Teachers as Counselors:

Understanding the Helping Process

Outline of Presentation
I.

Concept of Helping
a. Formal
b. Informal

II. Teacher as Helping Professionals

a. Functions of Education
b. Teachers as Counselors
III. The Helping Relationship
a. Goals
b. Characteristics
c. Levels of Helping
IV. Counseling
a. Basis for the Professional
b. Desired Personal Traits of the counselor

Outline of Presentation
V.

The Helping Process

a. Strategies
b. Techniques

VI. Integration

As educators and helping

professionals in the schools settings, we
are concerned with students behavior, in
general, and their academic performance,
in particular.
We make an effort to ensure that each
learner will achieve gains in the cognitive,
effective and behavioral domains while
under our care.

But when kids misbehave, what do we do? Do we

A. Blame the child (Its all his fault.)
B. Blame the parents (Theyre responsible for raising
their children properly.)
C. Blame his peers (He keeps bad company.)
D. Blame the teachers (They should teach the students
good behavior.)
E. Blame the counselor (They should make sure that the
children dont get into trouble.)
F. All of the above

Three Cases
1992 Malolos, Bulucan
Alfred, 15, stabbed Bert with a pair of scissors
April 20, 1999 Columbine High School, Littleton,
Colorado
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris with guns, knives and
home-made bombs, killed 12 students, one teacher and
then shot themselves. At least 45 were injured.
March 21, 2005 Red Lake, Minnesota
Jeff Weise, 16, shot his grandfather and his grandfathers
companion, drove his grandfathers car to school, killed 9
people, wounded 7, shot himself.

The Concept of Helping

Providing assistance to another person who would benefit
from an act of kindness
* Help an elderly cross the street
* Give alms to a beggar
* Baby sit for a relative
* Do volunteer work for the Church
These are forms of Informal Helping

The Concept of Helping

Formal Helping
- A planned service offered by trained professionals whose
behaviors are governed by a code of ethics to meet the
identified needs of clients
- Objectives: prevention, remediation
- Helping professions include medicine, law, education,
psychology and counseling, social work

The Concept of Helping

Informal and Formal Helping Contrasted
Informal Helping

Formal Helping

Unplanned

Planned

Requires no specific
training
Not systematic

Offered by skilled
helper
Is systematic

Not intentional

Intentional

Impact on client
uncertain
Goal is uncertain

Client may get better

or worse
Goal is to impact on
mental health

Teachers as Helping Professionals

Functions of Education
Developmental Function
* Assist students more from one developmental stage to the next
* Provide opportunities for growth and self expression
* Nurture the positive qualities of an individual

Teachers as Helping Professionals

Differentiating Function
* Recognize the uniqueness of each learner
* Provide opportunities for students to develop in varying pace
* Motivate learners to excel in personally meaningful endeavors

Teachers as Helping Professionals

Teachers as Counselors: Similarities
* Helping professionals
* Students as target client
* Good listening skill

The Helping Relationship

Definition: A relationship established between a

helping professional and a client
Goals: 1. Changes in behavior and lifestyle
2. Increased awareness or insight and
understanding
3. Relief from suffering
4. Changes in thoughts and self
perceptions

The Helping Relationship

Helping Formula

Personality
of the Helper

Helping
Skills

Growth Facilitating
Conditions

Specific
Outcome

The Helping Relationship

Characteristics
1. The helping relationship is meaningful to both
parties
* personal, intimate, relevant
* involve self-commitment
2. Disclosure of emotions is evident
* self revealing
* feelings about personal concerns
3. Respect is accorded to each other

The Helping Relationship

Characteristics
4. The relationship takes place by mutual consent
5. The relationship is developed because the
individual to be helped needs some form of
assistance: information, instruction, advice,
understanding and/or treatment
6. The relationship is conducted through
communication and interaction

The Helping Relationship

Characteristics
7. Structure is provided by the helper
8. Collaborative effort intensifies the relationship
9. The helping professional exhibits emotional
maturity
10. Changes is the object of the relationship

The Helping Professional

Levels of Helping
1. Nonprofessional Helpers
* Friends, colleagues, untrained volunteers,
well-meaning relatives who try to assist in
what ever way they can
* No specific educational requirement

The Helping Professional

Levels of Helping
2. Paraprofessional Helpers
* Human service workers with some formal
training in human relation skills
* Work as a part of a team and not as an
individual
3. Professional Helpers
* Possess relevant educational qualification
* Has supervised internship; some need
license to practice

Counseling
Definition: Counseling denotes a professional
relationship between a trained counselor and
a client designed to help the latter resolve
problems of an emotional or interpersonal
nature (Burks and Stefflre, 1979)

Counseling
Characteristics of Human Being that Provide a Basis for
the Counseling Profession (Gibson and Mitchell, 2003)
1. Humans are among the weakest species at birth. Our survival is
dependent solely on the attention, care and affection of others
2. Humankind has the greatest potential for growth and
development of all the species. The brainpower, coupled with a
surplus of energy (more than other species), gives us almost
limitless possibilities.
3. Humankind has the highest level of communication skills that
enable us to express our thoughts in detail to many others, to teach
our language to others, to record/send/receive information. This
ability to relate to others serves as the core of a happy, welladjusted life.

Counseling
Characteristics of Human Being that Provide a Basis for
the Counseling Profession (Gibson and Mitchell, 2003)
4. Human species exhibits a wider range of difference than any
other. The concept of individual differences provides the rationale
for client analysis in the helping profession
5. Human beings manipulate and are manipulated by their
environment. The behavior of a person cannot be adequately
understood apart from the environmental context within which it
occurs.
6. Humans are the only living organisms that understand past and
future time. This gives us the capability for building our
experiences and planning for the development of our potential
7. Humans have the ability to reason and to gain insight. We are
able to make reasoned choices among alternatives and to change

Desired Personal Traits of an effective Counselor

(Foster, 1996)
The effective counselor must possess
* A natural interest in people
* Ability to listen
* Ability to appreciate verbal exchanges
* Empathy and understanding ability to put oneself in anothers
shoes
* Emotional insightfulness can deal with a wide range of feelings
* Ability to see or feel from within introspect
* Capacity for self-denial can set aside personal needs to listen
and take of others needs first
* Ability to sustain emotional closeness tolerance of intimacy
* Ability to laugh appreciates humor

Helping Process

Stages
Relationship building
2. Assessment
3. Goal setting

1.

4. Intervention
5. Termination and Follow up

Helping Process

Techniques
1. Attending
2. Listening
3. Reflecting
4. Encouraging
5. Questioning

Task of Building
(A story set in the Middle Ages)
A man walks up to a field where a huge cathedral is
being built.
A number of stone masons are working on a section of the
construction site. Each mason is using a hammer and a chisel.
The man asks each of the masons the same question,
What are you doing?
Im chipping stone murmured the first
Im building a wall says the next.

Im becoming a skilled tradesman, bragged another.

Im supporting my family, responds the next.
Im building a church, says another.
Im worshipping God asserted the last one.

Thank You