THE PROCESS OF COUNSELLING

The counselling process is a planned, structured dialogue between a counsellor

and a client. It is a cooperative process in which a trained professional helps a
person called the client to identify sources of difficulties or concerns that he or
she is experiencing. Together they develop ways to deal with and overcome these
problems so that person has new skills and increased understanding of themselves
and others. For example, students in a college or university may be anxious about
how to study in university, lack of clarity on educational or career direction, have
difficulty living with a room-mate of another race or religion, have concerns with
self-esteem, feelings with being “stressed out”, difficulties in romantic
relationships and so forth.

The fact that counselling is described as a process, there is the implicit meaning of
a progressive movement toward an ultimate conclusion. Hackney and Cormier
(1987) describes the counselling process as a series of steps through which the
counsellor and client move.
1st Stage: Initial Disclosure - Relationship Building
The first step involves building a relationship and focuses on engaging clients to
explore issue that directly affect them. The first interview is important because the
client is reading the verbal and nonverbal messages and make inferences about the
cou nsellor and the counselling situation. Is the counsellor able to empathise with
the client? Does the client view the counsellor as genuine?

“Relationship” is a term that has been used in many different situations. It could
imply the ties between two people in love, the bond between family members or
close friends or colleagues or even the bond between a person and his or her pet.
In conselling, relationship takes on a more specific meaning. The counsellor
establishes rapport with the client based on trust, respect and mutual prupose.
When there is good rapport, a positive psychological climate is created and vice-
versa. The likelihood of desirable outcomes is greater when the psychological
climate is positive. Mutual purpose means both the counsellor and client have
common goals leading to what has been described as a theurapetic alliance.

Carl Rogers was among the earliest to emphasise the importance of building a
relationship between the counsellor and the client. He identified three important
conditions for the establishment of an effective counselor-client relationship:
Empathy, Genuineness and Unconditional Caring.

a) EMPATHY

According to Rogers, empathy “means that the therapist senses accurately the
feelings and personal meanings that the client is experiencing and communicates
this acceptant understanding to the client”. Counsellor’s help clients make and
implement important decisions in life. Most decision making involves an
emotional dimension. The person who understands his or her inner realm
consisting of memories, hopes, fears and dreams, will have a better insight of who
he or she is which hopefully will lead to better decisions. This inner realm is
often called the person's "inscape". Empathy is intimate participation
in the inscape of another.

The word "empathy" comes from the German word "einfuhlung" which roughly means "in
feeling" or "feeling into something." It is the active practice of feeling into the inscape of another.
Empathy is sometimes confused with sympathy. It is definitely not sympathising with the client
and neither is it just passive receptivity of the client's inscape, but something we do. Allowing
the counsellor into the inscape of the client is an act of great trust. It is fitting into the shoe of a
client but remaining objective

How does a counsellor get into

the inscape of the client? When
you sit with a client, the first
challenge is to listen as openly as
possible, without expectation or
judgment.
Always remember: this person is not you. Race, class, gender, culture, region,
specific family history, specific personal history; all have their influences. You
must assure the client that they feel safer to speak. Feel safe means being free
to speak even the most hurtful things, feeling heard, understood and accepted.
Your client may reveal all their experiences, from earliest childhood to the present
and the way you respond will either build or destroy that sense of safety.

Some of the client's message is verbal, some is non-verbal (tone of voice, facial
expression, posture, and very much more). Some of the client's messages are
explicit while some of it is implied and both shape the client’s reactions. If you
really listen, and really care, you will inevitably have emotional responses to what
you hear. As a counsellor you have to listen as openly as possible. You should be
able to distinguish between emotions you are picking up from your client, and
those that are entirely your own. For example, confronted with a very angry
client, an empathic counsellor would feel into the client's anger. But, if the
counsellor had previous painful experiences with anger, he or she might bring
their own feelings. It is important to be clear about where each feeling comes
from. Empathy is an intellectual and emotional skill that requires consistent and
patient practice. Be patient with yourself. Give yourself room and time to grow.

