Philosophy of Counseling - Essay Example

 Philosophy of Counseling A. The Art of Helping I believe that counseling as a discipline is about mastering the art of helping clients acquire more effective and productive methods for enhancing the quality of their lives. Essentially the art of helping involves having a heart and this means using “caring and humanity” in combination with professional and academic training and skills (Counseling Process, 103)The fact is those seeking counseling are typically looking for improved “management tools”, more effective communicative skills, guidance in making responsible decisions and acquiring “a greater sense of control over their lives” (King 2001, p.1). In this regard, I believe that a good counselor may best master the art of helping by adopting Alderian counseling philosophy which is predicated on a purely holistic and subject approach. Alder’s philosophy of counseling is guided by the concept that human conduct is not solely predicated on hereditary and environmental factors. Rather, mankind is possessed of the ability to “interpret, influence, and create events” (Corey 2005, p. 95). Alderians therefore approach the art of helping by focusing on subjective factors that steer individual behavior. These factors include, attitudes, goals, beliefs, values, interests and how the individual perceives reality. Alderians believe that the holistic approach automatically follows in that if a counselor can help individuals, society will benefit as a whole. I believe that any good counselor should take an approach to counseling that contributes to the welfare of society by helping individuals become more constructive and productive members of the community. Drawing on the Alderian concept of counseling, I believe that if we help individuals make better choices and adopt effective management tools we will contribute to the good of society as a whole, one individual at a time. B. The Aim of Counseling I believe that a good counselor is a facilitator. In other words, the aim of any good counselor should be to facilitate the acquisition of coping skills. As King (2001) puts it: My goal in counseling is to facilitate the exploration and the journey toward learning so that the client can ultimately move forward without me to meet the challenges and problems of life that can be prepared for only with the acquisition of skills, not with preset answers (p. 4). Six common outcomes of counseling have been identified. They are: developing and maintaining a “relationship with the client”; linking “hope to the process of counseling”; “offering new learning experiences”; arousing “the client’s emotions”; enhancing “the client’s sense of self-efficacy and confidence”; and providing “opportunities for practicing new ways of responding and behaving” (Day 2008, p. 14). Before any of these aims can be achieved the counselor’s aim is to construct a technique in counseling that builds trust. Trust is fostered by the counselor’s demeanor, the interest displayed and empathy displayed (Day 2008, p. 35). Embodied in the technique for building trust is a number of self-empowering devices. The counselor adopts methods that are designed to encourage the client to speak freely and to impart instructive cues. These methods include knowing when to remain silent, to listen and to encode and to facilitate a catharis (Day 2008, pp 36-40). Each of these techniques engenders trust. As Day (2008) explains, without trust, it is entirely unlikely that a counseling session will generate positive outcomes (40). C. How You View Yourself I believe that good counseling should incorporate a curative approach to helping the client and should therefore embody a humanistic, person centered approach. The humanistic, person centered approach was developed by Carl Rogers. This approach promotes “human psychological growth” and takes the position that help is achieved by cultivating an atmosphere in which the client does not look upon him/herself as a client (Singh p. 29) The counselor should view him/herself as a person who is open to embracing new experience which is essentially adopting trust in “one’s own experience,” as well as a trusting “an internal locus of evaluation, and a willingness to be in process” (Day 2008, p. 215). The humanistic, person centered approach is curative in that it means viewing myself as a “person center counselor” and that I ought to foster a relationship with my client that is “collaborative, respectful” and characterized by sharing (Day 2008, p. 210). Other curative elements enshrined in the humanistic, person centered approach to counseling is adopting a position that is reflective of holding unconditional positive regard for the client’s problem. Day (2008) describes unconditional positive regard as having “a warm acceptance of each aspect of the client’s experience” and seeing the client’s experience as “being a part of that client” (p. 211). In this regard: Such an experience is especially curative when clients are used to conditional acceptance” (Day 2008, p. 211). The humanistic, person centered approach to counseling is also curative when the counselor is empathic. Being empathetic means having the