SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI COLLEGE

SAINT ANTHONY SCHOOL

Professionals and Practitioners of

Counseling
Discipline and Ideas in Applied Social Sciences
Module 2
 Objectives
• Show an understanding of the roles and functions of counselors.
• Identify competencies of a transformative counselor.
• Enumerate specific work areas in which counselors can be employed.
• Identify career opportunities for counselors.
• Discuss the rights, responsibilities, and accountability of counselors.
• Distinguish ethical from unethical behaviors among counselors.
 Professional
Counselors
• Counseling is a profession that allows you to
help others manage their responses to life
challenges.
• Counselors are guided by rules and regulations
or what is called Code of Ethics.
• Counselors use strategies and techniques to
promote the client’s personal growth and
development.
 Professional Counselors have the following
characteristics:
• They have acquired knowledge, skills, and
competencies through formal and specialized
training

• They are guides by standards of professional

practice.

• They are formally identified as members of the

helping profession, competent in promoting growth
and personal change in their clients.
 Roles and Functions of Professional Counselors

Providers of individual Development classroom Leaders and advocates of

and group counseling guidance specialist. academic success.
services.

School counselors take an active
role in counseling groups or
individuals.
Improve their programs and mode Identify barriers
of instruction through consistent
affecting school
feedback and evaluation.
performance.
 Roles and Functions of Professional Counselors

Career development Agents of diversity and Advocates of student with

specialists multiculturalism special needs and student at risk.

Provide activities that will Counselors trained to deal with

prepare student for the demands and address the need of people Assistance to help them
and requirements of their chosen from different cultural
cope better.
profession. backgrounds.
 Allied Mental Health Professionals

1 2 3

Psychologist Psychiatrist Psychometrician

• provide counseling and
psychotherapy to promote a
healthy mental state.
• Psychotherapy - known as
the use of psychological
approaches such as talk
therapy.
• specialize on the
• It deals exclusively with
treatment of mental
health disorders and the administration,
believe that such scoring and evaluating
disorders may be of psychological exams
resolved through of patients.
pharmacological
interventions.
 Allied Mental Health Professionals

4 5

Neurologist Social Worker

• when a client's • specific concerns related to
performance is affected housing emergencies or
by neurological
crisis situations may be
problems, like speech and
language disorders, brain attended by a social worker
seizures, or movement upon the referral of the
disorders. professional counselor.
 Characteristics of a Professional Counselor

Empathy accurately sense the feelings and understand the counselee’s experience.

demonstrate an attitude that is accepting of the client’s insights as

Acceptance expressed during the counseling session.

Genuineness authentic, open, and in touch with his or her thoughts and feelings.

strength and limitations is necessary for the efficient and ethical practice
Self-awareness of the profession.

Cultural Competence culturally competent in order to facilitate to diverse populations.

 Characteristics of a Professional Counselor
open minded about improving themselves so they can mature and
Open-mindedness develop professionally.

professional counselors must demonstrate personal values and

Integrity expressed in the ethical of their profession.

professional counselors must be highly skillful and acknowledgeable

Competence in applying the theories and strategies he or she has learned to
effectively help people

counselors see problems not as mere difficulties, but also as

Problem - solving skills and creativity opportunities for psychological growth.

perspective is the counselor’s ability to see the importance of taking

Embracing a perspective of wellness care of himself of herself the way he or she takes care of others.
 Competencies of a Transformative Counselor

Establishing Rapport
• create and foster a warm and accepting relationship with the counselee.
1 • can be achieved by the counselor’s ability to demonstrate empathy or an
understanding of the counselee’s feelings and perspectives.

Basic Attending Skills

• nonverbal behaviors which are important in the counseling process.
2 • - basic attending skills can be easily recalled by the acronym SOLER:
Basic Attending Skills

S means sitting across the counselee

means adopting an open posture during the

O counseling session.

