P.

G Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy

1st Year (Sem II)
Paper IV: Counselling Skills and Practices

Unit III: Application of Core Counselling Skills

I. Types of Counselling and Stages Counselling

The Main Types of Counseling

Humans are complex, to say the least, as are the ways to help them with their
psychological and emotional problems, but the different types of counseling can
be broken down into clear categories. So, what are the three main types of
counseling? Psychodynamic, humanistic, and behavioral approaches are the
most common and each support different individual therapies. Counselors often
focus on one of these methods, but sometimes combine different aspects from
various methods to put together the most effective therapies.

Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytic
Psychodynamic or psychoanalytic techniques have their roots in Papa
Psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud, although the method has evolved over
the decades. The main idea is that to understand someone’s problem, a
counselor must first explore and understand that person’s mind. This doesn’t
just include feelings and emotions, but also involves diving into things that might
be buried in the subconscious and unconscious, such as past (and possibly
forgotten) traumas and discovering potentially negative associations and drives
that might be influencing present-day problems. Psychodynamic counseling
aims to help patients become aware of the different aspects of their minds and
personalities and reach a mental balance, recognizing their hidden motivations.

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Behavioral Counseling
Behavioral counseling is for patients struggling with unwanted behaviors, such
as eating disorders or anxiety attacks. With this method, it’s believed that a
person’s behavior is determined by their environment, and that the problem will
persist as long as the patient remains in the environment that reinforces or
encourages it. Examining past learning is key to behavioral counseling because
if the behavior was learned, it can be unlearned, or so the thought goes.
Behavioral counselors may use different types of counseling therapy to guide
patients to a change in behavior, but the desired result is the same.

Humanistic Counseling
The humanistic type of counseling is based on the assumption that every
individual is unique and has room to grow emotionally and psychologically.
Rather than focus on life events, humanistic methods examine how a patient
experiences those events, and in turn how those experiences make them feel.
In this type of counseling, the goal is to help the patient become mindful of how
their responses to life events can affect them. Humanistic counselors arm
patients with the skills to work through their problems and find their own
solutions.

While these three main types of counseling are the most well-known, there’s
another type that’s often employed by counselors. In that case, what are the
four types of counseling? Client-centered counseling can be added to the list of
top approaches. Client-centered counseling, which is an offshoot of humanistic
counseling, relies on the belief that we all have the resources we need already
within us to cope with life’s difficulties. In this type of counseling, the client is
the expert on their own feelings and thoughts, not the counselor. The
counselor’s role is to clarify and reflect what the patient is saying, not to ask
questions or interpret anything for the patient.

Other Popular Counseling Methods

In addition to these main types of counseling, there are three other methods
that are commonly used as well. What are the six methods of counseling? The
methods most used by counselors are psychoanalytic, humanistic, and
behavioral, as explained above, but also cognitive, constructionist, and systemic.

Cognitive Counseling
Cognitive counseling, such as reality therapy and acceptance therapy, is aimed
at aligning a patient’s thinking with reality. It’s believed that when thinking and
reality are out of sync, it causes psychological and emotional difficulties. So

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cognitive counselors challenge thinking patterns and try to bring them in line
with reality so that patients can discover accurate solutions to their problems.

Constructionist Counseling
Constructionist counseling is based on the belief that knowledge is simply a
constructed understanding of events, rather than the actual events themselves.
It’s in this meaning-making process that people’s thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors are shaped. Constructionist counselors help clients change these
problematic constructions of themselves, their relationships, and the world.

Systemic Counseling
Systemic counseling assumes that thinking, feeling, and behavior are formed
and influenced by social systems. Since societal pressures are the focus, systemic
counselors look at a person’s difficulties in relation to their role in their families
and other social networks.

While these different types of counseling therapy are based in some very
different belief systems, they all have the same goal: To help people overcome
problems and challenges and to allow them to live more fulfilling lives. A
counselor has the ability to choose which method best fits their personal view
and style, as well as which best serves their client population.

