Roles and Functions of Counselors

According to Gibson and Mitchell (2003) a helping profession is composed of members “who are especially trained and
licensed to perform a unique and service for fellow human beings”.
Roles / Functions Description
Individual Seeks to identify the characteristics and potential of every client ; promotes the client’s self-
Assessment understanding and assisting counselors to understand the client better
Individual Counseling Considers as the core activity through which other activities become meaningful. It is a client –
centered process that demand confidentiality. Relationship is established between counselor and
client.
Group Counseling Groups are means of providing organized and planned assistance to individuals for an array of
and Guidance needs. Counselor provides assistance through group counseling and group guidance.
Career Assistance Counselors are called on to provide career planning and adjustment assistance to clients.
Placements and A service of school counseling programs with emphasis on educational placements in course and
Follow -Up programs.
Referral It is the practice of helping the clients find needed expert assistance that the referring counselor
cannot provide.
Consultation It is the process of helping a client through a third party or helping system improve its service to
its clientele.
Research It is necessary to advance the profession of counseling; it can provide empirically based data
relevant to the ultimate goal of implementing effective counseling.
Evaluation and Evaluation is a means of assessing the effectiveness of counselor’s activities.
Accountability Accountability is an outgrowth of demand that schools and other tax-supported institutions be
held accountable for their actions.
Prevention This includes promotion of mental health through primary prevention using a social –
psychological perspective.

Competencies of Counselors
Seven distinct competence areas of counselors. There might be other areas but we will focus on the input of McLeod (2003).
1. Interpersonal Skills –counselors who are competent display ability to listen, communicate ; empathize ; be present ; aware
of nonverbal communication; sensitive to voice quality , responsive to expressions of emotion, turn taking, structure of time
and use of language .
2. Personal beliefs and Attitude- counselors have the capacity to accept others, belief in potential of change, awareness of
ethical and moral choices and sensitive to values held by client and self.
3. Conceptual ability – counselors have the ability to understand and assess client’s problem; to anticipate future problems;
make sense of immediate process in terms of wider conceptual scheme to remember information about the client.
4. Personal Soundness – counselors must have no irrational beliefs that are destructive to counseling relationships, self-
confidence ,capacity to tolerate strong of uncomfortable feelings in relation to the clients, secure personal boundaries, ability
to be a client ; must carry no social prejudice, ethnocentrism and authoritarianism.
5. Mastery of Techniques – counselors must have a knowledge of when and how to carry out specific interventions, ability to
assess effectiveness of the interventions, understanding the rationale behind techniques, possession of wide repertoire of
intervention
6. Ability to understand and work within social system – this would be compromise of awareness of family and work
relationships of client the impact of agency on the clients, the capacity to use support networks and supervision ; sensitivity
to client from different gender, ethnicity , sexual orientation, or age group.
7. Openness to learning and inquiry – counselors must have the capacity to be curious about client’s backgrounds and
problems; being open to new knowledge
Career Opportunities and Areas of Specialization of Counselors
1. Marriage and Family Counseling – refers to the efforts to establish an encouraging relationship with couple or family and
appreciate the complications in the family system.
2. Child and Adolescent Counseling – is a developing area of expertise in counseling profession. The counseling strategies
focus on helping children and adolescents acquire coping skills through promotion of resiliency, positive attachment
relationship, emotional and intellectual intelligence, and other qualities that promote optional development.
3. Group Counseling – is the dynamic field in the counseling profession. Group counseling as a practice can be located in most
counseling programs and became the essential part of counselor’s system. Group counseling offers the following :
opportunities to members to learn from observing other group members ; can functions as helpers and helps ; opportunities
to discover that you others have similar concerns ; members are encouraged to offer help to others ;opportunities to enhance
interpersonal skills; the therapeutic climate created similar as the client’s family origin.
4. Career Counseling –is an evolving and challenging counseling field. This type of counseling aids individual on decisions and
planning concerning their career. The counseling approach includes integrating theory and practice. Adopted Savickas ( 1996
)as cited Nystul ( 20003 ) adopted the model of Wagner ( 1971) on structural analysis of personality to the realm of vocational
psychology. The model consist of vocational career services, occupational placement , vocational guidance , career counseling
, career education , career therapy, and position coaching.
5. School Counseling- refers to the process of reaching out students with concerns on drugs, family and peers or gang
involvement. The job requires sensitivity to individual differences and considers diversity in enhancing educational
perspective. The job requires skills on consultation, counseling’s exceptional students and with the ability to handle problems
such as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, divorced or single parents, dropping out of school.
6. Mental Health Counseling - is manifested in the challenges posed by its clientele with mental disorders. Mental disorders
include serious depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. Mental health counselors have to be inventive, and creative
to address these problems. The job requires patience, humility, kindness and compassion.

Rights and Responsibilities, and Accountabilities of Counselors

Code of ethics help counselors to remind them of their rights, responsibilities and accountabilities in the counseling
profession. The rights, responsibilities and accountabilities of the counselors are based on the counselors associations of Code
of Conduct.
The code of ethics of the counselors is divided into seven sections, namely , (a) counseling relationship, (b) confidentiality
(c) professional responsibility (d) relationships with other professionals , (e) evaluation, assessment, and interpretation, (f)
teaching ,training and supervision (g) research and publication.( Gladding , 2000 ). We shall only presenting in details three
of the seven areas, namely, counseling relationships, confidentiality, and professional responsibility. The following three
tables below provide a sample code of ethics of the American Counseling Association.
Areas Description
The Counseling
Relationships
1. Client welfare Counselor’s primary responsibility is to respect the dignity and promote the welfare of
clients. They are also expected to encourage client’s growth. Counselors and clients are
expected to work together in crafting individual counseling plans consistent with the
client’s circumstances.

