Directive Counselling

In this type of approach the counsellor plays an important role. A

major goal is to replace the emotional behaviour of the individual
with deliberately rationale behaviour, although he avoids dictatorial
advice. This approach is also known as counsellor centered. Under
this process the counsellor plans the counselling process, his work is
to analyze the problem, identify the triggers, identify the exact
nature of the problem and provide various options.

Williamson (2011) stated that this approach is good to address the

problems relating to educational and vocational adjustment. This
type of Counselling is a concept, where educational and vocational
guidance relate to the personality dynamics and interpersonal
relationship. This type of Counselling is more useful where the
individual wants information and advice for choice of a career. This
approach does not focus its attention on personality development as
such.
Features of Directive Counselling

Directive Counselling features are

1. During the interview attention is focused upon a particular problem
and possibilities for its solution and the counsellor plays a more
active role than the client or pupil.
2. The pupil or client makes the decision, but the counsellor does all
that he can to get the counsellee or client makes a decision in
keeping with his diagnosis.
3. The counsellor tries to direct the thinking of the counsellee or client
by informing, explaining, interpreting and advising him.
Steps of Directive Counselling
 Williamson has given six steps Directive Counselling:
1. Analysis: It includes collection of information about the individual
which can be collected through Structured Interviews, Case History
Methods, Interaction with Family Members, Friends etc.
2. Synthesis: After the data collection, the information will be
organized in the logical manner to analyze the individual in terms of
his qualifications, assets, potentials, liability adjustment, cultural
background, habits etc.
3. Diagnosis: The interpretation will be based on the nature and causes
of the problems.
4. Prognosis: Prediction is made based on the future development of
the problem.
5. Counselling: The Counselling is to bring about adjustment and
readjustment to the client based on his problem. During Counselling
sessions the client attitudes and interest will be considered. It
emphasis that the client will develop positive direction which leads
to success and in turn could lead to further efforts and motivations.
6. Follow-up: It is extremely important because the client will be able
to solve immediate problems but new problems may occur or the
original problem may reoccur, so the Follow-up is extremely
necessary. The Counsellor has to make the client understand and
accept his strength, weakness and faults.

Directive teaching is the core in all the cognitive approaches.

In Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), previously
called Rational Therapy and Rational Emotive Therapy, the
client together with the therapist, in a structured active directive
manner, often work through a set of target problems and establish a
set of therapeutic goals. In these target problems, situational
dysfunctional emotions, behaviours and beliefs are assessed in
regards to the client’s values and goals. After working through these
problems, the client learns to generalize insights to other relevant
situations. In many cases after going through a client’s different
target problems, the therapist is interested in examining possible
core beliefs and more deep rooted philosophical evaluations and
schemas that might account for a wider array of problematic
emotions and behaviours. In REBT, the first step often is that the
client acknowledges the problems, accepts emotional responsibility
for these and has willingness and determination to change.

Basic Assumptions of Directive Counselling

According to Willy, the basic assumptions of Directive
Counselling are

a. Competency in Giving Advice: The counsellor possesses the

best training experience and information. He is more competent to
provide an advice to problem.

b. Counselling as an Intellectual Process: A client’s intellectual

is not destroyed as a result of maladjustment. Hence Counselling is
primarily an intellectual process. It stresses upon the intellectual
aspects of a person instead of emotional aspects of the personality.

c. Counselling Objectives as Problem Solving Situation: The

Objective of Counselling is achieved through problem solving
situation.

d. Client’s Incapability of Solving the Process: The counsellor

does not possess the capability for solving the problem always.

The counsellor plays the vital role in this counselling process. He

is the pivot of the process and the leader of the situation. The
counsellor does most of the talking problems and individual is not
the focus. The counsellee in fact, works under the counsellor and not
 with him. The counsellor tries to direct the thinking of the
counsellee or client by informing, explaining, interpreting and
sometimes advising also.

The counsellor collects all possible information about the

counsellees and analyses them for an adequate understanding. He
summarizes and organizes the data so as to understand the abilities
and limitations, adjustment and maladjustment of the counsellees.
He formulates conclusions about the nature and causes of his
problems. He predicts the future development of his problems.

He prescribes what the counsellees should do to solve his

problems and follows the consequences or effects of his
prescription. Directive counselling is also called the prescriptive
counselling because the counsellor prescribes the solutions or the
course of action for the pupils.

