CHAPTER - 1

INTRODUCTION TO COUNSELING

Topics Covered
Definition of Counseling Guidance and
Counseling Concepts of Counseling

Values and Ethics of Counselling

 DEFINITION OF COUNSELING

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, some of which follow.
Counseling is a profession. 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). The process of certification and licensing and the
adherence to ethical codes assure the public that the counselor
meets minimal educational and professional standards.
Counselors should possess personal qualities of maturity,
empathy, and warmth. Overall, counseling is active and differs
considerably from passively listening to problems.
Counseling deals with personal, social, vocational,
empowerment, and educational concerns. 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.
Counseling is conducted with persons who are considered to
function within the “normal range”. 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.
Counseling is a process in which clients learn how to make
decisions and formulate new ways of behaving, feeling, and
thinking. 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).
Counseling encompasses various subspecialties. 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.

Thus, counseling can be more precisely defined as relatively short-

term, interpersonal, theory-based processes of helping persons who
are basically psychologically healthy resolve developmental and
situational problems. Counseling activities are guided by ethical
and legal standards and go through distinct stages from initiation
to termination. Personal, social, vocational, and educational
matters are all areas of concern; and the profession encompasses a
number of subspecialties. A practitioner must complete a required
course of study on either the master’s or doctoral level.

Important goals of counseling are as: Facilitating behavioral

change; Enhancing one’s coping skill; Promoting decision
making; Improving relationships; and Facilitating one’s
potentials.

Facilitating Behavior Change: 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.
Enhancing Coping Skills: 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.
Promoting Decision Making: 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.
Improving Relationships: 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.
Facilitating the Client’s Potential: 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
Self Assessment Activity
What do you think the definition of counseling should be?
Counseling is a developmental process, in which one individual (the counselor) provides to another
individual or group (the client), guidance and encouragement, challenge and inspiration in creatively
managing and resolving practical, personal and relationship issues, in achieving goals, and in self-
realization.

GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

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.

Guidance and Counseling is defined as a planned and organized

work aimed at assisting the trainee to understand himself/herself
and his/her abilities and develop his/her potentialities in order to
solve problems and achieve psychological, social, educational and
professional compatibility, and also to achieve objectives within
the framework of teachings.

Guidance is a kind of advice or help given to the individual

especially students, on matters like choosing course of study or
career, work or preparing for vocation, from a person who is
superior in the respective field or an expert. It is the process of
guiding, supervising or directing a person for a particular course
of action. The process aims at making students or individuals
aware of the rightness or wrongness of their choices and
importance of their decision, on which their future depends. The
term counseling is defined as a therapy, in which a person (client)
discusses freely about his/her problems and share feelings, with
the counselor, who advises or helps the client in dealing with the
problems. It focuses on a person’s strengths, assets,
environmental interactions, educational background, career
development and personality. It aims at discussing those problems
which are related to personal or socio-psychological issues,
causing emotional pain or mental instability that makes you feel
uneasy. The counselors listens the problems of client with
empathy and discuss it, in a confidential environment. Counseling
is not just giving advice or making a judgment, but helping the
client to see clearly the root of problems and identify the potential
solutions to the issues. The counselor also changes the viewpoint
of the client, to help him/her take the right decision or choose a
course of action. It will also help the client to remain intuitive and
positive in the future.
Guidance and Counseling complement each other though there
are some differences. Guidance is a group of planned services that
include counseling, it provides the trainee with miscellaneous
information to upgrade his/her feeling of responsibility,
understand himself/herself and know his/her abilities and provide
guidance services to trainees. Counseling on the other hand is the
procedural aspect of guidance; it is therefore the interaction that
comes as a result of the vocational relationship between a
specialized counselor and his/her client where the counselor
assists the client to understand himself/herself and his/her abilities
and talents to achieve self and environmental compatibility in
order to attain the appropriate degree of psychological health in
light of the techniques and specialized skills of the guidance
process.

