• Meaning,

• Nature,
• Goals and Process of Counseling,
• Approaches to counseling,
• Importance of counseling,
• Variables affecting the counseling process,
• Evaluation of counseling,
• Modern trends in Counseling process.
 We all encounter a variety of problems such as
relationship difficulties, financial obligations,
unemployment, divorce, abuse, intimidation and
the list goes on …………!
 Inability to respond positively to life’s ever
changing situations can tax the resources of the
individual and reduce the overhaul well being
and quality of one’s life, resulting quite often in
stress, anxiety, depression or complete
immobilization.
 We have a constitutional belief or behavior that
we can tough this situation out and land on our
feet & Counseling is required to achieve this.
A process in which one person helps another
through purposeful communication.
 The main aim of counseling is to help people
make the right choice & to motivate them to
act towards its achievement. It is basically to
help the counselee answer the question-
What shall I do?
A process in which the counselor assists the
counselee to make interpretations of facts
relating to a choice, plan, or adjustments
which he needs to make.
 Counseling is an interactive process
conjoining the counselee who needs
assistance & the counselor who is trained &
educated to give this assistance.
 An empathic relationship
 The counselor & Counselee relate well.
 The counselor sticks closely to the client’s
problems
 The client feel free to say what he/she like
 An atmosphere of mutual trust & confidence
 Rapport is essential
A person to person relationship
 Involves two individuals- one seeking help &
the other- who can help the first.
 Objective is to help counselee to discover &
solve his problems.
 It is democratic. Its sets up democratic
pattern & allows the counselee to do freely
whatever he likes while with or without
consultant.
 It is a learning process.
 ADVICE
 REASSURANCE
 CLARIFIEDTHINKING
 RELEASE OF EMOTIONAL TENSION
 REORIENTATION
 Achievement of positive mental health
It is identified as an important goal of
counseling by some individuals who claim
that when one reaches positive mental
health one learns to adjust and response
more positively to people and situations.
Promotion and development of feelings of
being liked, sharing with, and receiving and
giving interaction rewards from other human
beings is the legitimate goal of counseling.
Resolution of Problems
Another goal of counseling is the resolving of
the problem brought to the counselor. This,
in essence, is an outcome of the former goal
and implies positive mental health. In
behavioral terms three categories of
behavioral goals can be identified, namely,
altering maladaptive behavior, learning the
decision – making process and preventing
problems.
 Improving Personal Effectiveness
Yet another goal of counseling is that of improving
personal effectiveness. This is closely related to the
preservation of good mental health and securing desirable
behavioral change.
 Decision – Making as a Goal of Counseling
Some counselors hold the view that counseling should
enable the counselee to make decisions. It is through the
process of making critical decisions that personal growth is
fostered. The primary objective of counseling is that of
stimulating the individuals to evaluate, make, accept and
act upon his choice”.
Sometimes the counselees have goals which are vague and
their implications are not fully appreciated. It is perhaps
one of the primary functions of a counselor to help clarify
a counselee’s goal.
 Modification of Behavior as a Goal
Behaviorally-oriented counselors stress the need
for modification of behavior, for example,
removal of undesirable behavior or action or
reduction of an irritating symptom such that the
individual attains satisfaction and effectiveness.
Growth-oriented counselors stress on the
development of potentialities within the
individual. Counselors stress self-enhancement
and self-fulfillment. Obviously the latter cannot
be realize without first securing the former,
namely, symptom removal or reduction as a
necessary pre-condition for personal
effectiveness.
 In brief, the goal of counseling is:
 To help the counselee become self actualizing.
 To help the counselee attain self realization.
 To help the counselee become a fully
functioning person.
 Client/Counselee Factors
 Counselor Factors
 Contextual Factors
 Process Factors
 The client is not a passive object who sits there and
is treated in the manner of a traditional doctor-
patient situation. A critical question is about what is
going on in their heads and they hence need to be an
active part of the process.
 If they have positive expectation and faith in the
counseling process and counselor, then their chances
of success will increase. Likewise if they have
willingly sought out the counselor and are truly
seeking resolution then this will help too.
 On the other hand, being depressed or otherwise
negative may act to hinder the treatment, for
example where they do not engage well or work to
change their thoughts and actions. In such cases, the
skill of the counselor becomes more critical.
 The counselor has a significant effect on the
outcomes of the sessions. They first should encourage
and support the client in taking a positive viewpoint
about the treatment and the outcomes.
 A counselor who is warm and has an empathetic and
positive regard for their clients, with a non-
judgemental and accepting approach will be more
likely to create the right conditions for success.
 And of course the counselor should be expert in the
methods that they practice, with a continuing
concern for improving their ability in a discipline that
is both science and art.