STAGES OF THE COUNSELING PROCESS

The word process helps to communicate much about the essence of counselling
A process is an identifiable sequence of events taking place over time. Usually
there is the implication of progressive stages in the process. For example, there
are identifiable stages in the healing process for a serious physical injury such as
a broken leg. Similarly, there are identifiable stages in the process of human
development from birth to death. Although the stages in this process are
common to all human beings, what happens within each of these stages is
unique for each individual.
Counselling also has a predictable set of stages that occur in any com plate
sequence. Initially, the counsellor and the client must establish contact, define
together "where the client is" in his or her life, and clarify the client's current
difficulties. If successful, the client commits to using counselling as a tool for
personal growth. This stage is followed by conversation that leads to a deeper

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understanding of the client's needs and desires in the context of his or her
interpersonal world and to a mutually acceptable diagnosis of the problems.
Finally, the participants agree on goals for change and design and implement
action plans to accomplish the identified goals. When a client comes to a
counsellor to discuss a concern that is fairly specific and compart metalized (such
as which of two job offers to accept), the entire sequence of stages may be
accomplished in a single session. In contrast, when a client comes to a counsellor
with highly disruptive, distressful, or long-standing concern (such as learning
how to live as a single parent or how to cope with an eating disorder), the stages
may be accomplished over many sessions. Once rapport has been established
and in-depth exploration has been undertaken, the participants will define each
problem or issue more fully and develop goals for resolving the problems. Next,
the client and counsellor devise a plan of action for change that the client carries
out and modifies depending on . new circumstances. The figure on the inside
front cover provides a thorough graphic summary of the counselling process
with special attention to the work of the client and the counsellor at each stage.
It also illustrates the product that they mutually develop marked by the central
arrows.

The First Stage: Initial Disclosure

At the beginning of counselling, the counsellor and the client typically do not
know one another. Perhaps the client has seen the counsellor in a community
education program, a presentation in a residence hall on cam pus, or a group
guidance session at the high school, but most often in community counselling
and mental health agencies, client and counsellor have had no contact prior to
the first counselling session. Perhaps the counsellor has some basic information
about the client collected from an intake form or a school record. Because
neither participant can know in advance the direction their discussion will
ultimately take, the client is probably anxious about disclosing concerns because
he or she is not sure how the counsellor will receive the disclosures. Hackney
and Cormier (2001) describe two sets of feelings clients have at the beginning of
counselling: "I know I need help" and "I wish I weren't here" (p. 25). Their
description captures well the fundamentals ambivalence clients often feel in
their initial encounters with a counsellor. One central task f the counsellor in the
first stage of counselling is to allay the client's fears and encourage self-

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disclosure. Without honest self-disclosure by the client, counselling is an empty
enterprise.
Carkhuff (1973) and Egan (2002) both describe attending as an important
counsellor behaviour at the outset of counselling. Attending is simply paying
careful attention to the client's words and actions. One demonstrates attending
by posture, facial expression, eye contact, and even by the placement of one's
chair relative to the client. As a part of attending, counsellors observe clients'
behaviour for indications of content and feeling that may not be included in their
verbal messages. Signs might include fidgeting, tone of voice, flushing of the
complexion, changes in breathing rhythms, failure to maintain eye contact, and
so on. We include attending behaviour as a part of the initial disclosure stage of
counselling because it begins when the first contact between client and
counsellor occurs but it remains important throughout all stages of the
counselling process.
In the initial disclosure stage of counselling, based on their expectations for
counselling and their perceptions of the receptiveness of the counsellor, clients
decide whether to articulate their personal concerns and the context in which
they have arisen so that the counsellor can understand the personal meanings
and significance the client attaches to them. Older counselling literature
described the first stage as "definition of the problem," but such Terminology
fails to describe the essence of the initial disclosure process and the active
decision making of the client about what to disclose. Without a trusting
relationship and substantial disclosure from the client, both of which require
time to obtain, counsellors will simply not learn enough about the client to
accurately define any problems.
To encourage client disclosure, the counsellor must offer a climate that
promotes trust in the client and encourages clients to put their own. resources
to use to address the issues they bring to counselling. Carl Rogers (1951)
described these trust-promoting conditions as the characteristics of the helping
relationship:
1. Empathy-understanding another's experience as if it were your own, without
ever losing the "as if" quality
2. Congruence or genuineness-being as you seem to be, consistent over time,
dependable in the relationship

