OCN 117

COMMUNICATION SKILLS
 definitions
• Interviewing involves the gathering of information over a
short period, usually one or two sessions.
• Counseling is a more intensive and personal process which
requires a longer commitment
• Counseling is a process, as well as a relationship, between
persons. Contrary to what some people believe, counseling
is not concentrated advice-giving. The aim of the counselor
is usually to assist the person or persons (client or clients)
to realize a change in behavior or attitude, or to seek
achievement of goals. Often there are varieties of
problems for which the counselee may seek to find help.
 forms of counseling
They include:
 teaching of social skills
 effective communication,
 spiritual guidance,
 decision-making
 career choices.
Counseling may sometimes be needed to aid one in coping with a crisis.
Other types of counseling include
 premarital and marital counseling;
 grief and loss (divorce, death or amputation)
 domestic violence and other types of abuse
 special counseling situations like terminal illness (death and dying)
 counseling of emotionally and mentally disturbed individuals.
Counseling could be short-term (brief counseling) or long-term
Purpose of interviewing and counelling
• Facilitating behaviour change.
• Improving the client's ability to establish and
maintain relationships.
• Enhancing the client's effectiveness and ability
to cope.
• Promoting the decision-making process and
facilitating client potential
 Attributes of a good counsellor
• Communication Skills
Effective counselors should have excellent communication skills. Although some of these skills
can be honed during graduate school and are developed and refined over the course of your
career, you should already possess certain communication skills before embarking on a
counseling career. Counselors need to have a natural ability to listen and be able clearly explain
their ideas and thoughts to others.
• Acceptance
Being nonjudgmental and accepting are important attributes in any of the helping professions.
But professional counselors must be able to "start where the client is at." This phrase is often
used in counseling to describe the ability to relate to clients with an open, nonjudgmental
attitude – accepting the client for who she is and in her current situation. Counselors need to be
able to convey acceptance to their clients with warmth and understanding
• Educate yourself.
If you are on the path to earn a degree in counseling, you’re already moving forward with one of
the most important ways to become an effective counselor. Another great way to gain
experience is to attend a counseling conference, such as the ACA Conference. Study hard, ask a
lot of questions, and get all the experience you can while earning your undergraduate or
master’s in counseling.
 Cont.
• Empathy
Counselors help people through some of the most difficult and stressful times of their lives.
They must be able to display empathy – the ability to feel what another person is feeling.
Empathy means that you are truly able to imagine what it's like to stand in someone else's
shoes. Compassion and empathy help your clients feel understood and heard.
• Problem-Solving Skills
It's not up to a counselor to solve her clients' problems, no matter how much she might
want to help. But counselors must have excellent problem-solving skills to be able to help
their clients identify and make changes to negative thought patterns and other harmful
behaviors that might be contributing to their issues, says Dr. Lynn Ponton in an article for
PsychCentral.
• Rapport-Building Skills
Counselors must possess a strong set of interpersonal skills to help establish rapport quickly
with clients and develop strong relationships. They must give their undivided attention to
clients and be able to cultivate trust. Counselors need to be able to place all of their focus
on what their clients are saying and avoid being distracted by their own personal problems
or concerns when they are in a session.
 Cont.
• Flexibility
Flexibility in counseling is defined as the ability to adapt and change the way you respond to
meet your clients' needs. You don't stay rigid and stick to a predetermined treatment path
when your clients require a different approach. Being flexible is one of the most important
attributes of a professional counselor, says Gerald Juhnke, professor of counseling at the
University of Texas at San Antonio, in an interview with "Counseling Today."
• Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the ability to look within and identify your own unmet psychological needs
and desires, such as a need for intimacy or the desire to be professionally competent. This
ability prevents your issues from affecting or conflicting with those of your clients. Self-
awareness has a major impact on a counselor's effectiveness, says professor David
Hutchinson in his book, "The Essential Counselor."
• Multicultural Competency
Counselors help people from all walks of life. They must display multicultural competency
and adopt a multicultural worldview, says Hutchinson. Multicultural competency means that
you try to relate to and understand your clients regardless of their race, ethnicity, religious or
