PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELLING-I

Module 1: Introduction

Concept of counselling; Defining features of counselling; Major goals of counselling;

Difference between guidance and counselling; Counselling and psychotherapy; Types of
counselling; Counselling psychology and other specialties and fields: Distinctiveness and
overlap; Training, job setting and activities.

Module2: Strategies and Techniques

Counselling interview- Assessment and diagnosis- psychological testing

Module 3: Current trends in counselling

Diversity issues in counselling; Different formats of counselling; Counselling and Liasoning

fields; Trauma Counselling, Technological advances in Counselling, Process Oriented
Research in Counselling

Module 4: Counselling Relationship & Ethical and Legal Guidelines

The importance of relationship; Components of relationship; Facilitative conditions for the

counselling relationship; Ethical issues, Ethical dilemmas, Legal concerns of counsellors
 Module - 1

INTRODUCTION

Concept of counselling

“Counselling is an interactive process conjoining the client or counselee who needs assistance
& the counsellor who is trained and educated to give this assistance.”

- Perez (1965)

“Counselling is an interaction between the counsellor & counselee to help the counselee’s
needs”

- WHO
“Counselling is the interaction which occurs between the individual called counsellor
& client takes place in a professional setting & is initiated & maintain to facilitate
changes in the behaviour of client.
- Pepinsky & Pepinsky (1954)

Defining features of counselling

➢ Counselling psychology is a psychological specialty that facilitates personal and

interpersonal functioning across the life span with a focus on emotional, social, vocational,
educational, health-related, developmental, and organizational concerns.
➢ Through the integration of theory, research, and practice, and with a sensitivity to
multicultural issues, this specialty encompasses a broad range of practices that help people
improve their well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve crises, and increase
their ability to live more highly functioning lives.
➢ Counselling psychology is unique in its attention both to normal developmental issues and
to problems associated with physical, emotional, and mental disorders. Populations served
by Counselling Psychologists include persons of all ages and cultural backgrounds
Purpose of Counseling

➢ To assist clients in becoming aware of their emotional state, so they can know when they
are experiencing stress.
➢ To assist clients in learning to express their emotions safely (to themselves and to others),
so they can become aware of and protect their personal boundaries
➢ To work with clients in separating the past from the present on an emotional level, so that
they can experience their emotional response to the world based on their present needs,
rather than on past trauma being re-triggered and replayed
➢ To teach clients to address their present and genuine needs – which will involve in turn
them feeling satisfaction; frustration; and negotiating – as opposed to repressing their needs
to protect an attachment.

Counselling Relationship

➢ The relationship between a counsellor and client is the feelings and attitudes that a client
and therapist have towards one another, and the manner in which those feelings and
attitudes are expressed.
➢ One theory about the function of the counselling relationship is known as the secure-base
hypothesis, which is related to attachment theory. This hypothesis proposes that the
counsellor acts as a secure-base from which clients can explore and then check in with.
Secure attachment to one's counsellor and secure attachment in general have been found to
be related to client exploration.
➢ Insecure attachment styles have been found to be related to less session depth than securely
attached clients.
➢ Some counsellors regard the counselling relationship as not only necessary, but sufficient
for constructive changes to occur in clients. Those viewing counselling predominantly as a
helping relationship tend to be adherents of the theory and practice of person-centred
therapy. Carl Rogers, the founder of person-centred therapy, views counselling relationship
as a helping relationship in which the counsellor creates an environment that facilitates the
process of self-awareness.
➢ Most important is the quality of the relationship between client and counsellor. The
counsellor-offered qualities, called the 'core conditions', are empathic understanding,
respect and acceptance for clients' current states of being, and congruence or genuineness.
Empathy is the ability to understand what the client is feeling. This refers to the counsellor's
 ability to understand sensitively and accurately [but not sympathetically] the client's
experience and feelings in the here-and-now.
➢ Empathy is different to sympathy in that sympathy is often seen as feeling sorry for the
client whereas empathy shows understanding and allows the client to further open up.
➢ Unconditional positive regard refers to the counsellor accepting, respecting and caring
about clients. It does not mean the counsellor has to agree with everything the client says
or does, however, the counsellor should see the client as doing the best he or she can and
demonstrate this by expressing concern rather than disagreeing with him or her.
➢ Unconditional positive regard allows clients to express how they are thinking without
feeling judged, and help to facilitate the change process by showing they can be accepted.
➢ Congruence is whether or not counsellors are genuine and authentic in what they say and
do. Quite often, if the therapist is saying one thing but the body language is reflective of
something else, clients are aware of this and may impact on their trust and openness in the
counselling relationship. Therefore, a major role of counsellors is to be aware of their body
language and what they are saying as well as being in the present moment. If confusion
arises, the counsellor needs to be able to address this with the client.

