personality. He or she is aware of personal interacting styles with particular
kinds of clients.
4. Eclectic counselling theory and practices are built on the need for
maximizing the individual's intellectual resources, as they were supposed
to do early in life.
Thorne believes that individual seek counselling assistance because they
have problems with which they are unable to cope alone. Counselees expect the
counsellor to be more intelligent and to have more training and experience than
they do. Consequently, a dominance-submission relationship, no matter how
nondirective the counsellor, is established. She/He believes that an individual's
personality is formed and reflected as he or she interacts with the environment.
It is characterized as a process of changing or becoming. Personality dynamics
include a series of drives :-
 The drive for higher organization.
 The drive to achieve and maintain stability.
 The drive to integrate opposing functions so as to avoid imbalance. There
is a constant striving for unity manifesting itself in efforts to maintain the
unity of the system of organization self-consistently.

The Counsellor and the Counselling Process

The counsellor's major objective is to safeguard mental health. This is

achieved by either preventing or modifying causative factors, producing

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maladjustment or mental disorder. Although individual comes for help -
 To avoid future maladjustment.
 To gain relief.
 To avoid pressure or punishment.
 To gain success or avoid failure
The counsellor is primarily interested in causes and secondarily in
symptoms.
The phases of the treatment :
1. Stage of incipient maladjustment - Minimal evidences of maladjustment
with no insight. Usually recognizable only by a trained psychologist or
psychiatrist.
2. Stage of overt maladjustment - Here, the fact of maladjustment becomes
apparent, usually to others first, but as yet its seriousness is not
comprehended.
3. Stage of Reactive Personality Disorder - The person develops secondary
emotional reactions usually in the form of defense mechanism intended to
conceal or compensate for the maladjustment.
4. Stage of Bewilderment and Trial and Error behaviour - The person is
now dimly aware that something is wrong but does not know what.
Usually rationalizes in terms of projective devise. This is the lowest level
of insight that something is wrong. Here a person develops the need for
help.
5. Stage of insight into psychological disorder - With some degree of shock
and embarrassment, the person learns that her/his problems may be
"mental".
6. Stage of reactive Depression and Discouragement - Following the basic
insight that the disorder in psychological, or after a full confession or
painful realization, there is frequently a stage of reactive depression with
feelings of futility. The person is shocked with the realization of "how

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 could this have happened to me ?" and of embarrassment forward to
contact with people again.
7. Stages of Symptomatic relief - Some superficial improvement occurs but
no alleviation of basic etiological causes has yet been accomplished.
8. Stake of Growth and Recovery - Following release of negative emotions
and acquisition of further insights, recovery processes get underway. This
stage is associated with improved feeling tone and optimism. Here the
specific etiological factors are identified and remedied through the proper
use of appropriate method.
9. Stage of Relapse - Practically in all cases the recovery process does not
have a uniform positive acceleration but is associated with "backsliding"
and relapse. These relapses may be ignored if the general trend continues
in the direction of improvement. The client may even be warned to expect
relapses.
10. Stage of Cure - The client is relieved of symptoms, understands herself/
himself better, learns more adequate solutions and reestablishes her/his
position of independence.

Criticism and Contribution

1. The present stat of scientific progress does not permit detailing differential
treatment for various diagnostic conditions.
2. Achieving skill in a few counselling methods is difficult let alone
achieving skill in a multiplicity of methods.
3. Counselees will be uneasy with changes in methods, and change may only
be a counsellor's rationalization because the selected method fails.
4. It is doubtful if the counsellor can determine the correct or most
appropriate method on the basis of immediate client reaction.

Contribution

1) An attempt at systematization of counselling in itself is valuable and

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 worthwhile.
2) The eclectic approach deals with a wider range of etiological factors than
any single method.
3) Dogma and emotional involvement associated with a single orientation are
minimized.

Individual counselling

It was originated by Alfred Alder who represented the system as a

comparative means of understanding individuals in relation to their social
environment. It is a one to one interaction marked by intimacy, warmth and
rapport between the counsellor and the counselee. When the object is to either
aid the counselee to solve problem, to find ways to use personal qualities more
effectively, or to make an important life-decision.
It is frequently divided in to three sub-types personal adjustment
counselling, educational counselling and career counselling. Recognize at the
outset that these three types of counselling are not independent of one another.
Human concerns rarely separate themselves into neat compartments.

Group counselling

It consists of two or more persons who voluntarily have contact,

proximity, and interaction intended to produce change in each member. As a
result of participation, members interact with and influence each other.
Modification occurs in each member because of participation and experiences
shared with other members. The vehicle for accomplishing the goal in a group is
that members discuss their personal, emotional concerns and other members
provide feedback about their perceptions of these experiences. Group
counselling can be conducted for remedial purposes, for developmental
purposes, or be preventive in nature, hoping to prevent problems from growing
to the point where the individual needs special help to cope with them.

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Counsellor's Work Setting

Estimates are that during 1978 some 88,000 counsellors were employed
in various settings in the United States. The settings in which they worked
illustrated in some measures the degree of public support for such services in
our society. The predominant setting is the school while historically, the
secondary level has been the major focus. Today counsellors in substantial
numbers work in elementary schools, junior colleges, technical institute,
colleges and universities. Industry and government, employing counselling
personnel counsellors are found in health related settings like hospitals,
rehabilitations agencies and mental health clinics. Private practice and
community counselling agencies employ small percentage of counsellors.

Personal Characteristics of Counsellor

Any attempt at identification of personal characteristic of counsellors

need to consider what is essential for effective services at each level of
counselling. Such an attempt needs to consider also the most effective means of
appraising these characteristics. Bailey in his doctoral study at New York
University lists the following as characteristics of counsellors :
 Sympathetic understanding
 Emotional stability
 Approachability
 Broad scope of knowledge and interests
 Good judgment and common sense
It also deals with characteristics like deep interest in people, patience with
them, sensitiveness to the attitudes and reaction of others, emotional stability
and objectivity, a capacity of being trusted by others, and respects for facts.

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 CHAPTER - II

COUNSELLING EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS

Expectancies refer to the anticipation held, or the inferences made, about

counselling. Goals are the end results sought through counselling. The
expectancies of counselling are diverse and often contradictory and sometimes
impossible. They are derived from experience, stem from need and are nurtured
by the hope among those who seek assistance and those who provide it.

Expectancies of Counselees

The expectancy of the counselees from the counsellor, is to produce

personal solutions for them. Those in stressful experience anticipate that
counselling will bring them relief. Those who perceive themselves as personally
unpopular person expect counselling to lead to their becoming popular.
Those who are about to fail, either in school or in other venture, expect
failure to turn to success as a result of counselling. Counselees usually expect to
be trusted, analyzed and above all directed or told how and about what to do to
obtain whatever it was that led them to seek counselling.
From the parents point of view counselling exists primarily for generating
programs of study for students. It has a persuasive function in the individual's
education and vocational development and remedies child-rearing errors. Most
counsellors would regard the first expectation as outmoded and naive and the
second and third expectation as unrealistic. Counselling cannot provide children
with instant aspiration or persuade them to make right choices and decisions
especially if right is defined as synonymous with agreement or submission to
parental demand and desires.

Teachers' expectations

Teachers expect counselling to reduce or eliminate pupil behaviour that

causes classroom friction and disturbance, that is, it is intended for students who
either directly disturb the teacher or disrupt the teaching of other students. In

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short, teachers expect counsellors to engage in activities that make teaching
easier and more effective.

Expectation of School Administrator

They assume that counselling will result in efficient school organization.

They expect students to be told what academics subjects they should take, what
colleges to enter, and what job they should seek. The tired impression is that the
school administrators expect little or nothing from counselling. Some tolerate it
and its practitioners, because a group of their articulate patrons demand it,
because other schools have it, or because accrediting association require it as a
criterion for membership. Lastly that administration expects counselling to
solve every educational difficulty and to remedy every real and imagined
community ill. Some administrators, in fending off criticisms that the school has
failed to cope with school dropouts or to provide for disadvantage children, or
in responding to the demands that the school develop compensatory programs
for other situations.
Although counselling may be one useful agent in the prevention and
alleviation, it is obviously inadequate as a cure. It cannot materially eradicate a
host of social defects.

Goals of Counselling

Goal is defined as the end results sought, or the objective the counsellors
have accomplished. The goal depends either on the counsellor or counselee.
Following are the goals of Counselling :
1. Behavioural Change
Almost all statements indicate that the goal of counselling is to effect
change in behaviour change that will effect the client to live more productive,
satisfying life as defined within social limitation. Changes may be desirable in
relation with others, family situations, academic achievement, job experiences.
Rogers points out that one outcome of counselling is that experiences are not as
threatening, individual have less anxiety, and their goals are more nearly in

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harmony with their perceived self and appear more achievable. Thus therapy
produces a change in personality, organization structure and a change in
behaviour, both of which are relatively permanent.
2. Positive Self- Health
Some have identified the preservation or attainment of positive mental
health as the goal of counselling. If it is reached, the individual achieves
integration, adjustment, and positive identification with others. The client learns
to accept responsibility, to be independent, and to gain behavioural integration.
Some see counselling as prevention of certain kind of problems. Identification
and treatment of persons, who have a high probability of developing pathology
or who show signs of developing pathology, could only be labeled prevention in
a relative way. In this case counselling is prophylactic only in the sense of
preventing a small problem from becoming worse.
3. Problem resolution or Symptom removal-
The goal of counselling is sometimes thought to be the resolution of
whatever problems were brought to the counselling relationship or the
elimination of symptoms such as test, anxiety, phobias, impotence, enuresis,
alcoholism, and the like. Most often, behavioural counsellors speak of their goal
as being the clients unlearn unadaptive habits and learn adaptive habits or that
clients have relief from suffering or are able to function socially. Krumbotz has
given three criteria for judging counselling goals :
i. The goals of counselling should be capable of being stated
differently for each individual client.
ii. The goals of counselling for each client should be compatible with,
though not necessarily identical to, the values of his counsellor.
iii. The degree to which the goals of counselling are attained by each
client should be observable.
4. Personal Effectiveness
Two goals defined in terms of personal effectiveness have been identified
by Blocher; first, counselling seeks to maximize the possible freedom within the
limitations supplied by clients and their environment, and second, counselling

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seeks to maximize client's effectiveness by giving them control over their
environment.
5. Decision Making
The goal of counselling is to help the individual to make decisions that
are of critical importance to them. It is not the counsellor's job to decide what
decisions clients should make or to choose alternate course of actions from the
decisions for the clients. Clients must know why and how they made the
decisions. They learn to estimate probable consequences in terms of personal
sacrifice, time, energy, money, risk, and the likes. They learn to take cognizance
of the range of values and to bring their own choice of values into full
consciousness in the decision-making. Tyler also defines the goal of counselling
as decision-making. The counsellor has to help the counselee utilize the
resources -interpersonal and environmental -available and make decision based
on them to cope with life situations.
Lastly counselling helps clients learn what is needed to choose and
subsequently to make choices. In this way they become independently able to
cope with future decisions.

Modification of Behaviour as a Goal

Behaviourally oriented counsellors stress the need for modification of

behaviour, for example removal of undesirable behaviour or action or
reductions of an irritating symptom such that the individual attain satisfaction
and effectiveness. Growth oriented counsellors stress on the development of
potentialities with the individual. Existentially oriented counsellors stress self-
enhancement and self-fulfillment. Obviously the later cannot be realized
without first securing the former, namely symptom removal or reduction as a
necessary pre-condition for personal effectiveness. Also the view that
counselling produces instant remedy, this naive view is absurd. Counselling has
no magical solutions.
The only meaningful, sensible and realistic view of counselling is it is not
and cannot be everything to everybody. It is concerned with helping the

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individual find realistic and workable solutions so that they are able to utilize
their potentialities and opportunities and thus becoming self-sufficient, and self-
dimensional, self-actualized.

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 CHAPTER - III

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS

Human beings are social animals. No individual can live life in a jungle
alone sharing information is a basic human nature. People exchange information
with each other for many purposes and in various ways. An individual
throughout the day communicates different feelings and emotions. Messages are
sent as words and signals of all sorts.
No other species has developed a system of communication "language".
For counselling process to take place right kind of communication is needed
between the counsellor and the counselee without which no helping relationship
exist. A primary goal of counselling is to facilitate communication throughout
the counselling process.

The Nature of Communication

For human existence communication is essential. A definition of

communication has been formulated that both describes and delineates its
essence. A human being demonstrate communication all throughout his life. A
renowned scholar of molecular biology and bacteriology at the University of
California stated, "the capacity to communicate is a fundamental feature of
living cells". He proceeds to discuss the way cells communi~ate by means of
hormones and nerve fibers" to live is to communicate.

Characteristics of Communication

1. Communication is a process by itself.

2. It is circular and not linear.
3. Communication is complex.
4. Communication is irreversible and unrepeatable.
5. Communication involves the total personality.
6. Communication is the basis of change.

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Levels of Human Communication

There are three different levels or kinds of communication

1. Intra-personal communication - It refers to the communication that
transpires inside person. A signal goes from all the parts of your body to
the brain. For example, when your stomach is throbbing you realize that
you are feeling hungry.
Other forms of intra-personal communication include the person's
realization and attitudes determining overt behaviour. Basic to the level of
communication is a developed consciousness of self.
2. One-way communication - Here the communication is between the
sender and the receiver. The feedback is absent in such a relationship of
communication. For example -In a seminar the guest speaker addresses
the information, while the audiences accepts the pre-planned information,
and listens to the seminar.
In contrast two-way communication involves feedback, give and take
exists between the sender and the receiver. Scholars have concluded :
 Two- way communication takes much more longer.
 There exist a greater mutual understanding.
 In one-way communication, the sender feels confident whereas the
receiver is confused and frustrated.
 This two-way communication is very important in counselling
situation. Here the interaction is face to face between people who are
consistently aware of each other. Here each persons, assumes the role
of sender and receiver, of messages involving constant adaptation and
spontaneous adjustment with the other person.
3. Non-verbal communication - are also perquisites for affective process of
counselling. The speaker's voice, gesture, transmit message that may alter
themeaning of what is said. Brown and Parks stated that this is especially
important in affective counselling. In the development of human
personality non-verbal communication precedes the development of the
capacity to communicate verbally. Scientist have estimated that 70% of our

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 communication is non-verbal. Here one cannot overlook this aspect but
needs to pay attention to the mode of communication -
 Eye-contact - A lot of emotions and moods can be communicated
through eyes. It is said that eyes are like mirror reflects clearly what is
there in one's heart. Eye to eye contact is very essential in a
counselling relationship, it can tell whether the person is hiding, want
to show receptiveness etc. Lack of eye contact from the counselee
may signal negative self-image rather than poor communication.
 Gestures - Smile, head nods, and other gestures convey a lot of
information about the counselee's emotional state and the counsellor
must utilize this information appropriately. Rigid posture may
indicate stress, folding of hands indicate not ready to open up etc. It
also has a special significance for the counsellor, who must be
consider the counselee's problems and its effect on body language.
Expressive gestures and movements are used to either accent or
contradict verbal exchanges. Unfortunately for the counsellor, there is
yet no codification of the meanings of non-verbal behaviour. Weeping
is clear and needs no explanation but most expressive behaviours
have yet to be accurately identified in respect to their stimulus
situation.
 Distance - It is the space that exists between the sender and the
receiver. Culture influences our communication style whether it is
acceptable to have a close distance or not. Eye contact and apparent
listening convey attention and psychological closeness.

