Lesson 2: Professionals and practitioners in counseling

“Counseling is a helping profession” – Mitchelle and Gibson

Counseling as a Profession: Its Roles, functions, and competencies

Roles/Functions
Individual Assessment - Seeks to identify the characteristics and potential of every
client; promotes the client’s self-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 and Guidance – Groups are means of providing organized and
planned assistance to individuals for an array of 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 Follow Up – A service of school counseling programs with emphasis on
educational placements in course and 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 client.
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 Accountability
- Evaluation – means of assessing the effectiveness of counselor’s activities.
- Accountability – an outgrowth of demand that schools and other tax-supported
institutions be held accountable for their actions.
Prevention – 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 COUNSELLING

1. Marriage and family counseling
- involves the entire family, rather than just the couple or individual
- Focus to help family members improve communication, solve family problems,
understand and handle special family situations including job loss, bullying,
divorce, death, serious physical or mental problem.

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 - 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.
4. Career Counseling - This type of counseling aids individual on decisions and
planning concerning their career.
 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.
6. Mental Health Counseling - 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.

Area: 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.
4. Clients served by others - In cases where the client is receiving services from
another mental health professional, with client’s consent, inform the professional
person already involved to develop an agreement.
5. Personal needs and Values - Maintain the clients and avoid actions that seek to
meet their personal needs at the expense of the clients.
6. Sexual Intimacies with Clients - Counselors should not have any type of sexual
intimacies with clients and do not counsel persons with whom they have sexual
relationship.
7. 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.
8. 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.
 9. Fees - Prior to entering the counseling relationship, the counselors clearly explain
the clients all financial arrangements related to professional fees.

Area: Confidentiality
1. Right to Privacy - Counsellors respect a client’s right to privacy and avoid illegal
and unwarranted disclosures of unwarranted information.
2. Group and Families - In family counseling, information about one family cannot
be disclosed to another member without permission.
3. Minor Incompetent Client - When counseling clients who are minors or
individuals who are unable to give voluntary, informed consent, parents or
guardians may be included in the counseling process as appropriate
4. 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.
5. Records – Counselors maintain necessary records
- Counselors are responsible for securing safety and confidentiality of any
counseling record
- Counselors obtain written permission from clients to disclose or transfer records
6. Consultation - Information obtained in consulting relationship is discussed for
professional purposes only with persons clearly concerned with the case.

Area: Professional Responsibility

1. Standards Knowledge - Counselors have a responsibility to read, understand, and
follow the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
2. Professional Competence
- Counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence
- Counselors practice specialty areas new with to them only after appropriate
education, training,
- Counselors accept employment only for positions which they are qualified and
supervised 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.

Chapter 2: Counseling

Characteristics:
 Neurotic Disorder – a long-term tendency to be in negative emotional 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. Neuroticism is the state of being neurotic.
  Psychotic – Psychotic Disorders are severe mental disorders that cause abnormal
thinking and perceptions. People with psychoses loses touch with reality. Two of
the main symptoms are delusions and hallucinations.
 Personality Disorder – involves long-term patterns of thoughts and behaviors
that are unhealthy and inflexible. The behaviors cause serious problems with
relationships and work. People with personality disorders have trouble dealing
with everyday stresses.

NEED OF VARIOUS TYPES OF THE CLIENTELE AND AUDIENCES

Their needs would vary

 Depends on context
 Different types of counselors would need to apply specific procedures

Be genuinely engaged in therapeutic claims

Have unconditional positive regard for the client
Feel empathy for the client
Clearly communicate these attitudes

Lesson 3: CLIENTELE AND AUDIENCES COUNSELING

- People who abuse drugs

- People who use tobacco
- People who abuse alcohol
- Women
- Older Adults
- People with AIDS
- Victims of Abuse
- Gay and Lesbian

Lesson 4: COUNSELING AND ITS WORK SETTINGS

1. School Setting
– In the school setting, the role of the school counselor is more complex since
the needs of students can vary widely. This gives rise to the more dynamic and
complex roles of school counselor; it depended on a school’s local circumstances
as well as the dynamism within the profession itself.
- As such, school counselors assume many different responsibilities and task
based on the Particular needs of students in the school context.
2. Community Settings
- refers to employment in community, agency, and other non-school professional
situations. Counselors can be found in community and mental health agencies,
employment and rehabilitation agencies, correctional settings, and marriage and
family practice. (Gibson and Mitchell, 2003)
Examples of Counseling in the Community
 Job-hunting Coaches
 - help people have places to find specific information and get employment
- they offer help on how to do technical aspects that are needed to be taken
notice of while job-hunting.
 Conflict Management Providers
- provide need for principles and theory-based approaches in dealing with
conflict.
- help manage conflict constructively
 Marriage Counselors
- provide need for conflict-resolution amongst parties, couples, and children.
- either reconcile couples or allow a peaceful separation.
 Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation Counselors
- help overcome and mitigate negative effects of drug abuse

