Essentials in Counseling

Rapport must be maintained throughout the entire process. There must be a comfortable feeling
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of mutual confidence. The counselee should feel free to pour out his bottled-up emotion while the
counselor must feel competent and confident to give his unconditional assistance to come up with a
positive move.

Relationship must be one of openness, trust and warmth. The counselee shall be ready and
2 willing to give himself an access to self-analysis and new direction, whereas the counselor must offer
a listening ear to his client.

Respect must be observed all the time. The counselor must exercise and reserve that respect for
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the counselee’s decision.

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 Counseling Position
Sitting 1
Both must be seated without any table serving as
barrier between them. They must be in a relax
condition.
2 Open
The counselor must move his hands and arms to
make the counselee feel that he is accepted.

Lean 3
The counselor must both be too stiff. He should be in
a little leaning position to let the counselee feel that
he is cared for.
4 Eye-to-eye contact
This should be maintained. Eyes are said to be the
windows of our soul. Maintaining this eye-to-eye
contact tells of the genuine interest of the counselor
Relax 5 to help.

The counselor must be relaxed as counselee starts

to ask some questions for clarification while he
listens to counselee’s stories between sobs. 2
Discouraging Facts About
Counseling
It is time consuming. This process does not end in one sitting/session. It takes time to build rapport in
1 gaining the confidence of the client and it takes double time for him to relate his story.

It is emotionally tiring. It is not easy to listen to negative feelings of hurt, or pain, of anger that the
2 counselor will surely be emotionally affected. Sometimes he absorbs the negatives in the process that he
even feels emotionally sick himself.

3 It is physically exhausting. It is not only emotionally but also physically tiring.

It is frequently unsuccessful because we cannot impose on them what can be perceived as the
4 best and swift solution. They will have to make the solution by themselves that at the end, counselors
feel it didn’t work out and their purpose was defeated.

It looks unrewarding. Some counselees perceive counselors to be telling them immediately what the
5 solution is. They even find counseling a mere questioning session and altogether unnecessary. After all
they will solve the problem by themselves.