b) GENUINESS

o Genuiness refers to the counsellor’s state of mind. It means that you as

a counsellor can respond to the client as a human being and not in terms
of a therapist. You are comfortable with yourself and the counselling
situation. The genuine counsellor is one who is congruent, spontaneous,
nondefensive, consistent and comfortable with the client. In other
words, a genuine counsellor is one who is without pretenses, fictions,
roles or veiled images. How do you as a counsellor show that you are
genuine?
o Congruence: which means that your words, actions and feelings are
consistent. In other words, what you say corresponds to how you feel,
look and act. For example, you say that you are comfortable with
 discussing about homosexuality but show signs of discomfort when
your client reveals that he has homosexual tendencies. When this
happens, there is incongruence which can contribute to confusion and
mistrust. If a counsellor is to be trusted, he or she must strive to
overcome their prejudices, stereotypes and biases.
o Spontaneous: this is the ability to express oneself and with tactful
honesty without having to screen your response through some social
filter. It does not mean that you should blurt everthing that comes to
your mind. Imagine what will happen if you do this! Spontaneity
creates the effect of “realness” which has the effect of putting the client
at ease as you are seen as more human. Surely, you do not want your
client to see you as a ‘stiff’ and formal person.
o Positive Regard: Rogers placed importance that the counsellor treat the
client as a person with inherent worth and dignity regardless of the
client’s behaviour or appearance. This is significant when the client is
someone who is of a different ethinic background, religion, gender,
socioecnomic statues or educational level from the counsellor. In other
words, the client is treated as a human being and the counsellor should
also embrace the client’s worldview.
C)Warmth

Warmth is the ability to communicate and demonstrate genuine caring and

concern for clients. Using this ability, counsellors convey their acceptance of
clients, their desire for client’s well-bieng, and their sincere interest finding
workabel solutions to the problems that clients present. Warmth can be
communicated also through nonverbal behaviours such as a smile, tone of voice,
facial expression. Warmth indicates to the client acceptance.

Some Skills for Relationship Building for the Counsellor

  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 behaviour as signs of client’s emotional state
 Invite client to describe his or her reason for coming to talk
 Allow client time to respond
 Indicate that you are interested in the person

CONCLUSION

Empathy, genuiness and warmth are three conditions that enhances relationship
building in the counselling situation: empathy, genuiness and warmth. These
qualities are conveyed to the client thorough verbal and nonvrebal behaviours of
the counsellor. The greatest obstacle in the relationship building stage is the
tendency for the counsellor to move too quickly. It is also important for the
counsellor to be sensitive and reponsive to each client’s worldview.

2nd stage: In-depth Exploration - Problem Assessment

While the counsellor 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 clasification of information about the client’s life
situation and reasons for seeking counselling

People seek a counsellor to help resolve concerns or problems that are interfering
with their daily life or causing them despair. The counsellor comes to the
counselling situation with the expectation to do something to ease or improve the
client’s situation. In the second stage of the counselling process, the counsellor
attempts to assess the client. Assessment refers to anything counsellors do to
gather information and draw conclusions about the concerns of clients.
Assessment takes place at the beginning of the counselling process. But, some
degree of assessment takes place throughout the counselling process with purpose
of finding missing pieces if the puzzle, i.e. the client. According to Seligman
(1996), assessment should attmpt to recognise the importance and uniqueness of
the client. In a way, saying to the person, “You are special and I want to get to
know you and understand why you are the way you are”. The counsellor needs
such knowledge about the client so that nothing is left out. For example, you
might have left out an important piece of information about your client which
may affect the counselling or therapeutic process.

WHY ASSESS YOUR CLIENT?