Based on research direction Knapp proposed an eightfold classification

system of the non-verbal dimension of human communication. His categories
included body movements, facial expression, eye behaviour, physical
characteristics like height, odor, physique, touching behaviour like stroking,
greetings, farewells etc, paralanguage like voice qualities, pith, tempo etc,
proxemics use of social and physical space, artifacts such as clothes, lipstick,

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glasses so on, and environment such as interior decorating, lightning, colors,
temperature etc. Below is a list of representative gestures and the meanings he
ascribes to them -
Erect head : self-esteem, self- confidence, and courage.
Bowed head : humility, resignation, guilt, and submission.
Touching nose : anxiety, stage fright.
Artificial cough : doubt, surprise, and anxiety.
Whistling : genuine self-confidence.
Fixing neckties : demonstrating masculinity.
Pressing heads with hands : distress, despair, and helplessness.
Playing with ring or bag : realizing tension or conflict, decision making.
Outstretched arms : call attention, surprise, alarm, and blessing.
Non-verbal behaviour is likely to be interrupted intuitively by
counsellors. It varies so greatly, those generalizations are usually unwarranted.

Elements of Communication -

There are four important elements of communication : expressing,

listening, responding, and reacting. For example when you are expressing some
information to another person, the other person listen and respond to your
content. If you feel that other person is interested you choose to tell more about
the topic.
1. Expressing - In a counselling situation, after the rapport has been
established, the counselee feels comfortable and trust the counsellor for
expressing certain information or emotion. In a similar manner, we as
individuals express information to a person who is close to us and whom
we trust completely.
2. Listening - Counselling process is an active process. It involves listening,
responding and understanding the feeling of the content expressed. It
provides the counsellor with certain cues in order to understand
counselee's inner experience. Brammer said that listening skills are

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 demonstrated when the counsellor can answer in considerable detail the
question -'what is going on in this person right now and her life space ?
Listening are of three types : Pretentive listening, selective or partial
listening, and active listening
 Preventive listening : Here the individual pretends as if she/he is
listening but actually she / he does not listen to the other person's
content and may not understand the conversation at all. For example a
child in a class, who is daydreaming in a class, is not actually
listening to the teacher explaining.
 Selective or partial listening : Here a person listens to a part of the
conversation and leaves the rest what is important to you, or may not
be important to others and vice versa. For ex. in background, music is
on and you are talking to a person, here the individual listens to some
conversation and leaves the rest.
 Active listening : It is called total listening. This listening is very
difficult, as one has to listen to all the aspects of conversation. This is
one of the requirements of a good counsellor. It is not only verbal
conversation but also non-verbal too (feelings and gestures). This type
of listening is very helpful to understand the other person.
3. Responding - After a person has listened to the conversation it is
necessary to respond. The person may respond in different ways. Response
must be appropriate to the sender's expressions. A few types of responses
are given below :

 Understanding response : It is brief statement of the counselee' s

message. It is not only responding to the content but also the feelings
and the meanings hidden behind the content. This is used primarily to
check on the understanding of a message, and also to let the counselee
know that she/he has been understood. The counsellor's expression
must be clear and simple. This requires a concentration on the part of

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 the counsellor. To prevent overly stylized responses the counsellor
must avoid using repeated responses such as 'I hear you saying'. If the
counsellor pays attention to this then she/he may help the counselee to
reorganize her/his thoughts.
 Clarifying : This is another aspect of counselling where the
counsellor is able to get clear and a sharp focus on the content. If the
counselee's expression is not received by the counsellor, clarifying
can help the counsellor to restate things, perhaps more in detail.
 Probing : This forms of question either inhibits or promote
responsiveness. The counsellor should try to get information by
asking questions that can be answered with yes or no, open ended
questions bring out the counselee's emotional reactions. For example
what were your feelings about this incident? Purpose of questions
generally, it should always be remembered.
 Reflecting - Without the reflection process, the counsellor will not
recognize the counselee's feelings, ideas and view of the world. In
reflection of feelings one expresses, differently the feelings of another
person has verbalized or implied. It helps to concentrate on the
feelings, clarify them, and helps to acknowledge a person. For this
purpose the counsellor must be sensitive to their own feelings stated
and those of others. Reflecting verbal content is similar to
understanding responses and this may help the counselee to articulate
more easily. The listener repeats in compact from ideas the counselee
is having difficulty in expressing.
The counsellor must pay attention to both and must decides whether
reflecting content or feeling would be helpful and place emphasis
accordingly. The result of skillful reflecting is the counselee's having
a sense of the counsellor's understanding and ultimately improved
insights in t, to self and others.
 Summarizing - Here the counsellor brings together the ideas and
feelings that the counselee has voiced in a session, or over a period of

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 time the summary would be helpful to review the process and to know
what has been going in a session, and to evaluate what has been
accomplished.
The counsellor must put together everything that the counselee has
said, without adding or removing information. If the counselee has
expressed the feeling of anger, the counsellor might summarize as you
were talking about your friend you seemed to show that you are angry
at his behaviour.
The importance of summarization is such that it will help to start or
end a session, test the counsellor's understanding, encourage the client
to elaborate more and terminate the counselling process. But more
important is giving the client a sense that she/he has achieved some of
her/his goal.
 Interpreting - Here the counsellor explains the counselee's message.
The immediate aim is to cast new perspectives on the experience with
interpretation of the counselees view point. The first step here is to
identify the underlying message and paraphrase it, then the counsellor
explains perhaps in term appropriate to the counselee's own level of
intellectual ability. The interpretation should be given in a tentative,
manner and he must try to get the counselee's reaction.
 Information - The counsellor can share the information than anything
else. However, advice giving, a special kind of information common
in counselling, is quiet controversial. It is important to distinguish the
factual information and advice done by the counsellor's, who have
information that their counselees need in order to make wise
decisions. Other responses are also present like general leads, silence,
confrontation etc.
 Reacting - The counselee J:nust respond to the counsellor's reaction.
Probing, supporting, understanding, clarifying etc, may usually have a
positive reaction in the counselling process, while, judging,
criticizing, advising etc may have negative implications. However

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 different people react differently. The counsellor must use all
different responses at appropriate times. An important aspect is that
the counsellor should understand the reaction of the counselee
through her / his verbal and non-verbal expression and respond
accordingly.

Effective versus Efficient Communication

Effective communication occurs when the intended meaning of the

sender and the perceived message of the receiver is the same. Efficient
communication occurs at minimum cost in terms of resources expended. Time
is a vital aspect of communication process. Just imagine that teacher is
explaining to each child in a class, if it were possible, it would be very costly.
Efficient communications are not always effective. A low-cost
communication such as bulletin may save time for the sender, but it doesn't
always achieve the desired result. For Manager to visit each employee and
explain a new change in procedures may guarantee that everyone truly
understands the change. It may also be very expensive in terms of the required
time expenditure.

Barriers to Effective Communication

1) Filtering - It refers to sending manipulative information to the sender so

that the receiver will see it more favorably. For example when a
subordinate tells her boss what she feels her boss wants to hear, she is
filtering information.
2) Selective perception - Here the receiver is communicating selected
information based on their needs, motivation, experience background, and
other personal characteristics. Receivers also project their interests and
expectations into communication as they decode them. Here one does not
see reality, rather, interpret what we see and call it reality.
3) Emotions - How the receiver feels at the time of receipt of a
communication message will influence how she/he interprets it. The same

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 message received when you are angry is likely to be interpreted differently
when you are in a neutral disposition.
4) Language - Different people can interpret words differently. "The
meaning of words are not the word, they are in us." Age, education and
cultural background are three of the more obvious variables that influence
the language of a person use and the definitions they are given to words.

Overcoming the barriers

As one knows that there are barriers to communication one must know
how to overcome them. The following suggestion should be helpful in making
communication more effective -
1) Use Feedback - Feedback must be used in order to overcome
misunderstanding and inaccuracies. These are less likely to occur if you
ensure that the feedback loop is utilized in the communication process. The
sender can set closed ended question to improve the feedback. For example
asking a person to answer in yes or no type. A sender can ask set of
question relating to the message in order to determine whether or not it was
received as intended. The feedback can also be subtle than direct asking
questions.
2) Simplify language - The feedback must be given in a clear and precise
manner. Use of high vocabulary words will be difficult for the receiver to
understand. Words must be carefully chosen, understanding is improved by
simplifying the language used in relation to the audience intended.
3) Listen Actively - It often happens that one listen to half of the information
and leaves the rest. Listening is an active search for meaning, where
hearing is positive.
Many of us are poor listeners. It is more difficult and tiring than talking.
The average person speaks at a rate of about 150 words per minute. Where
as we have the capacity to listen at the rate of over 1,000 words per minute.

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4) Constrain emotions - Emotions can change the meaning of words. If we
are emotionally upset, we might inaccurately give messages and there will
be incongruence in our message. The best is to avoid giving message until
you come back to your normal self.

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 CHAPTER - IV

THE COUNSELLING RELATIONSHIP

The counsellor and the counselee relationship are very important in the
counselling relationship. For the establishment of a good relationship certain
ingredients are essential. The counsellor sets goals according to the relationship
that she/he has with her/his client.

The Counselling Relationship

The quality of the relationship of the counsellor and the client influences
the counselling process. The rapport established, is important for a positive
growth of counselling process. The counselling relationship established must be
maintained throughout the counselling process.
The counsellor's attitude influences the counselling process and the
interpersonal relationship between the client and the counsellor. Many of the
beliefs that the people hold most clear may be called myths. Every society is
held together by the myths or beliefs and sustains all its activities. Myths vary
from culture to culture from age to age. Patterson points out that the counsellor's
value influence the ethics of the counselling relationship, the goals of
counselling and the methods employed in counselling. Noting the growing
opinion that it is impossible for the counsellor to avoid influencing the client,
the counselee's value orientation is unconsciously influenced and comes to
approach the counsellor's. Patterson believes, in consciously and directly
manipulating or influencing the clients because each individual's philosophy is
different, unique, and unsuited to adoption by other. All counsellors cannot be
expected to have fully develop, adequate philosophy of1ife. The appropriate
places for instruction in values are at home, school, and religious place like
church, temple, mosque etc. An individual develops a code of ethics, not from a
single source or in a short period of time, but over a long time and from many
influences. One ought not to be prevented from developing one's own unique
philosophy because it will be more personally meaningful, and the client must

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have the right to refuse to accept any ethics or philosophy of life.
Acceptance is another important factor to facilitate the counselling
relationship. Tyler identified two component of acceptance. The first was a
willingness to allow individuals to differ from one another in all sort of ways
and the second was a realization that the ongoing experience of each person is a
complex pattern of striving, thinking and feeling. Acceptance is a nurturing
lifting attitude manifested in the counsellor's verbal and non-verbal behaviour. It
wells from the depth of one's value orientation. Acceptance of the client by
counsellor is not only indicated by their words, gestures and postures. The
counselee experience acceptance as a feeling of being unconditionally
understood liked, and respected. Acceptance - positive tolerant attitude on the
part of the counsellor - is part of the condition that enables the counselee to
change. Finally, to be accepting the counsellors, must accept and understand
themselves - what they see themselves to be as person may or may not be what
they really are as counsellors.
Understanding is the ability to perceive another relationship, meaning,
content and structure. The counselee's verbal behaviour is only part of what the
counsellor seeks to understand. Equally important, if not more so, is the
counsellor's ability to understand the meaning behind the words, however much
disguised or hidden. Understanding is not the magical process. It comes through
being free to attend carefully to the client.
A number of early studies on the counsellor-counselee relationship and its
impact on the client self-exploration and outcomes reveal the importance of the
relationship in the initial sessions.

Internal conditions that influence counselling : Four conditions -

rapport, empathy, genuineness, and attentiveness - can either further or inhibit
the counselling process. These components are based on and intimately related
to acceptance and understanding.

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Rapport

Rapport is described most simply as a condition essential to a

comfortable and unconditional relationship between counsellor and counselee. It
is, essential and maintained through the counsellor's genuine interest in and
acceptance of the client. It is generally that in "the beginning, the counse.lor
starts the conversation on the neutral topic or topic known to both of them. The
role of rapport building is to put the client at ease. It also means that a
comfortable relationship is developed between the counsellor and the counselee.
As it develops, the relationship is built on trust, openness, and understanding.
The length of the time depends upon capability of the counsellor to establish the
relationship.

Empathy

It has been described as putting oneself in the other person' s shoes. Many
meaningful experiences are instances of empathy. If the counsellor enters the
client's internal frame of reference, perceives the client's world and how the
client perceives self, that counsellor is said to be empathic with the client,
capable of thinking the role of the client. Carkuff defined the five levels of
empathic understanding, as follows :
 Level 1 - The verbal and behavioural expressions of the helper either do
not attend to or detract significantly less of the helper's feelings than the
helper has communicated.
 Level 2 - While the helper responds to the expressed feelings of the client,
she/he does so in such away that she I he subtracts noticeable affect from
the communication of the helpee.

 Level 3 - The expressions of the helper in response to the expressions of

the helpee's are essentially interchangeable with those of the helpee, in that
they express essentially the same affect and meaning.
 Level 4 - The responses of the helper add noticeable change to the

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 expressions of the helpees in such a way to express feelings a level deeper
than the helpee was able to express herself/himself.
 Level 5 - The helper's response add significantly to the feeling and
meaning of the expressions of the helpees in such a way to accurately
express feelings levels below what the helpee himself was able to express
or in the event of on going deep self-exploration on the helpee's part to be
fully with him in the deepest moments.

Genuineness

It means that the counsellor is being herself/himself, not denying

herself/himself. Congruence implies honesty with oneself while functioning as a
counsellor. Counsellors do not pretend to be something they are not, they do not
play a role, they are genuinely themselves.

