Proper Management of the Therapeutic Process - Essay Example

MANAGING THE COUNSELING PROCESS MANAGING THE COUNSELING PROCESS Proper management of the therapeutic process by the therapist is essential to the success of the overall counselling process. Maintaining personal and work relationships, the process of struggling to make money that will supply basic needs sometimes leaves people in a stressful position. Alternatively, problems like drug addictions, mental disorders, and chronic illnesses often plague people’s lives in the modern day world. Therapeutic counselling is designed to relieve people undergoing some of the problems as mentioned earlier from the stress they face. Therapeutic counselling goes back as early as the 18th century, but Sigmund Feud first practiced modern therapeutic counselling in 1881. The modern western world is of people from different backgrounds (Lynch, 2012). Therapists are practising in the western world often encounter clients coming from a different culture or even speaking a different language from theirs. There are significant challenges posed to a therapist trying to understand or address a problem from an individual coming from a different background. This essay will discuss factors to consider when managing therapeutic counselling process for an addict when the therapist is a recovering alcoholic. The article will also cover managing the counselling process when the client is from a different background (Lynch, 2012). A therapist counselling a client from a different background faces a host of challenges. Therapeutic counselling is based on clear understanding and collaborative affiliation. Differing cultural backgrounds and beliefs often hinder therapists from clearly understanding a client’s problems. Speaking different languages may limit the way a therapist knows a customer. The therapist might not clearly understand if the client directly translates. Nevertheless, people from different cultures view problems differently. For instance, Africans associate gaining weight with wealth and Latin Americans believe that external factors cause all diseases. A therapist trying to counsel a Latin client suffering from a psychological illness will have a difficult time when convincing the client that mental illnesses are. Similarly, a therapist counselling an overweight African client will have a difficult time convincing the client that being fat is unhealthy. (Sue, 2012) Recognises that cultural differences hinder the quality of therapeutic counselling provided to customers from minority cultures (Sue, 2012). Therapists should strive to learn important aspects of different cultures to eliminate the challenges that cultural differences pose to their line of duty. Cushman (1995) asserted that therapists from a western culture background mostly base their judgement on personal achievement, riches, and personal freedom. This perspective hugely differs from other cultures’ perspectives. People from an African background base their decision on the overall wellbeing of a social unit, for example, a family, village, tribe, or community. Perceptual differences heavily affect the effectiveness of a therapeutic counselling process. Therapists should do a background study about a client’s culture to prepare themselves for cultural issues that may arise during counselling. Early preparation helps maintain the professionalism that therapists should exhibit. Failure to develop might tempt a therapist to ask clients many questions regarding their culture. Liang (1990) suggests that many issues regarding a customer’s culture will probably make the client more uncomfortable. Several solutions to help therapists deal with cultural differences have been put forth. Therapeutic practitioners have developed some processes and techniques that can proof to be instrumental in addressing cultural differences in the therapy room. (Lambert and Bergin, 1994) Identified three counselling techniques that therapists can use to solve their clients issues. The first method focuses on support factors. Support factors in therapy include trust, reassurance, emotional relief, and empathy. When a therapist depicts empathy and trustworthiness towards a client, the client is prompted to be open and to share more information which sheds more light on the issue at hand. When customers share more information, the weight of stress carried inside is significantly relieved. This primarily contributes to reducing pain and kick starts the healing process (Lambert and Bergin, 1994). The second technique focuses on learning factors. Learning components in a therapeutic counselling context include advice, feedback, and cognitive learning. These techniques are majorly concerned with how the client is responding to the counselling process. Therapists use these methods to induce positive or reactive change in an attempt to heal or better the customer’s condition. Appling this technique when counselling somebody from a different culture might help in creating common ground where cultural differences are. Having a common goal stimulates the rate at which issues are to facilitate its achievement. The third technique focuses on action factors. Action elements consist behavioural constraints, psychology, and behavioural adjustments. Therapists limit the way they react to certain information. When a sexually abused victim says, ‘I was raped by my father’ an average person will be surprised and may make a gesture to reflect how he/she is surprised. However, a well-trained therapeutic practitioner will not be surprised. The therapist will react in a way that does not make the victim uncomfortable. This is an example of a behavioural technique that therapists utilise to deal with situations often encountered when dealing with clients from a different background (Hill, 2005). The setting in which therapeutic counselling is how cultural differences are addressed. Four factors are when choosing the appropriate environment where the counselling takes place. Therapeutic counselling should be in a secure, quiet environment. Counselling should be in a place where clients are of comfort and privacy. Modell (2013) Suggests that an excellent therapeutic counselling setting plays a significant role in the success of the therapy. Therapeutic settings should be modified to suit a universal culture that does not pledge allegiance to particular cultures. Slogans or decorations identify with distinct cultures should not be included in the design of the therapy room. The frequency of attending therapeutic counselling sessions might affect the results of the counselling