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3. Unconditional positive regard-caring for your client without setting conditions
for your caring (avoiding the message that "I will care about you if you do what
I want")
Only counsellors who actually feel empathic, compassionate, and open to their
clients will be able to show these qualities to clients. One cannot take on these
qualities as a role to be acted out. To effectively communicate empathy,
genuineness, and caring to the client, the counsellor must also learn to respond
in words that are meaningful to the client. In other words, both motivation to
help and verbal skill are prerequisites for success. At this stage, the most
frequent kind of response is referred to as restatement, paraphrasing, or
interchangeable responding. The counsellor keeps the focus of
Attention on what the client is saying and on the meaning the client attaches to
events in his or her life. When a client says, "When my husband goes out at night
without a word to me about his destination or schedule, I feel as though I want
to scream at him," a typical counsellor response might be "You are very angry
about the times when your husband goes out and doesn't tell you where he's
going or when he will be back." Such a statement tells the client that the content
and the feeling of her statement have been heard. If expressed with appropriate
tone, even straightforward restatements can communicate attention to the
client and genuine caring for her difficult situation. Egan (2002) adds another
condition that has relevance throughout counselling process:
4. Concreteness-using clear language to describe the client's life situation
It is the counsellor’s task to sort out ambiguous statements and help the client
find descriptions that will accurately portray what is happening in his her life.
Concreteness promotes clearer insight by the client into his or her life and
provides the counsellor with a fuller sense of the uniqueness of
The client's experience. The following example contrasts a concrete counsellor
response to a client statement with a vague one. CLIENT: I am tired of living this
way, but I feel as though there is no way I can get out of caring for my aging
father. It all feels pretty
Hopeless and like no one cares about my needs.
COUNSELOR A: You sound depressed by your situation.
COUNSELOR B: The responsibility of caring for your father has worn you out and
left you feeling isolated, unsupported, and without Alternatives.

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The response of Counsellor B is more concrete because it tells the client that
her words were heard exactly.
The response of Counsellor A could have been made to any number of client
statements and does not relate in any specific way to the unique concerns of
this client.
If the conditions are present in the initial disclosure stage of counselling, clients
will be encouraged to talk freely and to elaborate on their concerns. Essentially
what counsellors are doing when they communicate in these ways is giving
clients permission to use their tendency to active self-improvement in this
relationship. Gelso and Carter (1985) refer to this point in counselling as the
establishment of a "working alliance" (p. 161). In the process, clients don't
simply tell the counsellor what the problem is, they begin to clarify the
dimensions of life concerns, rethink their problem and its relation to other parts
of their lives, and consider the potential for the counsellor to help and support
change. In other words, as clients work to try to communicate their ideas and
feelings to another, they also reach greater personal understanding and become
aware of possibilities for change in a problem that seemed insoluble prior to
counselling. (Chapter 3 presents a detailed analysis of the initial disclosure stage
of counselling, along with case material for illustration. Also see the inside front
cover for a concise review of client and counsellor work in the disclosure stage
with the resulting specification of the client's concerns and the establishment of
a productive working relationship.)
Research by Michael Lambert and his colleagues (2001, 2002) high lights the
importance of the first stage of counselling. Their work suggests that clients
decide in the first three sessions whether they believe that counselling with this
particular counsellor will help them reach their goals for change. They make this
decision based largely on the effectiveness of the counsellor in forging a
therapeutic alliance, in conveying real interest in them as unique people, and in
a communication style that eases the difficulty of discussing painful and
sensitive issues. When clients are not positively disposed toward the counsellor
in the first few sessions, they are at risk for dropping out of counselling before
they reach their goals. Thankfully, this research also reveals that counsellors
who are aware that clients are not feeling satisfied with counselling can change
their behaviour to retain these clients and help them experience success from
counselling. One cautionary note is required here. Though we clearly believe
that Counselling is a powerful intervention for change, it is not necessarily the
best option for every person who schedules a counselling appointment. Edu