Concreteness

It is an important element in the counselling relationship. The counsellor's

interaction requires that her/his responses convey the specific feelings,
experiences, and behaviours emitted by the client rather than any generalities or
abstraction of them.

Respect or Caring

It is necessary to bring out the personality change. Respect for the client
as a person of worth is demonstrated by nonjudgmental, non-evaluative
attitudes on the part of the counsellors, despite clients imperfections.

Attentiveness

Fundamental to all counsellor skills is attentiveness. Attentiveness

requires skill in listening and observing through which the counsellor comes to
know and understand the core of content and feeling presented by the counselee.
The information thus collected can then be utilized in the helping relationship,
as clients realize that they are received within the relationship. The counsellors
listening tell the client that the counsellor is interested and sensitive to the

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nuances of what the client seeks to convey. But listening is not enough.
Confrontation occurs in virtually all forms of counselling and unquestionably
contributes the data available to the counsellor. Both participants watch as well
as listen to each other. Those who have listened to the sound recordings of
counselling sessions can fully appreciate the fact that many subtleties of the
process are lost when one is unable to observe the physical interaction between
the participants.

Counselling Process

Initial process; the counsellor defines the nature, set limits, roles, goals
within the counselling relationship. It is the orientation to what counselling
relationship is about and what takes place. Its fundamental purposes are to
reduce the counselee's anxiety emerging from the newness and the ambiguity of
counselling. The interview process is very important phase of counselling. The
interview can be either directive or non-directive. In a directive interview there
are set questions laid down to ask a specific person as it is directed it is also
called directive interview.
Non-directive interview is more or less complex in the hands of the
respondents. It is on the basis of a type of psychotherapy in with the patient is
encouraged to express his feelings without nay directive questions or
suggestions from the therapist. Although the interview is expected to ask
question about the given topic, he is not supposed to direct the respondent to
one rather than another response. The interviewer's function is primarily to
serve as a catalyst too. Comprehensive expression of the subject feeling and
beliefs take on personal significance therefore to achieve this, the interviewer
must create a completely free atmosphere in with the subject is free to express
herself I himself without the fear of disapproval.

Structuring the counselling relationship

Controversy exists as to whether the counsellor needs to define the

relationship explicitly. Some argue that the relationship is more beneficial if the
structure remains implicit and emerges naturally from the situation rather than

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being provided by the counsellor. Structuring originates in and is guided by the
particular self-system of clients - the way their reality is constructed and the
perception they hold of themselves. Structuring by the counsellor is especially
important when counselees do not have a clear idea of what takes place in
counselling, have vague ideas of what is expected of them, are
uncommunicative about entering the counselling process or fearful of its
consequences.
Brammer and Shostrom identified five types of structure :
1) Contracts : Formal contracts often list privileges extended, responsibility
incurred, bonuses, and how and by whom the contract is to be monitored.
Contracts focus on what clients are expected to do, set forth expected
outcomes and rewards for fulfilling the terms.
2) Time limits : Explaining how much time is available for each interview or
estimated time required for counselling provides some structure for the
counselee.
3) Action limits : Although the counsellor does not limit verbal expression in
much way, most counsellors would not permit the counselee to break
windows or destroy furniture or equipment. An explanation of such limit
provides structure.
4) Role limits : Counsellors who also serve in another capacity such as a
teacher or administrator may find it necessary to clarify to their clients the
capacity on which they are being interviewed.
5) Process limits : The counsellor has the responsibility for carrying on the
major share of the interview, certain values evolving from the process
either are stated by the counsellor or, because of attitudes exposed, come
to be understood by the client.

Degree of lead by the Counsellor

The way the counsellor leads the counselee affects the direction of the
interview each counsellor lead has meaning for counselees and trigger responses

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patterns for them. The counselee's responses, in turn have a reciprocal impact on
the counsellor. The term lead means a team-like working together in which the
counsellor's remarks seem to the clients to state the next point they are ready to
accept. Brammer and Shostrom cite three principles to guide the counsellor's
leads :
1) Lead only as much as the client can tolerate at her/his present level of
ability and understanding.
2) Vary the lead.
3) Start the counselling process with the lead.

Restatement of content

The counsellor leads that restate the content of the counselee's

communication attempt to convey understanding either by simple repetition of
or by rephrasing the communication.

Questioning

Questioning is a common and often overused in counselling technique. It

indicates the counsellor's intent to seek further information and asks the
counsellors to elaborate on a point. Ideally, question used by the counsellors are
open-ended and require more than a yes or no response, otherwise they get no
where and only stifle discussion. The over use of in counselling runs the risk of
causing counselees to conceptualize the situation as an acquisition in which they
need only sit back and direct their thinking along the lines indicated by the
questions. Questioning is best used to obtain specifically needed information
and to direct the client's conversation to more fruitful channels.

Reflection of feelings

Rogers has defined reflection of feeling as an attempt to understand from

the client's point of view and to communicate that understanding. Reflection of
feeling, then, indicates the counsellor's intent to show that he/she understands
correctly what the client feels or is experiencing, Reflection techniques, consists

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of verbalization the core of the client's attitude. Reflection techniques serve not
only to surface client feelings and attitudes but also to bring problems into
awareness without making clients feel that they are being pushed by the
counsellor. Finally it is not enough for counsellors simply and correctly to
identify and understand the counselee's feelings. They must convey their
understanding to client so that they sense it.

Reassurance

It goes beyond acceptance and serves as a reward or reinforcement agent.

It is often used to support counselee exploration or ideas and feelings to the test
out of different behaviours. It may be helpful in reducing anxiety generated
within the counselling relationship or in controlling it outside the relationship.
The counsellor may reassure clients that their disorder is common. Reassurance
may be given that the disorder has a known cause and something can
presumably be done about it. Reassurance may be given that specific method
treatment are available and that the cure is possible. Clients may need
reassurance that their disorder is not a result of sinful actions. Finally, the
counsellor's use of reassurance must be attuned to the counselee' s level of
development and emotional maturity.

Interpretation

It involves two types of data obtained external or test result and

interpersonal data obtained through communication. Interpretation techniques
are those that identify and conceptualize patterns of relationship and explain
meanings behind the client attainment. Finally techniques of interpretation may
be employed throughout the course of the relationship starting with mild
interpretations of the counselee's attitudes towards counselling, progressively
being used during the middle phases of counselling, and diminishing and
becoming more general towards the closing phases of the process.

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Seating and Room Arrangements

Sullivan recommends that the counsellor and counselee's chair be placed

at about 90 degree angles. He feels that using such an arrangement makes the
counselee likely to see the desk as a barrier to communicate. Some counsellors
prefer to sit face-to-face proximity to their counselees without any physical
barriers. Whatever may be the seating arrangements, the counselee's emotional
comfort should be considered. The seating arrangement should imply an
atmosphere conducive to openness.
Room arrangements for counselling should be comfortable, free to
outside distraction. The counselees will feel more comfortable talking about
personal matters that others outside the room cannot listen. Outside
interruptions often break one's train of thoughts and therefore should be
minimized.

Some General Tips on the Initial Interview

When initiating the first interview, sometimes the counsellor may want to
begin with information already acquired about the counselee. As the session
continues the counsellor listens with a sensitive ear to the emotional content of
the counselee's statements. The counsellor can encourage the counselee to
disclose personal matters through active listening or simply by reflecting the
emotional meaning of the counselee's verbalization.
Assessment and formulation of hypothesis about the counsellor start in
the first session. Questions that the counsellor may raise during the session are;
what is the counselee trying to say about her/him ? What does she/he want ? Or
expect from me ? What is my personal feeling about the counselee ? Is she/he
trying to tell me something through non-verbal gestures.
In the later phase of the initial interview, it is good that the counsellor
summarizes the content of the session. In doing, the counsellor can also provide
some perspective on the counselee's concern's, goals, treatment, approaches and
further sessions. Any formulation or hypothesis about the counselee at this stage
of the relationship needs to be tentative and subject to later modification. If the

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counsellor prefers to use homework assignments or extra counselling tasks,
such as reading books about counselling, the later phase of the initial interview
is a good tome to give these assignments.

Major Techniques for Building and Enhancing the Working Relationship

Restructuring of Behaviour - as the counselling gains in self-

understanding through self-exploration, this knowledge needs to be translated
into action. A person who enters a counselling relationship because of personal
difficulties no doubt acquires faulty ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. If
contradictions and conflicts are to be reconciled so that counselee can behave
more productively, some restructuring of psychological processes is necessary.
Through the use of repeated and accurate reflection, clarification and
interpretation, the counselee, can increase self-awareness and self-exploration.
These procedures need to be extended into the environment through the use of
real life behavioural tasks. Assignments outside of counselling make the
counselee to experience, first hand, many of the condition's that activated the
emotional disturbances to begin with, And at the same time to experimentally
apply new strategies, for behaviour change. The consequences of the new
behaviour can be assessed and serve a content for the other behaviour for other
counselling sessions.
The counsellors major role of restructuring or working through stages of
counselling is to help educate the counselee to restructure attitudes and
behaviour. The counsellor repeatedly challenges the counselee's self-defeating
thoughts, feelings and behaviour and tries to show the counselee how to
eliminate undesirable thoughts. The counsellor actively and somewhat
forcefully demonstrates to the counselee that the behavioural change does not
come easily and that positive reinforcement for new methods of behaving may
not be so immediate.
In the restructuring stage, the counselee begins to show signs of gaining
self-reliance and independence of thought and action. Gradually the counselee
relies less on social approval of others for feeling worthwhile, findings that

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although the approval of other is desirable it is not a dire necessary. The
counselee also sees that living more in the present is more productive than
worrying about the future or past. Moreover the counselling comes to have great
mastery Over the environment realizing that one cannot have everything one's
own way.
Working through ones emotional difficulties is by no means an easy task.
While there is often a feeling of accomplishment it still remains difficult for one
to give up inappropriate and often irrational tendencies that have developed and
been maintained over long periods. Rarely human beings enjoy facing the truth
about them. Moreover, ineffective old habits can be confronted and reassuring
despite their ineffectiveness. While involved in the restructuring of behaviourm
the counselee shows the incipient signs of hope that new behaviour will have
more desirable consequences in the future. The expectation of hope certainly
plays an important role in this difficult and demanding period of the counselling
relationship. The counsellor also plays a reinforcing role by encouraging the
counsellor to do the required for behavioural change.

Reinforcement in the Counselling Relationship

It is well understood that human behaviour is influenced by its

consequences. If desirable consequences occur, individuals are more likely to
repeat that behaviour in future. Behavioural consequences can be considered
reinforce of human behaviour. The notion of reinforcing plays an important role
in counselling.
Counselling plays a very important role as a reinforcer of healthy
behaviour. When counselee shows signs of positive activity, the counsellor
needs to acknowledge such signs. In this sense counsellors give feedback to
counselees about their personal relationship. Reinforcement in counselling
relationship may be viewed.

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 CHAPTER - V

A MODEL OF COUNSELLING

Introduction

Many people have used Counselling since the beginning of the mankind,
for example by family doctor, teachers, friends, elders etc. The doctors were the
first people who came in contact with the people most frequently. Towards the
turn of the century, medicine was to specialize as it is today. The family doctor
was not in hurry. She/He had time to spent with her/his patient and listen to
her/his problems. The problems of the patients were mainly of anxiety, fear,
depression, worries and internal struggles. The family doctor was also interested
in helping her/his patients with these problems, but they did not know how to
handle them. As she/he was by training and practice biology oriented, she/he
felt that there must be some underlying pathology of the brain or the nervous
system which was responsible for these types of problems.
Towards the end of the 19'h century, the discoveries of scientists
established the so-called 'Organic view point' on the nature of mental illness.
The brilliant contributions of these scientists showed that the deep personality
disorders known as general peries were caused by some pathology of the brain.
With these exciting biological discoveries, it was thought that they could cure
the patient by surgically removing the pathology from the brain. Only some
medical people supported this viewpoint. The reason was that over 50 % of the
mental patients failed to improve by these means. Some thinkers held firmly to
the organic view point and others challenged the belief in brain pathology as the
sole cause of mental disorders. The new current of psychiatric thought held that
certain types of mental illness are caused by psychological factors. Thus some
mental illness might result from the fact that the patient felt unable to cope with
her / his inner frustrations and conflicts and thus learned to adopt unhealthy
responses in her/his efforts to adjust.

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Models of Counselling

Definition of Model - The term model can be understood to be like a

road map showing where you are, where you are going and now to get there. It
tells also of those involved in it. It explains the interaction between two persons
and the content and sequence of her/his interaction in order to make sense and
help the counsellor to be effective.
Nowadays the models of counselling are legion. In 1986 Prof. Byran
counted 450 forms of psychotherapy. However counselling therapy can be
viewed by two approaches -
1. Cognitively oriented approaches which includes :
a. Trait and factor view point
b. Rational-emotive view point
c. Eclectic view point
d. Behavioural counselling viewpoint
2. Affectively oriented counselling approaches which includes :
a. Psychoanalytic view point
b. individual. psychology
c. Transactional analysis
d. Client-centered counselling view point
e. Existential view point
f. Gestalt therapy
In all these models the outcomes of counselling is some change in
behaviour. In order for that change to be achieved, the counselee must act in
some way in relation to her/his environment. She/He must be demonstrating
some action and that action is what is meant by behaviour change.
If we accept now, that the counselee's learning process in changing passes
through stages of exploration, understanding and action then, we can attempt to
categorize the various models of counselling according to the emphasis they
place on one or several of these stages.

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Emphasis on Action alone

Behaviour therapy brings about the counselee's change in behaviour

through action alone. Lets look at this therapy -
Major Concept - Behavioural counsellors define behaviour as the function of
the interaction of heredity and the environment. Observable behaviour is what
counsellors are concerned with and constitutes the criterion against which
counselling outcomes are to be assessed.
Thoreseen has characterized behavioural counselling with five-fold
statement :
 Most of the behaviour is learned and is therefore subject t9 change.
 Specific changes of the individual's environment can assist in altering
relevant behaviours. Counselling procedures seek to bring about relevant
changes in student behaviour by altering the environment.
 Social learning principles, such as those of reinforcement and social
modeling can be used to develop counselling procedures.
 Counselling effectiveness and the outcome of counselling are assessed by
changes in specific student behaviours outside the counselling interview.
 Counselling procedures are not static, fixed, or predetermined, but can be
specifically designed to assist the student in solving a particular problem.
Basic to behavioural counselling is the principle of reinforcement, simply
defined as the creation of desirable consequences that will strengthen or
facilitate certain behaviour. In Ivan P. Pavlov's classical conditioning studies
reinforcement is defined as the presentation of the unconditional stimulus (food)
that evokes the unconditional response (Salivation) immediately following the
conditioning stimulus (bell). In contrast, in B. F. Skinner's instrumental
conditioning studies reinforcement is the attainment of a goal that satisfies a
need: For the hungry rat, in the Skinner box, reinforcement is securing food. In
neither view, stimuli or circumstances associated with the learning situation
acquire reinforcing value, and this phenomenon is known as secondary
reinforcement.