 Variables such as age, experience & gender also, to a
certain extent, affect the counseling process.
 AGE: clients perceive their counselors in
different ways depending on the counselor’s age.
If counselor s young, the client will have less
confidence in him & vice-versa.
 EXPEREINCE: high correlations were obtained
between experience & age. It was found that
counselors improve with experience.
Experienced counselors behave in a more stable
manner than do inexperienced counselors.
 GENDER: with some clients the gender of the
counselor may be important depending on the
ease or difficulty with which they can discuss
their problems with male & female counselors.
 COUNSELOR”s ATTITUDE & BELIEF
 The environment in which the counseling
takes place can have a significant effect. If it
takes place where the client feels
uncomfortable, for example where a school
counselor speaks with a child in a feared
classroom, then this may negatively affect
the session.
 Ideally the counseling takes place in a quiet,
warm and comfortable place away from any
distraction (including distant sounds) where
the counselor and client can talk in comfort
and safety.
 There are many factors within the counseling process
that may contribute towards success including:
 Understanding of client and counselor roles
 Bonding between client and counselor
 Open listening
 Unconditional acceptance
 Exploration of problems
 Insights and awareness of issues
 Periods of reflection and inner thought
 Opportunity for emotional release
 Learning new models and ways of thinking
 Desensitization of sensitive issues
 Trial and adoption of new ways of thinking and acting
 Improved communication
 Enhanced relationships
 A happier family
 Peace of mind
 Improved self-esteem
 More satisfaction out of life
 Personal growth
 Improved job performance
 The welfare of employees is one of the major
responsibilities of the employers. More & more
employers realize that illness & productivity do
not go well.
 The fact that harasses employees can take legal
actions is another reason why organizations
should introduce counseling.
 Employers are turning to counseling as one way
of helping the employees to cope with the
changes taking place in organizations. Change is
never easy- it disrupts, disorientates, causes
anxiety & takes time. Counseling is one way of
supporting employees as they reel under the
pressure of organizational change.
 Counseling can be seen as a way of improving
mental health of the troubled persons.
Employees do not leave their problems aside as
they enter into workplace.
 More & more companies are realizing that their
employees are one of their best assets. The
direct link between the responsibility of taking
care of their staff & the drive for achieving
success &/or profit is a major factor in
convincing employers to employ counseling
services as one of the means to manage
workforce constructively.
 Counseling services can also be viewed as a
preventive service. Counselors are in a unique
position within the organizational settings to
offer the kind of training & education that
prevents mental illness.
 Organizations are realizing that a ‘wholeness’
approach needs to be adopted towards employees
which implies that their mental, physical, emotional
& social well being go together & that they need to
be worked with in totality. Emphasizing one element
is not enough. Counseling process is a part of that
package.
 Relating with others:Becoming better able to form
and maintain meaningful and satisfying relationships
with other people: for example, within the family or
workplace.
 Problem-solving:. Finding a solution to a specific
problem that the client had not been able to resolve
alone. Acquiring a general competence in problem-
solving.
 Behaviour change:. The modification or replacement
of maladaptive or self-destructive patterns of
behaviour.
 Empowerment:. Working on skills, awareness and
knowledge that will enable the client to take control
of his or her own life.
 In Brief,
 Counseling is a caring facility
 Counseling is a way to help employees
deal with workplace changes.
 Counseling as a means of managing stress.
 PHASE I: Developing the Relationship
 PHASE II: Defining the Problem
 PHASE III: Determining Goals
 PHASE IV: Deciding the Plan of Action
 PHASE V: Doing Follow-Up
 During this initial stage the counselor
manager must create an appropriate
atmosphere & try to establish a special
rapport with subordinates in the
organization. This safe environment
encourages them to open up more, to take a
closer & more objective look at them, &
ideally to challenge themselves in a way they
might not otherwise do.
 In order to build an appropriate relationship there are attitudes
which have to be adopted in order for the counseling process to
work:
 Respect: respect for subordinates by the manager is necessary for
them to feel confident & gain strength to move forward.
 Empathy: responding to people in an empathic way will
encourage them to shift from talking about the problem in a
general detached manner to talking in a personal & emotional
manner.
 Equality: a counseling session is a meeting between equal
individuals instead of a meeting between a superior manager &
an inferior subordinate.
 Listening: the counselor should establish in the beginning that he
or she is there ot listen to their subordinates. The subordinates
should be doing most of the talking, especially in the early stages
of the process. They should lead the conversation.
 Confidentiality: it is very important to set clear boundaries on
what will be kept confidential & what cannot. The subordinates
will trust the counselor more if they are clear regarding his or her
confidentially boundaries.