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cation or support groups, for example, may be more therapeutic for particular
client concerns. The newly widowed person may benefit more from a support
group of others coping with the loss of a spouse than from individually
counselling. Sometimes clients define their problems as psychological when, in
fact, other factors are at the foundation. Clients may misinterpret symptoms of
physiological problems as psychological. For example, aging clients who are
experiencing side effects of medications prescribed for them are more likely to
immediately benefit from changes in the medical care than from counselling.
For clients in extreme distress or experiencing psychotic symptoms, a regimen
of psychotropic medications may be needed before productive counselling can
take place. The counsellor may realize that counselling is inappropriate in either
Stage 1 or Stage 2 of the counseling process. In confusing or complex situations,
careful assessment will provide the counsellor and the client with the data
necessary to make a determination about whether a referral to another
resource is appropriate.
Counseling is not always appropriate for other reasons. The client and the
counsellor may have incompatible personalities or values (Corey, Corey, &
Callanan, 2002; Goldstein, 1971), the client's difficulties may be beyond the
counsellor’s helping skills, or the client's difficulties may require special modes
of intervention (e.g., in cases of incest or chemical dependency). Under such
conditions, referral is also an appropriate choice for the counsellor. On the part
of the counsellor, referral requires both an honest acknowledgment that some
other person or resource in the community may be more helpful to the client
and a willingness to help the client make con tact with these resources. Effective
referral requires that the counsellor have accurate information about resources
in the community, including knowledge about the scope and quality of their
services. Since it can be very hard to tell one's story to a stranger whose
qualifications are unknown, having personal contacts and the names of specific
people in an agency can make the transition easier for the client. It is important
for the counsellor to recognize that not every person who enters his or her office
is necessarily a good candidate for counseling services.

The Second Stage: In-Depth Exploration

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In the second stage of counseling, the client should reach clearer understandings
of his or her life concerns and formulate a stronger sense of hope and direction.
It is a useful rubric to think of these emerging goals as the finale of problems.
That is, as problems are more fully understood, the direction in which the client
wishes to move also becomes clearer. At this stage, the goals are not precisely
defined and the means to reach them are still undifferentiated, but an outline
of the pattern of desired change is emerging.
The process that facilitates formulation of a new sense of direction builds on the
conditions of the initial disclosure stage and becomes possible only if the trust
and client engagement that were built in that first stage are maintained. But the
therapeutic alliance has become less tenuous and fragile than it was at the
beginning, so the counsellor can use a broader range of actions and comments
without increasing the client's tension beyond tolerable limits. The first stage
merges into the second stage as the client's readiness for deep self-exploration
is perceived by the counsellor and his or her active engagement in the process
is more visible.
The empathic responses of the counsellor now include material from prior
sessions and focus more on the client's awareness of the unsatisfying nature of
old ways of thinking and responding. Such advanced-level empathy statements
reassure the client that the counsellor has an understanding of his or her world
and provide an impetus for still deeper exploration. They also deepen the
client's awareness of issues previously unconscious and insight into the
connection between issues previously experienced as separate or random. For
example, in the case study presented earlier in this chapter, Thad, who was in
conflict about his responsibilities to his parents, was helped by statements that
focused on his apparently conflicting desires for independence and dependence.
His problem was a special case of a classic young adult struggle, and the
counsellor was able to infuse the con vernation with a high level of empathy
because she knew how important such struggles are for many young people.
As the relationship becomes more secure, the counsellor also begins to share
with the client observations about incompatibilities between his or her goals
and current behaviour. These statements are usually termed confrontations. In
the case of Thad, the following confronted statement was made: "You say you
yearn for independence, yet you stop at home every evening and end up staying
there all evening when you really want to be with friends. Do you think you will
establish the kind of independence you hope for that way?" Broadly speaking,
constructive confrontation provides the client with an external view of his or her