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 Counsellors serve as aids in learning process, arranging conditions for the
clients to learn adaptive behaviour so that they can cope with their problems.
The goal of counselling is; it must be a goal desired by the client. The
counsellor must be willing to help the client achieve this goal, and it must be
possible to assess the extent to which the client achieves this goal. Krumboltz
has cited four general approaches from which counselling techniques are
derived.

1. From operant learning comes the knowledge that the timing can be useful
in producing client-desired behaviour. The second is that reinforcement
must be applied systematically. The third the counsellor must know when
and how to reinforce, and fourth, the counsellor must be able to elicit the
behaviour planned to reinforce.
2. Imitative learning is applied in that the counsellor can arrange for the
counselee to observe models of adaptive behaviour. Cognitive learning
supplies methods that include verbal instruction, contracts between
counsellors and the counselee, and role-playing.
3. Emotional learning has application in that individual with feelings of
anxiety can be systematically relaxed when the stimuli that produces
anxieties are paired with more pleasant stimuli.
4. Lastly this model proves useful in treating some types of counselees with
whom communication is very difficult. This therapy has been successful in
removing certain fears and compulsions in counselee. It emphasizes action
without the counselee's previous understanding of himself and of what is
being done to him.

Emphasis on Exploration and Understanding

The counselling that belongs to this category are psychoanalysis, client

centered therapy, trait and factor counselling, existential therapy, transactional
analysis, Gestalt therapy. Lets look one of the therapies in detail.

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Transactional Analysis

The transactional theory of personality is also a theory of life. Every

individual is born with the capacity to develop her/his potentialities to the best
of herself/himself and society, to enjoy and be able to work productively and
creatively and to be free of psychological disabilities. However, beginning with
the first few days of life infants may run into difficulties. These and later
obstacles may prevent many individuals from developing their full capacities.
The personality structure consists of tripartite ego system. The three ego
states are parent, adult and child.
Parent Ego State : It derives from exteropsyche, which involves identification
activities. All adult individuals have either actual parents or substitute, who
through exteropsychic functioning influence their behaviour. The parents are
not Freud's super ego, although super ego is a part of the parental influence. The
parental influence is not abstract it is a result of direct, actual transactions with
the parents. It includes not only prohibitions, but also permissions,
encouragement, nurturing and commands.
Adult Ego State : It represents neo-psychic functioning. The adult ego state is
focused on the data processing and probability estimating. It is necessary for
survival in the world. It also regulates the activities of the parent and the child,
mediating between them.
Child Ego State : Every adult has a child, and the relics of childhood exist in
later life as the child ego state. The behaviour of the child is not immature or
childish, but is child like. The child has three forms the natural child possesses
charm and intuition and is spontaneous and creative, the adapted child's
behaviour is modified or inhibited by parental influence, rebellious child resist
parental control. These three ego states are non-overlapping but touching circles
arranged vertically to indicate their differentiation and usual inconsistency with
one another. The parent is at the top is the ethical guide, the adult is concerned
with reality, and the child is a purgatory or sometimes a hell for archaic
tendencies. The three form the moral hierarchy. The parent is the weakest, and
the child is the strongest.

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The four life positions

Harris identifies and describes each of these four possible life positions
held with respect to oneself and others -
 I am ok, you are ok; it is good or healthy success position.
 I am ok, you are not; it is arrogant position, the characteristic of which is
dedication to betterment, for example missionaries. In less healthy
individuals it may lead to homicide and paranoid states.
 I am not ok, you are ok; the depression position, leads to the individual
cutting himself or herself off from other people in some way, such as
becoming institutionalized or committing suicide. .
 I am not ok, you .are not ok; it is the futility and schizoid position. It leads
ultimately to the spiteful or aesthetic suicide.

The Process and the Counsellor

A fundamental feature of transactional analysis applied to counselling is

that each transaction is analyzed to discover which ego state brings about which
stimulus and response. First the client's are taught the language and ideas of
transactional analysis. The process is viewed as a learning experience by which
individuals discover how to sort out data that go into their decisions. Counsellor
explains the process and often applies the concepts to their own transaction with
clients so that they can know and use the same techniques. Diagnosis of ego
states comes through observation and intuitive sensitivity.
The first hour is devoted to hearing client's describe their problems and
second half is used to teach them the basics of P-A-C. Lastly transactional
analysis has been applied to both individual and group counselling, whose goal
is to enable people to be expert in analyzing their own transactions. Harris states
that the goal of treatment is to cure the present symptom, and the method of
treatment is the freeing up of the adult so that the individual may experience
freedom of choice and the creation of new options above and beyond the
limiting influences of the past.

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Emphasis on Exploration, Understanding and Action

The counselling viewpoint that comes under this is -

Rational Emotive Therapy : Albert Ellis has set forth the basic tenets of RET.
Ellis has stated that humans are both rational as well as irrational. People
behave in a certain way because they believe that they should or must act in
these ways. People possess a high degree of suggestibility and negative
emotionalism. Emotional problems lie in illogical thinking. By maximizing
one's intellectual powers, one can free oneself of emotional disturbances. The
rational-emotive practitioner believes that no person is to be blamed for
anything he or she does, but each person is responsible for her or his behaviour.
Blame, anger, jealous etc. is viewed as dysfunctional and irrational feelings.
He has set forth 11 illogical feelings, which are :
1. It is essential that a person be loved or approved by virtually everyone in
community.
2. A person must be perfectly competent, adequate, and achieving to be
considered worthwhile.
3. Some people are wicked or villainous and therefore should be blamed and
punished.
4. It is terrible catastrophe when things are not as a person wants them to be.
5. Unhappiness is caused by outside circumstances, and a person has no
control over it.
6. Dangerous or fearsome things are cause of great concern, and their
possibility must be dwelt on.
7. It is easier to avoid certain difficulties and self-responsibilities than to face
them.
8. A person should be dependent on "thers and should have someone stronger
on whom to rely.
9. Past experiences and events are the determinants of present behaviour; the
influence of the past cannot be eradicated.

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10. A person should be quite upset over other people's problems and
disturbances.
11. There is always a right or perfect solution to every problem, and it must be
found or the result will be catastrophic.

Rational emotive therapy recognizes that human events include external

causal factors, but human beings are not completely determined. They can
transcend their biological and social limitations, difficult though it may be, and
act in ways that will change and control the future. This reorganization of the
individual's ability to determine, in good part, his or her own behaviour and
emotional experience is expressed in the A-B-C theory of behaviour and
personality disturbance.
 A is the Activating event
 B is the individual Belief system; and
 C is the consequences.
The emotional disturbances: such as feelings of rejection, anxiety,
worthlessness, depression, inadequacy, and so on. But A is not the direct cause
of C; C is actually the result of B. Belief may be rational or irrational. If the
Belief System is rational, reasonable or realistic, the consequences will be
rational or reasonable, but if the belief system is irrational or inappropriate, the
consequences will be irrational or inappropriate. The behaviours and attitudes of
others constitute activating events, to which individual responds rationally or
irrationally, the latter responses being unhappiness or other forms of emotional
disturbance, depending on how the individual perceives or interprets A.

The Therapy Process

The first step in this process is to show the client that they are illogical, to
help them understand how and why they become so, and to demonstrate the
relationship of irrational ideas to their unhappiness and emotional disturbance.
The second step is to show the clients that they maintain their disturbance by
continuing to think illogically. The third step is to get the clients to change their
thinking and to abandon irrational ideas. The final step goes beyond dealing

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with the specific illogical ideas of clients and considers that main general
irrational ideas together with more rational philosophy of living, so that the
clients can avoid falling victim to other irrational ideas and beliefs. The result of
this process is that the clients acquire a rational philosophy of life; substitute
rational attitudes and beliefs for irrational ones. Once this is accomplished the
negative, disturbing emotions are eliminated along with self-defeating
behaviour.
Lastly the RET is used to treat premarital and marital problems, frigidity,
impotence and homosexuality, psychopath and borderline schizophrenia.

Egan's Development Model of Counselling

It is a three stages model where problem solving is recognized more. It

provides a systematic practical, operational rather than a theoretical model of
the present type.

A Skill Approach to Helping

A problem solving approach to helping involves skills in two ways. First

it points out the skills counselling need to be helpful - that is the skill they need
to execute each of the task at each stage of the model. Second the model points
out the skill counselees need, both to collaborate with helper to tile helping
relationship and to face the problem in living in their day to day lives. One of
the main values is to enable the counselee to become more self-reliant. The
model has a pre helping stage and three stages :

Pre-Helping Phase

It refers only to tile counsellor and not to tile person coming for help. The
helper's goal is attending. The helper by her/his very posture must let the
counselee know that she/he is with her/him. During the time they are together
she/he is completely available to her/him, this is physical attending. The helper
must listen attentively to her/his counselee. She/He must listen to both the

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verbal and non-verbal messages of the person she/he is trying to help. She/He
has to listen attentively to her/his counselee. She/He must listen to both the
verbal and non-verbal messages of the person she/he is trying to help.
Verbal - She/He has to listen attentively to her/his counselee however confused
they might be.
Non-verbal - She/He has to listen to thc messages that are carried in tile
counselee's tone of voice, silences. pauses, gestures, facial expressions and
posture.
Although attending skills are easy to learn, attending carefully to another
is a work that demands a great deal of efforts on the part of the helper.
Attending involves pre-helping skills. Here attending does not in itself help the
client, but unless the counsellor attends both physically and psychologically to
the person in need, she/he will not be able to help her / him. Pre-helping does
not mean unimportant.

Stage I : Explorative Stage

a) Accurate empathy : The helper must respond to the counselee in a way

that she/he has listened and that she/he understands how the client feels
and what she/he is saying about herself/himself. Empathy involves a
distinction between knowledge about the counselee and an understanding
of the counselee. It is not enough to understand that she/he must
communicate her/his understanding.
b) Respect : This is the way in which counsellor deals with the client. She/He
must show respect towards client. Respect includes acceptance, interest,
concern, warmth, liking and caring for the counselee. It is non-judgmental,
a caring without conditions. The essential communication is 'with me you
are free to be who you are' this acceptance is not however blind
acceptance, rather it is an acceptance of a counselee, as a person.
c) Genuineness : Counsellors offer of help cannot be artificial. She/He must
be spontaneous and open. She/He cannot hide behind the role of
counsellor. She/He must be a human to the human being before her/him.

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 The counsellor must be honest and sincere in her/his interactions with the
counselee. The counsellor's action is congruent with her/his experiencing.
d) Concreteness : Even when the counselee rambles or tries to evade real
issues by speaking generalities, the helper must ground the helping process
in concrete behavior. Concreteness is dealing with the specific feelings,
behaviors and experiences of the counselees. Concreteness is the opposite
of vagueness or ambiguity. Counselees are kept close to their own
experiences and feelings, which foster accuracy of understanding on both
part of the counsellor and counselee.
Counselee's Skills - The skill of stage-I is crucial. If the helper does not have
them, she/he simply cannot help, for skills of stage-II and stage-III builds on
them. The ways in which empathy respect and genuineness are expressed may
change somewhat as the helper moves deeper into the helping process, but the
need for these skills, never disappear.

Stage II : Integrative Stage

The goal of the counsellor is integrative understanding and the

counselee's goal is dynamic self-understanding. As the person seeking help
explores the various problems area of her/his life, she/he produces a great deal
of data that is useful only to the degree that it can be placed together to reveal
behavioral themes in her/his life. The helper begins to see these themes and
view isolated data in larger context, and also helps the counselee see this bigger
picture as well.

Helper's skills

All the skills of stage-I :

Advanced accurate empathy - The helper must communicate to the client an
understanding not only of what the client says but also of what she/he implies,
what she/he hints at, and what she/he says non-verbally. The helper begins to
make connections between seemingly isolated statements made by the

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counselee. In this whole process, however tile helper must invent nothing.
She/He is helpful only to tile degree that she/he is accurate.
Self-disclosure : The helper is willing to share her/his own experiences with the
counselee if sharing will actually help the counselee understand herself/himself
better. She/He is extremely careful, however, not to lay another burden on the
counselee.
When we confide in a person, we like to know that person mor~
intimately. If the counsellor remains an unknown person, she/he becomes cold
and distant to the counselee. It is difficult, then, for tile counselee to disclose the
problem to the counsellor. A counsellor, who is authentic, understanding and
respectful, adds much to her/his responsibility when she/he discloses something
personal about herself/himself. Then the counselee feels that the counsellor is
human like herself/himself, feels at home with her/him and feels inclined to
disclose herself/himself more about her/him.
Immediacy - The helper is willing to explore her/his own relationship to the
counselee to explore the here and now of the counselee-counsellor interaction to
the degree that it helps the counselee got a better understanding of
herself/himself, of her/his interpersonal style and of how she/he is co-operating
in the helping process. Immediacy is dealing with the feelings, between the
counsellor and the counselee in the here and now. A high level of immediacy
exists in the open discussion and analysis of tile interpersonal relationship
occurring between the counselee and the counsellor within the counselling
situation.
Confrontation - The helper challenges the discrepancies, dissertations, games
and smoke screens the counselee's life and her/his interactions within the
helping relationship itself, to the degree that it helps the counselee to develop
the kind of self understanding that leads to constructive behavioral change.
The two essential ingredients of confrontation - is to reduce the ambiguity
and incongruities in the counsellor. It aims at motivating personal growth and
personal growth takes place in a series of confrontations. The power of
confrontation comes from the fact that the counselee is forcefully brought with

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her/his real self and with the responsibility of making a far-reaching choice in
which she/he is placed or the truth about himself. And the truth, even though it
may be painful, set her/him free from illusions and distorted perceptions about
him.
Alternative frame of reference : The effective helper can offer the counselee
alternatives frames of reference for viewing her/his behavior, to the degree than
those alternatives are accurate and more constructive than those of the
counselee.
Counselee skills - Non-defensive listening; the helper must help the counsellor
develop must help skill to listening, both to what the helper herself/himself is
saying and to the environment outside tile helping sessions themselves. Since it
is often painful to listen to one's environment objectively, the counselee needs
support from the helper .
Dynamic self-understanding - It is not enough that the counselee understand
herself/himself in some abstract way. Understanding must serve the cause of
behavioral change. Somehow a spirit of "now see what I am doing and how
self-destructive it is, I have got to do something about it" should characterize
stage If.

