Professional and Organizational Issues in Counselling - Article Example

Professional and Organizational Issues in Counselling Indeed, being in the helping professionis a fulfilling and rewarding experience. However, it also entails facing challenges and responsibilities that are involved in carrying out the work of being a counsellor. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy has drafted a statement called Ethics for Counselling and Psychotherapy that serves as an important guide for practicing counsellors (Bond 2). There are six ethical principles that counsellors can use in making important decisions in the course of the therapeutic relationship with the client. It includes fidelity, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and self-respect (Bond 3). Fidelity is described as staying true to the trust that the client has given to the counsellor. During the counselling session, the client would usually divulge information that is very personal and private that it is the counsellor’s responsibility to protect that confidentiality. Without the client’s consent, the counsellor could not just talk about the details of their session to anybody. Thus, it is important that the counsellor provides a room in which their conversation could not be heard by anybody. A private room will encourage a lot of spontaneity and openness on the part of the client. Moreover, it is only when the client has fully trusted the counsellor that he is motivated to show his real self and evoke deeper psychological issues battling inside. Because of this, the client’s trust should never be betrayed. Otherwise, he will never dare open up sensitive issues again. After every counselling session, the counsellor makes an anecdotal recording for documentation and case management purposes. These files are also confidential and they are never shown to anybody as they contain all the issues that the client has shared. Likewise, the anecdotal recording is used to monitor the client’s progress and plan counselling interventions that can be applied to help resolve the issue. It is the counsellor’s responsibility to determine how often a certain client should have therapeutic sessions with him until both the client and counsellor sees it fit to end the counselling relationship. Also, at these times, the counsellor should be able to make use of various techniques that can be most helpful with the client and to continue to maximize all options until the resolution of the case. The second ethical principle is called autonomy and it speaks about respecting the client’s ability to make his own decisions in the counselling relationship. Going to the counsellor is a voluntary practice and should not be something forced. In fact, the counsellor should be able to thoroughly explain the goals of counselling and make explicit contracts with the client from the beginning. The client should agree on the conditions in the contract to ensure that he will make the commitment to cooperate with the counsellor in the duration of the helping relationship. Conversely, the counsellor may have his own life and social values but he is not encouraged to impose them to the client as something that should be strictly followed. Counselling is not advice-giving and once the counsellor starts to lecture or sermonize in the session, this will turn off the client and he might decide to sever the communication immediately. Most of the time, the counsellor is there to listen to the client and do less of the talking. Instead, the counsellors role is to allow the client to express his thoughts and feelings in a non-threatening environment and work out a plan of action to deal with a particular problem. The counsellor guides the client in this process but allows the client to make the final decisions for himself because the ultimate goal of counselling is to develop in him a sense of independence and self-reliance – being able to do things on his own as he faces more challenges in life. Beneficence is the third ethical principle in counselling which is aimed at ensuring that the counsellor has the client’s best interest at heart. To do this, the counsellor should be able to show professionalism in making the assessment as this will be contributory to the effectiveness of his therapeutic experience. Once again, the counsellor’s competence is called for in this endeavour. Consequently, he should always attend trainings and seminars to keep him updated with current trends in counselling. On the other hand, the counsellor should also be humble enough to know his limitations in the field. If he feels that he is unable to handle a certain case, he should practice the option of making referrals to other counsellors or specialists if that is warranted. Working closely with other professionals will help create a holistic picture of the client’s psychological profile and approach the problem with the use of various techniques. The specialists that can coordinate with the counsellor may include a developmental pediatrician, social worker, occupational or speech therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, and neurologist. The professional who will be called for his expertise will depend on the apparent need of the client. The fourth ethical principle in counselling is embodied in a “commitment to avoid harm to the client” or a commitment to non-maleficence (Bond 3). This includes avoiding exploiting the client sexually, emotionally, or financially. During the course of the counselling relationship, the counsellor and the client may develop too much intimacy to the point in which objectivity can not any more be maintained. With this, the counsellor should be able to refer the case to another counsellor who is free from any prejudice or personal issues that could affect the counselling relationship. The fifth is called justice and it is defined as providing a fair and impartial treatment to all clients from various cultural, ethnic, family or racial background as well as provide counselling services to them. Counselling should not also be discriminatory and show respect for the client’s human rights and dignity. Each person is unique and this difference should be recognized and respected. Justice also implies that legal and ethical considerations should be made consistent with each other to ensure that the counsellor is in the right track. Legal requirements should also be conscientiously adhered to so that the counsellor will be truly helpful and not place the client in a negative light. The last ethical principle refers to self-respect or fostering the counsellor’s self-knowledge and care for self. The counsellor will not be able to perform his responsibilities properly if he is not continually upgrading himself through research, trainings, and further studies. In addition, taking care of oneself by appropriately throwing away