What Is Counselling and What Are Counselling Skills - Case Study Example

What is counseling and what are counseling skills, how do they relate to other approaches to helping? Introduction: Counseling is a method that allows a person to sort out problems and arrive at decisions influencing his life. It means conversing with a person in a manner that will help him to solve an issue. Another aspect of counseling is to make a person understand the issues related to his life and make him improve his behaviour and nature (What is counseling? N.d.) The basic intention of counseling is to boost individuals to make their own decision from several options available to them to increase their personal and performance strength (Counseling Skills Using NLP techniques, n.d). Counseling is often carried out personally in non-public sessions between the counselor and clients. However, counseling can also be performed via telephone, writings and e-mail or video conferencing. It may take many different forms to bring an individual to a better understanding of himself and others. Thus, counseling can be advantageous to a person facing problems in maintaining relationships (What is counseling? N.d.). Counselors require talent for understanding the conditions of the clients and their problems (Nelson-Jones, 2005).In this paper I intend to discuss the different approaches of counseling incorporating the ethical framework, the principles of Rogerian Person Centred Approach, personal growth and therapeutic change. Introduction to Humanistic, Cognitive Behavioral and Psychodynamic Approaches and BACP Ethical Framework: Humanistic approach to psychology was founded by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow in the U.S. during 1950s. Humanistic psychology focuses on the subjects that are meaningful to human beings. Humanistic psychologists lay emphasis on conscious experience rather than on behaviour or personal responsibility. That is why they differ from most of the psychologists. Humanistic psychology also focuses on the importance of the individual’s attempt towards personal growth and achievement (Humanistic Psychology: Maslow, n.d). Humanist approach of psychology interprets an individual in regard to subjective analysis of previous experience. It assumes we have a deep-rooted biological drive that inspires us towards personal development and the active psychological condition of self-actualization. It provides stress on the importance of ‘self’ and how self influences an individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. The self is our personality. Rogers extended Maslow’s hypothesis of self-actualization into the field of humanistic person-centred psychoanalysis with his emphasis on understanding, actual positive regard and authenticity. Building these conditions for development in therapy enables an environment that helps the client become a more performing person. This approach has a worldwide impact within and outside the domain of psychology, especially in the areas of humanistic psychoanalysis (Humanistic Approach, n.d). Cognitive counseling emphasizes on supervising and influencing one’s thinking patterns. It focuses on minimizing negative thinking, changing the essence of thoughts so that it brings about more positive emotions. Behavioral counseling intends to say about the encouraging actions that an individual will take for getting rewards (an appraisal can be a reward for hard work) and the actions that an individual wont take because of unpleasant outcomes ( fear of getting arrested can prevent a person from stealing or murdering) (Fisher, 2004). Psychodynamic therapy helps the clients to understand the main reason of their problems. It also provides them knowledge and suggestions to endow them to cope with further problems. During 1940s Sigmund Freud has developed this therapy. According to his belief, our emotions, thoughts and behaviour arises from the unpleasant thoughts from our childhood that we permit to control our present thinking. These composed thoughts and feelings after all exhibits as depression, fears and clashes. The therapy centers on relationships and is mechanized by our interactions with family and near and dear ones. Psychodynamic therapy is applied by comprehending and approving the most sensitive issues that emerge in a client’s childhood and his experiences will have some kind of subconscious effect on the person. By the help of supportive counseling a client will be able to recognize his subconscious thoughts and how these thoughts have influenced his behaviour. This is done by penetrating into the mind of a client. Depression, anxiety and anger can be cured by using some form of psychodynamic approach. This kind of counseling depends on the mutual understanding between a counselor and client in order to develop positive strategies which a client can apply to make changes (Psychodynamic Approaches to Counseling, n.d). Ethics for Counseling and Psychotherapy is applicable to counseling research, the application of counseling skills and the management of these services within organizations. The practice of each member of the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy has to be informed (BACP: ethical framework, n.d.). The largest professional organization