Counseling as a Discipline: Its Concept, Goals, Scope and Principles

Concept of Counseling
• Nsytul (2003) defined counseling as art and science wherein you endeavor to weigh the
objective and subjective facets of the counseling process.
• Counseling as an art, the subjective aspects of counseling. It upholds a flexible and
creative process whereby a counselor modifies the approach to meet the developing needs
of the clients. It is also associated with the act of giving oneself and being compassionate
in counseling process.
• Counseling as a science, is the objective aspect of the counseling process. It is about
counselors who are discerning and possesses skills to formulae objective observations and
inferences.
The art and science of counseling signifies an intensification of the scientist-practitioner
model or the Boulder Model (Myers, 2007). The model indicates an incorporation of the art and
science in counseling which forms the standard that combines science and practice.
• In practical terms, counseling take place when a person who is distressed asks for help
and permits another person to enter into a kind of connection with him/her. It is indicative of
someone in search of counseling requests for time and attention from a person who will
listen, who will allow him/her to speak and who will not condemn and criticize him/her. This
type of relationship is a formal helping, where a counselor-counselee relationship
established.
• Informal helping is akin with formal helping in some ways such as presence of good
listening skills, empathy, and caring capacity.
The trained professional is a counselor who will accompany you, listen to you and assist and
help you to meet your goals.
RA 9258 also known as Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004, define guidance and
counseling as a profession that involves the use of an integrated approach to the development of
a well-functioning individual primarily by helping him/her potentials to the fullest and plan him/her to
utilize his/her potentials to the fullest and plan his/her future in accordance with his/her abilities,
interests and needs. It includes functions such as counseling subjects, particularly subjects given
in the licensure examinations, and other human development services.
American Counseling Association define “counseling as a professional relationship
that empowers diverse individuals, families, and group to accomplish mental health,
wellness, education, ana career goals” (Kaplan, Tarvydas, and Gladding, 2014).
Goals of Counseling
The primary goal of counseling is to help people utilize their prevailing social skills and problem-solving
skills more functionally or cultivate new surviving and coping skills.
Goals of counselling according to Gibson and Mitchell (2003):
Goal Description
Development Goals Assist in meeting or advancing the client’s human growth and
development including social, personal, emotional, cognitive, and
physical wellness

Preventive Goals Help the client avoid some undesired outcome

Enhancement Goals Enhance special skills and abilities

Remedial Goals Assisting a client to overcome and treat an undesirable development

Exploratory Goals Examining options, testing of skills, trying new and different activities,
etc.
Reinforcement Goals Helps client in recognizing that what they are, doing, thinking, and
feeling is fine
Involves acquiring the basic foundation of learning and cognitive
Cognitive Goals
skills
Involves acquiring the basic understanding and habits for good
Physiological Goals
health
Psychological Goals Aids in developing good social interaction skills, learning emotional
control, and developing positive self-concept.
The above goals indicate that counseling aims to empower the client by helping him/her
make critical decisions in life, develop ability to cope, enhance, effectiveness, and improve
quality of life.
Mcleod (2003) gave a list of counseling goals, some of which improvement of the above goals.
 Goal Description

Insight Understanding of the origins and development of emotional

difficulties, leading to an increased capacity to take rational control
over feelings and actions.

Relating with others Becoming better able to form and maintain meaningful and satisfying
relationships with other people; for example, within the family or
workplace

Self-awareness Becoming more aware of thoughts and feelings that had been
blocked off or denied or developing a more accurate sense of how
self is perceived by others.

Self-acceptance The development of positive attitude toward self, marked by an ability

to acknowledge areas of experience that had been the subject of
selfcriticism ad rejection.

Self-actualization Moving in the direction of fulfilling potential or achieving an

integration of previously conflicting parts of self

Enlightenment Assisting the client to arrive at a higher state of spiritual awakening

Problem-solving Finding a solution to a specific problem that the client had not been
to resolve alone and acquiring a general competence in problem-
solving

Psychological Enabling the client to acquire ideas and techniques with which to
education understand and control behavior

Acquisition of Social Learning and mastering social and interpersonal skills such as a
Skills maintenance of eye contact, turn-taking in conversations,
assertiveness, or anger control

Cognitive change The modification or replacement of irrational beliefs or maladaptive

thought patterns associated with self-destructive behavior

Systemic change Introducing change into the way in that social systems operate

Empowerment Working on skills, awareness, and knowledge that will enable the
client to take control of his or her own life

Restitution Helping the client to make amends for previous destructive behavior

Generativity Inspiring in the person a desire and capacity to care for others and
pass on knowledge and to contribute to the collective good through
political engagement and community work