negative energies from the counselling session is important for the counsellor’s mental, social and psychological health. Otherwise, he will experience counsellor’s fatigue and will not be an effective therapeutic medium. Having all these in mind, it can be said that these principles can be put together in making sound ethical decisions that will be beneficial both to the client and the counsellor. On the other hand, counselling also has both an administrative and organisational dimension (“Workplace Counselling”). The administrative dimension has something to do with establishing, running, and evaluating counseling provision. While the organisational dimension deal with organisational influences on the counseling service, organisationally-induced client problems, and conflicts of loyalty and interest. The counsellor as an administrator or manager focuses on how to encourage workers to do their job well while motivating them to enjoy what they are doing. He may apply different styles in managing employees. He can be directive and authoritative or democratic and welcoming of innovations by subordinates. It is up to the counsellor to determine the approprite style to use depending on the nature and culture of the organisation he belongs to. Moreover, the counsellor has roles, responsibities, and contributions that are gradually recognized. In particular, the counsellor has been placed in charge of making sure that communication is maintained between the employer and the employee. In this sense, he acts like a liason officer or mediator between the two. What is important is that he is able to reach a compromise where both the needs of the employer and the employee are being met. As such, the counsellor disseminates organisational information to the workers in terms of company mission, vision, policies and goals. Meanwhile, he also brings to the administrations attention the working conditions as well as concerns of the workers to keep them satisfied and productive. For instance, if the workers would ask for bonuses or an increase in their salary, the counsellor will try to bring this up to the employer. The dilemma is that, the administrators would often be restrained to answer this need due to budgettary constraints. It is critical then, that the counsellor should be able to communicate this problem to the expectant workers and properly explain to them the situation. Otherwise, this might incite them to go against the administrators thinking that they are being taken for granted. In this case, the counsellor acts like a diplomat who has to be someone really intellectual in order to deal with sensitive organisational issues properly. In this way, if situations become too intense and those workers who have been asking for bonuses would really demand for it and would threaten to go on a strike, the counsellor can now function as a diplomat. This will need him to think thoroughly for a middle ground by which to satisfy, in partial or in full, what the workers are demanding for while making that the budget will not be disturbed. It takes a lot of analysis and foresight to be able to solve such problems especially when both the administrators and workers can put the blame on you later on. Furthermore, the counsellor has been identified as an agent of change in the organization. His job is to direct the change and think about the consequences in advance, so he can ensure that the changes that will be implemented will be for the common good and especially that of the organisation. In specific, the counsellor examines how human behaviour in response to changes that may be implemented. For example, if the wages will be changed from piece – rate to time – rate, then the counsellor should be able to predict their reactions and make plans ahead of time on how to deal with these reactions. Another area of communication that a counsellor takes charge of in the organisation is the function of an advocate. He would advocate issues from a human resources point of view in terms of pushing for transparency in the employee contract when it pertains to transitions, changes, or alterations made. If the change that is being asked for by the employee seems logical and rational, then it should be brought to the higher authorities. Otherwise, if the change being proposed is quite contradictory to company policies and objectives then it is the counsellors role to explain this clearly with the employee and plan more appropriate strategies that are in line with company mission. In particular, the counsellor should make sure that there is no ambiguity in the written terms and conditins which may cause confusion in the employees part. This is the main reason why contracts should be carefully drafted from the beginning. Doing this right the first time can definitely save a lot of errors in the future. More interestingly, the counsellor has also been placed in charge of tackling issues of stress in the individual as well as big group level. He is expected to create and implement programs that will help deal with rest and relaxation as well as professional development. Some employees who are not being given enough time to take care of their health, end up always being absent or not so productive in case they do go to work. This is because, human beings also need enough rest and recreation in order to function well. If they are forced to just work and work, their bodies and minds will become very tired and this will consequently decrease their productivity. As such, the counsellor can think of ways to provide this to them in the form of sick leaves, vacation leaves, and field trips to nice places such as beaches to help them relax a bit for a while and return to work with a renewed enthusiasm and energy. In terms professional development, it also important that employers provide opportunities for further studies as well as workshops and seminars that are closely related to their current job function. In summary, being a counsellor in different fields entails a lot of work to do. But the satisfaction always lies in the idea that individuals and organisations become better and better each day with a little help from the ever-reliable counsellor. Works Cited Carol, M. "The Counsellor in Organizational Settings: Some Reflections." Journal of Workplace Learning 7(1995): 23-29. “Definition of Professional Counselling”. American Counselling Association. 17 October 1997. 14 November 2008 . Bond, Tim. “Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling & Psychotherapy”. British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. 1 April 2007. 14 November 2008-11-14 . "How Employers Can Ease Pain of Job Losses: Counselling and Retraining Ways to Cushion the Shock." Development and Learning in Organization 21(2007):30-32. “Workplace Counseling and Personal Development”. Chapter 6 Overview. 14 November 2008 Read More