for counseling and psychotherapy in UK is BACP. The basic values of counselling and psychotherapy include a commitment to respecting human rights, establishing the honor of practitioner-client affiliation, increasing the quality and use of professional knowledge, lessening personal distress, enhancing personal effectiveness, acknowledging the diversity of human experience and competing for sufficient provision of counselling and psychotherapy services. Ethical decisions that are reinforced by the principles described below. However, practitioners will face such situations where it is impossible to accommodate all the principles and choose between those principles. The decisions taken by practioners do not mean that they are unethical or argumentative as other practitioners would have arrived at different conclusions in similar situations. A practitioner’s responsibility is to consider all the relevant situations with much care so as arrive at a reasonable and valid conclusion. The principles by which the ethical decisions are to be taken are: Fidelity which means respecting the trust which is shown to the practitioner, Autonomy which implies respect for the client’s right to be independent, Beneficence signifies a commitment to building up the client’s well-being, Non-maleficence is an assurance to avoid any harm to the client, Justice is the fair and unbiased treatment of all clients and Self-respect indicates promoting the practitioner’s self-knowledge and care for self. The practitioner’s personal moral qualities are very crucial for the clients. The personal qualities include: Empathy: the ability to understand an individual’s experience and to communicate with him. Sincerity: a commitment from the practitioner’s side to the clients that whatever is declared must be carried out. Integrity: commitment to being honest in dealings with the clients. Resilience: the capability to work with the client’s affair without being personally devalued. Respect: showing appropriate honor to the clients and understand them. Humility: the ability to judge and acknowledge a client’s strengths and weaknesses. Competence: the proper arrangement of the skills and knowledge are expected to deal with the issues of the clients. Fairness: the rational application of appropriate morals and values to familiarize with decisions and actions. Wisdom: possession of rational judgment that informs practice. Courage: the capability to handle a client’s issues despite known fears, risks and uncertainty. By accepting all these ethics, members of the BACP are making commitment to get engaged with the challenge of being ethical although it involves difficulty in taking decisions accurately (Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counseling and Psychotherapy, n.d.). Importance of self development and awareness of own value systems and the concept of continual personal growth: There has been a saying that a key to happiness and wealth is to ‘know thyself’. The more one knows oneself, the more one experiences happiness, joy and fulfillment. Nobody can do anything if he/she does not understand himself/herself and understand life. How do we know who we are or what we are? The answer to this question is through awareness we can understand ourselves. As we become more aware, the more choices turn up and we are able to choose from a variety of options what is best for us. Awareness allows us to move through the negativity, low self esteem, anxiety, emotions, pains and fears. By the help of awareness we are able to open up our hidden talents, creativity and imaginations (Know yourself & grow yourself - the 2 journeys to self awareness and personal growth, n.d.). The role of ‘experiential’ tasks in self development is to develop maximum awareness of self. Vaux has made comments regarding many phases of the self and human nature and how they are experienced, which parts of the self cause difficulty to an individual. Personality development and self-awareness have to be promoted so that problematic issues of the self can be traced and cured. The difficult feelings inside each person have to be disclosed by the power of experiential learning. This can happen only when trust and honesty is established the promoter and the participants. The problems must be addressed and tackled in such a way so that the participants become more comfortable about expressing their feelings (Gilbert, 2005). The continual personal growth is one of the characteristics of high self-esteem which tells us about life has an objective to strive for excellence and not perfection (Johnson, 2004). The continual process of facing new challenges within our limit ensures that we continue to learn and grow. Each experience shows us the path towards personal growth, increasing awareness and improved performances (Orlick, 2007). Prejudice, oppression and Counselling: Prejudice is a social psychological approach. . It is often defined as erroneous and unsubstantiated negative judgment held about the members of an organization. It must be considered as group process and a socially concentrated adaptation. This perspective is compatible with social psychological analysis which deals with individual’s behavior and emotions. Such an analysis views individual within a group