THE COUNSELLING PROCESS

Introduction

The main aim of psychological counselling and psychotherapy is to foster personal growth, personal adjustment and personal wellbeing.
 There is involvement of the entire person in the counselling situation.
 Counseling is aims at validating the person receiving help by fostering self-help
 For effective service provision of this service the therapist/counsellor need a multidisciplinary knowledge on human life and situations

p rather than invalidating them by creating dependency. Other purpose include conflict mediation, crisis intervention, and referrals.
 counselling process cont.

• Counselling process is a planned, structured

dialogue between a counsellor and client.
• Is a cooperative process – professional
counsellor/therapist help the client to identify
their concerns.
• Together they develop plan of handling the
clients challenge – gain new skill & Increase
understanding of themselves and others.
• Take step to solve the problem – increase
resilience and decision making
 Process cont.
 Counseling as a process aims to help the
client/counselee mainly seen outside medical
setting to make better choices & becoming better
choosers.
 The counselor/ helper require repertoire of skills
include those of forming an understanding
relationship as well as interventions focused on
helping clients change specific aspects of their
feeling, thinking and acting.
 The helper must have broad understanding of
human development, personality dynamics and
helping skills.
2. Therapeutic Relationship/alliance in Counselling
& psychotherapy
The therapeutic relationship in counselling/
psychotherapy is also known as the therapeutic
alliance or helping relationship.
The therapeutic relationship is fundamentally
important to the counselling process.
 it defines the a nature of the therapist's and
client's mutual engagement throughout the
therapeutic work.
TA is a crucial component for achieving treatment
success, regardless of the specific treatment
modality employed.
 Cont. helping process

• Strong therapeutic alliance defines how counsellors

and clients connect with each other and build
working relationship together in the helping process.
• The importance of the therapeutic relationship in the
counselling process; it:
it forms the foundation of all counselling work.
Fosters opening freely and self-acceptance
It can enable confidence, reassurance, openness and
honesty, paving the way for clients to open up, explore their
problem with their counselor/ therapist.
deeper understanding of the issues which a client face aim
to help the client to accept themselves for who they are.
Ensures ethical, legal and professional ethics are adhered to.
 Therapeutic relationship cont.
 The therapeutic relationship begins at first encounter: They
make impression of each other.
 Forming a solid relationship can empower clients to delve
deeper into the issues they may be facing and ‘open up’
emotionally to the counsellor.
 For some this may be first time they open up to someone else–
vulnerable
 Strong therapeutic relationship allows individual to open
up honestly and openly, without any immediate
attachment or fear of judgment or rejection.
 The therapeutic relationship is different from other
relationships types of relationships.
 Being a real and genuine within the relationship can
further in-depth working.
Barriers to therapeutic alliance in the helping profession

i. i. Failure of Counsellor to offer the core conditions:

(Trust, Respect, Genuine care, Honesty).
ii. The Client does not feel in receipt of the core
conditions.
iii. Counsellor, client relationship is having poor or
no boundaries(overtly friendly, sexual advances,
unprofessional etc.).
iv. Language barriers
v. Lack of psychological contact due to substance
use, social, cultural issues, religious etc.
vi. Previous trauma or attachment issues
 Barriers cont,
• External factors: (Deangelis, 2019)
• Relationship outside therapeutic environment
(Transference vs countertransference)
Transference – client views the therapist like the
important other or the client's emotional reaction to the
therapist)
Countertransference: is the therapist's emotional
reaction to the client.
Transference, countertransference is a common
occurrence in therapy
2.2 Application of theory in counselling
/psychotherapy
 A theory is a supposition or a system of ideas
intended to explain something, especially one
based on general principles independent of the
thing to be explained.
 Psychological theories are fact-based ideas that describe
a phenomenon of human behaviour and cognition which
guide thinking and practice.
 There are two key components of a psychological theory
are:
i. It must describe a behaviour.
ii. It must make predictions about future behaviours.
 Role of theories
 Theories in counselling and psychotherapy acts as a roadmap
for psychologists
 It guides the counselling process in understanding clients’
problems and developing solutions.
• They help to;
– Find relatedness within diversity of existence
– Focus relevant information and guides what to look for
– Helps the counsellor in guiding the client in effective medication of
behaviour, cognition, emotional functioning and tells what to look
for.
– Compels the counsellor to examine relationship they would
otherwise overlook
– Provides the counsellor with operational guidelines by which to
work and help them to evaluate their development as professionals
 Qualities of a good counsellor/therapist
• To be a good counselor/therapist is trained in:
– personality dynamics,
– Personality development
– Psychopathology
– psychological interviewing and testing and other
human sciences
– This will enable a deep understanding of the client so
as to respond to their needs in an efficient and
accurate manner to avoid creating harm on the client.
 The qualities of a good counsellor
Before engaging in the work of counseling in the strict
sense, the counselor should ensure that he/she;
 Possess a good level of self knowledge – strengths and
weaknesses should be well known and integrated in
life.
 Capacity for self-handling without projecting out
his/her problems.
 Capacity of confidentiality.
 Is a good listener: real listening of both verbal and non
verbal communication.
 is capable of the art of introspection
 Cont. The qualities of the counsellor
• A role model. A man /woman of values. A honest and
authentic person.
• Good a listener - ability to let the other be oneself. non
judgmental. Do not jump to conclusions even on matters
which seem very familiar with you. The world of the
counselee is different.
• Capacity of good and reliable interpersonal relationship.
• knowledge in psychodynamic of the human person
(cognitive and behavioral). To facilitate understanding of the
general human functioning and presence of special need to
be dealt with.
NB. Never engage on matters which go beyond your
 Cont. good counsellor
Respect of human person as such. She/ he must be:
 empathetic and understanding (capacity to walk in
the shoes of the other)
 Encourager impart hope and promoter of self
acceptance.
 Self-acceptance: counsellor must work on his/her
unfinished issues – to have a balanced self to accept
others.
 in touch with his/her personal feelings so as to
enable one to receive the other’s feelings and
problems.
 Cont. a good counsellor
 personal adjustment: other than academic
qualification should be well-balanced person.
Awareness of personal limitations/ personal
needs that may interfere with the counselling
relationships. Lack of self awareness may lead to
resentments of the counselee’s attitudes and
emotional expression, i.e. a person might be
uncomfortable when a person cries, expresses
ange may feel the need to avoid emotional contact
etc
 The counselor’s needs which may influence the
counselling process if left unguarded;
 The need for companionship; opposite sex counselee. If this need is not well controlled,