Scope of Counseling
• The wide range of human problems create a widened scope and field of counseling,
broadly, the scope of counseling includes individual counseling, marital and premarital
counseling, family counseling, and community counseling.
• Counseling is a broad concept with diverse meanings and goal. Counseling is necessary in
almost every aspect of a person’s life – cognitive, behavioral, systemic, social,
psychological, and others. It is also applied to individuals, family or groups.
• On individual counseling, many issues are covered such as depression, sexual abuse,
anxiety, gender, relationships, spirituality, ideology, adolescent issues, loss, anger, stress,
vocation, studies, and others.
• In terms of family counseling, issues include divorce, family dynamics, transitions in life,
miscommunication, jealousy, money matters, parenting, remarriage, and others.

Principles of Counseling
According to Mcleod (2003), the founders of humanistic psychology including Maslow and Rogers, ethical
principles of counseling which are follows:
Ethical These are the ideas that underpin the personal and professional codes.
Principles 1. Autonomy of individuals
➢ Is based on the right to freedom of action and freedom of
choice in so far as the pursuit of these freedom does not
interfere with the freedom of others; counseling cannot
happen unless the client has made a free choice to participate
➢ Personal autonomy is not a simple one and not sufficient as a
guide to action and good practice in all circumstances
2.

Principle of Nonmaleficence
➢ This refers to instruction to all helpers or healers that they
must, above all, do no harm;
➢ Beneficence refers to the order to promote human welfare
➢ Both nonmaleficence and beneficence occur in the
prominence in codes of practice that counselors must warrant
that they are trained to an appropriate level of competence.
That they must monitor and maintain their competence
through supervision, consultation, and training and they must
work only within the limits of their competence.
➢ One of the areas of concern is the riskiness of the therapeutic
technique; the principle of autonomy might suggest that if the
client has given informed consent for the intervention take
place, then the client has the responsibility for the
consequences.
➢ Moral dilemmas like beneficence are often resolved by
recourse to utilitarian ideas; it might depend on whether it
could be predicted that, on balance, the benefits of the
therapy outweighed the costs and risks.

3. Principle of Justice
➢ Concerned with the fair distribution of resources and services,
unless there is some acceptable reason for treating them
differently
➢ For counseling, the principle had particular relevance to the
question of access.
➢ Commitment to be fair goes beyond that of the ordinary
person; in view of the agreement to promote worth and
dignity of each individual, counselors are required to be concerned
with equal treatment for all individuals (Kitchener,
1984 as cited by Mcleod, 2003)
4. Principle of Fidelity
➢ Shares to the presence of loyalty, reliability, dependability and
action in good faith.
➢ The rule of confidentiality reveals the importance of fidelity;
entering into a contract means to stay with the client and give the
case his/her efforts.

The interventive roles include resources broker, social broker, mediator, advocate, enabler,
and counselor/therapist.

Roles Description
Resource Broker In the role of a broker, a social worker is responsible for identifying,
Social Broker locating, and linking clients to needed resources in a timely manner. Once
the client’s needs are assessed and potential services identified, the broker
assists the client in choosing the most appropriate service option and
assists in negotiating the terms of service delivery. In this role the social
worker is also concerned with
the quality, quantity, and accessibility of services.
Mediator In the mediator role, the social worker intervenes in disputes between
parties to help them find compromises, reconcile differences, and reach
mutually satisfying agreements. The
mediator takes a neutral stance among the involved parties.
 Advocate In the advocate role, the social worker fights for the rights of those
disempowered by society with the goal of empowering the client.
The social worker speaks on behalf of clients when others will not listen
or when clients are unable to do so.
Enabler This role is about activities that the social worker engages in order to help
the clients cope with the current situation and eventually find strengths
and resources within themselves to solve problems may
encounter.
Counselor/Therapist In the role of counselor, the social worker helps clients express their
needs, clarify their problems, explore resolution strategies, and applies
intervention strategies to develop and expand the capacities of clients to
deal with their problems more effectively. A key function
of this role is to empower people by affirming their personal strengths and
their capacities to deal with their problems more effectively
Researcher In the researcher role, a social worker evaluates practice interventions and
with others evaluates program outcomes. The researcher critically
analyzes the literature on relevant topics of interest and uses this
information to inform practice. A researcher extends and disseminates
knowledge, and seeks to enhance the
effectiveness of social work practice.
Educator In the Educator role, social workers are involved in teaching people about
resources and how to develop particular skills such as budgeting, the
caring discipline of children, effective communication,
the meaning of a medical diagnosis, and the prevention of violence.
Community Change As a community change agent, the social worker participates as part of a
Agent group or organization seeking to improve or restructure some aspect of
community service provision. A change agent, working
with others, uses a problem-solving model to identify the problem,