It should be remembered that you are assessing your client not for the purpose of
judging or evaluating him or her. The purpose of assessment is to seek
clarification; you want to know about your client. Seligman suggests the
following reasons for assessing a client:

 Enable counsellors to make an accurate diagnosis

 Determine a person’s suitability for a particular treatment plan
 Enable counsellors to develop a treatment plan
 Make goal-setting easier and achievement of goals measurable
 Enable assessment of environment or context
 Facilitate generation of options and alternatives

WHAT TO ASSESS?

Hackney and Cormier (2005) listed the following important components of

assessing the client:

Identifying Data
  Name, address, phone number [to enable the counsellor to
contact and gives an indication of the conditions under which the
client lives
 Age, gender, marital status, occupation [gives an indication of the
age of the client and some background about marital status]
Problems Presented

Present the problem exactly the way the client reports them and the following
questions might reveal additional information:

 How does the problem interfere with the client’s daily life?
 What are the behaviours, thoughts and feeling associated with the problem?

 How often and how long has the problem existed?

 Is a patten of events? e.g. when? With whom? Is it predictable?
Client’s Current Life Style

 How does the client spend a typical day?

 What social, religious and recreational activities is the client involved in?
 What is the nature of the client’s educational situation?
 What special characteristics about the client? e.g. age, physical, cultural, etc.
Family History

 Father and mother: age, occupation, personalities, roles, relationship with client
 Siblings: age, present life and relationship with client
 Family stability: jobs held, family moves and reasons.
Personal History

 Medical history: illness, injury

  Education history: academic performance, extra-curriculur
activities, hobbies and interests, relationships with peers
 Career: jobs held, types of jobs, relationships with colleagues and fellow workers
 Client’s personal goals in life
Description of the Client during the Interview

 Physical appearance : posture, dress, gestures, facial expression

 How client related to counsellor in the session?
 Client’s warmth, readiness, motivation, passivity, etc.
 Were the client’s remarks logical? Connected to another.

Summary and Recommendations

 Connection between problem stated by the client and other information collected.
 Should the client be assigned to a particular counsellor?
 Are the goals for counselling stated by the client realistic?
 How much counselling might be required?
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM PRESENTED BY THE CLIENT?

Here, the counsellor tries to gather specific details regarding the nature and
content of the problem presented by the client as well as other problems that may
have been mentioned during the earlier and subsequent sessions. Usually, a
person will seek counselling because of a problem and during the counselling
sessions something else might be revealed. Hence, it is important to have more
than one session with the client to determine more specifically the problem
encountered.

Whiston suggested that to understand in more detail the problem stated by the
client, the counsellor could explore the following areas:

How does the problem manifest itself?

  Feelings associated with the problem (e.g. anger, fear)
 Thinking assocaited with the problem (i.e. the client’s beliefs, perceptions)
 Behavours associated with the problem (e.g. rude, insults, avoids being in a crowd)

 Physiological complaints associated with the problem (e.g. stomach

aches, unable to sleep)
 Interpersonal effects (e.g. quarrels with family members, keeps
to himself, bullys classmates)

Is there a pattern of events leading to the problem?

 When does the problem occur? Where? With whom?

 What happens before the problem and after the problem occurs?
 What makes the problem better or disappear for a while?
 What makes the problem worse?

How long has the problem persisted and does it interfere with the client’s life?

 How long has the problem existed?

 How often does the problem occur?
 How long does the problem last when it does occur?
 In what ways does the problem interfere with client’s daily functioning?

How has the client coped with the problem?