ability to be sensitive to the client’s “anger, fear, or confusion as if it were your own,” but at the same time being able to set your own feelings aside (Day 2008, p. 212). Sympathetic gestures or communications can also encourage the client. The humanistic, person-centered approach to counseling endeavors to produce a client that is “fully functioning”, and who is accepting of his/herself and their feelings and is not only “self-confident and self-directed” but also “perceives things flexibly” has realistic goals, is mature and is open to “experience and accepts others (Day 2008, p. 216). In adopting curative measures under the humanistic, person-centered approach to counseling, I see myself adopting an experimental process which essentially looks upon the client as a “dynamic system always under construction” (Day 2008, p. 218). This means ensuring that counseling is about the “immediate articulation of feelings” from both counselor and client (Day 2008, p. 218). Non-directive techniques are also important in that the counselor must not “interpret for clients” and do not conduct probing questioning techniques and do not “reassure or criticize clients” (Day 2008, p.l 217). D. Your View of Humans I believe that philosophical views of counseling takes a systematic approach to family counseling in that family is perceived as a system. In other words, I believe that counselors ought to realistically view human beings as forming part of the family system. This perception has a number of consequences for how the client is understood and guided. Within that system a nuclear family consist of parents and children. The extended family is comprised of grandparents, parents, children and other family members. Other family members for some persons may not necessarily be related by blood and can include long-term friends or same-sex partners or neighbors who are particularly close and take on roles of siblings or uncles or parents or offspring. Regardless, the family is an important system for assessing indicators relative to counseling issues and matters. An individual’s personal attributes are constructed in and around the familial settings. It validates or rejects constructs at an early stage in child development. According to Bowen’s multigenerational transmission process, we unconsciously model our values, beliefs and attitudes after our parents and grandparents (Winek 2009, p. 82). According to Bowen’s model, how we relate within the family constructs are passed down from one generation to the next and this includes presumptions relative to both the family and the world. For instance, where the partners are heterosexual and were raised in families with unambiguously defined gender roles, those constructs are more likely to be repeated within that marriage unconsciously and even if the partners are resistant to those constructs. Ultimately, the theory of the nature of family systems engages examination of the meaning that emanates from the family patterns and history. Constructivist therapy is not concerned with the living constructs or blood relations. It is concerned with who collectively shares the problems. For the counselor who subscribes to a constructivist approach to counseling the counselor does not focus on attempting to change the family, but instead focuses on the client and attempting to change his/her perceptions. In this regard, differentiation and fusion becomes an entirely important technique as it helps to guide the client in distinguishing between emotionally driven feelings and rational judgment. In other words, differentiation and fusion techniques teaches the client not to be guided by emotions, but rather to be guided by reason. Differentiation occurs within the family constructs when children learn to detach themselves from the family’s emotions and to adopt rational thinking. Fusion is the process where emotions and thought are connected. The individual who can separate feeling and reason or who can differentiate self for the most part are arguably more flexible and adaptable in terms of coping with difficulties. They also tend to experience a lesser degree of problems and difficulties. Family fusion occurs when a family member is fueled by family’s emotional responses as opposed to individual rational particularly when the family is experiencing a crisis or at any time where there is a heightened level of family emotions. What happens is the creation of the pseudo-self which is an identity created to ensure conformity and cohesion. The fused family gravitates toward unity. The dynamics of the family system is therefore a challenge for counselors. I believe that a counselor is more effective when informed of the constructs of the family relative to the individual client and the client’s proclivity toward either fusion or differentiation. In any event, the counselor is going to have to either foster differentiation or help the client to strengthen his tendency toward differentiation where appropriate. The counselor in a family counseling setting becomes a member of the family system as he/she and the family are engaged in the counseling session/sessions together. This is so regardless of whether or not the