Stage III - Action plan

The goal of the counsellor is facilitating action and the counselee's goal is
acting. The counselee must ultimately act, in some sense of the term, if she I he
is to live more effectively.

Helper's skills

All the skills of stage-I :

Accurate empathy is useful and necessary throughout the helping process.
Respect at stage III includes expectations that the counselee will not live less
effectively than he is capable.
All the skills of stage II :

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 As the relationship between the helper and the client deepens, the helper
can engage into more strongly and more pointedly interactions involving self-
disclosure, immediacy, confrontation and the suggesting of alternative
reference. The stage III, these interactions must be oriented toward helping the
counselee act, change, live more effectively. The helper is ready to extend
herself I himself in many reasonable and human easy to help the counselee act.
The Elaboration of the Action Programmes - The helper collaborates with
the counselee in the elaboration of action programmes. These may include
problem solving techniques, decision making processes, behavior modification
programmes, homework of training in interpersonal and other kinds of skills.
Support - As the counselee involves herself /himself in action programs, fears
and doubts arise, she/he finds at times difficult and in various ways she/he
succeeds also new problems arise. The helper must reinforce the counselee's
success and help her/him through the problems that arise from her/his action
phase.

Counselee's Skills

Cooperation - The he1ping process is being carried out skillfully, the counselee
will be learning co-operation through the process. Since the elaboration of the
action programmes is usually a collaborative effort, the counselee must involve
herself/himself in planning strategy.
Risk - The counselee should learn how to risk herself/himself. She/He must
learn that paradoxically, it is safe to risk herself/himself. This means that she/he
must first take small risks and be reinforced for success and helped whither
failure.
Action - Ultimately, there is no substitute for acting. Acting has many forms. It
may mean stopping some self-destructive activity. It may mean starting some
programs of growth. It may mean developing new attitudes. But, in general, no
one should be concealed to undertake an action programs effectively. If she/he
does not have them, her/his first action programs should be training in the
required skills.

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 An Overview of an Organic or Developmental Model Helping and
The Interpersonal Relations
Phase in the process Helper's skills What happens to the
helpee
Pre-helping or pre- Attend-physical Gel involves feels
communication Psychological important
Listen
Observe
Stage - I (Responding) Primary accurate Begins to explore
empathy
Respect
Genuineness
Concreteness
Stage - II (integrative Advanced accurate Begins to put things
understanding) empathy together so as to have a
Immediacy dynamic self-
Self-disclosure understanding
Caring
confrontation.
Alternate frame of
preference
Stage - III (facilitating State and own the Takes responsibilities
action) problem. for new direction and
Description of the new decisions and
problem. changes old behavior
Goals- realistic. patterns.
- Achievable
- Measurable
- Cost involved
Resources available,
steps to be taken,
evaluation,
follow up.

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 CHAPTER - VI

CRISIS AND DEVELOPMENT COUNSELLING

Crisis is a state provoked when a person faces obstacles to important life

goals that is for a time insurmountable through the utilization of customary
methods of problems solving. A period of disorganization ensues, a period of
upset during many abortive attempts at solution are made. Eventually some kind
of adaptation is achieved which mayor may not be in the best interest of that
person and her/his fellows.
There are some common characteristics among these definition first, a
Crisis is essentially an interaction between the person and the hazard or the
situation, involving such factors as individual strength, support etc. Second the
intensity or severity of the hazard or the situation, as experienced by the
individual. Third, crisis produces a deviation from normal behavior patterns.
Finally, a Crisis is assumed to be reversible and can serve as a vehicle for
positive growth.
Floods, airplane crashes, divorce, death of a spouse, being fired from job,
accidents, rape, premature births, suicide, death - all these and other crisis can
trigger feelings of dis-equilibrium and helplessness in the lives of individuals
and families. They call for special skills on the part of helping professionals.
Intervention most frequently has to be shift, and the client be helped to cope
constructively.

Types of Crisis

Writers have identified three types of crisis.

1. Accidental Crisis - It occurs when there is a sudden threat or unexpected
loss. The death of a loved ones, the onset of a sudden illness, the loss of
one's house or property, a sudden loss of respect and status - these are all
accidental crises.
2. Developmental crises - It happens in the course of normal human

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 development starting school, going away to college, adjusting to marriage
and then to parenthood, facing retirement or declining health can all be
crises, which demands new approaches to coping and problem solving.
3. Existential Crises - which often overlap the above, when we are forced to
face such disturbing truth as the realization that :
- I am a failure.
- I am now a widow - single again.
- My life has no purpose.
- My marriage has ended in divorce.
These and similar realization, takes time and effort to assimilate. They are
changes in self-perception, which can be denied temporarily, but which in
time must be faced realistically.
The literature on crisis intervention suggests that counsellors could
consider the crisis from one or more dimensions, stages of tension, impact-
recoil phase, inter-intra or extra temporal categories, universal or specific crises.
Apart of orientation or perspective used, most crisis intervention provide :
a. Provide for an assessment and utilization of the individual's intellectual
and environmental resources.
b. Encourage expression of emotions experienced during the crisis.
c. Assess the individual's general coping structure and the degree to which it
is being employed.
d. Lastly provide opportunities for the individual to re-establish control. A
prominent theme is that counsellors helping crisis clients need to offer
warmth, interest, and concern.
Kennedy has suggested that crisis specialists performs the following
functions :
1. Help the client identify briefly the precipitating events.
2. Encourage appropriate release of emotions.
3. Help clients identify their past and present coping mechanisms.

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4. Discuss alternatives that could lead to adaptive crisis intervention.
His steps were that :
 Counsellors present themselves as concerned, effective helpers.
Counsellors focus discussion on client's affects and encourage its
expression. Counsellors explicitly emphasizes with the expressed effect.
 Counsellors gather information about the crisis-inducing situation.
Counsellors make a comprehensive statement formulating the client's
problem with which the client's agree.
 Counsellor and client engage in exploration of potential strategies to
improve or resolve the crisis-inducing stress. Lastly counsellor and client
review the mutually determined strategy for the relief from stress and ways
of dealing with future stress.
Heppner and Heppner have described the needs of rape victims and
suggested that the immediate goal in the initial stages of counselling was to
establish a sound working relationship with the client, providing practical
information (what happens when the rape is reported, whether to tell the
parents, where to get V.D. check, and so on), and exploring the needs for long-
term counselling.
Froiland and Hozman conceptualize divorce as the death of a relationship
and applied the loss model where the client's experiences first denial where
she/he is not able to accept that she/he is going to be separated form the partner.
Then is the stage of anger; where the client feels angry about why this has
happened to her/him, and then is the stage of bargaining, depression and finally
acceptance of the situation. This has been presented by Kubler-Ross to
counselling individuals who are experiencing the occurrence of divorce. This
model helps the clients to re-evaluate their self-worth in a constructive manner.
One must remember that people in crisis don't always come to a
counsellor for help. More often we must go to others and show our warmth,
understanding and genuine interest. One must also remember that the

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counselling takes time and that the client's point of view needs to be understood
before any suggestion for action is made.
The person must be brought into a state of reality, it is very important that
the counsellor has an eye-to-eye contact with the individual so as to keep the
person in touch with her/his supporters. Language used by the counsellor is also
important and give a sense of reassurance to the client. Touching, and other
forms of physical contact can bring great comfort, but it must be cautioned the
counsellor must sense whether the client really needs it or the counselee could
misinterpret it.
Reducing anxiety is another important factor that the counsellor must
keep in mind while dealing with the counselee. Active listening is desirable in a
counselling situation, providing reassuring facts, stating approval when
something is done effectively and very often predicting about what might
happen in the future : I know this is difficult for you, I understand it is not easy,
I think you can handle this OK. Relaxation technique can also help the client to
cope with stress anxiety as it will relax the muscle tension and offers to deal
constructively wit the crisis situation.
In time of crisis it is very important to decide what specific issue must be
dealt and solved. Try to focus on the situation, as it presently exists than on
what might happen in the future.
One must also take into account the resources available and how could
you help the client. Personal resources include the counselee's intellectual
abilities, skills, past experience, or learning and motivation. One must be careful
to be realistic and listing the counselee's strengths and a reminder of past
successes in coping can be both reassuring and helping. Interpersonal resources
can include money, and other tangible resources available: (Legal, medical,
psychological, financial, educational, other community help).
Next step in counselling is to plan intervention strategies considering the
problem and resources available. Both the person must look at the available
facts and list alternatives available in the course of action. Evaluate the action
whether they are realistic, and what should be done first. Sometimes the

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counselee faces difficulty to make decision. Our goal is not to put pressure on
the counselees by forcing them to make a decision, but neither encourages the
client to be dependent and let your problem to be solved by someone else. If the
plan is not successful then think of another alternatives. One writer has
suggested that "the golden rule for the therapist in crisis intervention is to do for
others that they cannot do for themselves and no more".
The counsellor has to encourage her/his clients to decide on some course
of action and move ahead with the play, she/he also has to evaluate progress and
to modify plans and actions when experience would indicate that this is wise. It
is possible that a crisis cannot be resolved completely, especially if one has lost
loved ones, the crisis may bring permanent change. The counselee may then be
helped to face the situation honestly, acknowledge and express feelings, readjust
her/his life-style, realistically plan for the future and rest in the knowledge that
God, in her/his sovereignty knows her/his pain and cares.
In all counselling, improvement is more likely to give a sense of realistic
hope for the future. Hope brings relief from suffering, based on a belief that
things will be better in the future. It will help to avoid despair and release
energy to meet the crisis situation. The counsellor can help the client to examine
self-defeating logic. Ideas like "I will never get better" or "nothing can be
worse" often enters the counselee's thinking in times of crisis. Such ideas should
be challenged gently. Counsellors can get the counselling moving and doing
something, so that the counselee does not feel helpless. This in turn arouses
hope especially if the activity accomplishes something worthwhile.
Sometimes there is value in changing the counselee's environment-
encouraging others to give practical help, give money or supplies or otherwise
assist the person in crisis. Some people many not like outside assistance. At
times outside help encourages dependency and owe-nothing attitude in the
counselee. It is important to discuss all of this with the counselee who,
whenever possible should encourage to seek help from others without the
counsellor's assistance.

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 After a counselling session is over, follow-up is very essential to see
whether the client returns to the routine live and does not come for counselling
again. But was anything learned ? Will the next crisis be handled more
efficiently ? Is the person getting along satisfactorily now that the major point
of crisis is past ?
Those issues should concern the counsellor, who often can follow up with
a phone call or visit. Even when counselling is no longer needed, such "follow
up" interest can encourage the counselee and remind her/him that someone still
cares and remembers.
Also sometimes the client needs referral, who trainings, expertise and
availability can be of special assistance. It does not mean that the original
counsellor is incompetent or trying to get rid of the client. In contrast referral
can reflect the counsellors concern for the counselee and can show the
counsellor's realization that no one person is skilled enough to counsel
everyone.
People should be referred when they are not showing any sign of
improvement after many session, need medical investigation, legal advice, arc
severely depressed, strong feeling of dislike or sexual arousal, in the counsellor
or have problems which are beyond the counsellor's felt area of expertise. The
counsellor has to be familiar with the community resources and persons to
whom counselee can be referred. This includes: private practitioners such as
physicians, lawyers, psychiatrist and hospitals. Before giving a referral it is
helpful to check with the referral to the counselee be sure to indicate your
reason for this recommendation. Try to involve counselee in this decision, make
sure that you present this in a positive way to get further help and not as your
belief that the counselee is too disturbing or too much of a problem.
Lastly Warnth suggests that the high turnover, transitory nature of the
case load of most agencies does not lend itself to the type of client-counsellor
interaction in which relationships are central to the goals of counselling. Many
crisis situations are of a nature that they are not amenable to apply self-

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exploration and growth experience models with their stress on "here and now"
experiences of the client within the counselling room.

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 CHAPTER - VII

EDUCATIONAL, VOCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

AND CAREER COUNSELLING

A lot of individual has to go through a series of paths in order to enter a

field of his/her choice. Lot of difficulties is seen in the education set-up, from
which emerges an array of educational pathways and vocational opportunities.
Career counselling has evolved with greater clarity, prominence and vitality,
during the past few years. More and more schools, community colleges,
universities and community agencies have advertised for and added career
counsellor provisions.
The vocational choice is very important to an individual. The choice of
selecting a vocation is a very important decision taken by a person and this is a
long process rather than a single incident. Vocational choices do not appear all
of a sudden during teen-age period, they appear as a process of development
process. Increasing efforts have gone into understanding and explaining
vocational choice and development.
Warnath pointed out that an assumption underlying vocational theories is
that individual, given motivation, information and help, progress through
education to satisfying jobs that permit them to express their personalities and
implement self-concepts.
Ginzberg and others studied the problem of vocational choices by
investigating how occupational choices are made. They concluded that an
individual never reaches the ultimate decision at a single moment in time, but
through series of decisions over a period of many years. They divided the
process of occupational decision making into three "distinct periods". The
period during which the individual makes what can be described as a fantasy
choice and the period during which the making is tentative and the other period
is when she/he makes a realistic choice.