process. The sessions schedule should be adjusted to suit requirements of different cultures (Modell, 2013). Alcoholism is rampant in the United Kingdom. The Social Care and Health Resource Centre estimated that over 9 million people indulge in excessive drinking in England. Therapists are ordinary people, so they are also prone to being alcoholics. However, the important question in this matter is how therapists recovering from alcoholism can be able to counsel individuals dealing with alcohol addiction successfully. A therapist trapped in this context will face two main problems. First, therapists might be incapable of helping people with an issue that has also affected them. Secondly, therapists might be in a better position to help the clients since they have been in their situation. (Flanagan, 2012) suggest factors that primarily contribute to a successful therapeutic counselling process (Lynch, 2012). The major contributing factor to a successful counselling session is client characteristics like openness, believe, maintaining a positive attitude and getting support from spiritual or religious leaders and family members. A customer who can be open and freely share personal information about the problem he/she is facing is highly likely to overcome the problem he/she is facing. The adage ‘a problem once shared is twice solved’ is accurate in such a scenario. From the (Flanagan, 2012) study, being open contributes 40% to the successful outcome of a counselling process. Openness forms the basis through which a collaborative alliance is between the client and the therapist. (Lynch, 2012) Suggests that collaborative partnership in a counselling context is the fusion of energy or effort from both the counsellor and client and directing that collective energy towards finding a solution to the problem. Openness of an alcoholic addict to a recovering alcoholic counsellor may seem to be effective in solving the problem. The therapist should be cautioned not to show that they have recently struggled to deal with alcoholism. Failure to boost client confidence might reduce their belief in the counselling process. It will be appropriate for therapists to share a little information about their experiences with alcohol. Sharing too much might affect the client (Flanagan, 2012). The relationship between a client and therapist significantly contributes to the success of a counselling process. (Copper and Lesser 2011) Propose that a customer makes a very significant contribution to therapeutic counselling. In this context, the relationship between the client and therapist is expected to be one of greater synergy. (Lambert, 1992) Attributes 30% of successful therapeutic counselling to a good relationship between the client and the therapist. A recovering alcoholic will be in a better position to relate with a struggling alcoholic than a sober therapist. Because of the similarity of their experiences, there will be a higher possibility of having the same objectives from the therapeutic expertise. Having a common goal amplifies collaborative energy and catalyses the speed to attaining this objective. Empathy plays a significant role in understanding and supporting a client. Having experienced what the client is going through will help a therapist empathise with the customer and consequently offer more support. The manner in which therapists show empathy determines the effectiveness of empathy. Moore (2006) suggests that understanding entails eye contact, posture, tone variation and listening keenly. Using polite language also increases the level of knowledge exhibited by the client (Moore, 2006). Placebo effect or the client’s expectancy on the counselling process also affects its outcome. The psychological position of a customer is fundamental if a therapeutic counselling process is to be successful. If customers expect therapy to solve their problems, then the probability of their problems being solved is heightened. Alternatively, if clients don’t expect therapeutic counselling to solve their problems, then the likelihood of their problems being solved is reduced. There is a strong relationship between the body and mind. What the mind conceives will reflect on the physical body. The recovering therapist needs to assure the client directly or indirectly that the counselling process works. In this case, the therapist will be in a better position to convince the customer since he/she has been in the client’s position (Copper and Lesser, 2011). The counselling technique used to treat the client also determines the effectiveness of the therapeutic counselling process. Different therapeutic techniques designed to address different problems exist. The standard therapeutic techniques include behavioural or cognitive therapy, couples counselling, and psychodynamic therapy. Since the client is dealing with addiction, behavioural therapy is more suited to solve his/her problem. Behavioural therapy is designed to eliminate unwanted behaviours. Choosing an appropriate technique is a major step in solving the client’s problem. Having encountered problem, the therapist, will be best suited to utilise behavioural therapy to help the customer (Joe et al, 2014). Adhering to the factors examined earlier will significantly improve the counselling process. However, the situation this particular therapist will be facing is different, and it might pose different challenges. Most importantly, the therapist should not assume that he/she has perfect knowledge of the client’s problem. The client might be dealing with a different aspect of addiction that is not to the therapist. It will be advisable for the therapists to treat the clients’ problems separately from their experiences. Being highly judgmental might reduce the therapist’s ability to understand the problem appropriately and consequently to find a solution to the problem. In this case, therapists should get as much information from the client as possible so that they can clearly understand the customer’s problem. As mentioned earlier, therapists have to be careful not expose too much information about their problems. If a clients dealing with addiction discovers that his/her therapist has not fully recovered from alcoholism, the client might lose faith in the entire counselling process. For professional reasons, revealing too much personal information to clients as not advised (Beda, Davis, and Williams, 2005). Conclusion Differing cultures, backgrounds, and perceptions of therapists and clients pose a number of challenges to the proper implementation of therapy. 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