 How has the client coped? What has and has not worked?
 What strenghts, resources and support systems does the client have to help him or her
change? (e.g. understanding parents, siblings, good friends)
 What is the client’s worldview? (on gender, religion, ethnicity, peers)
 Besides these sources of information obtained from the counselling sessions,
the counsellor could also obtain additional information about clients using
psychological tests and self-ratings
 HOW IS THE ASSESSMENT INFORMATION TO BE USED?
  There are different ways in which counsellors use the information collected
about their clients. Some counsellors look mainly for patterns of behaviour.
Others use it for planning relevant counselling strategies and approaches to
use with problems. For example, a person who complains that he is unable
to make friends, the counsellor moght look at the client’s behaviour in
interpersonal relationships and use behavioural strategies that emphasise
acquisition of social skills and interpersonal strategies that deal with
relationships between people
 Counsellors who do not assess the problems presented by their clients “are
more likely to formulate wrong conclusions about client problems and
irrelevant or non-workable counselling approaches and strategies. As a
result, not only is more time spent on ‘hit and miss’ counselling, but
ultimately clients might leave with the same set of problems they brought to
the first session”

CONCLUSION
 Assessment in important in seeking relecant information about clients and
their problems. The information can be used to initiate the process of
change for clients. Assessment collected at the early stages of the
counselling process will help counsellors formulate hypotheses. Assessment
is an ongoing process during counselling. Assessment gives an idea to the
counsellor the intensity of the problems and how the client is coping with
the problem.

3rd stage: Commitment to action - Goal Setting

Setting goals is very important to the success of counselling. It involves making a
commitment to a set of conditions, to a course of action or an outcome.

Like any other activity, counselling must have a focus.

Focus of the Client = Problem

Focus of the Counsellor = Problem + Client + Counselling Process + Goal

Sometimes, you hear both counsellor and client complain that the counselling
session is going nowhere. This is where goals play an important role in giving
direction. Goals are the results or outcomes that client wants to achieve at the end
of counselling. Goals help the counsellor and client determine what can and what
cannot be accomplised through counselling. In goal setting, the client identifies
with the help of the counsellor, specific ways in which they want to resolve the
issues and what course of action should be taken to resolve the problem.

WHY DO YOU NEED GOALS?

According to Dixon and Glover, “once a goal is formulated and selected by a

problem solver, it is likely to be rehearsed in the working memory and stored in
long-tem memory. A goal encoded in this way, then, becomes a major heuristic
for the problem solver as he or she interacts with the enviornment”.

 With clear goals, clients are more likely or motivated to work toward
achieving those goals.
 With goals clients learn how to structure their lives towards achieving the goals.
 With goals, it is easier for the counsellor to select and evaluate
appropriate counselling interventions.
When goals are stated clearly, both the counsellor and client have a better understanding of what
is to be accomplished. For example, “to help the client develop his or he self-esteem”. Clarity of
purpose allows

the counsellor to work more directly with the client’s problems or concerns.
Stating goals in behavioural terms, enhances the clients’ understanding of what is
to be done. It also allows both client and counsellor recognise progress when it
happens which reinforces further progress.

WHAT PREVENTS A CLIENT FROM SETTING GOALS?

Occsaionally, the client may be relictant to participate in goal setting. Although it
does not happen frequently, there are times when clients simply cannot or will not
participate. It is possible that a person who resists setting goals could be
protecting the very behaviour that is in need of modification because that
behaviour is also serving some desirable behaviour. For example, a smoker who
recognises the negative consequences of smoking, including its addictive
properties, he or sh also clings to the habit, believing that it helps him or her relax
during stressful moments, or that it increases the enjoyment of a good meal.

GUIDELINES FOR SELECTING AND DEFINING GOALS

Goals should be selected and defined with care. Below are some guidelines for
goal selection that can be used with students:

 Goals should relate to the desired end or ends sought by the student.
 Goals should be defined in explicit and measurable terms.
 Goals should be feasible.
 Goals should be within the range of the counsellor’s knowledge and skills.
 Goals should be stated in positive terms that emphasise growth.
 Goals should be consistent with the school’s mission and school health policy.

Process of Selecting and Defining Goals with the Student

 Determine the student’s readiness to negotiate goals.

