Qualities and Responsibilities of a Counselor

What are the certain qualities you should be looking for in your counselor and what all your expectations should be like.

Qualities of a Counselor

Individuals should be able to possess the following characteristics to be successful counselors:

1. Self-Awareness: It means to be aware of oneself i.e. one’s own thoughts, feelings, attitudes, strengths, weaknesses, biases, behaviors and their effect on others. Counselor’s who are self aware are likely to have clear perception of their own and clients’ needs and accurately assess both. Such awareness helps counselors’ to be honest with themselves and others and build trust and communicate clearly and accurately.

2. Empathy: The empathic behavior is the ability of a counselor to stand in the shoes of the client i.e. to see the things from the point of view of the client. The quality of empathy is a must for the counseling process to succeed. Rogers (1961) describes empathy as the counselor’s ability to “enter the client’s” phenomenal world – to experience the client’s as if it were your own without ever losing the as if quality.

Empathy has two components: Primary empathy is the ability to respond in such a way that it is apparent to both client and counselor that the counselor has understood the client. Advanced empathy “is a process of helping a client explore themes, issues, and emotions new to his or her awareness”.

3. Unconditional Positive Regard: Rogers came up with a term called, ‘unconditional positive regard’ to refer to ‘necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change’ in the counseling relationship. Rogers emphasised that the counselor’s positive feeling for the client must never be conditional in nature. Counselors should have non-judgmental, positive and genuine dispositions towards the client irrespective of the client’s feelings or emotions.

4. Genuineness: Genuineness on part of the counselor is very important. In its most basic sense it means “acting without using a façade” functioning without hiding behind the veneer of one’s role or professional status. A genuine interest in the client is a must for the counseling process to succeed. Rogers (1958) suggests that the counselor should be a real person to his/her clients.

5. Warmth: The quality of being warm refers to a situation, where a person shows interest in another individual/group. ‘Cold’ individuals rarely become good counselors. There is an element of support involved in being warm. Warmth implies attentiveness as well as patience to listen. A word of caution here, a too warm counselor may lead towards the development of over-dependence on the part of the client. The ideal feeling of being warm is the one which demonstrates that the counselor is non-judgmental and is honestly interested in his/her client.

6. Attentiveness: Empathy is fostered by attentiveness – the amount of verbal and nonverbal behavior shown to the client. Verbal behaviors include communications that show a desire to comprehend or discuss what is important to the client. (Cormier and Cormier, 1991).These behaviors (which include probing, requesting clarification, restating, and summarizing feelings). indicate that the counselor is focusing on the client. Equally important are the counselor’s nonverbal behaviors. Egan (1990) summarizes five nonverbal skills involved in attending and which conveys to the client that the counselor is interested in and open to him/her.

Skills are abbreviated as SOLER

S: Face the client squarely; that is, adopt a posture that indicates involvement.

O: Adopt an open posture. Sit with both feet on the ground to begin with and with your hands folded, one over the other.

L: Lean toward the client. However, be aware of the clients space needs.

E: Maintain eye contact. Good eye contact with the clients indicates that the counselor is attuned to the client. For others, less eye contact may be appropriate.

R: As a counselor incorporates these skills into his /her attending or listening skills, he or she should relax.

7. Concreteness: It can be termed as a type of skill. It is an ability to listen to what is being said by the client, instead of what is being implied. Concreteness in counseling is essential, if the counseling process has to succeed. A counselor possessing the skill of ‘concreteness’ does not go for details (regarding psychological explanations) of what the client is speaking about, but instead tries to understand what the client is trying to express. Any quick, preconceived or initial judgment about what the client is saying is not particularly helpful. In fact, it may be counterproductive. The concept of concreteness almost integrates all the important elements of the counseling process. A concrete counselor, invariably, listens to and accepts what the client is saying and does not quickly make his judgments.

8. Objectivity: To remain objective in the counseling process means to be able to stand back and observe whatever is happening from a neutral frame of reference and not distorted by perceptions, biases and expectations.

9. Open Mindedness: Open mindedness means freedom from fixed preoccupations and an attitude of open receptivity to whatever the client is expressing. The open minded counselor is able to accommodate the client’s values, feelings and perceptions even if they are different from his or her own. Open-mindedness also implies the ability to listen, to respond, and to interact with the client free from the constraints of imposing value criteria. As per Anderson, Lepper and Ross (1980) if the counselor is not open-minded he will persist in believing incorrect things about a client, even in the face of countervailing evidence

10. Sensitivity: Sensitivity is a prime factor in contributing to counselor effectiveness. It implies that the counselor makes a deeper and spontaneous response (cognitive and emotional response) to the client’s needs, feelings, conflict, doubts and so on.