which is a part of comprehensible pattern of group dynamics (Brown, 1995). Through counseling, the counselors can apply Multisystemic Therapy to the youth having serious antisocial behavior. The Multisystemic Therapy is a family based medication program undertaken to bring about positive changes in a society (Ponterotto, 1991). Oppression is the exercise of authority in an uncivilized manner or it may be the situation of being treated inhumanly. Fanon has focused on the violence associated with oppression instead of the causes behind oppression. He has evaluated the dynamics of oppression of how an individual is adversely affected by the harsh realities of the colonization or domination. He has pointed out that oppression is a result of violence. Oppression cannot be accomplished unless violence is exercised. When the terror of physical death outweighs the determination of independence, then oppression gets rooted to the ground. The oppression extends as more oppressed look for physical survival. As a result, the frequency of betrayal increases. As more people surrender to oppression, the more they suffer from psychological and social death (Bulhan, 1985). Rehabilitation counseling has played a major role in the public rehabilitation program (O’ Brien and Graham, 2009). Marketing plays the crucial factor in shifting rehabilitation counseling from periphery to a central activity. Expansion of career opportunities for rehabilitation counselors can be facilitated by integrating the rehabilitation associations (Patterson, 2009). Knowledge of basic counseling process and the concepts of Empathy, Congruence (genuineness), and unconditional positive regard (respect): The main aim of counseling skills is to train and supervise the individuals through training programs and help them to choose among the alternatives. Thus, counseling skill involves interpersonal correspondence and intrapersonal mental rectification. The basic trend in counseling and psychotherapy is to help the clients to come out of the self-defeating attitudes. Counseling skills consists of mind and communication skills. Aaron beck and Albert Ellis have contributed three central mind skills which are creating self-talk, creating rules and creating perceptions. Creating self talk means that individuals instead of talking to themselves will opt for positive choices so as to set target and reach their destinations. Creating rules implies that people make demands on others and surroundings which are illogical. Rather, they should go for preferential and realistic rules. Creating perceptions indicates that people jump into a conclusion without realizing it. The facts and the inferences must be distinguished (Nelson-Jones, 2003). The article, “The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change” was published by Carl Rogers in the year 1957. Out of the six identified conditions, three of them are central conditions of helping relationships. They are empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard. Empathy is the ability to comprehend oneself and understand the client’s private world. Counselor’s responding processes includes observing and listening, reverberating, differentiating, communicating and monitoring. The final process includes the client’s reaction to the counselor’s empathy. Congruence has internal as well external magnitude. Internally, the counselors acknowledge the thoughts and emotions of the clients but sometimes they end up acknowledging themselves which do not provide any help to the clients. On the other hand, the external helpers communicate to the clients as genuine persons. They do not pretend to be professionals rather, they genuinely provide helping hand to the clients. Unconditional positive regard has two extensions-one is the level of regard and the other is the unconditionality of regard. The former consists of positive regard to the client from the helpers’ side in the form of caring and affection. The latter comprises of non-discretionary approval of client’s experience and acknowledgment. The helpers respect their clients’ potential behavior rather than the present behavior (Nelson-Jones, 2003). The principles of the Rogerian Person Centred Approach: Rogers disapproved the deterministic nature of both psychotherapy and behaviorism. He showed that our behavior is caused by our deeds because of our perception to a situation. He built his theory on the basis of sentimental people and assessed that we have an extraordinary capacity for self-alleviating and personal growth resulting in self-actualization. He focused on an individual’s current perception. The self-concept may differ from individual to individual. What I may feel may not be realized by others. For instance, an individual might be very appealing to others but thinks that he is a boring person. He analyzes this image of himself and this valuing is viewed in his self-esteem. As viewed by Rogers, our way of feeling, experiencing and behaving is persistent with our self-image. Congruency or consistency grows within a person as the gap between our self-image and ideal-self is lessened. State of incongruence is the situation when there is a conflict between the actual experiences of an individual and in so far what the individual has thought of