political beliefs or socioeconomic background.
 Types of Counseling
1. Supportive Counseling is most often used with people who have difficulty
standing alone amid their problems. In supportive counseling, the goal is not
to create a chronic dependency upon the counselor, but to give temporary
support and help the person to gain strength and the resources to cope.
2. Confrontational Counseling seeks to point out to the client his or her
actions. The counselor guides the counselee into seeing what misdeeds were
committed and to realize the hurt that might have been caused to others.
The idea is that hiding one’s immoral actions only creates guilt, frustration,
and anxiety. As a Christian, the counselor must help the client to confess,
forsake his/her sins and accept the forgiveness of a loving Savior.
3. Educative Counseling focuses on teaching the client. Undesirable learned
behavior may have to be unlearned. The counselor in this case is a teacher.
People may come to the counselor with questions on social issues, religious
issues, or even career problems. Often some clients may need help in making
certain critical decisions.
 cont
4. Preventive Counseling is used to stop problems before they start or to prevent things from
getting worse. Areas like “How to Keep Healthy,” “How to Prepare for Retirement,” or
sessions in premarital counseling are examples of preventive counseling.
5. Spiritual Counseling is a great necessity, and the Christian often seeks the opportunity to show
persons the way to Christ. Sometimes there will be persons who want to find spiritual
answers. People may be seeking for a purpose in life. This is a chance for the Christian
counselor to lead them to the Bible and to pray with them. Sometimes, through spiritual
counseling the counselor may discover that the client also has some psychological issues that
need to be dealt with.
6. Depth Counseling is a long-term relationship in which deep-seated problems of the counselee
are uncovered and dealt with in detail. The counseling process is extended and demands the
skills of a counseling professional. This type of counseling is not for the layperson. Do not play
around with depth counseling if you are not a professional therapist!
7. Informal Counseling takes place in a casual setting. Perhaps on a hospital visit, or during an
informal home visit, the counselor may be drawn into a conversation where their help might
be asked for. Or you may meet a friend on the street and ask, “How are you today?” Then you
may be told of a problem that he or she is experiencing. Your time and concern could be of
help at that time. Informal counseling may not seem very important, but it has helped many
 Ethical principles of counseling
• Being trustworthy: honouring the trust placed in the practitioner (also referred
to as fidelity)
Being trustworthy is regarded as fundamental to understanding and resolving
ethical issues. Act in accordance with the trust placed in them; strive to ensure
that clients’ expectations are ones that have reasonable prospects of being met;
honour their agreements and promises; regard confidentiality as an obligation
arising from the client’s trust; restrict any disclosure of confidential information
about clients to furthering the purposes for which it was originally disclosed.
• Autonomy: respect for the client’s right to be self-governing
This principle emphasizes the importance of developing a client’s ability to be
self-directing within therapy and all aspects of life. Practitioners who respect
their clients’ autonomy: ensure accuracy in any advertising or information given
in advance of services offered; seek freely given and adequately
informed consent; the manipulation of clients against their will, even for
beneficial social ends.
• Beneficence: a commitment to promoting the client’s well-being
The principle of beneficence means acting in the best interests of the
client based on professional assessment. It directs attention to working
strictly within one’s limits of competence and providing services on the
basis of adequate training or experience. Ensuring that the client’s best
interests are achieved requires systematic monitoring of practice and
outcomes by the best available means.
• Non-maleficence: a commitment to avoiding harm to the client
• Non-maleficence involves: avoiding sexual, financial, emotional or any
other form of client exploitation; avoiding incompetence or malpractice;
not providing services when unfit to do so due to illness,
personal circumstances or intoxication. The practitioner has an ethical
responsibility to strive to mitigate any harm caused to a client even when
the harm is unavoidable or unintended.
• Justice: the fair and impartial treatment of all clients and the provision of
adequate services
The principle of justice requires being just and fair to all clients and respecting
their human rights and dignity. It directs attention to considering conscientiously
any legal requirements and obligations, and remaining alert to potential conflicts
between legal and ethical obligations. Justice in the distribution of services
requires the ability to determine impartially the provision of services for clients
and the allocation of services between clients

