DEFINITION OF COUNSELLING

Counselling is the act of helping someone recognize, face, accept and resolve problems. It includes working with individuals in relationships that may be developmental, crisis support, educational therapy, occupational therapy, guiding or problem-solving. It is a relationship built on empathy, acceptance, and trust.

The counsellor is expected to focus on the client‘s feelings, thoughts and actions,and then empower the client to: cope with their lives; explore options to solving their problems; make their own decisions; and take responsibility for those decisions.

SKILLS OF A COUNSELOR

A counsellor must possess all of the following skills to be able toefficiently engage in counselling

  1.  Listening – Verbal communication
  2.  Looking – Non-verbal communication
  3. Analysing – Why is the person asking for help?
  4. Reflecting – Allowing time and silence to think, showingempathy, encouraging interaction.
  5. Confronting – Keeping to main points when appropriatehandling conflict positively.
  6.  Summarizing – Summing up points discussed at intervals. Sharing  ‘Emotions’ not necessarily experience

COUNSELING ETHICS

Counselling deals with the most intimate and intricate part of aclient. This means some ethical principles and a code of conductare essential. It is important for the counsellor to see everyone as individualswith unique qualities. This requires the counsellor to be unbiasedand free from prejudice, keep perspective and identify withfeelings of the client.

 The client should be able to express him/herself freely, especiallynegative feelings. This will serve as a therapy that helps to relievetension and clarify understanding of the problem.

 A counsellor needs to be sensitive to the client‘s feelings, and bepurposeful in responding.The counsellor needs to give the client a sense of acceptance,by perceiving and dealing with the client as she/he really is,including their strengths and weaknesses, maintaining all thewhile a sense of theirinnate dignity and personal worth.

The counsellor has to have a non-judgmental attitude. The counsellor needs to give the client space and allow him/her make their own choices and decisions.

Confidentiality is fundamental in the counselor-clientrelationship. . This is based upon the basic right of the client and an ethical obligation of the practitioner. It is worthy to note however that the client‘s right is not absolute.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD COUNSELLOR

A good counsellor is:

  1. genuine;
    • respectful;
    • warm;
    •  appropriately
    • serious;
    •  empathic, and
    • moves at client‘s pace andshows interest

PHASES OF A COUNSELING SESSIONS

There are fivemain stages orphases in theprocess of acounsellingsession:

FIRST STAGE: ESTABLISHING THE RELATIONSHIP

Greeting and Introduction: Introduce yourself and give a shortexplanation of your role and the length of time you have together (i.e.half an hour or 45 minutes).

Confidentiality: Explain that what is discussed in counselling isconfidential. However, there are two exceptions—two situationswhere what is said in counselling will not be kept in confidence:

Supervision: In order to improve the care a counselor give clients, the counsellor will share details of the case with his/her supervisor and supervision group. However, the counsellor will not disclose the client‘s name and personal information.

Harm: When the client is in imminent danger to himself orsomeone else

SECOND STAGE: TRUST BUILDING

Trust building is the foundation for counselling. It iscrucial in the beginning and continues throughoutthe counselling relationship for as many sessions asa counsellor and client work together.

THIRD STAGE: EXPLORATION

At this stage, the counselor seeks to understand the Problem. This phase focuses on the expression and exploration of the pain or the problem that the client is presenting. This is where you will spend most of your time. Let the client talk about the thoughts, feelings and actions around the problem or problems he/she is experiencing.

Use empathic listening and reflecting skills during the beginning of the exploration phase. Often clients are so stuck in their own emotions, experiences and circular thought patterns that they are unable to find solutions for their problems or even to think straight to sort it out. During this stage, you can help the client to organize his/her thoughts and feelings as well as explore some options or choices.

FOURTH STAGE: RESOLUTION

This is the problem-solving stage: It is often important that the counseling process generates some kind of focus or plan for problem-solving or future action. Sometimes this plan or focus is simply a change in perspective or choosing to accept the situation. Remember to keep the focus on something that is realistic and obtainable. It is very important that the decisionmaking comes from the client. The counselor can GUIDE and help the client explore the options, but it is ultimately the client’s decision to make. The client might not be ready to make a decision by the end of the counseling session. If that is the case, let the client leave with the resolution to make a decision before he/she returns.

FINAL STAGE: TERMINATION

At this stage, a counselor is expected to end the session: Summarize what was discussed during the session; include the focus and any decisions or plans that were made. Reiterate the focus. This is important in order to make sure the client stays focused on what he/she has control over and ignores what he/she cannot change. Highlight any referrals that were provided to the client. Discuss any future counseling sessions and make necessary appointments.