Major goals of counselling

➢ The main objective of counselling is to bring about a voluntary change in the client. For
this purpose, the counsellor provides facilities to help achieve the desired change or make
the suitable choice.
➢ The goal of counselling is to help individuals overcome their immediate problems and to
equip them to meet future problems. Counselling, to be meaningful has to be specific for
each client since it involves his unique problems and expectations.
➢ The goals of counselling may be described as immediate, long-range, and process goals.
A statement of goals is not only important but also necessary, for it provides a sense of
direction and purpose.
➢ Additionally, it is necessary for a meaningful evaluation of the usefulness of it. The
counsellor has the goal of understanding the behaviour, motivations, and feelings of the
counselee.
➢ The counsellor has the goals are not limited to understanding his clients. He has different
goals at different levels of functioning.
➢ The immediate goal is to obtain relief for the client and the long-range goal is to make
him ‘a fully functioning person.’ Both the immediate and long- term goals are secured
through what are known as mediate or process goals.
➢ Specific counselling goals are unique to each client and involve a consideration of the
client’s expectations as well as the environmental aspects.
➢ Apart from the specific goals, there are two categories of goals which are common to
most counselling situations. These are identified as long-range and process goals. The
latter have great significance. They shape the counselee and counsellors’ interrelations
and behaviour.
➢ The process goals comprise facilitating procedures for enhancing the effectiveness of
counselling.
➢ The general public tends to view counselling as a remedial function and emphasizes
immediate goals, such as problem resolution, tension reduction, and the like. Counselee
may refer to the resolution of a particular conflict or problem situation.
➢ However, the goals of counselling are appropriately concerned with such fundamental
and basic aspects such as self-understanding and self- actualization. These helps to
provide the counselee with self-direction and self- motivation.
➢ Counselling in its spirit and essence is generative. It aims at assisting the individual to
develop such that he becomes psychologically mature and is capable of realizing his
potentialities optimally.
➢ Counselling has no magical solutions. The only meaningful, sensible, and realistic view
of counselling is that it is not and cannot be everything to everybody. It is concerned with
helping individuals find realistic and workable solutions to their problems by helping
them gain an insight into themselves so that they are able to utilize their own
potentialities and opportunities and thus become self-sufficient, self-directed, and self-
actualized.

Guidance, Counselling & Psychotherapy

➢ The word guidance first appeared around the 1600s and was defined as “the process of
guiding an individual.” Early guidance work involved individuals giving moralistic and
direct advice.
➢ This definition continued into the twentieth century, when vocational guidance
counsellors used the word to describe the act of “guiding” an individual into a profession
and offering suggestions for life skills.
➢ Meanwhile, with the development of psychoanalysis near the end of the nineteenth
century came the word psychotherapy. Meaning “caring for the soul,” the word was
derived from the Greek words psyche, meaning spirit or soul, and therapeutikos,
meaning caring for another.
➢ According to APA Psychotherapy or Talk therapy, is a way to help people with a broad
variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help to eliminate
or control troubling symptoms so as a person can function better and can increase well-
being and healing.
➢ During the early part of the twentieth century, vocational guidance counsellors became
increasingly dissatisfied with the word guidance and its heavy emphasis on advice giving
and morality.
➢ Consequently, the word counselling was adopted to indicate that vocational counsellors,
like the psychoanalysts who practiced psychotherapy, dealt with social and emotional
issues.
➢ As mental health workers became more prevalent during the mid1900s, they too adopted
the word counselling, rather than use the word guidance with its moralistic implications,
or psychotherapy, which was increasingly associated with psychoanalysis.
➢ Tyler (1969) stated that “those who participated in the mental health movement and had
no connection with vocational guidance used the word counselling to refer to what others
were calling (psycho) therapy…”

Difference between guidance and counselling

➢ Guidance is mainly preventive and developmental whereas counselling is remedial as

well as preventive and developmental.
➢ Intellectual attitudes are the raw material of guidance but emotional rather than pure
intellectual attitude are the raw materials of counselling process.
➢ In guidance decision making operable at intellectual level, where as in counselling it
operates at emotional level.
➢ In educational context, counselling service is one among various service offered by
guidance programme.
Difference between Counselling and psychotherapy