Advantages of Directive Counselling

The advantages of Directive Counselling are

1. It saves time.
2. It focuses more on the problem and the person.
3. The counsellor can look the client directly.
4. It focuses more on the intellectual aspects of the person than
emotional aspect of the personality.
5. Because of the availability of the Counsellor, the client feels very
happy.

Limitations of Directive Counselling

1. In this process the client is more dependent. He is also less able to
solve new problems of adjustment.
2. The client is dependent on the counsellor.
3. If the client doesn’t develop some attitude through experiences, he
cannot make any decision himself.
4. The counsellor fails in serving the client not to commit the mistakes
in future
In Directive Counselling, the counsellor initiates discussion or
approaches the client based on a direct referral from another
practitioner. In Non Directive Counselling, the client is aware of the
problem and seeks help from the counsellor. Clients tend to be far
more likely to become defensive and resist problem solving under
the conditions of Directive Counselling. For this reason, counsellors
using this method need to be especially sensitive to all verbal and
non verbal behaviours and to be supportive while attempting to
explore the issue at hand.

Directive Counselling techniques are used for Remedial

Counselling sessions to address poor performance when the client is
unaware or unwilling to address it to themselves. Non Directive
Counselling is ordinarily the preferred Counselling method when
dealing with clients who need to plan and set the goals for
themselves.

Non Directive Counselling

It is developed in the 1930s by the American Psychologist Carl

Rogers. Client Centered Therapy departed from the typically formal,
detached role of the therapist emphasized in psychoanalysis and
other forms of treatment. Rogers believed that therapy should take
place in a supportive environment created by a close personal
relationship between client and therapist. Rogers’s introduction of
the term “client” rather than “patient” expresses his rejection of the
traditionally hierarchical relationship between therapist and client
and his view of them as equals. In Person Centered Therapy, the
client determines the general direction of therapy, while the
therapist seeks to increase the client’s insight and self understanding
through informal clarifying questions.

Beginning in the 1960s, person centered therapy became

associated with the human potential movement. This movement,
dating back to the beginning of the 1900s, reflected an altered
perspective of human nature. Previous psychological theories
viewed human beings as inherently selfish and corrupt. For
example, Freud’s theory focused on sexual and aggressive
tendencies as the primary forces driving human behaviour. The
Human Potential Movement defined human nature as inherently
good. From its perspective, human behaviour is motivated by a
drive to achieve one’s fullest potential.

A basic assumption in the Rogerian client centered point of view

is that humans are basically rational, socialized and realistic.
Individuals, if their needs for positive regard from others and for
positive self regard are satisfied, possess an inherent tendency
toward realizing their potential for growth and self actualization.
Counselling releases the potentials and capacities of the individual.
One of the most important characteristics of the Rogerian theory is
the relationship it suggests between the counsellor and the client.
The underlying assumption is that the client cannot be helped
simply by listening to the knowledge the counsellor possesses or to
the counsellor’s explanation of the client’s personality or behaviour.

The term Self Actualization is derived from the human potential

movement. It refers to the tendency of all human beings to move
forward, grow, and reach their fullest potential. When humans move
toward self actualization, they are also prosocial; that is, they tend
to be concerned for others and behave in honest, dependable and
constructive ways. The concept of self actualization focuses on
human strengths rather than human deficiencies. According to
Rogers, self actualization can be blocked by an unhealthy self
concept (negative or unrealistic attitudes about oneself).

Rogers adopted terms such as “Person Centered Approach” and

“Way of Being” and began to focus on personal growth and self
actualization. He also pioneered the use of encounter groups,
adapting the sensitivity training (T-group) methods developed by
Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) and other researchers at the National
Training Laboratories in the 1950s.

Person Centered Therapy is considered one of the major

therapeutic approaches, along with Psychoanalytic and Cognitive
Behavioural therapy, Rogers’s influence is felt in schools of therapy
other than his own. The concepts and methods he developed are
used in an eclectic fashion by many different types of counsellors
and therapists.

Process

Rogers believed that the most important factor in successful

therapy was not the therapist’s skill or training, but rather his or her
attitude. Three interrelated attitudes on the part of the therapist are
central to the success of person centered therapy: congruence;
unconditional positive regard and empathy. Congruence refers to
the therapist’s openness and genuineness – the willingness to relate
to clients without hiding behind a professional facade. Therapists
who function in this way have all their feelings available to them in
therapy sessions and may share significant emotional reactions with
their clients. Congruence does not mean, however, that therapists
disclose their own personal problems to clients in therapy sessions
or shift the focus of therapy to themselves in any other way.
 Unconditional Positive Regard means that the therapist accepts the
client totally for who he or she is without evaluating or censoring,
and without disapproving of particular feelings, actions, or
characteristics. The therapist communicates this attitude to the client
by a willingness to listen without interrupting, judging, or giving
advice. This attitude of positive regard creates a nonthreatening
context in which the client feels free to explore and share painful,
hostile, defensive, or abnormal feelings without worrying about
personal rejection by the therapist.