3. Counselors in the Private Sectors (Private Sectors Setting)

- - In the private sector, counselors range from independent providers of services
or work for NGOs, or specialized for profit centers and organization that render a
variety of counseling services
4. Civil Society Setting
– The context of civil society is generally charities or non-profit and issue-based
centers or organizations such as:
 For abused women
 Abandoned children and elderly
 Veterans
 Teachers
 Professionals or,
 Religious groups

5. Government Setting
- Counseling settings vary widely but the processes, methods, and tools used by
counselors are very similar. Counseling professionals in government setting work
with various government agencies that have counseling services such as:
 Social Welfare
 Correctional department
 The court system
 Child and women affairs services
 Schools
 Military
 Police
 Mental and foster homes and,
 Rehabilitation centers

Abused Children Caretakers and Rehabilitation in Government and NGO Settings

 Facilitate processing and restoration of abused children
Lesson 5: Counseling and its process, methods, and tools

6 STAGES OF COUNSELING PROCESS

STAG 1: RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

 This is the heart of counseling process because it provides the force and
foundation for the counseling to succeed.
 This stage involves establishing rapport,
 promote acceptance of the client as a person with worth,
 establishing genuine interaction,
 promote direct mutual communication.
Some non-helpful Behaviors
- There are several lists of non-helpful behaviors. Most common among them
include:
 Advice Giving
 Lecturing
 Excessive Questioning
 Storytelling
 Asking “why?”
 Asking “How did that make you feel?”
- Helping clients understand themselves,
- helping client focus and
- slowly promote counseling relevant communication ion, from the client.
Some steps for relationship building for the Counselor
 Introduce yourself
 Invite client to sit down
 Ensure client is comfortable
 Address the client by name
 Invite social conversation to reduce anxiety
 Watch for nonverbal behavior as signs of client’s emotional state
 Invite client to describe his/her reason for coming to talk
 Allow client time to respond
 Indicate that you are interested in the person

STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS

- One of the most crucial stages.
- This serves as the window for the counselor to have a thorough appreciation of
the client’s condition.
- It entails analysis of the root causes of problems.
- The data that will be gathered in diagnosis will be utilized in the formulation of
goals.
STAGE 3: FORMULATION OF COUNSELING GOALS
- Goals are important as it sets the direction of the counseling process.
- It shall serve as the parameter of work and the client-counselor relationship.
- Counseling goals may be treated as a process goal or outcome goal.
- The client and counselor must agree on the counseling goals.

STAGE 4: INTERVENTION AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

- Upon formulation of the counseling goals, the strategies for intervention may
now be outlined. Interventions comprise of individual, group, couples, and family
counseling.
The client’s participation in choosing intervention strategies has more benefits.
- Guidelines:
A. The counselor has to provide a mapping of the different approaches offered.
B. Describe the role of the counselor and client for each procedure.
C. Identify possible risks and benefits that may come.
D. Estimate the time and cost of each procedure.

- Kafner and Busemeyer identified the six-stage model for problem solving:
 Problem detection
 Problem definition
 Identification of alternative solutions
 Decision-making
 Execution
 Verification

STAGE 5: TERMINATION AND FOLLOW-UP

- The essential goal in counseling is to witness a client progress on his/her own
without the assistance of the counselor.
- There are four components of termination which were identified by Quintan
and Holahan:
 Discussion of the end of counseling
 Review of the course of counseling
 Closure of the counselor-client relationship
 Discussion of the client’s future and post-counseling plan

STAGE 6: RESEARCH AND EVALUATION

- This stage can be undertaken at any point in the counseling stage.
- Research and evaluation are fundamental part of the evaluation.
- Results of the research provide a scientific appreciation of the counseling
situation.
METHODS IN COUNSELING
1. Classic Theories
- The psychological theories developed by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl
Jung are considered as the classic schools for the reason that they primed the
underpinning of clinical practice.
A. FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
- The approach of Freud in counseling and psychotherapy is popularly known as
psychoanalysis which is an analysis of the mind.
- Its objective is to restructure the personality by resolution of intrapsychic
conflict, which focuses in the internal forces such as unconscious processes.
- It focuses on personal adjustment through reorganization of internal forces
within the person to help him/her become aware of the unconscious aspect of
his/her personality.

PSYCHOANALYSIS HAS THREE GOALS:

1. to help clients gain insights about themselves
2. to help clients work unstuck issues
3. to help clients cope with the stresses of the society.