➢ The nature of activity- the emphasis placed on counseling is that of offering assistance
and guidance in an attempt to resolve problems. The emphasis is psychotherapy is on
treatment of mental disorders without using medical means. Here we see that counseling
assists and guides while psychotherapy treats.
➢ Duration of Intervention: short or long term-counseling offer shorter term or briefer
interventions, while psychotherapy offers longer-term interventions.
➢ Depth of intervention-psychotherapy represent deeper, more fundamental level of work
over longer period, usually with more disturbed client.
➢ Counseling typically deals with present issues that are easily resolved on the conscious
level whereas psychotherapy intensively and extensively examines a person’s
psychological history. In other words, counseling is more concerned with practical or
immediate issues and outcomes while psychotherapy is more focused on helping a person
understand his/her life in a profound and reflective manner.
➢ Psychotherapy, on the other hand, is an evolutionary process that helps a person look at
long-standing attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors that have resulted in the current quality
of one’s life and relationships. It goes much deeper to uncover root causes of problems,
resulting in more dramatic changes in perspective regarding oneself, one’s life
experience, and the world in general. Ultimately, psychotherapy aims to empower the
individual by freeing him/her from the grip of unconscious triggers or impulses through
increased self-awareness.

➢ In the training of counsellors today, the word guidance has tended to take a back seat to
the word counselling, while the words counselling and psychotherapy are generally used
interchangeably.
➢ Theories of counselling and psychotherapy are indistinguishable.
 Types of counselling
I. On the basis of the nature of counseling process & the role of the counsellor
➢ On the basis of the nature of counseling process & the role of the counselor, there are
three types of counseling.
A. Directive counselling
➢ B. G. Williamson is the chief, exponent of the directive counseling.
➢ In this counselling the counsellor plays an active role as it is regarded as a means of
helping people how to learn to solve their own problems.
➢ This type of counselling is otherwise known as counsellor-centred counselling. Because
in this counselling the counsellor does everything himself i.e. analysis, synthesis,
diagnosis, prognosis, prescription and follow-up
➢ It has the following features:
• During the interview attention is focused upon a particular problem and
possibilities for its solution.
• During the interview the counsellor plays a more active role than the client or
pupil.
• The pupil or client makes the decision, but the counsellor does all that he can to
get the counselee or client makes a decision in keeping with his diagnosis.
• The counsellor tries to direct the thinking of the counsellee or client by informing,
explaining, interpreting and advising him.
➢ Steps in Directive Counselling:
1. Analysis: In this step data is collected from a variety of sources for an adequate
understanding of the pupil.
2. Synthesis: This step implies organizing and summarising the data to find out
the assets, liabilities, adjustments and mal-adjustments of the pupil.
3. Diagnosis: Formulating conclusions regarding the nature and causes of the
problems expressed by the pupils is the major concern of this step.
4. Prognosis: This step implies predicting the future development of the problem
of client or pupil. (v) Counselling: This step indicates taking steps by the
counsellor with the pupil to bring about adjustment in life.
5. Follow-up: This step implies helping and determining the effectiveness of the
counselling provided to the pupil or client.
➢ Role of the counsellor in Directive Counseling:
1. 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 counselee in fact, works under the
counsellor and not with him.
2. The counsellor tries to direct the thinking of the counselee or client by informing,
explaining, interpreting and sometimes advising also. The counsellor collects all
possible information about the pupils or counselees and analyses them for an
adequate understanding.
3. He summarizes and organises the data so as to understand the abilities and
limitations, adjustment and mal-adjustment of the client.
4. He formulates conclusions about the nature and causes of his problems.
5. He predicts the future development of his problems. He prescribes what the client
should do to solve his problems and follows the consequences or effects of his
prescription.
6. Directive counselling is also called the prescriptive counselling because the
counsellor prescribes the solutions or the course of action for the client.
B. Non-Directive Counselling:
➢ Carl Rogers is the chief exponent of non- directive counseling.
➢ In this type of counselling the counselee or client or pupil, not the counsellor is the pivot
of the counselling process. Client plays an active role and this type of counselling is a
growing process.
➢ In this counselling the goal is the independence and integration of the client rather than
the solution of the problem. In this counselling process the counsellee comes to the
counsellor with a problem.
➢ The counsellor establishes rapport with the counsellee based on mutual trust, acceptance
and understanding. The counsellee provides all information about his problems. The
counsellor assists him to analyze and synthesise, diagnose his difficulties, predict the
future development of his problems, take a decision about the solution of his problems;
and analyse the strengths and consequences of his solutions before taking a final decision.
➢ Since the counsellee is given full freedom to talk about his problems and work out a
solution, this technique is also called the “permissive” counselling.
➢ Steps in Non-Directive Counselling:
1. The pupil or individual comes for help as the counselee.
 2. The counsellor defines the situation by indicating that he doesn’t have the answer
but he is able to provide a place and an atmosphere in which the client or pupil
can think of the answers or solutions to his problems.
3. The counsellor is friendly, interested and encourages free expression of feeling
regarding the problem of the individual.
4. The counsellor tries to understand the feeling of the individual or client.
5. The counsellor accepts and recognizes the positive as well as the negative
feelings.
6. The period of release or free expression is followed by a gradual development of
insight.
7. As the client recognizes and accepts emotionally as well as intellectually his real
attitudes and desires, he perceives the decisions that he must make and the
possible courses of action open to him.
8. Positive steps towards the solution of the problem situation begin to occur.
9. A decreased need for help is felt and the client is the one who decides to end the
contract.