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behaviour, based on the counsellor’s observations. The client is free to accept,
reject, or modify the counsellor’s impression. In fact, effective counsellors
encourage clients to actively consider and discuss the "fit" between the
counsellor’s perception and the client's awareness. In the process of considering
how to use the counsellor’s statement, the client arrives at newly challenged
and refined views of self and the counsellor clarifies fur there his or her
impressions of the needs and goals of the client. (Other variations on the theme
of constructive confrontation will be offered in Chapter 4.) Immediacy is another
quality of the counsellor’s behaviour that becomes important in the second
stage of counseling. According to Egan (2002),
Immediacy can be defined in three distinct ways. First, it can refer to general
discussions about the progress of the counseling relationship. Questions such as
"Is the counseling process progressing in a way that is satisfactory to you?" fall
into this category. Second, immediacy refers to any statements in which the
counsellor tells the client some of his or her immediate reactions to the client's
statements or asks the client to disclose current thoughts about the counsellor.
For instance, a counsellor who says, "I am wondering about your reaction to my
comment about your father; you have had difficulty establishing eye contact
with me ever since" or "I get the sense that you were really touched by my
concern for your wife's illness" is also using an immediacy response. The third
kind of immediacy response is a self involving statement that expresses the
counsellor’s personal response to a client in the present. "I'm amazed by all you
have accomplished in just a few counseling sessions" is an example of a self-
involving response. Such a response often communicates genuineness as well as
immediacy.
Immediacy responses often begin with the word I rather than you so as to
identify the content with the counsellor, not the client. Immediacy responses
can be openly supportive or confronted. When they are confronted, counsellors
monitor the client's behaviour within the counseling session in order to
understand how the client characteristically deals with other people and then
shares some of those observations with the client. Here is one example of such
an immediacy response: "You seem to be avoiding a decision and acting
helpless. When you do this, I have a tendency to want to make your decisions
for you." If the client then affirms that this seems to be an accurate observation,
it might be followed with a confronted comment such as "Do you sup pose this
is what you do with your father, even though you say you wish he would stop
trying to tell you what to do?" Immediacy responses work best when the
therapeutic alliance is strong enough that the client is unlikely to
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interpret the statements as overly critical or unduly supportive. Because the
focus of counseling is clearly on the client by the second stage, the counsellor
may begin sharing bits of his or her own experience with the client without fear
of appearing to oversimplify the client's problems or seeming to tell the client,
"Do as I did." Incidents in the counsellor’s life may be shared if they have direct
relevance to the client's concern. Such self-disclosure can help to establish a
human connection between counsellor and client and suggest to the client that
he or she is not alone in facing a particular concern. Although some information
about how the counsellor coped with a similar situation might be relevant to the
client's solution, the counsellor must exercise care in looking for the differences
in the client's situation and permitting the client to use the counsellor’s
experience only if he or she sees clear application. The second stage of
counseling frequently becomes emotionally stressful, because the client must
face the inadequacy of habitual behaviour’s and must resolve to give up the
familiar for the unfamiliar in order to obtain the desired goals. This stressful task
is best accomplished within a caring relationship in which it is clear that the
counsellor is not criticizing the client's past behaviour. The thrust is toward
helping clients to realize more fully what they find unsatisfying or
counterproductive in their responses to present situations and to gain a sense
of what kinds of responses might be more rewarding.