• Self-respect: fostering the practitioner’s self-knowledge and care for self

The principle of self-respect means that the practitioner appropriately applies all
the above principles as entitlements for self. This includes seeking counseling or
therapy and other opportunities for personal development as required. There is
an ethical responsibility to use supervision for appropriate personal and
professional support and development, and to seek training and other
opportunities for continuing professional development.
 Stage 1-Initial Disclosure.
•
In this stage, the main focus is relationship building. When I say relationship building, in
this setting, I mean establishing rapport with the client that is based on trust, respect,
and care. When there is a good relationship between you and your client, the
likelihood of the sessions being more productive are greater.
• In this stage, you want to practice all the basic counselor skills such as: Empathy,
Genuineness, Unconditional Positive Regard, Etc.
• To build a relationship with you client:
– Introduce Yourself. Be personable and inviting.
– Be hospitable. Invite the client to sit down. Ask them if they would like water, coffee,
etc. Make sure they are comfortable.
– Address the client by name. This is a big step in helping your client feel known.
– Be inviting of social conversation to help reduce any anxiety they may be feeling.
Remember, recognizing that they need and want help working through things can be a
really big step.
– Allow your client to talk about his or her reason for coming in to talk.
– Indicate that you are interested in them and what they are going through.
 Cont.
• Remember, your client may talk about all their
experiences, from earliest childhood to the present, and
the way that you respond can either help them to trust
you or lend to them feeling a betrayal of trust.
• One of the greatest obstacles in the relationship building
stage is the tendency to move at too quick of a pace. Be
patient with your client, be sensitive, and give them
room to move at a natural pace. As trust begins to build
between counselor and client, they are more inclined to
respond in a positive way as you encourage them to
move towards change.
 Stage 2- In Depth-Exploration
• Problem assessment.
• One of the major reasons a client goes to talk with a counselor is to
have help resolving problems or concerns that interfere with their
daily lives, or are causing them major heartache.
• The counselor should have the expectation to be an effective tool
to help them move towards change.
• Assessment refers to anything the counselor does to gather
information and draw conclusions about the concerns of the client.
• This stage should not feel like an interrogation to the client, but,
rather, they should feel that someone desires to know who they are,
the things that have shaped how they think, how they feel, and their
concerns.
 Stage 3- commitment to action, or goal
setting
• Counseling needs to have a focus. The client’s focus is going to be on
the problem, but the counselor needs to be focused on the
problem, the client, the counseling process, and the overall goal.
• Goals help to give direction during each session. In goal setting, the
client identifies, with the help of the counselor, specific ways to
move towards change and the best course of action to help make
that happen.
• Clear goals can help to motivate your client to take the steps
necessary in achieving those goals.
• It helps them to structure their lives in a way that makes reaching
those goals more practical. Setting goals helps to eliminate sideways
energy, as the client and counselor set forth on the same page
about what the goal is.
 Cont.
• In some cases the client may be hesitant to set
goals. It is possible that a person who resists
setting goals could be protecting the very
behavior that is in need of modification, because
that behavior is also serving some desirable
behavior.
• For example, someone begins to recognize the
negative consequences of an unhealthy, abusive
dating relationship, yet they cling to it claiming
that the person makes them happy
 Stage 4- Counseling Intervention
• There are 3 steps within the counseling intervention stage
1. Summarize the problem
2. Identify a strategy
3. Select and Implement intervention.
• Summarize the problem using the four dimensional analysis, which
includes four different components
i. Affective- feelings
ii. Behavioral - behaviour
iii. Cognitive –thoughts. To reduce emotional distress and
corresponding behaviors by correcting errors in thought,
perception, and beliefs.
iv. Interpersonal- personal relationships
Stage 5- Evaluation, Termination or Referral.

• It may seem odd for someone beginning

counseling to think of terminating a patient.
• But, termination is something that you want to
move towards.
• Ideally, termination happens when the goals that
are mutually agreed on by the counselor and client
have been achieved, or the problem has become
more manageable or resolved.
• Termination should be one of the first topics the
counselor and client discuss