C. Eclectic Counselling:
➢ Borden is the chief exponent of eclectic counseling.
➢ Both counselor & counselee is active.
➢ Eclectic counselling is a combination of directive and non-directive technique depending
upon the situational factors.
➢ This approach in counselling is best characterised by its freedom to the counsellor to use
whatever procedures or techniques seem to be the most appropriate to any particular time
for any particular client.
➢ This counselling is one where one who is willing to utilize any procedures which hold
promise even though their theoretical bases differed markedly.
➢ It recognizes that each theory may contain some truth and that so long as a final decision
between theories can’t be made practical necessity justifiably takes precedence over
orthodoxy.
➢ The counsellor in this counselling may start with directive technique but switches over to
non-directive counselling if the situation requires. He may also start with the non-
directive technique and switches over to directive techniques if the situation demands. So
the counsellor in this counselling makes use of directive and non-directive counselling
 and also of any other type which may be considered useful for the purpose of modifying
the ideas and attitudes of the counsellee.
➢ Hence it is possible for the counsellor to alternate between directive and non-directive
techniques depending upon the requirements of the situation. It can be said that directive
and non-directive counselling are at the opposite ends of the pole of guidance. It is
eclectic counselling that bridges the gap between the two and makes adjustment between
directive and non-directive techniques
➢ Features/Characteristics of Eclectic Counselling:
• Methods of counselling may change from counselee to counselee or even with the
same client from time to time.
• Flexibility is the key note of this counselling.
• Freedom of choice and expression is open to both, the counsellor and the client.
• The client and the philosophical framework are adjusted to serve the purposes of
the relationship.
• Experience of mutual confidence and faith in the relationship are basic.
• Feelings of comfort are essential.
➢ Competence of the Counsellor in Eclectic Counselling:
• The counsellor must be aware of the fact that problems differ from individual to
individual.
• The counsellee or the pupil must be accepted as he is and attempts be made to
understand him.
• Each problem must be treated as unique.
• All pre-conceived notions of dealing with all the counsellee’s personal problems
in the same way should be discarded. He has to shift and interpret all the matter
that is available about the individual.
• The worker should take care in working with the pupils to be warm, co-ordinal,
friendly, responsive and understanding but at the same time will be impersonal
and objective. To be impersonal and objective, however he needs not to be cold,
indifferent or not interested.

II. On the basis of the number of clients

➢ On the basis of the number of clients, There are two types of Counselling; Individual and
Group Counselling.
 A. Individual Counselling
➢ Individual counseling is a one-on-one discussion between the counselor and the client.
The two form an alliance, relationship or bond that enables trust and personal growth.
➢ Individual Counseling is aimed at helping you to cope with addiction, mental health,
trauma and with stresses that can cause anxiety and depression, it’s about helping you to
heal from the negative things that have happen in everyday life, such as losses, separation
and divorce, family conflict, violence or abuse.
➢ Individual Counseling can assist in coping with stressful life situations, work/school
problems, grief, and emotional distress or relationship difficulties. Our professional,
caring, supportive Master’s Level Therapist and addiction counsellors can help.
B. Group Counseling
➢ Group counseling is counseling with multiple individuals facing a similar concern. The
strength in group counseling is that if you have 3, 5 or 10 people together all facing the
same or similar issues, then they can work together.
➢ Group counseling is common for those suffer from addiction and mental health disorders.
➢ The individuals in the group act as a source of insight and support while reinforcing the
idea that each individual is not the only one experiencing these problems.
➢ Advantages:
• Clients learn from each other.
• Clients can practice new interpersonal skills in group.
• Clients hear a range of perspectives from the group members.
• Clients learn problem-solving skills.
• Through giving and receiving feedback, clients give and receive peer support.
• Clients can come out of their isolation.
• Clients have an opportunity for validation
➢ Skills counsellors need for group therapy
• Managing multiple personalities in counseling settings means that counsellors
must have sharp interpersonal skills. While abilities like communication, listening
and empathy are important for individual therapy, they’re of greater consequence
in directing and leading a group conversation.
• Counsellors must also be able to resolve conflict and help clients understand each
other, responsibilities not often found in individual therapy.
• Confidentiality and ethics is another subject that’s not unique to group counseling,
but magnified in its context. What is said in individual sessions is under strict
control, but while those protections extend to group sessions, they may not be as
rigid. In some cases, these codes are broken. Thus, engendering trust and
encouraging honesty is a central duty of the counselor to avoid such instances.