the counselling session may turn into a date.

 The need for recognition and prestige; need to appear important and to please others.

 Need for security; need to be praised or admired by counselee.

 The need to be helpful; this appear in forms of being overprotective to the counselee

and manipulating the environment for them.

 The need for teaching; the temptation of the counselor to elaborate non-pertinent

points and thus to bother the client.

 The need to solve personal problems; projection of his own problems on the counselee.

This mat hinder active listening and understanding the client.

 2.3 The counselling session, environment and
communication (the setting)
Counselling session is a face-to-face, therapeutic discussion between the
counsellor & counselee (s) to facilitate the counselling process in a private
location for a period of time. There are about 7 steps:

Step 1: Relationship/alliance rapport Building

 The first interview is of crucial importance: client is reading the
Counsellor ( verbal, nonverbal messages and the counseling situation).
(understanding, empathy, genuineness?
 Condition of therapy
 Payment/cost and payment modalities
 time, therapeutic conditions i.e. when to call, issues on confidentiality,
etc.
 In the first session a number of things take place. Building the
relationship and presenting problem.
Some steps for Relationship Building
• Introduce yourself
• Invite client to sit down
• Ensure client is comfortable
• Address the client by name
• Invite social conversation to reduce anxiety i.e. did
you find easy to find my office?...
• Watch for nonverbal behavior as signs of client’s
emotional state
• Invite client to describe his or her reason for
coming to talk/ to seek help
– Allow client time to respond
– Indicate that you are interested in the person.
Step 2: Problem Assessment/presenting problem
• While the counselor and the client are in the process of
establishing a relationship, a second process is taking
place, i.e. problem assessment. This step involves the
collection and classification of information about the
client’s life situation and reasons for seeking counseling

Step 3: GOAL SETTING

• counseling must have a focus, a purpose right from the
beginning, there should a plan of the intended
outcome of the therapeutic work.
• Goals are the results or outcomes that client wants to
achieve at the end of counselling.
Goals should be selected and defined with care and
genuine concern.
The flowing are some guidelines for goal selection that can
be used with counsellors:
Goals should relate to the desired end or ends sought by
the counselee.
Goals should be defined in explicit and measurable terms.
Goals should be practicable.
Goals should be within the range of the counselor’s
knowledge and skills.
Goals should be stated in positive terms that emphasis
growth.
Goals should be consistent with the client’s
context/mission if is an employee
Step 4: INTERVENTION – change strategies
 appropriate intervention requires a thorough assessment
of the client’s behavioural targets, what is needed, and
how best to achieve them (Michie et al., 2014).
 The selection of the intervention is guided by the:
i. Nature of the problem
ii. Therapeutic orientation of the counsellor/therapist (The
person-centered approach or the Rogerian suggests that the
counselor gets involved rather than intervenes by placing
emphasis on the relationship)
iii. Willingness and ability of the client to proceed
 During counselling, various interventions are likely to be
needed at different times. The here requires a broad
range of techniques that fit the client’s needs, values,
and culture (Corey, 2013).
Step 5: EVALUATION,
- Questions on how much is done to determine how
successful/client progress or need improvement
- How much insight the client has gained
 6. Termination
• Right from the beginning counselor, should think of
terminating the counseling process because all
counseling aims towards successful termination
upon attainment of the intended termination
• Terminating the counseling process will have to be
conducted with sensitivity with the client knowing
that it will have to end.
• The counsellor should prepare termination long
before it ends this what is called “the open door
plan”
Termination is considered as a two way possibility.

Termination because the has benefited from therapy

and his/her preoccupations are alleviated and the
has acquired new adaptation skills
Termination because it seems counseling is not
being helpful. It is unhelpful if it is not working as a
means of empowering client.
It is important for the Counselor to review progress,
create closure of the therapeutic process
• Note. Counselling sometimes instead of being helpful
and an opportunity for healing, if it does not work in
the proper manner, it can damage a person further.
 7. Referral
• Referral may be considered when the
service/help needed by the client is beyond
the counsellor/therapist skills or expertise.

8. Follow-up: After the completion of sessions

follows a stage of following up the client’s
progress: progress or regression
 Thank you
for listening
Ignasia Mbatta