The best counsellor is a friend - Essay Example

Counseling is considered as teamwork between the client and the counselor which helps the client develop and make positive changes in his approach to life. However, counseling is only considered effective if it brought out an expansion of worldview to both client and counselor. Nowadays, counseling is considered an important profession. Counseling is undertaken by professionals like social workers, psychologists, and even teachers. The knowledge and expertise of these professionals help so much in attaining the ultimate goal of counseling.

Their educational background and experiences become important cornerstones which help them develop the proper approach in counseling as well as fully analyse the client's needs. However, this paper argues that still, the best counselor is a friend because a friend has all the important characteristics and attributes that a counselor must have in order to be efficient. A counselor and a client must have a good relationship as rapport has a huge role to play in attaining positive results (Lambert 1992).

Friendship binds individuals, cultivate trust and confidence, and welcome the outbursts of strong emotions which usually come with counseling. Thus, the presence of friendly relation between clients and counselor can result to more favorable results in counseling. C. Raymond Beran (n.d.) painted a portrait of a true friend in this famous composition:What is a friend I will tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with him. He seems to ask of you to put on nothing, only to be what you are.

He does not want you to be better or worse. When you are with him, you feel as a prisoner feels who has been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you. He understands those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you. With him you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meanness and absurdities and, in opening them up to him, they are lost, dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty.

He understands. You do not have to be careful. You can abuse him, neglect him, tolerate him. Best of all, you can keep still with him. It makes no matter. He likes you. He is like fire that purges to the bone. He understands. You can weep with him, sin with him, laugh with him, pray with him. Through it all - and underneath - he sees, knows and loves you. A friend What is a friend Just one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself. Beran's composition highlights and emphasizes the role of a friend in an individual's life.

A friend, as described above is an individual to whom someone can freely open up without any pretense. A friend is someone whom a person can trust and have confidence in. A friend is someone who is always there and will willingly understand what his friend is going through. Another important aspect highlighted by Beran is the friend's knowledge about his friend. A friend, according to Beran "sees, knows, and loves you" and "understands those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you.

" Thus, a friend is someone who has an adequate knowledge and genuinely understands his friend. It is also significant to mention how a friend feels when he is with his