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 The first coincides in general with the latency period, between six and
eleven. The second coincides, by and large, with early and late adolescence;
realistic choices are made in early adulthood.
There are three basic element suggested by Ginzberg and others regarding
occupational choice :
 Occupational choice is a development process; is a decision made over a
period of years - a process, which takes place over a minimum of six or
seven years and more typically over ten years or more.
 Since each decision during adolescence is related to one's experience unto
that point, and in turn influence on the future, the process of decision-
making is basically irreversible.
 Since occupational choice involves the balancing of a series of subjective
elements with opportunities and limitations of reality has the quality of a
compromise.
In career counselling, information about the individual and the
environment is a primary topic to be examined and clarified. Psychological data
describing the aptitudes, skills, interests and personality traits of the client and
social data describing the environment, the influences on the client, and the
resources available are needed. Improvements in testing techniques and
instrumentation have made it possible to measure an increasing number and
variety of important psychological characteristics. Despite this progress, that
which can be measured with precision still leaves much to be desired.
Considerable advances have been made in vocational interest testing, measures
of specific abilities remain crude. Those used for assessing personality are still
but in their infancy while methods of testing creativity, persistence and
motivation are largely experimental or nonexistent.
The Career Development Inventory : The CDI inventory is an objective,
multifactor, self-administered paper and pencil inventory for assessing
vocational maturity of adolescents. The CDI was designed to assess attitudinal
and cognitive development relevant to career choice among high school

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students; it is composed of three scales that represent the student's attitude
toward and knowledge of career planning. Scale B, resources for exploration is
also a self-rated measures of resources used and those potentially available for
career planning Scale C, information and decision making is a cognitive
measure of the student's actual occupational knowledge and how well this
information has been integrated in order to make educational and vocational
decision. The reading level of the CDI makes it appropriate at or above the sixth
grade level.
The Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) ; The CMI, developed by John Crites,
was designed to measure competencies and attitudes of career choice. The CMI
is a machine scored; paper pencil inventory standardized on students, primarily
in grade five through twelve but also through the college years. The attitude
scale takes about twenty minutes to complete and can be used as a screening
device for assessing career maturity. Students below the norm can be
encouraged to seek career counselling. The competence scale takes about two
and a half hours and can be either hand or machine scored. The five subtests of
the scale - self-appraisal, occupational information, goal selection, planning, and
problem solving - can be used to identify factors that contribute to decisional
problems and therefore serve as a target for counselling interventions.
Work Value Inventory (WVI) : developed by Donald Super scores fifteen
value areas : altruism, aesthetics, achievement, independence, prestige,
management economic return, security, surrounding, supervisory relations,
associates, way of life and variety. The WVI profile can be used in counselling
for exploring what clients seek in careers and identifying what is important to
them and the life-style associated to their value.
Also with the inventory vocational choices takes place as a result of
development process, which has been traced to the early days of the individual
life. Very often this development can be traced to the influence exerted before
birth. Child development studies have proved. the powerful influence, which
thwarted ambitions and frustrations of the parent have on the vocational choice
of the individual. Vocation being the implementation of the self-concept, which

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the parents have failed to achieve it during their own career, they have sought it
through the choice of career for their children.. This has involved frustration for
the growing adults, waste of energy, money and precious time.

Vocational Development

Like other development in a child, vocational development may be

conceived of as beginning in life and as proceeding along a curve late in life. So
when a small child of 4 years says that she/he wants to become a pilot or teacher
is in a very early stage of development and an old person who does not work for
monetary gain, still keeps oneself busy with writing books, gardening in the
field of her/his interest is going through the late stage of vocational
development.
Vocational development follows the general pattern of development. It
can be conceived of as a continuum with definite life stages, which can be
defined through their peculiar characteristics.
Buehler has classified the vocational life stage as :
1. Growth (birth to 14 years )
2. Explanatory (15-24 years) with the sub-stage of fantasy, which may be,
tentative or realistic with appropriate towards work and occupation.
3. Establishment (24-44 years) beginning with trial and progressing into a
stable position as the individual begins to make her/his place in the world
of work.
4. Maintenance stage (45-64 years) characterized by stability in the field in
which establishment has taken place earlier in life.
5. The decline stage (65 onwards). Characterized by decrease during the early
part and progressing into one of retirement.
It needs to be pointed out that the process of vocational development is
continuous and ongoing. The process of vocational development is essentially
that of developing and implementing a self-concept, which is a product of the
interaction of inherited aptitudes, neura.1 and endocrine make-up, opportunity

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to play various role, and evaluations to the extent to which the results of role
playing meet with the approval of supervisors and fellows.
The process of occupational choice and adjustment does not end when a
youngster enters her/his first job. Occupational expectations will rarely be fully
released and some adjustment to the unexpected will be necessary. Even when
such adjustment is achieved, the process is not complete. Regular work
activities may facilitate the development of the latest skills, which the
individual, may subsequently want to utilize more fully. A growing awareness
of the world of work and the opportunities available may also motivate the
individual to seek out what to perceive in better job. Even where a person
remains in the same job for much of her/his life, a series of adjustments will be
necessary to meet with the individual changing concept of her/his self.

Factors affecting Occupational and Vocational Choice

The nature of career pattern is determined by the individual parental

socio-economic level. Mental ability and personal characteristic and play the
opportunities to which she/he is exposed. Occupational choice and subsequent
vocational development is greatly influenced by thc experiences a child
undergoes.
1) The Family : It is one of the primary socializing agent that a child has
contact with. The family as a whole tend to have an effect on the
vocational choice of an individual right from the time of conception. Also
hereditary occupation tends to be followed by an individual, though today
one has freedom to choose to kind occupation one wants to enter.
The physical factors such as the location of the home, the conditions
prevalent in the home and the health status of various members of the
family, many of the times havc a significant effect on the vocational
development of the individual.
2) The Socio-Economic Level : of a person tends to influence the choice of
vocation. The person who is of lower income group cannot have a choice
to become a doctor as the conditions of the home might not permit to

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 invest large sum of money, but it is not always so. If one sincerely wants to
become a doctor, may take some help or get scholarship and pursue her/his
career. It is mostly seen that middle and higher income group has the
facilities for further studies, than the lower income group. The other aspect
of the family at times influence the vocational developments are :
 Knowledge : that the family gives to the child and eventually picks
up the choice of occupation.
 Caste and religion : the family as a mediator of culture also
influences vocational development.
 Values : The values child has learned and the family work values will
be able to affect vocational choice and adjustment.
 Role model : Family provides the earliest adult role models with
whom the individual may identify or whom she/he may reject.
3) Ability: This is also the next important factor that tends to hold the choice
of vocational development. Individuals with higher intellectual ability to
seek and prepare one self for the jobs which require higher kind of
intelligence, while the ones with lower mental ability go in for semi-skilled
job and continues in position of almost no importance. The individuals,
who do not choose their careers according to the ability, may not become
successful in their choice of vocation. Though no systematic and thorough
study made on Indian sample is available, some foreign studies have
produced results to illustrate the difference in vocational success of
intelligent and dull individuals.
4) Personality : Personality make-up of an individual influences the career
choice she/he makes. A person who is an extrovert will prefer to be a
public relation officer but not a scholar. An individual who is an introvert
would prefer jobs such as a researcher or a librarian etc. Every job can be
described in terms of personality characteristic it requires, for the person to
be happy and satisfied. For example good teachers are usually social,
communicative, self-confident, self-sufficient and aggressive. Bankers,

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 dentist and musicians are more conservative, self-contained and less
aggressive. Attempts have been made to measure people's personal
suitability through their responses to questions in interest inventories and
interest blanks.
5) Economic factors : This also plays an important role in vocational
planning. The individual would not prefer to plan vocation with low wages
and low prestige even though these may be the ones in which she/he is
interested the most.
6) Industrialization : This is another factor, which influences the individual's
vocation. Many new jobs have come up in the past years. The people are
not usually familiar with these jobs. They did not have the information or
the opportunities to explore, their interest and aptitudes for these jobs.
Industrialization affects the workers already settled in jobs.
7) Public Policy : It also affects the vocational choice of the individual.
Reservation made both in admission and jobs proves an important factor
for the scheduled castes to go in for a particular vocation in spite of the fact
that they may not have the ability or qualification.

Vocational Adjustment

It is one of the aims of all vocational guidance programs and activities. It

is necessary for the individual to have a pleasant feeling while pursuing her/his
career and should acquire a reasonable amount of facility for productive work. It
also means that individual should be able to express her/his personality
adequately through her/his work. Moreover, the occupation should provide
her/him with enough pay to meet the economic needs. It is not only adjustment
to work but also to the social, economic, and physical situations connected with
the occupation.
It has now been recognized in certain section, that profession and
technical competence is not enough for vocational adjustment. But the technical
execution of work is required in a profession. Creativity also plays an important
role in vocational choice and adjustment. Creativity here means the need to

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create new objects, maintaining and fostering them. Different individual seek
different ways of gratifying this need. If the occupation does not give scope for
the gratification of this need, the individual find himself vocationally
unadjusted.

Vocational Maturity

It is a question when we try to evaluate the vocational choice that a

person has made and the adjustment that she/he is making in that vocation. It is
also used to denote the level of vocational development of the individual. If we
follow the stages of vocational development then vocational maturity would
indicate whether the person is at the exploratory stage or has successfully gone
through the stage of vocational maturity and comes to the decline stage.

Career Counselling

Earlier career counselling has evolved the matching of individuals with

jobs after fashion first proposed by Frank Parsons. A number of aptitude and
special measures are administered and interpreted to the counselee with respect
to the implication of the results for vocational training and placement.
Interpretation usually is done using interview method. The overall approach
involves an intake interview, where background information is obtained and a
testing plan is formulated. This is then followed by a testing session, which
may. be more or less extensive, depending upon the decision made in that first
interview. After that a second interview is held, in which results are explained
and the implication discussed in terms of the particular decision points that are
pel1inent for the counselee. A third interview might be held for further
clarification. Standardized tests battery is administered, explained and
interpreted in a group setting. Some opportunities for individuals comprising the
group is usually provided.

Career Education

It is an approach to vocational counselling in the broadest sense to stem

from assumption based on life-stage development. The career education

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approach is built upon expectation that improved career decision would result if
individuals gradually accumulated information about careers from early
childhood. The ideal career approach involves teaching the youngsters to
observe, interpret, and evaluate their environments themselves and as they act in
the environments the main goal is to provide knowledge and experience that the
individual can accumulate and experience. When critical decision about
educational programs and career must be made, hopefully such decisions would
relatively easy to make and be based on valid data.
A lot of career education programs have been developed abroad and are
functions today having no comprehensive outcome studies about the long-term
implication of career education programs on the quality of career decision have
yet to be conducted.
Lastly the programs described are all interview based and interpersonally
focused. This may vary in the degree to which they focus on data about the
individual and the environment. Some of the newer approaches also spend
considerable time dealing with the development of skills with which to
implement preferences.

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 CHAPTER - VIII
GROUP COUNSELLING

Many individuals are utilizing group helping processes in many forms in

diverse settings. In counselling a group consist of two or more persons who
voluntarily have contact, proximity and interaction intended to produce change
in each member. As a result of participation, members interact with and
influence each other. Modification occurs in each member because of
participation and experiences shared with the other members. .

Classification of Groups

Groups have been classified in numerous ways. Size, nature of

interaction, goals or purposes and organization has been used as a variable in
categorizing them. A common basis of differentiation has been the main
function served by the groups - educational, religious, recreational, political and
so on. Degree of permanence is another basis for cataloging. Group ranges are
from the very temporary to highly stable. But such classification, though
frequently encountered in the literature on groups, is of limited usefulness.
References here are of three types of groups.
1) Primary versus Secondary : Primary groups are those in which the
members meet face to face for companionship, mutual aid, and the
resolution of questions that confront them. Example includes play group,
study etc. They are characterized by :
 Small size
 Similarity of member's background
 Limited self-interest
 Intensity of shared interest.
Secondary groups are those in which the members are not as intimate and
contact is more causal. Example - large lecture classes, committees.
2) In-group versus Out-group : Groups with individuals identify by virtue

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 of their awareness or "consciousness of kind", are their in-groups -families,
sex, club, occupation, religion. An individual's expression of subjective
attitudes frequently reveals his/her group memberships that in turn are
often related to particular social circumstances. Attitudes are characterized
by expressions of difference and sometimes by varied degrees of
antagonism, prejudice, hatred, or apathy. Out-group is defined by the
individual with relation to the in-group, usually by the expression of
contrast between them, and we or other out-group.
3) Socio versus Psyche groups : Coffey differentiates socio from psyche
groups in a number of respects. There is no visualized goal, but goals are
essential characteristic of socio group. Informal structure, few rules and
regulations, voluntary and homogeneous membership characterizes the
psyche group. Membership in the socio group is often voluntary, but there
may be those for whom the membership is not personal inclination but
derives from serving as a representative of some organization.

Structuring of Groups

Group Size : Opinions differ concerning the exact number in the group. Size is
the number suggested by some while Yalom suggests 7 with an acceptable
range of 5-10 members. Groups of fewer than 5 may not produce a sufficiently
varied range of possibilities, coping and defensive styles and interact ional
opportunities. Groups more than 10 may take it difficult to develop intensive
interactional experiences also it may limit the amount of attention that can be
devoted to each member. Handling groups of more than 10 may place emotional
strain on the counsellor.
Closed and Open group : When planning a group the counsellor will have to
decide whether it is to be closed or open group. The closed group is likely to
meet for a fixed time span, say an academic year, and once established admits
no new members. Counsellors who lead closed group may start with a few extra
members to allow for some dropouts without necessitating taking on new
members. This may also be considered as a family prototype because of the
above reasons.

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 Open group meet either for a fixed or unspecified lengths of time. They
are open to new members, who may be introduced either when a previous
member leaves or when the counsellor feels she/he has a client who can benefit
from group experience, presumably without badly disrupting the other
members.
Group composition : An issue in group-formation is whether homogenous or
heterogeneous groups are preferable. Therapist has to decide whether a patient
is likely to do better in a homogeneous groups where other patients whose lives
are lonely and isolated or in a group where other members have active
relationship of some kind. This may make the oldest people more frustrated.
Hence placing of individuals in either homogeneous or heterogeneous
groups should be done according to the problems of the patients and in which
group could they best benefit. Like patients who may arose considerable fear,
guilt, pity and hostility reactions may best be placed in a homogenous group.
Also patients addicted to alcohol, drugs can best be treated in homogenous
group.
Number of counsellors : The number of counsellors would depend on the
number of group member the better it would be to have 2 or more counsellors.
The second counsellor may help in providing additional valuable insight into
the functioning of the group symptoms are similar or in a heterogeneous group
where the factors may be very dissimilar. A degree of homogeneity may appear
to be necessary to ensure that the group has a basic level of inter-member
attractiveness and hence potential for cohesiveness. But there is no absolute
homogeneity in any group because of the range of patients, social status,
cultural and economic background, interest, age, race, religion, education and
other different elements. It is suggested that a 20 years age gap is feasible when
all group members are over 20. But in certain situation this may not be
applicable like young adults who have not had any experience. This may inhibit
married people to talk about their sexual problems and hence this group may not
serve its purpose, or it is wise to avoid placing older people, particularly persons
over 60.