him. An individual whose self-concept is not similar in respect to his/her actual feelings will try to defend as truth is always bitter. For example, a person may be possessive in certain situations but will never admit that he/she is possessive. The total experience of an individual including all the feelings and experiences irrespective of being accepted or rejected is known as the organismic self. The probability of confusion and ability to perform properly increases as the gap between the organismic self and the self-concept increases. A person should replace incongruence with true and organismic values in order to advance towards self-actualization. This can be achieved by at least experiencing one relationship by unconditional positive regard. Here the person himself/herself is at the centre, thus it is termed as ‘person-centred. As observed by Rogers, any relationship which reduces disagreement is a therapeutic relationship. Such a relationship is identified by understanding the problems of one individual through communication. There are some conditions which need to be satisfied like the client should be in the state of incongruence and enduring unconditional positive regard, and the therapist is congruent and enduring empathic understanding. I can view that this approach is a sanguine representation of human nature (Rogers Humanistic Person-Centred Approach to Counselling, n.d). Conclusion: Throughout this paper, I have tried to discuss counseling and counseling skills, prejudice, oppression, the three core conditions of helping relationships-empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard and the Rogerian person centred approach. The process of therapy begins whenever a person is able to express his/her feelings to the therapist, more aware of incongruence and more self-accepting. However, the question arises whether it is possible to have all the restrictions completely functioning in our society or not. It may not be appropriate to demand from an individual to change the system where he/she is residing. Still, people are opting for counseling to help them out of their critical issues. References: 1. Brown, R, 1995, Prejudice: its social psychology, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. 2. Bulhan, H, 1985. Frantz Fanon and the psychology of oppression, Springer, New York. 3. Counseling Skills Using NLP techniques, n.d., Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, available at: http://www.ximb.ac.in/ximb/fileadmin/templates/XIMB/pdf/counsellingskills.pdf (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 4. Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counseling and Psychotherapy, n.d. bacp, available at: http://www.bacp.co.uk/admin/structure/files/pdf/566_ethical%20framework%20revised%202009.pdf (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 5. Fisher, G, January, 2004. What is “Cognitive-Behavioral counseling?” http://www.gerryfisher.com/soapbox/2004-1-soapbox.pdf (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 6. Gilbert, J, February, 2005, Self-knowledge is the prerequisite of humanity’: personal development and self-awareness for aid workers, Routledge, available at: http://www.janegilbert.co.uk/published%20papers/Self%20Knowledge%20is%20the%20Prerequisite%20for%20Humanity%20-%20Personal%20Development%20and%20Self%20Awareness%20for%20Aid%20Workers.pdf (Accessed on June 23, 2009). 7. Humanistic Approach, n.d. available at: http://www.virtualpsychology.co.uk/word/The%20humanistic%20approach.doc (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 8. Humanistic Psychology: Maslow, n.d. available at: http://cranepsych.com/Psych/Empirical_research_Maslow.pdf (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 9. Introduction, n.d. bacp: ethical framework, available at: http://www.bacp.co.uk/ethical_framework/ (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 10. Johnson, S, 2004, Therapists Guide to Clinical Intervention: The 1-2-3s of Treatment Planning, Academic Press, New York. 11. Know yourself & grow yourself - the 2 journeys to self awareness and personal growth, n.d., Higher Awareness, available at: http://www.higherawareness.com/ (Accessed on June 23, 2009). 12. Nelson-Jones, R, 2003. Basic counselling skills: a helpers manual, SAGE, Los Angeles. 13. Nelson-Jones, R, 2005. Introduction to counseling skills: texts and activities, SAGE, Los Angeles. 14. O’ Brien, M, Graham, M, 2009. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin. 15. Orlick, T, 2007. In pursuit of excellence, Human Kinetics, Illinois. 16. Patterson, J, 2009. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin. 17. Ponterotto, J, Sept, 1991. The Nature of Prejudice Revisited: Implications for Counseling Intervention, Journal of Counseling and Development 18. Psychodynamic Approaches to Counseling, n.d. The Counselor’s Guide, available at: http://www.thecounsellorsguide.co.uk/psychodynamic-approaches-counselling.html (Accessed on June 22, 2009). 19. Rogers Humanistic Person-Centred Approach to Counselling, n.d. available at: http://cranepsych.com/Psych/Person_centered_therapy.pdf (Accessed on June 23, 2009). 20. What is counseling? N.d., Douglas Woods, available at: http://www.dougwoods.com/counselling.html (Accessed on June 22, 2009). Read More