11. Non Dominance: The non dominant counselor is one who is capable of sitting back and allowing the client to initiate and direct the course of counseling interview. Counseling requires a counselor to be able to listen to whatever the client expresses and listening is possible only if the counselor controls any dominating tendencies.

12. Confrontation: Counselor’s ability to confront should not be understood in a negative connotation. In confrontation the counselor challenges the client to examine, modify, or control

an aspect of behavior that is improperly used. A good, responsible and appropriate confrontation produces growth and encourages an honest examination of oneself.

Example of Confrontation: “You have said you want to change this behavior but it seems you keep doing it over and over again. Help me to understand what is going on and how repeating this pattern is helpful to you.”

13. Sense of Humor: Humor involves giving a funny, unexpected response to a question or situation. It requires both sensitivity and timing on part of the counselor. A sense of humor comes quite handy, in rescuing most of the sensitive or delicate situations. It is never aimed at demeaning anyone. It also does not mean that a counselor should start taking the conversation during a counseling session lightly. If used properly, it is a ‘clinical tool that has many therapeutic applications’ (Ness 1989). Humor can circumvent client’s resistance, dispel tension and help clients distance themselves from psychology. Even subjects dubbed as ‘taboos’, can be easily confronted with the help of a sense of humor.

Role of a Counselor

The counseling process implies continuous change that takes place or rather which should take place in the client in order to promote personality change in a desired direction.

The kind of change that the counselor aims to bring through counseling is briefly:

a) Awareness on the part of the client;

b) Behavioral change in a desired direction through which client can achieve his or her goals; and

c) Understanding the clients potentialities, limitations and how to utilize them best in achieving the desired goal.

Counseling process and the role of counselor is by and large the same for all problems and for all individuals. However there is a subtle difference in the role a counselor plays while giving vocational counseling and when handling emotional issues.

In vocational and educational counseling the major emphasis of the counselor is on collecting factual information. The counselor helps the client to understand the information in a proper perspective. He tries to help in rational problem solving processes, clarifying self concepts, values etc. In this context counselors are often concerned with the appropriate choice in educational spheres.

On the other hand while counseling the individuals with personal and emotional problems the counselor assumes a somewhat different role. In this context information and planning in logical terms do not play a central role. Here the counselor helps the clients to

a) express their feelings, clarify and elaborate them as related to the problem

b) explore feelings and personal resources

c) make the client aware of desirable action for change

d) plan action in collaboration with the client and

e) help clients implement the most appropriate action.

Overall it can be inferred that the overall emphasis of vocational and educational counseling is on cognitive aspect whereas counseling related to personal issues lays stress on affective aspect.

Thus, though counseling goals may differ as per the needs of the client the counseling process follows a specified sequence of interactions or steps. Hackney and Cormier (1996) identified the stages or steps as follows:

• Establishing relationship with the client

• Problem identification and Exploration

• Planning for problem solving

• Solution application and termination.

Each of these stages is further elaborated:

1. Establishing Relationship with the Client

The core of the counseling process is the relationship established between the counselor and the client. The Counselor takes the initiative in the initial interview to establish a climate conducive to develop mutual respect, trust, free and open communication and understanding in general of what the counseling process involves. Both the counselor’s attitude and verbal communications are significant to the development of a satisfactory relationship. Verbal communication includes attentive listening, understanding and feeling with the client. The quality of counselor client relationships determines the counseling outcomes. Factors that are important in the establishment of counselor client relationships are positive regard and respect, accurate empathy, and genuineness. To ensure these conditions the counselor needs to have openness: an ability to understand and feel with the client as well as value the client. It is by means of this relationship that the counselor elicits and recognizes the significant feelings and ideas that determine the behavior of the client.

Counselor client relationships not only serve to increase the opportunities for clients to attain their goals but also be a potential model of a good interpersonal relationship, one that clients can use to improve the quality of their relationships outside the therapeutic setting. The counselor helps the client make effective interpersonal relationships and free him from unrealistic aspirations. In this the counselor plays the part of a teacher.

Pepinsky and Pepinsky (1954) define the relationship “as a hypothetical construct to designate the inferred affective character of the observable interaction between two individuals”. He emphasized the affective or emotional element in the relationship.

Counselors main responsibility always remains to meet the clients' needs as much as possible. The counseling relationship seeks to assist the clients in assuming the responsibilities for his or her problem and its solution. This is facilitated by the counselor’s communication skills, the ability to identify and reflect clients’ feelings and the ability to identify and gain insight into the clients concerns and needs.

Establishment of a conducive relationship between client and counselor is important to be achieved in the initial counseling process as it often determines whether or not the client will continue for counseling.

Goals of initial counseling interview include:

Counselor’s Goal

• Establish a comfortable and positive relationship.

• Explain the counseling process and mutual responsibilities to the client.

• Facilitate communication.

• Identify and verify the client’s concern that brought him/her to the counselor.