solicit community input, and plan for change. A community change agent
acts in a coordinated manner to achieve planned change at multiple levels
that helps to shift the focus of institutional resources
to meet identified goals.
Case Manager In the role of a Case manager, the social worker locates services and
assists their clients to access those services. Case management is
especially important for complex situations and for those who are
homeless or elderly, have chronic physical or mental health issues, are
disabled, victims of domestic or other violent
crimes, or are vulnerable children
SPECIFIC WORK AREAS IN WHICH SOCIAL WORKERS WORK
Social Worker has social work specialties namely: child, family, and school social worker;
community social worker; hospice and palliative care social work; medical health social worker;
mental health and substance abuse social worker; military and veteran social worker; and psychiatric
social work. (Elrick, 2014)
Descriptions of the social work specialties include the following;

Specific Work Area Description

Child, Family, and School  Deals with all sorts of situations such as helping a child who
Social Worker has experienced trauma or abuse;
 Counseling students at school who are experiencing grief over
the death of a friend, family member;
 Helping parents find the right resources for their child who is
suffering from a severe mental illness.
Community Social  Helps plan, coordinate, and organize efforts related to
Worker infrastructure, volunteering, and fundraising within specific
communities.
 Works with community-based nonprofit organizations to help
heal neighborhoods in the wake of tragedies and
natural disasters.
Hospice and  Help or care for someone who is seriously or terminally ill.
Palliative Care Social  They help provide relief from pain; improve quality of life;
Worker assist with difficult decision-making;
 Help family and friends of an ill individual
  Some cases like assist with trauma, grief and loss

Medical and  Works in hospital settings and helps navigate the

Health Social Worker emotional, financial, and physical struggles that a serious
medical condition can cause an individual or family.
 Provides counseling and practical assistance (connecting
clients to resources)
Mental Health and  Assists individuals who struggle with addiction, substance
Substance Abuse Social abuse or mental health problems.
Worker  Provides short- and –long term solutions for victims and their
families.
Military and  Helps both the soldiers and their families with post- traumatic
Veterans Social Work stress, role adjustments, the implications and stressors of
returning home, and any substance abuse that
may occur as a result of combat.
Psychiatric Social Worker  Works with disturbed children and adolescents with
behavioral problems, children with learning problems.
 Make an assessment of the factors contributing to the
problems.
 Conduct family therapy and other kinds of intervention.
 Helping psychiatrist assess new referrals.
 Lesioning with teachers and educational psychologists.

Social Work Helping Process

The social worker can choose one or more of these choose one or more of
these models and approaches as her models and approaches as her helping
“strategy”

ASSESSMENT
 Assessment is a process and product of understanding on which action is based {Max
Siporin as cited by Johnson (1986) and Mendoza (2002)}
 It involves the collection of necessary information, analysis and interpretation to reach an
understanding of the client, the problem, and the social context in which it exists.
 The social worker’s task includes information-gathering and problem definition based on
what the client and the worker agreed upon.
 In gathering data, various source is available from which relevant information can be
obtained to have an accurate definition of client’s problem

Assessment (Various Sources)