 Explain to the student the purpose of selecting and defining goals.
 Select appropriate goals together.
 Define the goals explicitly.
 Determine the feasibility of goals and discuss their potential benefits and risks.
 Assist the student to make a choice about committing to specific goals.
 Rank goals according to the student’s priorities and according to the
 nature of the goals. The easiest goals should be addressed first. This
allows the student to feel success, which builds confidence and
motivation.

Breaking Down Large Goals into Smaller Steps

The first task in developing strategies to attain goals is to reduce them to

manageable parts. These parts consist of discrete actions to be undertaken by the
student. Behaviour change is very difficult for all of us and particularly for addicts.
It is important to bear in mind that when a student agrees to carry out a task, it does
not necessarily mean that the student has the knowledge, courage, interpersonal
skill or emotional readiness to implement the task successfully.

The student needs to be helped to set small, realistic goals that are achievable, to
avoid disappointment by large failures at the beginning of the relationship.

It is the task of the counsellor to get clients to identify what they gain from their
current behaviour. For example, if a student comes to the counsellor because of
disuptive behaviour to gain the attention of the teacher. Perhaps, the counsellor
could suggest that the student use another way to gain the attention of the teacher
which will become the goal.
CONCLUSION

Goal setting is a central part of the change process that people often take for
granted. And yet, many people (including many counsellors) are not very skilled
at setting their own goals at helping others to identify and set goals. Goals can
motivate clients to make desired changes and help counsellor to evaluate
progress.
Step 4: Couselling Intervention/ treatment
There are different points of view concerning what a good counsellor should do
with clients depending on the theoretical positions that the cousellor subscribes to.
For example, the person-centred approach suggests that the counsellor gets
involved rather than intervenes by placing emphasis on the relationship. The
behavioural approach attempts to initiate activities that help clients alter their
behaviour. Every person is different when it comes to treatment/ intervention and
no two plans may look alike. There are several factors at work when determining
the type of therapeutic modality that should be used with clients, including the
type of problem presented, clients own treatment goal, time available for the
intervention, clients’ strengths and readiness for change, the counselors
experience and expertise in effecting therapeutic change and even whether client
is grappling with co-ocurring disoders e.g substance abuse. When there is more
than one problem, the counselor addresses issues of priorities, sequencing and
integration of plans
Intervention methods
Can be either direct or indirect
1. Indirect intervention targets aperson who is harmed by another’s mental
health problems- often codependent family member or friend
2. Direct intervention targets the person deemed in need of treatment

Step 5: Evaluation, Termination or Referral

For the beginning counsellor, it is difficult to think of terminating the couselling
process, as they are more concerned with beginning the counselling process.
However, all counselling aims towards successful termination. Terminating the
counselling process will have to be conducted with sensitivity with the client
knowing that it will have to end. Termination may be looked at in two ways
1. At the conclusion of each initial interview
2. At the conclusion of the counseling process
The initial interview is for establishing rapport. But it is important to
terminate it in a facilitative manner because the manner in which a counselor
 ends the session might determine whether or not a client will return.
Sometimes there may arise a need to refer client to another professional agency
before the session ends due to
1) The clients present concerns or needs are beyond your competency level
2) The personality of the client is not compatible with yours and this cannot
resolve and will interfere with counselling process
3) The client is personal friend or close relative and their concern will require
ongoing relationship. This is because there is danger of becoming
emotionally involved with the clients concern and therefore creating the
danger of not rationally and logically dealing with alternatives that present
themselves
4) The client may be reluctant to discuss his problems with you for reason
which is not tangible
5) After several sessions you may feel that your relationship with the client is
ineffective and therefore it is leading both of you nowhere
6) A counselor may change location or be transferedc elsewhre

Note that each of these steps continues even though the counsellor and the client
moves to the next step. For example, after built a relationship, the counsellor
moves to Step 2 which involves assessing the problem encountered by the client.
In the meantime, the counsellor continues to strenghten the relationship that has
been built. In other words, Step 1 or the building of a relationship does not stop
but is onging until Step 5 which involves termination or perhaps the client is
referred to for further action.
Every