counselor takes an outsider position or becomes absorbed by the sessions. There are a number of approaches available to the counselor. The counselor can act as mediator in which case she/he negotiates a resolution among the family members. Or the counselor can be a diplomat in which case he/she helps family members to understand each other and to co-exist peacefully. The counselor may also act as a director or co-author. By doing so, he/she invites the family to recreate the problem and then aids them with rewriting it for more pleasant results. The counselor is also at liberty to take on the lone ranger role. The lone ranger regards the family as engaged in a long journey abroad a ship, figuratively. I also believe that it is instructive for counselors to view humans from the perspective of the cognitive-behavioral therapies’ theory. In this regard, the cognitive theory subscribes to the notion of the power of letting thinking supersede emotion and “behavior impulses” (Day 2008, p. 361). Cognitive theories dispel eleven irrational beliefs, namely the belief that one should be loved by all or should have the approval of all (Day 2008, p. 379). The other irrational beliefs are the belief that one should be perfect in order to have some value to others, or that some persons are bad and should be blamed; when things are not as one wants them to be it is a “terrible catastrophe”; a person cannot control his/her happiness; one should be preoccupied with danger or fear; a person should rely on others; the past is permanent and influences the present; one should be upset over the problems of others and every problem has a perfect resolution and it has to be found or the “results will be catastrophic” (Day 2008, pp 374-375). In dispelling these irrational concepts the counselor engaging cognitive therapy must replace these irrational beliefs with essential concepts such as behavioral merger. Behavioral merger includes building hope: self-efficacy, modeling and consolidating of learning, behavioral such as self-monitoring, diaries, hierarchies of task and scientific method and empirical proof (Day 2008, p. 364). There are a number of therapeutic techniques for building essential concepts. They include three phases of intervention which begin with the conceptualization phase and then gravitates toward the skills acquisition and rehearsal phase and finally the application and follow-through stage (Day 2008, pp 381-382). The WDEP system is another alternative and involves helping the client to understand his own desires, assessing direction, self-evaluation and planning (Day 2008, p. 385). The Act therapy is another option and is an acronym for Accept, Choose and Take Action (Day 2008, pp 390-391). The Rational Emotive Therapy which encapsulates techniques coded by ABCDEF is also a good technique for understanding human perceptions and how those perceptions drive human conduct and correcting those perceptions. A in the ABCDEF model represents the activating event and is: An episode of new information or interaction coming in from the outside, or a though coming from within (Day 2008, p. 375). B refers to belief and represents the “spontaneous, often irrational perception of thought within the client’s mind in response to A” (Day 2008, p. 376). C represents consequence which is both emotions and conduct that emanate from B. D refers to disputing intervention the counselor and then the client will query “the B that came between A and C” (Day 2008, p. 376). E is the effective new philosophy and represents the fact that the client has learned to replace irrational beliefs with “more adaptive thoughts” (Day 2008, p. 276). F represents the new feeling where the client has adopted a new way of thinking rationally and more effectively (Day 2008, p. 376). E. Your View of Death I believe in taking an existentialist approach to death as a counselor. Existential theory takes the position that death is certain but accepts and acknowledges that from a psychological perspective people “struggle with this reality by defending” against death and this process commences “early in childhood” (Day 2008, p. 240). Taking my views of death from an existentialist perspective I can adopt curative counseling elements. Curative counseling elements means establishing a boundary situation in which I assist the client with confronting the urgent experience of death as an existentialist (Day 2008, p. 291). Death, like other urgent experiences can produce what is characterized as a chronic emotional hunger in that the client feels aimless, empty and purposeless. As a counselor I can assist by offering “meaningful help” (Day 2008, p. 256). Other casualties of the death experience are depression, neurotic anxiety, addition, post-traumatic stress disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other types of persistent disorders. Adopting an existentialist approach to counseling I can treat these disorders by virtue of “dereflection” (Day 2008, p 257). Consolation can also be used to foster meaning (Day 2008, p. 257). Individuals can also suffer death anxiety which significantly alters the quality of life. Such a person will often choose not to take risks and