 Counseling is an art and science.

It’s a short term,

interpersonal, theory based, helping profession. Its aim
is to resolve developmental and situational difficulties.
Counseling helps to bring change in life: Change in
thought; Change in emotion; and Change in behavior.

 Both the American Counseling Association (ACA) and

Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) of the American
Psychological Association (APA) have defined
counseling on numerous occasions. Their definitions
contain a number of common points.
 Practitioners should complete a prescribed course of
study usually leading to a master’s degree or a
doctorate degree. Counselors are members of
organizations that set professional and ethical standards
and promote state licensing and certification by
national associations (Wittmer & Loesch, 1986).
 Counselors should possess personal qualities of
maturity, empathy, and warmth. Overall, counseling is
active and differs considerably from passively listening
to problems
 Counselors work only in areas in which
they have expertise. These areas may
include intra- and interpersonal concerns
related to school or college adjustment,
psychological health, aging, marriage/
family issues, employment, and
rehabilitation.
 Clients have adjustment, development, or situational
concerns; and their problems require short-term
intervention. They are not considered “sick” but
“stuck”. Sometimes they just need information, but
usually they are looking for a way to clarify and use the
information they already possess. Counseling is theory-
based and takes place in a structured setting.
Counselors draw from a number of theories and work
in a structured environment, such as an office setting,
with various individuals, groups and families.
 Counselors focus on the goals their clients wish to
achieve. Clients explore their present levels of
functioning and the changes that must be made to
achieve personal objectives. Thus, counseling involves
both choice and change, evolving through distinct
stages such as exploration, goal setting, and action
(Brammer, 1993; Egan, 1990).
 Subspecialties include school or college
counseling, marriage and family counseling,
psychological health counseling,
gerontological counseling, rehabilitation
counseling, addiction counseling, and career
counseling. Each has specific educational and
experimental requirements for the
practitioners.
 Facilitating behavioral change;
 Enhancing one’s coping skill;
 Promoting decision making;
 Improving relationships;
 Facilitating one’s potentials;
 Rogers (1961) stated that behavior changes as a
necessary result of counseling process; although specific
behaviors receive little emphasis during the counseling
experience. Dustin and George (1971), on the other
hand, suggest that the counselor must establish specific
counseling goals. Almost all theorists agree to bring
about a change in behavior enabling the client to live a
more productive and satisfying life. They believe that
the specific goals make both understand the specific
change.
 Few people completely achieve developmental
tasks. Inconsistency of significant others can
result in ineffective learning in children. New
interpersonal or occupational role demands
may create an overload and excessive anxiety.
Counselor helps individuals to cope
effectively.
 Counselor just promotes not makes
decisions. Counselor provides
information, clarifies and sorts out
personal characteristics and emotions, and
even attitudes affecting decision making.
The client learns to estimate the probable
consequences in personal sacrifice, time,
energy, money, risk, and the like.
 Many people have problems relating to others as
much of our life is spent in social interactions.
Bowlby’s attachment theory states that children of
insecure and rejecting parents establish their adult
relationships differently than those of secure and
understanding parents. This problem can be due to
“poor self image”, “unstable self-esteem”, or
“inadequate social skills”. Counselor strives to helps
improve quality of relationships. Sometimes
counselor improves relationships by improving client
counselor relationship.
 The counselor attempts to promote the client’s
growth by improving personal effectiveness and
skills like interpersonal relationships and problematic
behaviors like smoking, eating, drinking, shyness,
anxiety, and depression. Blocher (1966) suggests that
counselor maximizes an individual’s possible
freedom within limitations. Then counselor seeks to
maximize a client’s effectiveness promoted by giving
him/her control over the environment.
 Clients may have a number of helping relationships with
friends or family, the counseling relationship is different:
 The counseling relationship is not reciprocal. The
counselor’s job is to focus on the clients’ concerns and offer
their support and encouragement. This is the clients’ time to
focus on themselves.
 The counselor is a trained professional who has spent
several years learning about different ways to help clients,
resolve their particular problem.
 The counseling relationship is confidential. Whereas with
friends or family, clients might hope that they will respect
their privacy, a counselor is ethically and legally bound by
confidentiality. Unless the client is an immediate danger to
themselves or others, their conversations with a counselor
will be private.