L means leaning at times toward the counselee.

means maintaining eye contact, but not necessarily

E staring at the counselee.

means being relaxed or the ability to be composed

R and confident during the session.
Observational Skills
Guindon (2011) identified six basic types of nonverbal expression:

1. Personal Appearance
2. Personal Space
3. Voice
4. Facial Expression
5. Body Language
6. Sudden Change in Behavior
 Basic Responding Skill
Empathy - simply, is one's ability to put himself or herself
in another person's shoes or situation.

Emphatic understanding - the ability to feel with clients rather

than feeling for clients. Empathic understanding, in other words,
means understanding one's thoughts, feelings, experiences, and
ideas from his or her vantage point.
 Effective Communication with the Counselee.
Use of Encouragers Reflection of Feelings
-Encouragers are verbal and nonverbal -This skill involves the counselor's capacity to
means to encourage a client to continue reflect on what emotions or feelings the
talking. counselee has about a particular event or
experience.
Restatement &
Paraphrasing Summarization
-This involves restating what the -Attempts to bring together all the important parts of
counselee has shared without altering the the discussion, especially when the counselee
discussed different concerns or had a lengthy
meaning. explanation of his or her experiences.
 Areas of Specialization
School Counseling Rehabilitation Counseling

Clinical Counseling Industrial Counseling

Private Practice Community Counseling

Marriage and Family Counseling

  Career Opportunities for Professional Counselors

Elementary and High College Counselors Teaching in an

School Counselors
Academe
They provide individual and a professional counselor
group counseling as well as college counselors are in can also opt to teach in the
homeroom guidance charge of the college and high school
sessions to support the implementation of levels as long as they meet
academic, socioemotional, comprehensive guidance the necessary academic
and personal development programs for the tertiary
of students. level. requirements.
  Career Opportunities for Professional Counselors

Marriage and Family

Career Community
Counselors
Counselors Counselors

through career counseling provide help to members

and career coaching, of certain communities are trained to address
career counselors prepare by identifying how family issues and concerns
students and other clients certain factors contribute through therapeutic
on how to perform well in to the well-being of its interventions.
job applications. members.
  Career Opportunities for Professional Counselors
Substance
Abuse
Counselors
usually work in drug
rehabilitation centers. They are
trained to help people
understand how substance abuse
affected their way of life and
how they can overcome and
prevent the same problem.
Rehabilitation Researchers
Counselors
guidance counselors are
deal with clients who trained to conduct evidence-
suffer from physical based research and identify the
disabilities and most effective activities that
psychological problems. will improve the conditions of
certain individuals.
 Professional Ethical Principles in Guidance and
Counseling

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS CONFIDENTIALITY

• this principle states that counselees have the right to
• pertain to values that determine the privacy in working with his or her counselor. All
counselors’ behaviors. Professional information shared by the counselee, including his
counselors stick to ethical or her identity, must be kept secret. This means that
principles that serve as an overall the counselor should not divulge any information
guide in their practice. and protect all documents (including the records
found in his or her computer) about the counselee.
 Professional Ethical Principles in Guidance and
Counseling

CLIENT WELFARE INFORMED CONSENT

• it is the counselor's primary • professional counselors are

responsibility to protect the required to provide their clients
welfare of the clients. an overview of what counseling is
all about.
 Professional Ethical Principles in Guidance and
Counseling

RELATIONSHIP WITH PROFESSIONALISM

CLIENTS
• a professional counselor must
establish and maintain boundaries
in his or her relationship with
clients.
• a professional counselor should clarify with the
client the types of activities other than counseling-
which will be utilized to address the client's
concerns, the techniques and counseling
procedures that will be employed, and the sort of
payment that is expected if working on a private
setting.
 Valuing Rights of Individuals, Professional Responsibilities, and Accountability
of Counselors

1. Respecting the rights and dignity of every

• Professional counselors must not only
adhere to the ethics of their profession but
also manifest their commitment. They do
so by valuing the rights of individuals and
demonstrating accountability to their
clients. These can be demonstrated by
doing the following (PRBGC, 2008):
human person.
2. Respecting the client's rights as self-governing
individual.
3. Being committed to the client's well-being.
4. Being fair to all clients by providing equal
opportunity to all.
5. Enhancing the quality of their professional
knowledge and application.
6. Being responsive to the society.
Thank you!