In the second stage, the counsellor and client come to a mutually acceptable
assessment and diagnosis of the problem(s). Assessment is a process of
information gathering and hypothesis testing that results in a diagnosis of the
problem(s) that takes into account the client's history, life circumstances, and
strengths. The diagnosis is determined primarily through careful analysis of the
issues presented in the counselling session itself, but it often also includes the
use of behavioural observations, data from others. Connected to the clients, and
findings from standardized tests that focus on academic, career, or personality
variables. Once a diagnosis is established, the counsellor and client can move on
to the third stage, the identification of specific goals for change, and the
selection of action plans to implement those goals. Note that in this part of the
process the counsellor shares impressions but does not proclaim a diagnosis
arrived at independent of the client's collaboration. Duncan, Hubble, and Miller
(1997) quote a client's negative reaction to pronouncements of diagnosis by
mental health professionals: "My other therapists never asked me what I
wanted to work on... It is like they think that they are some almighty power or
something.... It's like hang on, I am also somebody" (p. 28, italics in the original).
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(See Chapter 4 for an elaboration of the in-depth exploration stage of
counselling. Also see the inside front cover for a review of client and counsellor
work in Stage 2 leading to a mutual assessment of the client's problems.)

The Third Stage: Commitment to Action

In the third and final stage of counselling, the client must decide how to
accomplish any goals that have emerged during the previous two stages
Concerns have been defined and clarified within the context of the client's life
situation. The client has considered how his or her own behaviour relates to
accomplishing the goals that have been identified through the counselling
process. What remains is to decide what, if any, overt actions the client might
take to alleviate those problems. If no action is indicated, then the third stage of
counselling can focus on increasing the client's commitment to a view that he or
she has done everything possible or desirable in the given situation. Typically
though, the third stage includes identifying possible alternative courses of action
(or decisions) the client might choose and assessing each of these in terms of
the likelihood of outcomes. Ideally, various courses of action are developed by
the client with encouragement from the counsellor, although it is acceptable
under most circumstances for the counsellor to suggest possibilities the client
may have overlooked. Possible courses of action and the related outcomes are
evaluated in terms of the goals the client wants to attain and the client's value
system. Once an action plan is chosen, the client usually tries some new
behaviour’s while remaining in touch with the counsellor) Together, counsellor
and client monitor the initial steps of the change process. Often the client needs
to be reinforced to behave in new ways, both because the old behaviours are
habitual and because new behaviour’s may not bring about immediate results.
Particularly when the goals involve improving interpersonal relationships, the
other par ties usually do not respond instantly to the client's new behaviour, and
this can be discouraging. If the client decides that no new action is needed, the
decision may be that "I don't need to let myself get so upset by the behaviour of
another." In such an instance, the reinforcement process supports the client's
ability to manage emotions better when "red flag" experiences occur.
To summarize, the third stage is a decision-making and action time. The client
considers possible actions and then chooses some to try out. The counsellor
gives support for trying new behaviour’s and helps the client evalu ate the
effectiveness of new behaviour’s or new conceptions of reality as they may
relate to the reduction of stress. When the client is satisfied that the new
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behaviour’s or the new constructs are working satisfactorily, counselling is (See
Chapter 5 for more detail on commitment to action, and see the inside front
cover for a graphic synopsis of the work of the client and counsellor in the
commitment to action stage.)

II. Difference between guidance, Counselling and Therapies

This Topic Cover in …………. Unit I: Point No II

III. Case History

A case study is defined as a collection of all available information - social,
physiological, biographical, environmental, vocational - that promises to help
explain a single individual. A case study is a comprehensive collection of
information with the help of all available tools and techniques of data collection.
It is the most important technique and the-best method of studying the whole
individual. Its purpose is to say positively and with confidence that, as far as
possible, all sources of information have been tapped and all kinds of data have
been gathered from them. In the case study this information about the
individual is so organised and combined into a whole that the individual
But why are we required to observe the individual? It is because he has some
problem. The problem studied in a case study is not a problem of ill-health. The
problems of ill-health are defined and their causes are searched out in medical
practice also. But that is a case history. A case history is a record of the history
of somebody suffering from a disease, social or mental trouble. In a case history
also facts are collected objectively but no interpretation .is made on their basis
about the development of the child: In the case study, an opinion is made about
the individual as a total person. An explanation is given as to what has made him
what he is, and the counsellor says what is good for the person in the light of
these findings.
A case study, since it is used in solving only serious problems, is limited in its
scope. In a case study attention is focussed to only those aspects of behaviour
which require diagnosis and treatment.