 Clients can depend on the counselor to meet them at their
set appointment times.
A counselor is an individual who –
 Understands the feelings of a client and treats it as fact
 Keeps all information confidential
 Facilitates discussions on the issues in question
 Builds self-esteem of the client
 Reassures if the client is insecure
 Solicits the client’s own feelings and ideas for solutions
 Be empathetic to the client and show care
 Has patience
 Does not get distracted during interaction with client
 Builds confidence
 Considers the client’s long and medium term goals
 Avoids acting like an expert
 Has a BIG ear and SMALL mouth so is able to listen more than
speak.
 Counseling is about taking control and making the
changes your clients want. Within the safety of the
therapeutic relationship your client can express deeply-
held feelings such as anger, pain and anxiety that they
may not have fully acknowledged before. By making
sense of the past and gaining insight into present
behavior, more options can be created for change in the
future. So confusion can lead to clarity; self-doubt to
selfawareness and self-esteem. Counseling therapy can
be the path towards living in a more satisfying and
fulfilling way. It’s about living the life your clients
want.
a Resolution of the original problem in living. Resolution
can include: achieving an understanding or perspective on
the problem, arriving at a personal acceptance of the
problem or dilemma and taking action to change the
situation in which the problem arose.
b Learning. Engagement with counseling may enable the
person to acquire new understandings, skills and strategies
that make them better able to handle similar problems in
future.
c Social inclusion. Counseling stimulates the energy and
capacity of the person as someone who can contribute to
the well-being of others and the social good.
 A clear distinction can be made between counseling
and psychotherapy.
The argument here is that, although there is a certain
amount of overlap between the theories and methods of
counselors and psychotherapists, and the type of clients
that they see, there is nevertheless a fundamental
difference between the two, with psychotherapy
representing a deeper, more fundamental level of work,
over a longer period, usually with more disturbed
clients.
Counselors and psychotherapists are basically
doing the same kind of work, using identical
approaches and techniques, but are required to
use different titles in response to the demands
of the agencies that employ them. For
example, traditionally psychotherapy has been
the term used in medical settings such as
psychiatric units, and counseling the
designation for people working in educational
settings such as student counseling services.
 Provides the person with a
confidential space in which to
explore personal difficulties
 Effective practice depends to
a great extent on the quality
of the client psychotherapist
relationship
 Self-awareness and personal
psychotherapy are valued
elements of training and
ongoing development
Psychotherapy
 Provides the person with a
confidential space in which to
explore personal difficulties
 Effective practice depends to
a great extent on the quality of
the client–counselor
relationship
 Self-awareness and personal
therapy are valued elements
of training and ongoing
development
Counseling
- A wholly professionalized
occupation;
- Public perception: inaccessible,
expensive, middle class;
- Perception by government/State:
given prominent role in mental
health services; strongly supported
by evidence-based practice policies;
- Conceptualizes the client as an
individual with problems in
psychological functioning;
- Training and practice focuses on
delivering interventions;
- Psychotherapy agencies are separate
from the communities within which
they are located;
Psychotherapy
- An activity that includes specialist
professional workers, but also
encompasses paraprofessionals,
volunteers, and those whose practice is
embedded within other occupational
roles;
- Public perception: accessible, free,
working class;
- Perception by government/State: largely
invisible;
- Conceptualizes the client as a person in a
social context;
- Training and practice involves not only
delivering interventions, but also
working with embedded colleagues, and
promoting self-help;
- Counseling agencies are part of their
communities (e.g. a student counseling
service in a university)
Counseling
 Treatment may involve the
application of interventions
defined by a protocol, manual
or specific therapy model;
 Treatment has a theory-
derived brand name (e.g.
interpersonal therapy, CBT,
solution-focused therapy);
 Many psychotherapists have a
psychology degree, which
functions as a key entrance
qualification;
 Predominant focus on the
pathology of the person
Psychotherapy
 The helping process typically
involves counselor and client
working collaboratively, using
methods that may stretch beyond any
single protocol or manual;
 Often has a context-derived title (e.g.