 Primary source – the client is the primary source of data. Data are gathered through intake
procedures.
 Secondary source – the significant others with whom the client has personal relationships
includes: parents, siblings, relatives, and friends in case the client is an individual. In case of
 communities, this may be staff or consultants who are previously or currently involved in the
said community.
 Existing data – these can be records or reports from other professionals (e.g. physicians,
teachers, psychologists, etc.) or documents from other agencies such as census data,
researches, evaluation reports, among other.
 Worker’s Observation – the use of observation is very helpful in gathering,
supplementing, and validating information about the client.
Assessment (three ways of initial contact between the client and the worker)
 Walk-in – the client initiates the contact and seek the assistance of the agency social worker
about a particular concern or problem with the belief that the worker is in the position to
provide help.
 Referral – the client is referred to the worker or a social welfare agency by an interested or
concerned party or entity.
 Outreach – the agency, through its social worker’s, reaches out to the perspective client
offer help and eventually arrives at an agreement of engaging into a helping relationship after
intake.
 Intake – is the process by which an individual, group, community achieves the status of a
client.
PLANNING
 Is the link between assessment and intervention and its process translate the content of
assessment into a goal statement that describes the desired result and is concerned with
identifying the means to reach the goals.
 It allows the worker, with the participations of the client, to move from problem definition to
problem solution towards achieving a planned change as end goals. (Johnson, 1986,283)
 Planning involves two major tasks: formulating goals that directly relate with the
client’s problem and defining the specific actions or interventions that are
necessary in order to achieve the goals.
 In social work practices, the defined goals and plans guide the worker’s activities.
 Goals are desired or expected outcomes or the ends of a certain endeavor.
 Plans means to achieve them which consists of the specific actions or steps to be done in
order to reach the goals. Plans are jointly made by the worker and the client.
EVALUATION
 Defined as the collection of data about outcomes of the program of action relative to goals
and objectives set in advance of the implementation of that program (Johnson, 1986,385)
 In social work, it is a continuous process of gathering information which can be utilized in an
ongoing reassessment of objective, intervention plans, and even the problem definition which
is referred to as ongoing evaluation.
 In social work practice, conduct of evaluation is imperative because social workers and social
welfare agencies must answer for their work to the public that supports them and this is
referred to an accountability in the profession. This has two aspects:
 Effectiveness which refers to the questions on whether or not the services or intervention
plans are accomplishing their intended goals.
 Efficiency which refers to the cost of services and intervention plans in money, time, and
other resources. (Compton & Galaway as cited in Mendoza, 2002, 249)
 Evaluation in social work can be done in two levels: (1) on the level of direct practice with
clients and (2) on the level of program implementation.
TERMINATION
 The helping process has a time limit therefore a social worker is expected to discuss with the
client the expected duration of the helping relationship.
 The client also should made aware that the client-worker relationship will not last long and that
the interventions and services will not stay for them forever.
 It should be made clear with the client that disengagement is the natural conclusion to such a
relationship.
FOUR MAIN GOALS OF COMMUNICATION
 To inform – you are providing information for use in decision making, but aren't necessarily
advocating a course of action
 To request – ask for a specific action by the receiver
 To persuade – to reinforce or change a receiver's belief about a topic and, possibly, act on the
belief
 To build relationships – some messages you send may have the simple goal of building good-
will between you and the receiver
ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
1.Sender. The sender also known as the encoder decides on the message to be sent, the best/most
effective way that it can be sent. All of this is done bearing the receiver in mind. It is his/her job to
conceptualize. In the above activity, the sender is President Duterte.
2.Message. This refers to what needs to be delivered or imparted to somebody else. The report on the
status of the COVID 19 management is the message in the above activity.
3.Receiver. The listener of the message. The one who does the decoding. In the above activity, the
public or the citizens of the country are the audience.
4.Channel. The means by which the message is sent and the medium, such as radio, used to transmit
the message. The channel in the above activity is the address itself which was aired on national
television.
5.Feedback. The only way the speaker knows the message has been received. It is based on the
interpretation of the message by the listener. One possible feedback in the above activity is the
approval of the people of the government’s move to combat COVID 19. Their displeasure of the
government’s handling of the crisis is another one.
6.Context. The environment where communication takes place and may include sociocultural
factors, the status and roles of the communicators, rules and the like. The context of the speech is the
Malacanang Palace. Likewise, the president being the authority is ought to be listened to is another
context.
7.Noise. This refers to the barriers to communication. Noise can be physical noise such as choppy
connection, or psychological noise such as stress, attitude of the communicators towards each other.
Possible barriers to the speech of the president are weak signal of the television, people’s negative
perception of the president and the government in general, and president’s usage of English language
which uneducated Filipinos would find difficult to understand among others.
8.Effect. This refers to the consequence or result – or lack of result, for that matter. This includes
changes in knowledge, in our emotions, and behavior. In the above example, one effect could be the
people have been informed of the status of COVID 19 management.
LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION
1.Intrapersonal – This refers to communication that centers on one person where the speaker acts
both as the sender and the receiver of message. Example of this is when you are reflecting on
something that you did.

2.Interpersonal – This refers to communication between and among people and establishes personal
relationship between and among them. It has two types. The first one is the dyad communication and
it happens between two people. An example of this is when you are consulting with your teacher
about a lesson you could not understand. Another type of this is the small group communication
which involves at least three but not more than 12 participants in a conversation. A group working
planning for a project is an example of this.

3.Public – This type refers to communication that requires you to deliver or send the message before
or in front of a group. The message can be driven by informational or persuasive purposes. An
example of this is when a candidate for a certain position gives his campaign speech.

4.Mass Communication – This refers to communication that takes place through television, radio,
newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, internet, and other types of media. An example of this is a
SONA delivered by the president and aired on national television.

5.Computer – mediated Communication. This refers to any communication taking place using the
computer and internet-based technologies such as emails, message boards, personal websites, voice
conferencing, chatrooms, social media.