The following techniques can be used:

1. FREE ASSOCIATION - a method to encourage the patient to discuss whatever
comes to his mind in order to release suppressed emotions.
2. DREAM ANALYSIS - a method to explore unconscious process using dreams.
3. CONFRONTATION AND CLARIFICATION - a form of feedback procedure for
patients to become aware of what is happening to him/her and to determine
areas for further analysis.
4. INTERPRETATION - a process of giving insights to patients about their inner
conflicts which can be reflected in resistance, transference, and other processes.

B. ADLER’S INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

- The approach of Adler in counseling and psychotherapy focuses on the role of
cognition is psychological functioning.
- Its objective is to gain an understanding of the clients and assess why clients
behave and think in certain ways.
ADLERIAN COUNSELING FOCUSES ON FOUR GOALS:
1. Establishment and maintenance of egalitarian relationship
2. Analysis of client’s lifestyle
3. Interpretation of client’s lifestyle in a way that promotes insight
4. Reorientation and reeducation of the client with accompanying behavior change
 - Adlerian techniques can be explained in four phases of Adlerian Psychotherapy.
First Phase: ESTABLISHING THE RELATIONSHIP
- Use of listening skills
- Winning respect and offering hope
- Encouragement

Second Phase: PERFORMING ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT

- Lifestyle Analysis
- Dream analysis may be used to conduct lifestyle analysis
Third Phase: PROMOTING INSIGHT
- Insight process
Fourth Phase: REORIENTATION
- Spitting in the Client’s Soup
- The push-button techniques
- Catching oneself
- Acting as-if
- Task setting and commitment

C. JUNG’S ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY

- The counseling and psychology approach of Jung is referred to as
psychotherapy.
- Jung’s approach highlights the task of the unconscious processes in
“psychological functioning”
- The approach applies dreams and other procedures to determine the
unconscious processes to utilize the result to boost the functioning of personality
and to enhance mental health and wellness.

2. Experimental Theories
- It falls under the affective theories which are concerned about generating
impact on the emotions of clients to effect change.
- The well-known experiential theorists include Rogers and Perls.

A. ROGER’S PERSON-CENTERED COUNSELING

- It has been described as the “if-then” approach.
- The following conditions were formulated by Rogers:
1. Counselor Congruence
2. Empathic Understanding
 3. Unconditional Positive Regard

B. PEARL’S GESTALT THERAPHY

- It focuses on the here and now.
- It refers to the dialogue between the therapist and the client wherein the client
experiences from the inside what the therapist observes from the outside.
- The goal of the approach is awareness on the environment, of responsibility for
choices, of self, and self-acceptance.

GESTALT’S TECHNIQUE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

 ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY - rephrase the statement and add “I take
responsibility for it”.
 USING PERSONAL PRONOUNS - take personal responsibility by saying “I or me”
instead of “we or us”
 NOW I AM AWARE - assists the clients to get in touch with himself/herself.
 THE EMPTY CHAIR TECHNIQUE - helps client work through conflicting parts of
personality.

3. COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
A. ELLIS RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPHY
 REBT highlights the role of cognitions on emotions with assertion that persons
can be best appreciated in terms of internal cognitive dialogue or self-talk.
 REBT views the emotional disorder is associated with cognitive processes that
are not rational.
 REBT TECHNIQUES
- COGNITIVE - reforming ideas that are reasonable and irrational. Focus on
“defeating cognitions”.
- EMOTIVE TECHNIQUES - focus on the client’s “affective or emotional
domain”
- BEHAVIORAL TECHNIQUES - Focus on the full array of behavioral methods
such as assertiveness training, relaxation therapy, self-management, self-
monitoring, and homework assignments.

B. BECK’S COGNITIVE THERAPHY

 Highlights the vitality of cognitive thinking particularly, dysfunctional
thoughts.
 This approach is appropriate for people suffering from depressions and
anxieties
 TECHNIQUES:
- DECATASTROPHIZING - referred to as “what if”.
- REDEFINING - rearticulating an obstacle to something that may be useful.
 - DECENTERING - This will help the client apprehend that they are not the
“center of attention”.
- BEHAVIORAL TECHNIQUES

C. BERNE’S TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

 Refers to examining and dissecting transactions between people.
 It includes evaluating the “three ego state of parent, adult, and child of
each person”.
 The fundamental goal is for the client to be “autonomous, self-aware,
spontaneous and have the capacity for intimacy.”
TECHNIQUES:
 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS - assists clients to be conscious of their “three
ego”
 TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS - assists clients to “learn to communicate
with complementary transactions.”
 SCRIPT ANALYSIS - looks into the “type of life script the client has
developed and how it can be re-written.”
 ANALYSIS OF GAMES - comprise of determining “what games the
clients play and how the games interfere with interpersonal
functioning.”