workplace counseling, bereavement
counseling, student counseling);
 Counselors are likely to be drawn
from a wide variety of backgrounds;
entrance qualification is life
experience and maturity rather than
any particular academic specialism;
 Predominant focus on personal
strengths and resources
Counseling
 Psychology remains a major influence in counseling
theory and practice. In some countries, holding a
psychology degree is necessary to enter training in
psychotherapy. The term ‘psychological therapies’ is
frequently used to refer to the whole field of counseling
and psychotherapy. Having strong links to psychiatry
and psychology affords counseling the status of an
applied science. However, despite the enormous value
of psychological perspectives within counseling
practice, it is essential to acknowledge that other
academic disciplines are also actively involved.
Some of the most important ideas in counseling and psychotherapy
have originated in philosophy. The concept of the ‘unconscious’
had been used in nineteenth-century philosophy (Ellenberger 1970)
some time before Freud began to use it in his theory. The concepts
of phenomenology and authenticity had been developed by
existential philosophers such as Heidegger and Husserl long before
they were picked up by Rogers, Perls and other humanistic
therapists.
The field of moral philosophy also makes an input into counseling,
by offering a framework for making sense of ethical issues. In
recent years, philosophical counseling has become a recognized
form of practice and many counselors have sought to develop an
understanding of the implications of postmodern concepts for their
practice.
Another field of study that has a strong influence on
counseling theory and practice is theology and religion.
Several counseling agencies have either begun their life
as branches of the church or been helped into existence
by founders with a religious calling. Many of the key
figures in the history of counseling and psychotherapy
have had strong religious backgrounds, and have
attempted to integrate the work of the counselor with the
search for spiritual meaning. Carl Jung has made the most
significant contribution in this area. Many practitioners
find meaning in the doctrines of Zen Buddhism
(Ramaswami and Sheikh 1989; Suzuki et al. 1970), and
have incorporated Buddhist ‘mindfulness’ into their work
with clients (Segal et al. 2001).
A third sphere of intellectual activity that continues to exert a strong
influence on counseling is the arts. There is a strong tradition in
counseling and psychotherapy of using methods and techniques
from drama, sculpture, dance and the visual arts to enable clients to
give expression to their feelings and relationship patterns. In recent
years psychodrama and art therapy have become well-established
specialist counseling approaches, with their own distinctive
theoretical models, training courses and professional journals.
There has similarly been valuable contact between counseling and
literature, primarily through an appreciation that language is the
main vehicle for therapeutic work, and that poets, novelists and
literary critics have a great deal to say about the use of language.
The field of counseling can therefore be viewed
as a holistic form of practice, which represents a
synthesis of ideas from science, philosophy,
religion and the arts. It is an interdisciplinary area
that cannot appropriately be incorporated or
subsumed into any one of its constituent
disciplines. Any counseling method that was, for
example, purely scientific or purely religious in
its approach would soon be seen not to be
counseling at all, in its denial of key areas of
client and practitioner experience.
 Counseling, as a distinct profession, came of
age only in the1940s. One of the public
markers of the emergence of counseling at that
time was that Carl Rogers, in the face of
opposition from the medical profession to the
idea that anyone without medical training
could call himself a ‘psychotherapist’, began
to use the term ‘counseling and
psychotherapy’ to describe his approach
(Rogers1942).
The American Personnel and Guidance
Association (APGA), which was later to become
the American Association for Counseling (ACA),
was formed in 1952, through the merger of a
number of vocational guidance professional
groupings that were already well established by
that time. The membership of APGA consisted of
counselors who worked in schools, colleges and
career advisory services.
The emergence of counseling needs to be understood in
relation to the parallel growth of psychotherapy. There
have been many practitioners, from Carl Rogers
onwards, who have spanned the counseling
psychotherapy divide. The majority of counseling
agencies draw heavily on ideas from psychotherapy, to
shape their training, supervision and practice policies. In
the UK, and other countries, there are organizations, such
as the British Association for Counseling and
Psychotherapy, that seek to emphasize the convergence
of the two professional traditions and communities.
Nevertheless, counseling has retained its own identity as
a distinctive practice with its own history.