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Physical and other arrangements : The physical arrangements and the
administrative arrangements for group therapy deserve a great deal of attention
than for individual therapy. For individual therapy a desk chairs and possibly a
couch are relatively standard features. In this setting the patient is likely to
ignore the physical dimension of the therapeutic setting. In the group situation
however she/he may actively use the physical dimensions including seating
arrangements and the physical characteristics of the therapy room. The
administrative arrangements include time of day, length of session, taking notes,
the use of co-therapist observers and fees. The therapist employment of these
dimensions reflects her/his philosophy and approach to treatment, as well as the
special characteristics of the respective groups of patients and of participant
individuals. Another argument for two counsellors is that they may be opposite
or have different personalities, thus increasing the likelihood that each group
member will be able to relate well at least to one of the counsellors. Sometime a
two-group counsellor play different role : for example one may playa facilitator
whereas the other may be more task-oriented, or more confronting or more of an
interpreter-summarizer.
However there are some pitfalls of having two counsellors for example
they may not get on well with each other or they may be unable to agree how
best to facilitate the group.
Seating arrangement : Many group psychotherapists start the group session by
placing the chairs in the therapy room in a circle. This has the advantage of
permitting every member to see every other member and the therapist,
reinforcing the psychological significance of the circle. The circle position may
be threatening to see some patients because they may have difficulties in
handling the closeness, which the circle communicates.
Some therapist find that having the chairs spread out along the wall of
rectangular or square room is less threatening to the patients, especially in the
initial stages of treatment. The chairs can be moved into a circular position as
needed. Patients may select certain chairs for certain reasons where fixed and
folding chairs are both available to patients. The patients requiring more

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emotional support from the group may seek out the fixed chairs. People, who
are over independent, may take a folding chair. Sofas are avoided by some
patients of their desire to avoid closeness of someone sitting nearby.
Other patients may choose on the base of their preference for a given kind
of chair. Some prefer straight, hardback chair for physical reason such as
pregnancy or aback ailment. Other patients like to stretch out in a soft chair and
put their feet on a stool thus approaching a condition of relaxation. So, for the
differing needs of patients, it is good idea to have a variety of chair in the
therapy room.
Sitting arrangements convey a lot of meaning to the therapist like some
group members may wish to express anxiety and do so by, may be coming
closure into the group or moving further out of the group. Anxiety may also be
expressed by sitting on an either side of a therapist because that might provide
strength and support. Patients may also turn their back to a particular person as
an expression of hostility. Hence meaning of any typical behavior should be of
great concern to the therapist and should be explored appropriately.
Sitting arrangements may also be used to establish sub-groups. This
groups may have emerged in a previous sessions or while waiting in a waiting
room etc. The therapist may utilize this sub-groups in her/his treatment activity
by calling attention to them. In the Indian setting having mats to sit on may
help.
The Room : The room in which group therapy takes place may have an effect
on the group members. The smaller the room, the more intimate may be the
group feeling. The larger the room, the more likely that some detached patients
may feel free to sit in corner of the room. The room's color may also affect the
group. A small room has the possible disadvantage of becoming heavy with
smoke fumes. Some patients will be uncomfortable or suffer eye irritation in a
small room where there is no proper ventilation.
Adequate ashtrays are important where smoking is permitted. This
preferably may be of a floor variety or of plastic as a precautionary measure.
Because experience has shown that the small table ashtray is likely to be the

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first object encountered, when a patient has an impulse to throw something at
another group member .
Facial tissues might be available throughout the room. Often patients who
wish to cry or blow her/his nose or use the tissue for some other purpose. Its
clear visibility and availability can eliminate panic-arousing anxiety for some
patients. It is desirable that there be a bathroom readily available for the patients
in the group room and in the waiting room.
In certain situations it is useful to have food and drink available in the
therapy room or nearby. The therapy room is likely to provide number of
stimuli, which may be selected and used by patients. They may, for example,
comment on paintings, which are on display. Some patients may say that they
do not like a painting as an expression of negative about the therapist or other
member of the group. Others may gain symbolic support by looking at a
painting in the room when they feel undertaken by group member. Looking at a
painting may make it easier for a patient to express withdrawal from a group
because the painting may be perceived as a non-threatening inanimate object.
Other physical feature of a room may lead to similar comments and reactions.
The therapist might best be in sensitized to this kind of communication in a
group.
In general it is desirable thai there be a number of lamp throughout the
room. This permits the member of the group to modify the lighting
arrangements of the room according to their needs. Eye and a face movement
may provide a dimension of communication, which is useful to the therapist and
the group.
Ideally, noise from other offices or from the street should not distract a
patient and hence the session should be conducted in a place, which is as noise-
free as possible. Playing a carefully record has occasionally been successful in
"loosening up" the group.
Rugs on the floor soften and absorb, sound and reinforce the feeling of
closeness of the group. It also has a physiologically soothing affect on patients
but if it is not available then the therapist should of course do the best she/he

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can with available facilities. Some therapist provide a warm, pleasantly
decorated setting for their group therapy session if one group session follows
directly after another, the therapist must give some thought to the waiting room.
Such provision must include not only a place where they can sit, but also a place
where they can put such things as coats, packages or umbrellas. It is advisable
for the therapist to allow upto a half hour between the end of one session and
the beginning of the next, this will not only minimize encounter between groups
but also will enable the therapist to prepare adequately for the next session. Also
having a back door may benefit the members who do not want to bump into the
members of the other group.
Time of Day of Session : Time of the day of session is very important that will
determine how many patients are likely to come for the treatment and react to
the session. Groups, which meet just before a traditional mealtime, are likely to
express aggression, which may be related to hunger. Participants meeting just
after a mealtime may be somewhat less active than a group that which meets at
other times. A group that meets at an end of a duty when its members are tired
might be expected to be more relaxed and thrift to have fewer defensive
reaction. What often happens, however, is that the member fatigue translates
itself in relative withdrawal.
The therapist optimal effectiveness and the group member's effectiveness
are of utmost importance. Therefore, it is beneficial for her/him and the patients
that she/he chooses a time at which she/he can be relatively relaxed.
Length of Session : Like all other eternal modalities of group treatment the
length of session is a function of many factors. This includes the larger goals of
the group, how often it meets and a level of treatment, which the therapist finds
appropriate. In general a group, which meets only once a week, a period of a
full hour, has been found effective. However even with groups, which meet
several times a period of one hour has been found optimal to permit the group
process to unfold. This period provides time for each member to react to the
others and to speak about herself/himself.

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 The level of the therapeutic process may be related to the therapist's
decision about the length of a group session, if the therapist practices
psychoanalytically oriented group therapy the length of a group session will be
lengthy. Ninety-minute sessions are the norm for analytically oriented groups.
Time extended groups may range from 3-4 hours to 24 or 48 hours of
continuous group interaction. I hour might be an ideal length for some guidance.
Taking notes, recording and observers : Some psychotherapist takes notes on
the progress of their groups and some do not. Beginning group psychotherapists
often find note taking desirable as a means of keeping track of the individual
group members. Their notes enable them to sum up what a group has done, and
serve as a review prior to the next meeting of the group. Records of group
sessions may be used for supervision.
Notes taken after a group meeting lack the detail and immediacy of those,
which are taken during a session. However the need to be alert to the multiple
activities taking place within the group makes it all but impossible for the
therapist to take down notes during the session. Many therapists find they can
take adequate notes if they are allowed 10 to 15 minutes immediately after a
session.
Notes on a session might indicate the mood of the group, group themes,
the inter-relationship of group members, transference phenomenon, key
associations, the relationship of the present session to prior session, new
materials introduced etc.
Video tape recording has superseded audio recording as the most
effective means of recording group session. Second best are two stationary
cameras, each covering opposite sides of the group. Next best is a single fixed
camera with a wide-angle lens. Audio taping is still a useful tool if video
equipment is not available. One of the disadvantages of recording session is that
an hour of listening/watching is required for every hour of recording. In private
practice as well as clinic settings, written consent indicating the use to be made
of recording is important.

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 Audio recording devices are more easily ignored when video cameras are
available, but the loss of spontaneity endangered is more than compensated by
the advantageous of its uses. Groups may be observed through one-way mirrors
with the consent of the patients. Some therapists have an observer sitting in a
group, who is a non-participant. This can be frightening to the group because of
their feelings that the stranger will be a jury and possibly a judge of their private
thoughts. Ideally, the therapists ask the group permission before introducing an
observer.
Fees : Fees is an important area where due attention is required as some
members do not find it easy to discuss money and that may produce a lot of
resistance. Firstly the therapist's conflict related to money has to be solved if
she/he has to be effective in this area with her/his patients. Also the therapists in
private practice has to take care in watching the different rates are not charged
to different patients, as friction may arise if patients discover what others were
paying.
Some therapists charge fees for each group session while some charge
fees for the whole month. But if patients cannot pay, this can be discussed as
apart of treatment. The therapist should relate the statements of fees to a reality
situation that the patients can understand and help to avoid over-idealization of
the therapist. Each of these eternal modalities of group treatment may appear to
be unimportant but each one however, contributes towards the atmosphere
within which therapy occurs and the total impact may be considered.

Stages Of Group Counselling

There are three major stages of group counselling.

 Initial stage
 Working stage
 Terminating stage.
Initial stage : The initial stage of the group would include the first 2-3 sessions
where the counsellor would clarify goals, lay down rules like no smoking or
drinking, strict confidentiality has to be maintained. Also ask the members to

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state what they expect from the group, also the counsellor would talk about the
objectives of the group.
In the initial session the counsellor would also deal with resistance like
she/he would encourage members to openly share their feelings, also make it
clear that there is no need of speaking or knowing the English language very
fluently. She/He would also tell the members that it is okay to cry and
breakdown. By doing all this, she/he would ensure that the members feel
comfortable to talk.
The counsellor would also correct the members and help them to focus on
themselves. e.g. we have the tendency of saying we are feeling very tired
instead of saying I am feeling very tired.
Working stage : In the working stage trust other members and the leaders or at
least openly express their lack of trust. There is no willingness in this stage to
take risks by sharing meaningful here and now reactions.
In this stage goals are clear and specific and determined jointly by the
members and the leaders. There is willingness to direct the group behavior
towards realizing these goals.
Most members in this stage feel a sense of inclusion and excluded
members are invited to become more active. Communication among most
members is more open and involves accurate expressions. Here the participant's
talks directly to one another about what they are experiencing.
Cohesion is high and there is a closed emotional bond among people.
Conflict with members or with leaders is recognized discussed and often
resolved. Members accept the responsibility for deciding what actions they will
take to solve their problems. Also feedback is given freely and accepted without
defensiveness. Group members use out of group time to work on problems
raised in the group.
Termination stage : This is the final stage and the counsellor asks the members
what gains they have made, what newly acquired behavior they want to transfer
to their everyday life. The group counsellor helps the group members to put into

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meaningful perspective what has occurred in the group. But the counsellor will
not terminate session abruptly. She/He may cut down the time or the frequency
of sessions. She/He may also tell the members there are 5 more sessions, then 4
more, 3 more, 2 more left. And on the last day she/he may say that this is the
last session.
There may be some members who may not have achieved their goal in
those cases she/he may shift them to another group, if they want. As this group
of theirs may have been a time bound group like for example- one academic
year etc.
If the group may not have been a time bound group, those who have
achieved their goal may be allowed to terminate the group and other new
members may be added. In this case the whole group cannot be terminated.
But basically termination is a delicate aspect and the counsellor would
not do it abruptly but gradually prepare the member for it and give the group a
closure.

Group Phenomena's

There are many group phenomena's that may take place in a group. These
are called group responses. Knowledge of these group responses can be used as
valuable tools, which the therapist can use to direct the group interaction, rather
than use it to limit the interaction.
Homeostatis : All most all group responses attempts at some kind of
homeostatic. The group constantly seeks to strike a balance among the anxieties
of its different members. This balance represents a kind of homeostasis, which
keeps the anxiety of the members on a tolerance level.
Every member of the group is seeking to create and sustain a milieu in
which her/his needs will be met, in effect she/he is saying "I want the group to
give complete satisfaction to me". This is coupled with her/his active .and
expressed interest in seeking change while at the same time seeking to avoid
change. The most important single force in a therapist group is the maintainance

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of status quo of the group members. They may say that they want change, but
actually find it very difficult to make it possible for themselves to change.
Homeostasis in a therapy group is most threatened by a change agent. In a
group therapeutic situation the therapist is primarily the person who has the
leading role of changing agent. '[he change agent in the group is a person who
makes it possible for others to change. She or he largely does on the basis of
transference relationship, which develops within the group. In the therapy group
the change agent may be different people at different times.
A therapy group has achieved a satisfactory homeostasis is likely to have
achieved a strong feeling of cohesion. The dimension of cohesion by itself is not
necessarily desirable or undesirable, from the therapist point of view of the
effects of change agent in the group.
Multiple Transference : It is basically when the patient perceives the
counsellor as an important figure from the childhood and transfers into
moderate to intense feeling and emotions appropriate to this earlier model.
Transference may start being positive which helps the counsellor since the
patient works to please her/him. But almost invariably it becomes negative and
hostile turning into resistance, hostility and aggression.
Example if a patient feels another person from the group resembles her
mother she will transfer all her feelings of her mother on to that person. That is
basically, multiple transference. Other members from the group too can transfer
feelings on to other people in the group.
Reactive Association : Reactive associations are feelings that are provoked in
the patients by moods physical actions, or verbalization of another member,
members or the total group. Example, 60 second silence, in one group, followed
by a heated discussion among the members.
Defense Mechanisms : As in individual treatment, patients in a group are
continually resisting treatment by defense mechanism, which can logically be
recorded as group response. When an individual senses that the group situation
is threatening one of her/his established patterns of responses, her/his defense

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postures are likely to become paramount. The selection of the defense
mechanism will almost always not be a .conscious choice by the patient. It will
be a reflection, not only of individual personality but also of group situation at
the particular time. Any type of defense mechanisms can be used either
projection, displacement etc.
Ex. - The person may not focus on her/his problem but may try to side
track and talk about the other members problem, analyze them.
Acting Out : There are many forms of acting out, or compulsive, repetitive
behavior based on transference and impulsive stirred up in treatment. This may
range from the patient in a group who engages in acting out behavior, which is
directed towards other group members, like attempting to reduce them, to
behavior in non-group situation, like trying to get arrested. A patient may do
something, which will lead to her/his getting arrested in order to threaten the
group with dissolution the group responds because the arrested patient is
upsetting its homeostasis.
The Carom : One group response can be called a carom. In billiards there is a
shot called a carom in which the cue-ball strikes successively two or more balls.
This kind of multiple caroms is akin to the effect on group members of the
special condition of emotionally toned tension, which is occasionally by the
group therapy process and which may trigger a carom.
Ex. - A patient who had been in a group for three months, may say that
the therapy is a waste of time at the beginning of one session and other
members may also voice their thought, which was unconsciously present.
Carom may be communicated not only verbally but also non-verbally by
posture, use of facial expression, tone of voice etc.
Subgroups : This kind of group responses may occur because patients have
some kind of pre-therapeutic bond or association with each other like
friendship, or because they have a differential response to the therapist. Sub
groups may form in order to facilitate action towards or against the therapist.
They may represent avoidance reactions. Others may represent conformity with
or acting against, still others may involve sucking in of prototypes in order to