The third necessary component of a therapist’s attitude is empathy.

Carl Rogers defined empathy as “entering the private perceptual
world of the other /…/ being sensitive /…/ living in his/her life /…/
sensing meanings of which he/she is scarcely aware /…/
communicating the sensing’s of his/her world /…/ checking with
him/her as to the accuracy of sensing’s”. The therapist tries to
appreciate the client’s situation from the client’s point of view,
showing an emotional understanding of and sensitivity to the
client’s feelings throughout the therapy session. In other systems of
therapy, empathy with the client would be considered a preliminary
step to enabling the therapeutic work to proceed; but in person
centered therapy, it actually constitutes a major portion of the
therapeutic work itself. A primary way of conveying this empathy is
by active listening that shows careful and perceptive attention to
what the client is saying. In addition to standard techniques, such as
eye contact, that are common to any good listener, person centered
therapists employ a special method called reflection, which consists
of paraphrasing and/or summarizing what a client has just said. This
technique shows that the therapist is listening carefully and
accurately, and gives clients an added opportunity to examine their
own thoughts and feelings as they hear them repeated by another
person. Generally, clients respond by elaborating further on the
thoughts they have just expressed.

According to Rogers, when these three attitudes (congruence,

unconditional positive regard, and empathy) are conveyed by a
therapist, clients can freely express themselves without having to
worry about what the therapist thinks of them. The therapist does
not attempt to change the client’s thinking in any way. Even
negative expressions are validated as legitimate experiences.
Because of this non directive approach, clients can explore the
issues that are most important to them – not those considered
important by the therapist. Based on the principle of self
actualization, this undirected, uncensored self exploration allows
clients to eventually recognize alternative ways of thinking that will
promote personal growth. The therapist merely facilitates self
actualization by providing a climate in which clients can freely
engage in focused, in depth self exploration.

Basic Assumptions of Non Directive Counselling

1.Tendency towards Actualization: A persons’ inherent

tendency includes growth, adjustment, socialization, freedom etc.
This directional tendency is termed as ‘Actualizing Tendency’.

2.Belief in the Dignity of Man: Rogers believes in the dignity of

the man. He considers the person capable of taking decisions and he
accepts his right to do so.

3.Man is Trustworthy: Rogers considers the person basically

good and reliable. He also knows that the person behaves in an
unreliable manner too. A person is born with some urges which
must be controlled if healthy personality development is desired.
 4. Man is Wiser than His Intellect: When some organization is
functioning independently and effectively, then the ‘awareness’ is a
very small part or component of the entire process. When the
organization feels some difficulty in its system of functioning, this
awareness becomes more sharpened and focused.
According to Snyder the assumptions of Non Directive
Counselling are

i.The client has right to select the goals of his life.

ii.If the client is given an opportunity, he will select the goals
which may possibly provide him great happiness.
iii.Emotional disturbance inhibits a person’s proper adjustment
initially.
iv.In the Counselling situation, one should reach very quickly at a
point from where the client may be able to start functioning
independently.

Steps in Non Directive Counselling

Carl Rogers proposed the steps for Non Directive Counselling.

They are

1. Defining the Problematic Situation

2. Free Expression of Feelings
3. Development of Insight
4. Classification of Positive and Negative Feelings
5. Termination of Counselling

Characteristics of Non Directive Counselling

1. It is a Client Centered Counselling.
2. It is based on the principle that the client has so much capacity and
drive that will help him to grow to face the situations in reality.
3. The counsellor is passive to the maximum.
4. It reduces psychological tensions.
5. Defensiveness falls down.
6. There will be closeness between the picture of the self drawn by the
client and a desirable and an ideal picture of his own.
7. Client’s psychological adjustment improves.
8. Client’s behaviour is considered to be emotionally matured.
9. Client is accepted for his originality and he is free to express his
attitude.

Axlines (1947) proved that the reading improvement speeds up as a

result of Client Centered Play Way Methods in the primary schools
even if special reading instructions are not given. This school of
thought is just reverse to that of Directive Counselling.