 Genuineness: means being open & showing real interest in the
person. Pretending to be interested doesn’t work.
 Duringthis phase, the problem is first of all
defined by the subordinates from their point
of view. The problem often then needs to be
redefined more objectively before moving on
towards finding a solution. It is important to
show that the counselor understands the
problem from the subordinate’s point of view
before challenging them to look at the
problem more objectively.
 Examining the problem: the counselor should seek to define &
understand the problem clearly from subordinate’s frame of
reference, & also to show acceptance of their view, even he
doesn’t agree with it.
 Prioritizing the Relevant Issues: often distressed person will
throw a lot of confused talk at you, some related & some
unrelated. In these cases, the counselor needs to help them to
sort out the issues.
 Focusing on the Perspective: often people will initially describe a
problem as being insoluble, or as being someone else’s problem
or the result of someone else’s actions. In these cases, the
subordinate will frequently need to gain a more objective view of
the problem situation before they can move on to finding
productive ways of managing the problem.
 Acceptance of Problem: there is no point in using counseling skills
with someone to help them to solve a problem, which they do
not understand to be a problem.
 Emphasizing on self responsibility: after acceptance of problem
existence, the counselor is required to make the client realize
that it is his/her own problem & not someone else’s.
acknowledging them that the problem is affecting them, &
therefore is theirs, so need to decide what to do about it.
 Analyzing & Solving Problem: for providing effective counseling,
the problem of the subordinate or the client should be analyzed
minutely, & then corrective steps should be taken to make them
understand why problem occurred & how it needs to be tackled.
 During this phase the subordinate or the clients
will establish their goals. They need to decide
what they want to change, & they need to
consider what can be solved vs. what can only be
managed differently.
 Choosing & Prioritizing Goals & objectives: now,
the clients have to finally choose & prioritize
their goals. The general goals need to be
determined & then broken down into workable
objectives.
 Making Commitment: the client must be
committed to the goal(s); otherwise, they are
unlikely to carry out the plans decided on.
 Foreach objective, a specific & workable
plan for action needs to be devised. To be
workable, the plan must fit in with the
subordinate or client’s life plan, goals, values
& the time available.
 The phase of counseling which is easiest to
overlook is making sure that the action plan
is implemented. Manager or counselor can
check with them at regular intervals to see
how it’s going & can be available for back-up
support, especially to help them to work
through any blocks.
 Counseling is considered with effective
desirable changes in client/counselee
behavior & experience. The counselor may
choose whatever theoretical orientation he
wishes but he is ultimately concerned with
client improvement. The effectiveness of
counseling can be evaluated by determining
to what extent the counseling goals have
been achieved through a programme of
counseling. Evaluation is thus concerned with
an assessment of the outcomes of
counseling.
 Through a systematic & dependable
evaluation, the appropriateness of the
programme can be judged.
 It can help to locate weaknesses or
limitations of the programme, if any, so that
suitable remedial steps can be taken to
correct the shortcomings well in time.
 It help to discover measures to improve the
programme.
 It can indicate to the counselee the nature of
the progress made & help to motivate him
towards more effective results. etc
 One of the major objectives of counseling concerns
personality growth. The concept of personality
growth cannot be defined easily in operational terms.
It is so broad & vague that no two psychologists
would define it in identical terms. Naturally this
creates problems in setting up appropriate criteria
for evaluation.
 The most important aspect of counseling is giving the
client a feeling of well being. This is a subjective
experience & evaluation, in this sense, has to be on
the basis of the subjective criteria of the client’s
experience which often suffers from serious
shortcomings.
 The outcome of counseling for each counselee will be
unique, complex & dynamic. No single tool can
adequately assess changes in all the outcomes.
Evaluation therefore, becomes a very challenging
task.
 One of the important requisites of evaluation is that
the pre counseling status of the client be available
for comparison with his post counseling status. Quite
often the pre counseling data are not available, thus
making meaningful evaluation impracticable.
 It is sometimes pointed out that evaluation should be
independent, which means that a third agency other
than the client or counselor should evaluate the
outcome so that the evaluation is more objective,
reliable & dependable. The very nature of counseling
is that it precludes the third party approach in any
meaningful way. However this does not mean that
such an evaluation is impossible or that it cannot be
done.
 Evaluation is time consuming process & involves not
only monetary but also personal 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 evaluation.
 The counseling outcomes can be evaluated
in terms of:
 Subjective criteria: (client satisfaction or
experience)
 Counselor judgement:
 Objective criteria: (independent of both the
counselor & counselee)
 On the face of it, it is the most relevant
criteria for evaluating the counseling
outcomes. Who else but the client could best
judge whether or not he has profited or
improved from counseling. However, a closer
examination shows the limitations of these
subjective criteria. It is universally acclaimed
fact that the individual is not best judge of
himself.