will engage in a highly secure way of living (Day 2008, p. 241). Effective therapy may necessitate confrontation where the client may not be consciously aware of how death anxiety steers his/her conduct. F. Ethical and Legal Concepts of Counseling I believe that ethics and legal concepts are very important in counseling as they define the boundaries for the professional relationship between the counselor and the client. A code of ethics for any professional body that provides help services is distinguished from the law but can invoke legal consequences. When a member of the profession violates the code of ethics, the Ethics Committee is at liberty to take a variety of action ranging from “reprimand to expulsion from your professional organization” (Day 2008, p. 50). Unethical behavior may also be referred to other agency including law enforcement by the Ethics Committee therefore invoking legal consequences (Day 2008, p. 50). Most codes of ethics mirror the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics 2005 of the American Psychological Association Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct 2002. There are essentially five principles embodied in the typical code of ethics. The first is beneficence and nonmaleficence (Day 2008, p. 51). By virtue of this principle, the psychologist/counselor is duty bound to protect the welfare of those they treat and any third parties or effected persons. The second principle is fidelity and responsibility. Psychologists/counselors are required to cultivate trusting relations with “those with whom they work” (Day 2008, p. 51). In this regard these professionals adhere to a specific standard of professional conduct and avoid conflicts of interests (Day 2008, p. 51). The third principle is integrity and calls upon professionals to “promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in the science, teaching, and practice of psychology” (Day 2008, p. 51). Psychologists are also bound to ensure that any potential for bias are safeguarded against and that they do not permit limits on their capabilities and experiences to product “unjust practices” (Day 2008, p. 52). The fourth principle is the principle of justice which ensures that all persons have access to the benefits of the profession. The final principles is the duty to respect the rights and dignity of people. This means accepting and protecting the “privacy, confidentiality and self-determination” of all persons (Day 2008, p. 52). In practice these principles guide the counsel in making ethical decisions and conducting themselves with the constraints and judgments expected of professionals. This means acting in the best interest of the client and ensuring the client’s needs are of paramount importance. Respect for the dignity of the client also means ensuring that they are fully aware of what will happen in therapy and therefore gives informed consent. Obviously respect for the dignity of the client also means ensuring confidentiality and privacy (Day 2008, 53-58). G. Needs of the Student. I believe that the greatest needs of all clients and counselors and more especially students is enhanced communication skills. As King (2001) puts it, the world would be a better place if we all had better communication skills (p. 64). The fact is communication skills help us to be better if not more accurately understood by all persons with whom we interact (King 2001, p. 64). This is particularly important for the teacher-student relationship and the counselor-student relationship. Communication skill will help to establish the specific problems or issues that compromise the student’s progress or adjustment. The sources of these problems have been identified by Day (2008) and are characterized as social disparities which involve world views, values and dominant practices (p. 195). Another source of problem for the student could be school problems which must be understood from the perspective that children’s conduct is “purposive” and “can be understood by its function in the family or classroom” (Day 2008 p. 195). Other sources of student problems involves alienation adventure-based therapy which recognizes that students who are isolated from the society can be benefited by virtue of group projects (Day 2008, p. 196). Another source of problem for students can be the perfectionism theory which acknowledges that the individual may unrealistically and with negative consequences strive to achieve superiority (Day 2008, p. 196). In working with these problems, the student’s needs can be met by applying Alder’s psychological theory. In this regard the holistic and existentialist care model is suitable for responding to the needs of the student client as it covers the problems implicit in existence such as “freedom, choice, responsibility and the meaning of life” (Day 2008, p. 176). Alder’s psychological theory also takes account of the family constructs which forms the primary influence on the child’s style of life in the social context. Birth order may also be factor. Alder’s theory also takes account of phenomenology which recognizes that all persons “have a fictional self to whom we conform our behavior” (Day 2008 p. 181). In