Advantages of Non Directive Counselling

1. The therapy concentrates on here and now, and encourages the
client to think in present time.
2. It recognizes and values the client.
3. It encourages self expression, self awareness, self development and
a greater understanding of self.
ECLECTIC COUNSELING
Eclectic counseling is defined as the synthesis and combination of
directive and non-directive counseling. It represents a middle
status between the two extremes represented by the ‘non-directive’
technique on one hand and the ‘directive’ technique on the other.
In eclectic counseling, the counselor is neither too active as in the
directive counseling nor too passive as in the non-directive
counseling. He just follows the middle path between these two.
The chief advocate of this type of counseling is Thorne. In eclectic
counseling, the needs of a person and his personality are studied by
the counselor. After this the counselor selects those techniques,
which will be useful for the person. The main techniques used are
reassurance giving information, case history, testing etc.
In eclectic counseling the counselor first takes into consideration
the personality and need of the counselee. He selects the directive
or non-directive technique that seems to serve the purpose best.
The counselor may start with the directive technique. When the
situation demands, he may switch over to the non-directive
counseling and vice-versa. An attempt is made to adjust the
technique to the requirements of the situation and the individual.

Steps in Eclectic counseling

The leading exponent of the Eclectic counseling Thorne, suggested
the following in the process;
1) Diagnosis of the cause.
2) Analysis of the problem.
3) Preparation of a tentative plan for modifying factors.
4) Securing effective conditions for counseling.
5) Interviewing and stimulating the client to develop his own
resources and to assume its responsibility for trying new modes of
adjustment.
6) Proper handling of any related problems which may contribute to
adjustment.

Assumptions of Eclectic Counseling

1) In general, passive methods should be used whenever possible.
2) Active methods may be used with specific indications.
3) In the early stages when the client is telling his story, passive
techniques are usually the methods of choice. This permits
emotional release.
4) Until simple methods have failed, complicated methods should
not be attempted.
5) All counseling should be client centered.
6) Every client should be given an opportunity to resolve his
problems indirectly. Inability of the client to progress through
therapy as using passive methods alone is an indication for utilizing
more directive methods.
7) Directive methods are usually indicated in situational mal
adjustment where a solution cannot be achieved with out co-
operation from other persons.

Characteristic of Eclectic Counseling

1) In this, objective and coordinating methods are used.
2) In the beginning of counseling, client-active methods are used
and the counselor remains passive.
3) In this, more importance is assigned to the job efficiency and
treatment.
4) In this, the principle of low expenditure is emphasized.
5) In such counseling, for the use of all the methods and
techniques, the professional efficiency and skill of the counselor are
must.
6) Keeping in mind the need of the client, it is decided whether
directive method or non-directive methods should be used.
7) Making an opportunity available to the client is insisted so that
he may find himself the solution of the problem.

Disadvantages of Eclectic Counseling

1) Some people are of the view that eclectic counseling is vague,
opportunistic and superficial.
2) Both directive and non-directive counseling cannot be mixed
together.
3) In this, the question arises how much freedom should be given to
the client? For this there is non-definite rule.
4) The problem with an eclectic orientation is that counselors often
do more harm than good if they have little or no understanding
about what is helping the client.
Hierarchy of Eclectic Practices
McBride and Martin advocate a hierarchy of eclectic practices and
discuss the importance of having a sound theoretical base as a
guide. The lowest or first level of eclecticism is really syncretism –
a sloppy unsystematic process of putting unrelated clinical
concepts together. It is encouraged when graduate students are
urged to formulate their own theories of counseling without first
having experienced how tested models work. The second level of
eclecticism is traditional. It incorporates “an orderly combination of
compatible features from diverse sources harmonious whole“.
Theories are examined in greater depth. On a third level,
eclecticism is described as professional or theoretical or as
theoretical integration.
This type requires that counselor master at least two theories
before trying to make any combinations. A final level of eclecticism
is called technical eclecticism. In this approach, procedures from
different theories are selected and used in treatment.

CONCLUSION
F.C. Thorne, who is the exponent of this view, finds that it is
possible for a counselor to alternate between directive and non-
directive methods even in the same interview without disrupting
the non-directive permissive relationship with the client. He selects
the techniques according to the requirements of the situation and
the individual. The counselor must be competent and proficient in
the use of all available methods. The validity of the results is
determined by the skill with which any method is used. The critical
factor is not what method is used but rather the skill with which it
is used.