WEEK 4 - LESSON 1

The Clientele and

Audiences of Counseling
At the end of this lesson, the students should be
able to:

Describe the clientele and audiences of counseling

(HUMSS_DIASS12-Id-11)
 describe the characteristics of clientele and
audiences of counseling;
 explain the needs of various types of clientele and
audiences of counseling; and
 analyze the importance of the client perspective in a
counseling process.
Discovery Concept:
 Voluntary Clients - those who opted to
voluntarily seek assistance of the worker or the
services of the agencies due to problems or
difficulty which they think they cannot do it on
their own.
 Involuntary Clients – those individuals in
need who may not even consider asking help
because they think that they are doing fine and
will survive somehow or they are unaware of
the agencies that can provide them
help/assistance.
 Clientele - refers to a class or group of persons
who are receiving services from a professional
therapist.
 Counseling - Process of assisting and guiding
clients, especially by trained persons on a
professional basis to resolve especially
personal, social, or psychological problems.
 Reality - is the realistic and objective
perception of existing condition or situation.
 Counselor - In Psychology, the Professional
Psychologist to help people with physical,
emotional, and mental health issues improve
their sense of well-being, alleviate feelings of
distress and resolve crisis.
 Client - It refers to a person who is receiving
services from a therapist or mental health
doctors. The term client is often used
interchangeably with the word patients.
 Audience - Individuals and groups of people who
receive service from various counseling
professions. These individuals and groups vary in
their needs and context where they avail of
counseling services.
 Neurotic - is a long-term tendency to be in
negative state. People with neuroticism tend to
have more depressed moods, they suffer from
feelings of guilt, envy, anger and anxiety more
frequently and more severely than other
individuals.
 Psychotic - This is a disorder for more severe
mental disorder that caused abnormal
thinking and perceptions.
 Personal Disorder - It involves long term
patterns of thought and behaviors that are
unhealthy and inflexible. The behaviors cause
serious problems with relationships and works.
People with personality disorder have trouble
dealing with everyday stresses.
 Neuroticism - is a personality trait involving
a long-term tendency to be in a negative or
anxious emotional state.
Clientele and Audiences in
Counseling
Individuals and groups of people who
receive service from various counseling
professions constitute the clientele and
audience. These individuals and groups
vary in their needs and context where
they avail of counseling services.
Characteristics of the
Clientele and Audiences of
Counseling
The clientele and audiences of counseling are
normal people. They are not in need of clinical
or mental help. They may be the youth in need
of guidance at critical moments of their growth,
anyone in need of assistance in realizing a
change in behavior or attitude, or simply
seeking to achieve a goal. What the audience
normally calls for in counseling is application or
development of social skills, effective
communication, spiritual direction, decision-
making, and career choices.
Sometimes, people need to cope with crisis.
Other clientele and audiences of counseling
may be people in need of premarital and
marital counseling, grief, and loss (divorce,
death, or amputation), domestic violence and
other types of abuse, or coping with terminal
illness, death and dying.
Needs of Various Types of
Clientele and Audiences of
Counseling:
a. The Individual as Client of Counseling

b. The Group and Organization as

Client of Counseling

c. The Community as Client of Counseling

Needs of Various Types of
Clientele and Audiences of
Counseling
a. The Individual as Client of Counseling
The individual who needs to be helped to
manage well a life-changing situation or
personal problem or crisis and other support
needs may undergo counseling as an
individual. This is the common type of
counseling: the individualized type.
 The individual needs capacitation to be able
to manage well their unique circumstances,
which may be very difficult to endure alone.
Problems like alcoholism, loss of job, divorce,
imprisonment, and rehabilitation can be a cause
of shame and embarrassment. Without
acquiring enough strength and ability to go
through such life experience, people are
vulnerable and may come out worse, even while
simply going through natural life transitions like
retirement and growing old.
b. The Group and Organization as Client of
Counseling
Groups exist in communities, organizations
and students in schools, teachers in school and
departments in workplaces and such an entity
can undergo group counseling to meet
counseling needs on that level. The needs can
range from desire to reduce conflict or manage
it, become more productive as a team or work
better together. Some of the group processes
and procedures resemble those that are applied
to individuals. However, some are very unique
to groups and organizational context.
c. The Community as Client of Counseling
When people experience something
collectively, which may be socially troubling and
constitute the danger of blocking their collective
capacity to move on, counseling is necessary to
be undertaken on a community level.
In South Africa, truth and reconciliation
commission were sought to help restoration of
the South African communities. Likewise, in the
post genocide Ruanda, a similar approach was
done to help restore trust and confidence in
communities that were brutally disrupted by
civil war and mass killing.
1. Individual – generally works on individual
who is to be assisted to fit in a larger
environment calling for change.

2. Group/Organizations – Group of people

existing with similar or common identity:

 Gay- Sexually
attracted to someone
who is the same sex
 Lesbians - Relating to homosexuality between
females
*** Take Note: Gays and Lesbians are now part
of the LGBTQ group.

 Migrants - A person who goes from one place

to another specially to find work.
 Women - Adult female human
being

Abused or neglected

 Abused or neglected Children

Subjected to harmful or improper
treatment

 Elderly - Old or rather old

 Pensioners - Persons who receive
or live on a pension

 Veteran - Man or a woman

who serves in the military
and is retired already

 Military - The protector of

the state
 Prisoners - A person who is
kept in a prison, mostly due to
a crime. We classify them as
groups because they form
collectiveness in terms of
services they must retrieve.
3.Community - it is a group of people who live
in
same area such as city, town, or
neighborhood.
Types of Special Counseling:
1. People who abuse drugs
2. People who use tobacco
3. People who abuse alcohol
4. Women
5. Older Adults
6. People with AIDS
7. Victims of Abuse
8. Gay Men and Lesbian
Women