2. Respecting Diversity Counselors do not engage in discrimination

based on age, color, culture, disability, ethnic
group, gender, race, religion, sexual
orientation, marital status and socio
economic status. Counselors shall respect
differences and understand the diverse
cultural backgrounds of their clients.

3. Client Rights Counselors shall disclose the purposes, goals,

techniques, procedures, limitations, potential
risks, benefits of the services to be performed
and other pertinent information to the client
throughout the counseling process.
Counselors offer clients the freedom to
choose whether to enter into a counseling
relationship and determine which
professional will provide counseling, except
when the client is unable to give consent.
4. Clients Served by others In cases where the client is receiving services
from another mental health professional, with
clients consent, inform the professional
person already involved to develop an
agreement.
5. Personal Needs and Maintain the clients and avoid actions that seek to meet their personal needs at the
values expense of the clients. Counselors shall be aware of their values, attitudes, beliefs, and
behavior and how these apply in a diverse society and avoid imposing their values on
clients.

6. Dual Relationships Counselors are aware of their influential position over their clients avoid the exploiting the
trust and dependency of the clients. Counselors should not accept as superiors or
subordinates clients’.
7. Sexual Intimacies with Counselors should not have any type of sexual intimacies with clients and do not counsel
Clients persons with whom they have sexual relationship. Counselors should not also engage with
sexual intimacies with their former clients within a minimum of two years.

8. Multiple Clients In cases where counselors agree to provide counseling services to two or more persons
who have a relationship, counselors clarify at the outset which person or persons are
clients and the nature of relationship they will have with each other involved person.

9. Group Work Counselors screen prospective group counseling / therapy participants to determine those
with compatible needs. In group setting, counselors take reasonable precautions to
protect clients from physical or psychological trauma.

10. Fees Prior to entering the counseling relationship, the counselors clearly explain the clients all
financial arrangements related to professional fees.

Areas
Confidentiality
1.Right to Privacy  Counselors respect a client’s right to privacy and avoid illegal and unwarranted
disclosures of unwarranted information.
 The right to privacy may be waived by the clients or their legally recognized
representative.
 The general requirement that the counselors keep the information confidential
does not apply when disclosure is required to prevent clear and imminent danger
to the client or others or when legal requirements demand that confidential
information is be revealed.
 Counselors who received information confirming that a client has a disease
known to be communicable and fatal is justified in disclosing information to an
identifiable third party, who by his/her relationship with the client is at high risk
of contracting the disease.
 When court orders the counselors to release confidential information without
client’s permit, counselors request to the court that the disclosure should not be
required due to potential harm to client or counseling relationship.
2. Group and Families  In group work, counselors clearly define confidentiality and parameters for the
specific group being entered, explain its importance, and discuss difficulties
related to confidentiality involved in group work.
 In family counseling, information about one family cannot be disclosed to another
member without permission.
3. Minor Incompetent  When counseling clients who are minors or individuals who are unable to give
client voluntary, informed consent, parents or guardians may be included in the
counseling process as appropriate.
4. Records  Counselors maintain necessary records for rendering professional services to
their clients and as required by laws, regulations, or agency or institution
procedures.
 Counselors are responsible for securing safety and confidentiality of any
counseling record they create, maintain, transfer, or destroy whether the records
are written, taped, computerized, or stored in any other medium.
 Counselors recognized that counseling records are kept for the benefits of the
clients therefore provide access to record and copies of record when requested
by competent clients unless it contains information that may be misleading or
detrimental to the clients.
 Counselors obtain written permission from clients to disclose or transfer records
to legitimate third parties unless exception to confidentiality exists.
5. Research and Training  Use of data derived from counseling relationships for purposes of training
,research , or publication is confined to content that is disguised to ensure the
anonymity of the individuals involved. Identification of the client involved is
permissible only when the client has reviewed the material and has agreed to its
presentation or publication.
6. Consultation  Information obtained in consulting relationship is discussed for professional
purposes only with persons clearly concerned with the case. Before sharing
information, counselors make efforts to ensure that there defined policies that
effectively protect the confidentiality of information with other agencies serving
the counselors clients.

Areas Description
Professional
Responsibility
1. Standards Knowledge  Counselors have a responsibility to read, understand, and follow the Code of
Ethics and Standards of Practice
2. Professional  Counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence based on
Competence their education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional
credentials and appropriate professional experience. Counselors will
demonstrate a commitment to gain knowledge, personal awareness, sensitivity,
and skills pertinent to working with diverse client population.
 Counselors practice specialty areas new with to them only after appropriate
education, training, and supervised experience. While developing skills in new
specialty area, counselors take step to ensure the competence of their work and
to protect other from possible harm.
 Counselors accept employment only for positions which they are qualified by
education, training, supervise experience, state and national professional
credentials, and appropriate professional experience.
 Counselors continually monitor their effectiveness as professionals and take
steps to improve their skills and knowledge.
 Counselors refrain from offering or accepting professional services when their
physical, mental, or emotional problems are like to harm clients or others.