 It considered that the counselor is best suited to
judge because he alone has knowledge of the
initial state of the client before counseling &
present state of the client after counseling & he
has the necessary professional training to make
the proper assessment.
 But there are many instances where counselors
may go wrong. No counselor would normally
accept his failures because it would affect his
professional status. Therefore, there is sort of
compelling tendency for the counselors to claim
that their efforts have been successful.
 The critics of subjective criteria & counselor’s
judgment suggest an objective criterion to evaluate
the counseling outcomes.
 There are certain situations in which objective
evaluation is not only practicable but also the best
means of evaluation. But this is not always possible in
counseling.
 For example, reports from family members &/or
friends regarding their judgement of a change in
behavior & measures of change in selected overt
behavior may be useful in evaluating client progress.
However, certain things such as the client’s feelings
of inferiority or of tension cannot be objectively
assessed, though to some extent psychological tests
could be used to assess client’s status.
 SURVEY APPROACH
 CASE STUDY APPROACH
 EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
 The counseling outcomes can be evaluated by
employing the survey approach. It consists of
identifying the population & obtaining a
representative sample from it, collecting
information from the subjects in the sample,
employing a suitable evaluative measure &
making judgments. In this approach clients could
be asked questions, such as how they feel about
the effectiveness or usefulness of counseling,
whether they have specifically profited from it,
what flaws they have observed, what suggestions
they could offer for improvement & so on.
Information on such items from a no. of clients
could be useful in assessing the effectiveness of
counseling.
 The case study approach is designed to study
the individual & assess the changes that take
place in him as a result of his exposure to
counseling. The advantage of this method is
as its emphasizes on the individual &his
growth. It is considered to be more reliable
approach. The drawback of this approach is,
it is time consuming method.
 Experimental method is the most systematic
approach to conduct research in any area of
knowledge. It is carefully planned to study one
or more groups of individuals in terms of one or
more variables.
 Generally, the following steps are followed in an
experimental study.
 Determining objectives
 Choosing appropriate methods
 Selecting two or more groups of subjects who
are comparable with each other
 Applying counseling techniques which could be
measured or scaled &
 Measuring or assessing the final outcomes.
 Behavior-centricApproach to Counseling
 Humanistic Approach or Person/Client-
centered Approach
 Counseling is concerned with behavior change
& therefore must involve the applications of the
principles of learning or learning theory.
 Learning is understood as changes in behavior
which are relatively long lasting & which are not
due to maturation or due to psychological
factors like fatigue, effect of alcohol etc.
 In recent time, the principles of learning have
been sought to be applied In the counseling
technique. One such application is in the form
of beahvioristic approach to counseling.
 The purpose of behavioral counseling is to
change ineffective & self defeating behavior
into effective & winning behavior.
 Carl Rogers is known as the founder of the person-centered
approach to counseling. It is also known as nondirective
counseling.
 According to Rogers, in any kind of counseling the underlying
basic theme is the helping relationship. In all human
interactions, such as mother-child, manager-subordinate etc.,
the helping relationship is fundamental. This relationship is
intended to facilitate the growth of the person receiving help.
such a growth in individuals is aimed at improving their
functioning & /or accelerating their maturity. Counseling aims at
bringing about psychological growth or maturity. The helping
relationship is also generally a one to one relationship.
 In person-centered counseling, human beings are seen as
possessing positive goodness & the desire to become fully
functioning, i.e, to live as effectively as possible. According to
Rogers, if people are permitted to develop freely, they will
flourish & become positive, achieving individuals. Because of
the faith in the human nature expressed in Rogers theory, it is
considered a humanistic approach to counseling.
 Substitution or replacement of the medical model of conceptualizing
psychological problems of adjustment by a counseling.
 There is also a trend towards rejecting the image of the counselor as a
“Mr. Know All”. He is now regarded as one who is conversant with
governmental, social welfare & voluntary agencies whose resources he
freely utilizes in providing psychological treatment of the clients.
 Another trend is the extension of counseling services to new areas. The
early counseling services were primarily concerned with young people,
especially students in college & universities. Now counseling also looking
towards assisting middle-aged & older people.
 There is another group of clients whom counselors are getting actively
interested in. this group comprises women, especially young & middle-
aged ones.
 The high risk students, that is, those who are not likely to make good
grades, are also drawing the counselor’s attention. They appear to be
great need of intensive academic counseling.
 Similarly family counseling & counseling of minority & immigrant
populations are also promising areas in which counseling is branch out.