The concept of guidance and counseling reflect a common

meaning that includes awareness, assistance and change of
behavior to the better, but still there is a difference between the
two concepts -
 An advice or a relevant piece of information given by a
superior, to resolve a problem or overcome from difficulty, is
known as guidance. Counseling refers to a professional advice
given by a counselor to an individual to help him/her in
overcoming from personal or psychological problems.
 Guidance is preventive in nature, whereas counseling tends to
be healing, curative or remedial.
 Guidance assists the person in choosing the best alternative.
But counseling tends to change the perspective, to help him/her
get the solution by himself/ herself.
 Guidance is a comprehensive process that has an external
approach. On the other hand, counseling focuses on in-depth
and inward analysis of the problem, until client understand and
overcome from it completely.
 Guidance is taken on education and career related issues
whereas counseling is taken when the problem is related to
personal and socio-psychological issues.
 Guidance is given by a guide who can be any person superior
or an expert in a particular field. As opposed to counseling,
which is provided by counselors, who possess high level of
skill and undergone through professional training.
 Guidance can be open and so the level of privacy is less.
Unlike counseling, wherein complete secrecy is maintained.
 Guidance can be given to an individual or group of individuals
at a time. On the contrary, counseling is always one to one.
 In the guidance, the guide takes the decision for the client. In
contrast to counseling, where the counselor empowers the
client to take decisions on his/her own.
It is clear that guidance and counseling are two different terms.
The guidance aims at giving solutions while counseling aims at
finding problems, working over it and then resolving it. However,
both the process attempts to solve the problems of the client
whereby the participation of both client and the expert should be
there.

Table 1.1
Comparison Chart between Guidance and Counseling

Basis for Guidance Counseling

Comparis
on
Meaning Guidance refers to an Counseling refers to a
advice or a relevant piece professional advice given
of information provided by a counselor to an
by a superior, to resolve a individual to help him in
problem or overcome overcoming from personal
from or
difficulty. psychological problems.
Nature Preventive. Remedial and Curative.
Approach Comprehensive and In-depth and Introverted.
Extroverted.
What It assists the person in It tends to change the
it choosing the best perspective, to help
does? alternative. him/her get the solution
by
himself/ herself.
Deals Education and career Personal and socio-
with related psychological
issues. issues.
Provided Any person superior or A person who possesses
by expert. high level
of skill and professional
training.
Privacy Open and less private. Confidential.
Mode One to one or one to One to one.
many.
Decision By guide. By the client.
making

CONCEPTS OF COUNSELING

Counseling takes place in the context of a helping relationship in

which the counselor and the client work together to resolve a
problem, change behavior or foster personal growth and
awareness. Although clients may have a number of helping
relationships with friends or family, the counseling relationship is
different in a number of ways -
 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.

Who Is A Counselor?
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?
VALUES OF COUNSELLING
Certain values are considered core to counseling and are reflected and expressed in
the practice of counseling. All counselors are expected to embrace these and
similar set of core values as essential and integral to their work. These values are:

Respect for human dignity. This means that the counselor must provide a client
unconditional positive regard, compassion, non-judgmental attitude, empathy, and
trust.

Partnership. A counselor has to foster partnerships with the various disciplines

that come together to support an integrated healing that encompasses various
aspects such as the physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual. These
relationships should be of integrity, sensitivity, and openness to ensure health,
healing, and growth of clients.
Autonomy. This entails respect for confidentiality and trust in a relationship of
counseling and ensuring a safe environment that is needed for healing. It also
means that healing or any advice cannot be imposed on a client.

 Responsible caring. This primarily means respecting the potential of

every human being to change and to continue learning throughout his/her
life, and especially in the environment of counseling.

 Personal integrity. Counselors must reflect personal integrity, honesty,

and truthfulness with clients.

 Social justice. This means accepting and respecting the diversity of the

clients, the diversify of individuals, their cultures, languages, lifestyles,
identities, ideologies, intellectual capacities, personalities, and
capabilities regardless of the presented issues.
From such core values, the Ethical Principles of Counseling are broadened.:
The following principles contextualize the core values in action. They form
the foundation for ethical practice as expressed by The New Zealand
Association of Counselors (Ethical Principles for Counselors).

Counselors shall:

1. Act with care and respect for individual and cultural differences and the
diversity of human experience.

2. Avoid doing harm in all their professional work.

3. Respect the confidences with which they are entrusted.

4. Promote the safety and well-being of individuals, families, and

communities.

5. Seek to increase the range of choices and opportunities for clients.

6. Be honest and trustworthy in all their professional relationships.

7. Practice within the scope of their competence.

8. Treat colleagues and other professionals with respect.

What is Goal Setting in Counseling?

As a counselor, it is the job to set expectations with clients. There are many
different perceptions of what a counselor can do and what someone can expect
from the counseling experience.

Counseling theorists don’t always agree on what is an appropriate counseling goal,

however, there are some common threads when it comes to standard goals you
should be including as part of your practice.