doing so we are apt to select goals that “also conform to the fictional self” (Day 2008, p. 181). Alder’s psychological theory is useful for meeting the needs of the student client because it addresses “private logic” which determines how the individual interprets experiences. This is tied to the life script which we use to form our character traits. In turn our social interest are born as we have an “innate aptitude that develops with life experience” which dictates the degree to which we cooperate with others, take account of the welfare of others, contribute to society and value our place among mankind (Day 2008, p. 182). H. Your View of Culture, Gender, and Diversity in Counseling I believe that a good and effective counselor is one who is able to respond to diversity of culture and gender. This means putting aside any personal concepts and enhancing our knowledge of “the prevalent mores of people with whom we are working” (King 2001, p. 99). We are required to connect with our clients with an understanding that the client is a “unique individual” who lives in “a variety of normative cultures that” is in all likelihood not the same as the counselor’s (King 2001, p. 99). We also need to accept and acknowledge that aside from cultural and gender differences, each individual is different with different perspectives and “different responses” (King 2001, p. 99). The counselor can adopt an ethnographic perspective in counseling by attempting to learn from the client or from others who belong to the client’s cultural or gender group about how individuals in that group look at the world, prioritize their concerns, interpret what is right and look at circumstances, health, illnesses and set life’s goals. (Day 2008, p. 104). Ethnographic perspectives also require that counselors structure these diversities into the manner in which their deliver their services and that they alter their own ways of thinking and behaving to cultivate trust and respect (Day 2008, p. 104). This means coming up with a resolution that can be accepted both by the client and the counselor and allowing for both the counselor and the client to contribute to the ultimate goals and outcomes (Day 2008, p. 104). Feminist approaches can also be useful for closing the gender gap and the incorporation of gender issues and concerns in the counseling practice. This means becoming aware of the wider implications of gender issues in the broader community (Day 2008, p. 105). For the female client it might be necessary to examine what is referred to as consciousness raising in that we might be confronted by female clients that have been exposed to levels of sexism found in the culture of patriarchal societies (Day 2008, p. 107). It may be necessary to instill in the client the right to individual choice which informs how and what to accept and who to get past these gender and cultural issues (Day 2008, p. 108). Ultimately, the client needs to be armed with a “psychoeducational process” that will aid the client in specifying their goals, knowing what options they have and selecting action and outcomes (Day 2008, p. 108). I. How Would You Like to Be Remembered I believe that if I incorporated a philosophy of counseling that embodied cultural and gender awareness and understood the needs of my clients and adopted good ethical practices I would be remembered as a good and ethical counselor. However, that is not all that I would like to be remembered for. I would also like to be remembered as a counselor with heart and one that cared enough to make a difference in the lives of children, one child at a time. I would endeavor to make my mark by understanding the family system and dynamics of human behavior and using that knowledge and understanding to help children make rational choices and to develop into responsible and productive adults. I would also like to be remembered as a counselor who cared about the educational well-being of students. That means a counselor who developed communication skills that were imparted to my student clients and thereby empowering them in the process. I would also like to be remembered as a counselor who helped students learn to take more responsible control of their lives and to manage stress in productive and realistic ways. Above all, I would like to be remembered as a strong advocate for children. I can make my mark by devoting a lot of time to learning about children and their roles within the family and societal constructs. I will use this knowledge together with individual information about a child client to take a holistic approach to helping the child detach itself from peer pressure and emotional decision making. Works Cited Corey, G. (2005) Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Cengage Learning. Day, S.X. (2008). Theory and Design in Counseling and Psychotherapy. (2nd ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. King, A. (2001) Demystifying the counseling process: A self-help handbook for counselors. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Singh, K. (2007) Counseling Skills for Managers. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Winek, J. (2009) Systematic Family Therapy. SAGE. Read More