• Plan with the client to obtain assessment data needed to proceed with the counseling process.

Clients Goal

• Understanding the counseling process and his/her responsibilities in the process.

• Share and explain reasons for seeking help.

• Cooperate in the assessment of both problem and self.

2. Problem Identification and Exploration

After the establishment of an adequate relationship, the clients become more receptive for in depth discussion and exploration of their concern. In this phase the counselor continues to exhibit attending behaviour and put forward questions to the client to facilitate continued exploration and elicitation of information of the client’ concerns. Questions that might embarrass, challenge, or threaten the client are avoided as this would hinder the process of information elicitation from the client. Counselors working in close harmony with the client with due understanding and regard tries to distinguish between the surface and deeper or complex problems.

Counselor also tries to ascertain whether the problem stated by the client is the actual problem that has led the client to seek help .This may be a time for information gathering. The more useful information the counselor gathers, the more accurate assessment of clients' needs could be done. It is therefore important for counselors to recognise the various areas of information to be gathered. Usually the desired information could be grouped under three headings: time dimension, the feeling dimension, and the cognitive dimension.

Brief description of each dimension is indicated as follows.

i) Time Dimension: includes the clients past experiences which had a major impact on his/her life. Present dimension would cover how well the client is functioning currently specially those current experiences that had an impact enough on the client to seek counseling. Future dimensions would include future demands, goals and how the client plans to achieve them.

ii) Feeling Dimension: includes emotions and feelings the client has towards oneself (self concept) and significant others.

iii) Cognitive Dimension: includes how the client solves problems, the coping styles, the rationality used in making daily decisions and the client’s capacity and readiness for the learning. At this point counselors may use certain standardized tests to diagnose the problem and sub problem. The counselor tries to collect as much relevant information as possible and integrate it into an overall picture of the client's needs and concerns.

Counselor shares this conceptualization with the client as well as one of the counselor’s goals during this stage is to help the client develop a self understanding of the need to deal with a concern/problem – the need for change and action. The counselor continues to promote the client’s understanding of action plans for resolving problems.

The steps or stages counselor follows for problem identification and exploration are as follows:

1) Define the Problem: Counselor with the corporation of client tries to identify the problem as specifically and objectively as possible. He also tries to identify the components or contributing factors, severity of the problem and its duration.

2) Explore the Problem: At this stage information needed to fully understand the problem and its background is gathered. The counselor may take a detailed case study or administer standardized psychological measures to collect the required information.

3) Integrate the information: In this step the counselor systematically organizes and integrates all the information collected into a meaningful profile of the client and his problems. The Counselor also begins to explore the changes that are required and obstacles that exist for these changes to materialize.

3. Planning for Problem Solving

Once the counselor determines that all relevant information regarding the client has been gathered and understood in proper perspective and client has also developed awareness and has gained insight into the fact that something needs to be done about a specific problem, counselor moves on to develop a plan in collaboration with client to remediate the concern of the client.

The sequence of steps that the counselor usually follows to devises a plan is as follows:

1) Define the problem: It is important that both client and counselor view the problem with a similar perspective and have the same understanding of its ramification.

2) Identify and list all the solutions: At this juncture, appropriate brainstorming needs to be done for all possibilities. Efforts from both sides (client and counselor) are required, but the client should be allowed to list as many possibilities as he/she can think of. In case some obvious solutions are overlooked, the counselor may suggest to the client “Have you also thought of _______? None of the possibilities should be eliminated just on face value.

3) Analysis of the consequences of the suggested solutions: Here the counselor encourages and suggests the client to identify the steps needed for the implementation of the suggested solutions. This process is important as it enables the client to assess the pros and cons of each proposed solution and its consequences.

4) Prioritize the solutions: After weighing out the pros and cons of each possible solution, the client with the help of the counselor lists the solutions with the best possible outcome down to least likely to give desired outcome.

After finalizing and selecting the best solution the client moves on to the application and implementation. Clients may not be able to smoothly follow the above mentioned steps and may have difficulties in arriving at basic insight, implications and probabilities, whereas this may be easier for the counselor. Hence the counselor guides the client towards realizing these understandings. The counselor may use the techniques of repetition, mild confrontation, interpretation, information and obvious encouragement to facilitate client’s understanding.

4. Solution Application and Termination: In this final stage the counselor encourages the client to act upon his or her determined solution of the problem. During the time the client is actively involved in implementing the problem solution, the counselor maintains contact as a source of follow up, support and encouragement as the client may need the counselor’s assistance in the event things do not go according to plan. Once it is determined that the counselor and the client have dealt with the client’s concern to the maximum possible extent, the counseling process is terminated. Termination refers to the decision, one-sided or mutual, to stop counseling. (Burke, 1989).The counselor usually concludes the counseling by summarizing the main points of the counseling process.