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Behind a case study there is always a large developmental view. The counsellor
is interested not only in diagnosing the problem and suggesting suitable
remedies, but he is also interested in bringing about a better adjustment. A
detailed case study is conducted for the purpose of bringing about a better
adjustment of the person who is the subject of investigation. The counsellor
looks for the strengths and weaknesses, abilities and disabilities in order to plan
possible ways of development and proper growth of the individual.
A case history basically refers to a file containing relevant information pertaining to
an individual client or group. Case histories are maintained by a broad range of
professional organizations including those in the fields of psychiatry, psychology,
healthcare, and social work. The following information briefly discusses two formal
definitions of case histories, the basic contents of case histories, and how the
information for initial case history files is obtained.
Formal Definition of Case Histories

 According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the formal definition of case

histories is records (or files) containing relevant information pertaining to
clients’ environments and history of services. This information is useful in
many different fields for the purposes of illustration and case analysis.

 Collins English Dictionary provides a somewhat similar definition of case

histories. This source states that case histories are records of past problems
or events that clients have experienced. It goes on to say that case histories
are most often used by professionals in such fields as medicine, psychology,
and sociology.

Typical Information Contained in Case Histories The type of information contained

in case histories may vary depending on the organization that is maintaining the
records. For example, while a medical clinic will need to include in-depth medical
information about its clients in their case histories, social workers may only need to
include more generalized medical information (if any at all Instead, they may need
more in-depth information pertaining to such things as the client’s history of
services, client investigations, or counseling sessions involving the client. In any case,
some of the most common types of information often included in case histories are
as follows:

 Basic Statistical Data (Client’s name, age, sex, address, phone number,
occupation, marital status, and client ID number)

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  Client’s History of Services

 Investigations Pertaining to Client’s Case

 Investigation Outcomes

 Past and Present Treatments and/or Counselling Sessions

 History of Illnesses

 History of Complaints and Their Resolutions

 History of Referrals

Common Methods Used to Gather Information

There are essentially three methods used to gather information for initial case
history files. On the website known as Slide share, Doctor Surbhi Singh discussed
these methods as they pertain to the medical field. However, these same methods
can be applied to other fields as well. These methods according to Dr. Singh are
interviews and questionnaires (and a combination of the two). A brief description of
each of these methods can be found in the following sections.

 Interviews– By interviewing first-time clients, organizations can gather basic

information pertaining to clients’ concerns and lifestyles. They can also
determine whether or not clients have used the services of similar
organizations, and if they have, they can encourage clients to release this
information to them to add to their case histories.

 Questionnaires – Standardized questionnaires ask many of the same

questions that would be asked during a face-to-face interview. This
approach is great for organizations that have little spare time to sit and
converse with clients. The disadvantage of this method is that some issues
may be overlooked.

 Combination – Combining these two methods is perhaps the best way to

gather data for case histories. When organizations use a combination
approach, clients are better able to fully explain their histories, and there is
little chance of overlooking essential information.

Maintaining complete case histories is an important aspect of providing quality

services to clients. A complete case history can help organizations in many different
fields determine the best way to serve clients now and in the future.
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Difficulties in making a case study :

Making a case study is not easy. It is too complicated and time consuming. It
may also become too subjective if the person who prepares the case study is not
skilled. Preparing a complete case study for each child is also not feasible in the
classroom. A teacher may take up one or two cases for the purpose of studying
them. A counsellor may need to make more cases with a purpose of studying
them. A counsellor may need to make more case studies but he should guard
against errors which creep in unknowingly.

These are as follows:

i) The case study should penetrate into the problem under

study. It should not be superficial.

ii) Parents should be contacted. Medical opinion should be

sought. All those who come into contact with the individual
should be approached. The study not be one sided.

iii) All possible details should be gathered and not even the
slightest detail should be overlooked.

***

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