The five most common goals of counseling include:

 1. Facilitating behavioral change.
2. Helping improve the client’s ability to both establish and maintain
relationships.
3. Helping enhance the client’s effectiveness and their ability to cope.
4. Helping promote the decision-making process while facilitating client
potential.
5. Development.

These goals are guidelines when it comes to helping your clients make positive
changes. A big part of the counseling process involves enhancing your client’s
ability to cope.

Learned coping skills and patterns are developed throughout our lives, but they
may not always work.

Goals are important for everyone, whether they are in therapy or not. Goals help
you navigate through life whether they are personal goals, professional goals, a
goal to replace a bad habit or simply a goal for achieving success.

Research shows that therapy is much more useful when it involves having a set
plan for what you hope to achieve or accomplish. Setting goals can also give the
therapist a better grasp of client growth as they proceed with therapy.

According to the Grief Recovery Center, studies show that those who set useful
goals during their therapy sessions typically experience less stress and anxiety
overall as a result of being able to concentrate better. They often feel happier as
well.

Before starting any kind of counseling or treatment plan, it’s also important to set
the stage by asking your clients:

 What they want to get out of the counseling or therapeutic process.

 What they believe is inhibiting them from achieving this.
  What their expectations are.
 What their motivations are for making said changes.

EVOLUTION OF COUNSELLING

Counselling history can be traced back to tribal times where people would came
together in a group and share their experiences and sometimes their dreams. As
civilisation developed, religion offered a type of counselling, usually by priests
who would listen and advise parishioners on their problems (they still do).

In the  1890’s, German neurologist Sigmund Freud developed a theory later to be

called psychoanalysis, which allowed individuals to tell their problems to a
‘psychoanalyst,’ an individual trained in interpreting the ‘subconscious’ , that part
of our psyche that we are not aware of but influences what we do. Freud played an
important part in the history of counselling, but the actual word “counselling” did
not come into everyday language until the 1960’s.

Sigmund Freud
Counselling really took off after the Second World War, in 1950’s America. Most
of the therapies we hear about today can trace their origins back to a handful of
psychologists and psychiatrists (some of whom we will look at in this guide) who
developed techniques and theories, sometimes referred to as ‘schools’ of therapy.

The word ‘school’ in counselling does not mean a building or campus. Rather it
refers to how psychologists believe human beings develop their view of the world
they live in and how they cope with it. The three schools are Psychoanalytical,
Behaviourist, and Humanistic, which we will look at later in this guide.

There have been many developments in counselling since the 1950’s. A lot of
research has taken place and this has given us a better understanding of what
makes human beings think and act in certain ways. However most psychologists
and counsellors would agree that we are a long way from fully understanding what
makes each human being unique.

It is worth considering that counselling has rapidly developed since Freud's time
with hew ideas an approaches emerging from the late 1800s to the present day.

Counselling History -Timeline

Counselling as a profession started to emerge in the 1900s when psychologists and

medical professionals tried to understand what factors caused low mood and
depression and how it could be treated

Below are significant milestones in the history of Counselling and psychotherapy

 1886 – Sigmund Freud started practising in Vienna. He went on to

develop Psychoanalysis  
 1951 – Carl Rogers outlined his person-centred approach in his
book, Client-Centered Therapy.
 1951 – Fritz Perls, Paul Goodman, and Ralph
Hefferline.outlined Gestalt therapy in the book  Excitement and Growth in
the Human Personality
 1954 – Abraham Maslow helped to found Humanistic psychology and later
developed his famous Hierarchy of Needs.
 1955 – Albert Ellis began the first form of cognitive behavioural therapy
which he called Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy ( REBT)
  1959 –Viktor Frankl published the English edition of his book  Man's Search
for Meaning, which provided an existential account of his experiences as a
prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The book also
outlines an existential approach to counselling known as Logotherapy
 1967 Aaron Beck developed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
(CBT) suggesting that in terms of depression the way we think contributes
to our emotional well being.
 

Post-Modern Approaches to Counselling

The term 'Post Modern' in counselling refers to questioning the assumptions of

previous theories. Proposing there is no truly objective way of measuring mental
well being. They are three types of postmodern therapies:

 Narrative Therapy was developed through the 1970s and 1980s, by

Michael White and David Epston who proposed that cultural influences and
unconscious processes shape human behaviour.
 Solution-Focused Therapy is a future-focused, goal-oriented approach
which helps clients replace problems for solutions. American researchers
Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg developed the theory in the late 1970s.
 Collaborative Language systems were developed by Harlene Anderson
Harry Goolishian during the 1980s. They propose the client works through
their difficulties in the conversations they have with