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maintain the homeostasis of the individual. Another function served by
subgroups is to obtain support for acting out behavior. Subgroups may consist
of as few as two people. They are subject to change with the progress of
treatment.
Sometimes the members of a sub-group will sit together while sometimes
they may go out together after a session to a restaurant. They may communicate
with each other between sessions and in other ways seek to underline their
separateness from the group as a whole.
Fractionation of the Group : The group experiencing itself as a series of
individual embers rather than as a group is called fractionation. When this
happens at the beginning of a group cycle, it is a normal response. But if this
happens later it may lead to dissociation in the group climate and withdrawal
and or isolation, at such times a group member may feel that she/he is all alone
with her/his problem and that the other patients and the therapist do not
understand her/him or respond to or meet her/his needs. She/He may manifest
this withdrawal behavior either by verbal or non-verbal communication.
Change in the Status of Group Members : A major change in a member's
status, like marriage, divorce, or job loss may elicit a group response. It may do
so because such a change involves a change in the configuration of the group
and disrupts the homeostasis, which the group has established. Change is often
disturbing to the other members of a group because of their identification with
the members. Thus, if a patient describes losing a job, it is possible that she / he
might make other member anxious as they think of the possible loss of their
own jobs. Any change is likely to bring the unexpected into the group in what
may be regarded as disturbing by other patients.
Attacking the Therapist : It is a relatively common phenomenon where the
clients, vents out her/his insecurities frustrations etc. on the therapist because
she/he is in an exposed position. This may be done verbally or by hitting etc.
patients may attack a therapist because she/he is spending too much time with
the problems of a particular patient or not enough time with the problems of

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another patient. All these provide opportunities for examinations of reasons
behind it.
Scapegoat : Scapegoating within a psychotherapeutic group is basically a
defense mechanism manifested by the projection of anxiety and or pathology,
with an attack intended to annihilate the bad or evil scapegoat.

Selection of Patients

Patient factors : From the view of the patient, there should be a wish to grow
and change through interaction with others, and an ability to adhere to the
therapeutic contract. Treatment with a largely impersonal focus should offer the
best opportunity for growth at the time the person seeks treatment. While
talking to the patients the therapist must also know whether the patient has a
weak ego or a strong ego. Patients who have a weak ego can crumble and
become worse hence strong ego patients are best suited for the group therapy.
Group therapy in particular is more useful than individual therapy for persons,
whether they be relatively social or gregarious individuals, who need to learn
how to elicit peer support and positive peer relations. A large part of a patient
self-awareness comes from feedback from the other members of the group as
they observe their reactions to her/him. Group members also become real
friends who are helpful to each other in concrete ways at times of distress.
Ability of patients to attend meetings and pay bill must also be considered.
Therapist Factors -The therapist must realistically consider her/his own value
system, abilities, liabilities and counter- transference reactions in assessing
her/his suitability for leading each group. If her I his impressions, or feelings
lead to misgivings about how she/he may react to a certain kind of patient, it is
best to clarify such reactions with a supervisor or another therapist. Otherwise
her/his attitudes and concerns may impede her/his function with both the patient
and the group.

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Confidentiality and Ethical Issues

There is a general acceptance that confidentiality is a prerequisite for the

development of trust and cohesiveness in-group counselling; Gazada (1978)
lists several guidelines to follow to ensure confidentiality in groups. This list
includes the following restrictions -
 Group leaders should not reveal any unnecessary information they have
concerning any group member outside the group. Any discussion of the
group should be done for professional purposes only with other
professionals.
 Data collection from the group members for research purposes should be
gathered only after the group members have given their written consent on
their basis of this knowledge, to improve its quality and efficacy.
Evaluation is thus concerned with an assessment of the outcomes of
counselling. Are the results real or imaginary? Are they permanent or
temporary? Are the objective or subjective? If the counselling has been
effective, the result must be demonstrable. When the counselee does not
experience desirable change, must it be inferred ? Or that either the
counsellor or the process of counselling has failed? Or should it be
interpreted that the counsellor was not amenable to the desirable change?

Types of Group Counselling

A counsellor may work with many different kinds of groups. Some of

them are problem solving or task oriented groups, encounter or sensitivity
group, therapy group, career guidance groups, and assertive training groups.
Problem Solving / Task Oriented Group Counselling : In some instances
groups are formed to address solving problems that are common to their
members. In doing so it may be necessary to learn problem solving techniques
that could be applied to situations, which are particularly important for the
group members. Here the teaching learning model, which is used in in-group
problem solving can be used in many different group problem situations.. In
such group the role of a counsellor is to help the members to identify the

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problems, define them clearly, determine alternative solutions, evaluate
alternative solutions, implement the most tenable solutions, and evaluate
outcomes. In effect, the counsellor serves as a teacher of decision-making
process as applied to personal, social, and career areas.
Encounter Groups : Sherter and Stone ( 1976) describes, the encounter group
as an experience-based group designed to facilitate personal development and
awareness. Yalom sees the encounter group as one that facilitates self-
discovery, untapped resources or the uncovering of an individual's full potential.
In this group a person can receive feedback from their peers and from the
counsellor or trainer that help them better to understand the impact of their
behavior no others. Members may also deal with defense reactions that prevent
them from communicating in interpersonal relations. Encounter groups are not
on remediation but rather on effective communication. Encounter groups ale for
normal individuals rather than for individuals with diagnosed psychopathology.
The encounter group may be held in several successive sessions over a period of
time or it can be held in one or two very long sessions called "marathons".
Marathons groups are designed to increase understanding of one's
defenses in order to be better able to interact in an open and honest manner with
in the group.
Group Therapy : Shertzer and Stone (1976) describe group therapy as group
counselling in which a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist is involved, and
whose goal is helping people deal with significant psychological conflicts in
their lives that prevent them from living normally. The goal of the encounter
group and the therapy deals with individuals who have more severe personality
problems. (Yalom, 1975)
Career Counselling Group : A career or vocational guidance group is one that
are usually conducted with a group of people interested in obtaining information
about careers and career decisions. Also, career guidance groups can facilitate
healthy attitudes and behaviors toward the world of work. Group counselling
may include helping the students explore the world of work and deal with
problems connected with preparing for a working career.

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Assertive Training Group : It is designed to help persons become more aware
of their behavior in social situations and to develop skills so that they may be
more socially effective. The emphasis in assertive training is to help people
express their ideas verbally in situations where they were previously resistant.
In assertive training the counsellor may take an education role with the group. A
typical activity for an assertive training session could be a role-play of difficult
situations, such as asking the boss for a raise or expressing one's dissatisfaction
with a certain part of the operation of the organization in which one works.
Assertive training could also deal with such areas as expression of one's feeling
within the family or other important social situation and learning to be
comfortable with expressing dissatisfaction or approval in situations that may be
uncertain. The group serves to socially reinforce behavior and to act as a reality
testing areas.

Advantages of Group Counselling

 Group counselling saves time : In India there is a chronic shortage of

trained and competent therapist. The number of clients seeking help and
assistance out number the few mental health specialists that are available.
Hence group counselling would permit the counsellor to devote time and
attention to a larger number of troubled and distressed clients.
 Group Counselling offers Greater Opportunity : For behavioral
rehearsal modeling systematic role-playing can be used to help clients
practice new actions in a therapeutic atmosphere before testing the specific
behavior in a natural environment. Behavioral rehearsals also provide an
opportunity for vicarious learning by all group members and may result in
further saving of therapy time.
 It provides unique opportunities to facilitate generalization because of the
variety of participants with whom the client can practice new ways of
behaviors.
 In-group counselling greater numbers of alternate solutions can be
generated.

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 Clients or members in-group counselling support and help one another to
achieve their treatment goals. They also learn that their problems are not
unique and that they are not alone in unhappiness.

Disadvantage of Group Counselling

 There is less individual contact between the client and the counsellor.
 Specific problem of the clients are sacrificed and becomes secondary to the
general problem of the group.
 The counsellor's task is somewhat more complex in a group counselling.
She/He has not only to follow sense and appreciate what a member says
but also how this affects other members and their reactions.
 Lastly group counselling cannot be resorted for deeper psychological
problems of an intimate and sensitive nature.

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 CHAPTER - IX
EVALUATION OF COUNSELLING

Evaluation is important for determining whether counselling goals have

been achieved as a result of implementation of counselling programs. While the
need for evaluation cannot be overemphasized it poses serious problems, which
are not easy to circumvent. One of the problems is the problem of devising
meaningful criteria. In the absence of suitable criteria evaluation becomes
impractical.
Evaluation is not only important but also a vital part of programs.
Different kind of programs affords different facilities or scope for evaluation.
The very nature of certain programs or processes is such that it is not possible to
have strict evaluation. The outcome of teaching, for example, is not easy to
evaluate. Other activities cannot be evaluated for want of suitable techniques.
Here are some of the problems inherent in the evaluation of counselling
outcomes -
 One of the main functions of counselling is personality growth. The
concept of personality growth cannot be defined easily, in an operational
terms. No two psychologists will define the terms in the same manner.
Naturally, this creates a problem in setting up appropriate criteria for
evaluation.
 The goal of counselling is somewhat helping the client to secure self-
direction and self -dependence. This is not a simple process.
 Another aspect of counselling is giving a client a feeling of well-being.
This is a subjective experience and evaluation in this sense, has to be on
the basis of subjective criterion of client's experience, which often suffers
from serious short- comings.
 The outcome of counselling for each counselee is unique, complex and
dynamic. No single tool can adequately assess changes in all the outcomes.
Evaluation thus becomes a challenging task.

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 One of the important requisites of evaluation is that the pre-counselling
status of the client be available for comparison with his post counselling
status.
 It is sometimes pointed out that evaluation should be independent, which
means that a third agency other than the client or counsellor should
evaluate the outcome so that the evaluation is more objective, reliable and
dependable. The very nature of counselling is such that it precludes that
third party approach in any meaningful way. However, this does not mean
that such evaluation is impossible or that it cannot be done.
 Evaluation is time consuming process and involves not only monetary but
also personnel resources. While it may be feasible to find funds it is
comparatively difficult to find trained personnel who are well versed with
the techniques of evaluations. Evaluation, even if concerned with
validation, is always with reference to a set of criteria. The counselling
outcomes can be evaluated in terms of subjective criterion, namely client
satisfaction or experience.

Counsellor Judgment

Objective criterion is independent of both the counsellor and the client.

An independent criterion could be defined as the judgment of the community.
Assessment by device like a psychological test could also be used as an
objective criterion.

Approaches To Evaluation

There may be different approaches to the evaluation of counselling outcomes.

All approaches must satisfy three requisites, namely, the objectives or goals
should be stated in operational terms such that they can be observed and
objectively assessed. The methods that are used to assess the objectives must
have demonstrable validity. The procedures employed in evaluation must be
reliable. In short, any approach to evaluation should satisfy the preliminary
requirements of objectivity, reliability and validity.

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Survey Approach

The counselling outcomes can be evaluated by employing the survey

approach. The survey approach is simple and is commonly employed in several
disciplines. It consist of identifying the population and obtaining a
representative sample from it, collecting information or evidence from the
subjects in the sample, employing a suitable evaluative schedule and making
judgment in terms of the predetermined criteria.

Case Study Approach

It is the in-depth nature of study. However, from the methodological

point of view, it is an idiographic approach as contrast with the nomothetic
approach. The case study approach is designed to study the individual and
assess the changes that take place in him as a result of his exposure to
counselling. The advantage in this lies in its emphasis on the individual and his
growth. The drawback of this approach is that, by its very nature, it is time
consuming method. Also, since each individual is unique, generalizations from
individual data are open to serious limitations. The massing of data pertaining to
different individuals may obliterate the unique feature of the individual
approach.

Experimental Approach

In the counselling situation, this approach is fraught with serious

problems. As an experiment involves control and in the counselling situation
control is difficult. However, in limited sense the experimental approach could
be employed to evaluate the counselling outcomes. The basic requirements of
this approach are -
 Determining the objectives.
 Choosing appropriate method.
 Selecting two or more groups of subjects who are compared with one
another.
 Applying counselling techniques, which could be measured or scaled.

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 Measuring or assessing the final outcomes
The vital step in this approach is the study of two or more comparable
groups. The evaluation of counselling outcomes differs from one area to
another, for example, the evaluation of counselling outcomes in the scholastic
field would differ from that in the field of vocational choice or vocational
adjustment or job satisfaction and so on.

Criteria for Evaluation

Jensen, Coles and Nestor (1955) define a criterion as a behavior or a

condition which is or can be described in terms of an ideal and which is a goal".
The counselling process is studied against this criterion. The common goals,
which the counsellors try to accomplish, are improved adjustment, a sensible
vocational choice, a realistic self-concept, behavioral change etc.
A good criterion must, firstly be relevant to the problem, which has been
posed for the study and secondly it must be measurable. These two attributes
must be considered in the selection of the criterion.

Internal Versus External Criteria

There are two types of criteria based upon data from within and data
obtained from outside the counselling setting:
 Internal criteria include the content of the client's communications and
indications of improvement of the client's status.
 Internal criteria have the advantage of being directly observable by the
client and the counsellor. External criteria include client change, which are
not subjective and hence not objective.

Objective Versus Subjective Criteria

Objective criteria are quantifiable and do not depend on the judgment of

someone connected with the counselling process. Examples of objective criteria
are grades in school, job tenure, job rating by supervision and so on. .

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 Most of the counsellor considers objective criteria as superficial. This
perhaps led to the increased use of subjective criteria. It depends on the
judgment of either the counsellor or the client to determine if the client has
attained something of value through counselling. The client's report of
satisfaction with counselling is the most commonly employed and controversial
subjective criterion. Another subjective criterion is the self-report of the client
regarding her/his degree of personal adjustment and self-concept. Lewis (1970)
suggests that the combining of several criteria into multiple measures can lead
to the enhancement of improvement of counselling evaluation.
Notwithstanding all the difficulties and practical problems we cannot do
away with evaluation. It is essential in all scientific endeavors. It is hoped that
in future a sufficiently large number of research studies will be undertaken to
obtain objectives data for the evaluation of counselling outcomes.

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