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Counselling 4

Counseling requires certain skills including attitudinal skills like respect, empathy, genuineness. Effective listening is key as is verbal communication tailored to the client. Counselors also use leads like restating content, asking questions, reflecting feelings, providing reassurance or interpretation to facilitate the session.

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Moana Mariee
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50 views22 pages

Counselling 4

Counseling requires certain skills including attitudinal skills like respect, empathy, genuineness. Effective listening is key as is verbal communication tailored to the client. Counselors also use leads like restating content, asking questions, reflecting feelings, providing reassurance or interpretation to facilitate the session.

Uploaded by

Moana Mariee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SKILLS NEEDED IN

COUNSELING
Several skills need to be brought into
a one-to-one counseling session.
These include:
• 1. attitudinal skills;
• 2. listening skills;
• 3. verbal communication
skills; and
• 4. giving leads.
1. Attitudes
• There is probably nothing which has a
greater impact on the outcome of a
counseling session than the helper's
attitude.
• Attitudes can be positive or reactive.
Attitudes are included in this topic on skills
because good attitudes can be learned
and practiced.
They include the following:
• a) respect
• b) guidance/congruence
• c) unconditional positive regard
• d) empathy
• e) self-disclosure
• f) confrontation
a) Respect
• It is one of the most important human
attitudes required. It normally begins
with respecting one's self, so that
others respect you in turn. It is having
good intentions and warm regard for
clients. Respect the clients and avoid
imposing your values on them.
• Avoid judgment.
a) Respect
• Many times, respect demands praising
the individuality of each client,
supporting each one's search for
him/herself, and structuring the
counseling to the needs, capacities
and resources of the individual client.
The counselor needs to ensure that
the client accepts the problem and
the solution as his/her own.
b) Genuineness/Congruence
• Genuineness is at times referred to as
congruence. It is the consistency or
harmony between what you say, and what
you are, as a counselor. This condition
reflects honesty, transparency, and trust.
This element is basic to a counseling
relationship. Once it is established, open
communication, warmth and respect for
the client gradually develop.
c) Unconditional Positive
Regard (Warmth)
• You may have experienced situations
where a client approached you with a
concern, and you blamed the client, or
acted as if the client bothered you. These
are negative attitudes which are
ineffective in counseling.
• Unconditional, positive regard makes
clients feel welcomed and valued as
individuals.
d) Empathy
• Empathy is your ability, as a counselor,
to understand what your clients
experience, and communicate this
kind of feeling.
• Carl Rogers (1980), defined it as
perceiving the internal frame of
reference of another person.
d) Empathy
• Gerald Egan (1990), explains it as entering
the private perceptual world of the client,
and being sensitive to his/her feelings,
whether good or bad.
• As a counselor, you need to be
empathetic. You need to be responsive to
both the content and the feelings
expressed by clients. This attitude helps
you to assess clients‘ concerns and
understand them better.
e) Self-Disclosure
• Self-disclosure helps your client to
communicate easily. It is one of the attitudes
that helps your client to reveal something about
him/herself. It helps to create mutual trust, and
disarm the client, so that he/she feels free and
talks openly.
• This is equally important for both parties in the
counseling session. It promotes a relationship
through increased communication and better
understanding of the client.
• It also helps the client to understand
him/herself better, and help him/her
get rid of the burden of guilt.
• This is a first step in behavioural
change. Opening with self-disclosure
helps the client to talk about his/her
problems more concretely and
realistically, and allows him/her to
act accordingly.
• Disclose only what is necessary.
f) Confrontation
• This is when you use your client's
behaviour, or words, to point out
inconsistencies between what is said and
what is done. When handling a response,
confrontation, or challenging attitudes, is
a healthy development in counseling.
• For example, a client may say he/she
hates a particular teacher and, in another
instance, may say that he/she likes her.
• This is inconsistent.
f) Confrontation

• You could draw the attention of such a


client to such inconsistency by saying,
‘You said that you did not like the teacher.
Now you are saying that you like her.
What exactly do you mean?’
• Remember to bring this out in a ‘feeling’
and not in a threatening way. You will, in
this way, initiate action in your client.
2. Listening
• Effective listening is more complicated
than it seems, since it involves a
counselor's own level of self-
awareness, as well as his/her
awareness of the spoken and
unspoken cues of the other person.
• Furthermore, a counselor needs to be
able to respond to the client in such a
way that he/she feels understood.
2. Listening
• Being a good listener entails receiving
and sending appropriate messages.
• In counseling this is important,
because it means meeting the needs
of the clients.
• Listening to clients is not just a matter
of receiving what they say, but also
receiving how they say it.
• Sometimes how they communicate is
much more revealing that what they
actually say, which may be more
concealing than revealing.
• Listening skills are basic to all human
interaction, whether the purpose is for
getting information, conducting in-depth
interviews, or offering informal help.
• Listening is considered to be the most
important counseling skill.
3. Verbal Communication
• The use of words in counseling is a skill which,
like any other skill, requires practice to master.
• Verbal communication takes place first in the
literal or content phase. If inappropriate
vocabulary is used, rapport and understanding
will be hindered.
• When this happens, miscommunication occurs.
Even common words can be misunderstood due
to the multiple meanings they carry.
• In addition to the literal phase of verbal
communication, there is also the emotional phase.
• This refers to other attributes involved in vocal
interactions, such as volume, the emotional edge,
and other non-verbal cues such as gestures.
• Picture a client saying, ‘I don't care’ while angry, or
while indifferently walking away from you, or while
weeping with his head in his hands.
• Although the words are the same, the message
conveyed is vastly different. As helpers, we must be
sensitive to both the literal and emotional phases of
verbal communication.
4. Leads
• Leads may be defined as
statements that counselors use in
communication with the clients.
• Leads have been classified into
categories of techniques, namely:
• a) Restatement of Content
Attempts to convey understanding by
repeating or rephrasing the
communication.
• b) Questioning
Seeks further information and asks the
person counseled to elaborate a point.
• c) Reflection of Feeling
Understanding from the client's point of
view and communicating that
understanding.
• d) Reassurance
Serves as a reward or reinforcing
agent. It is often used to support
the client's exploration of ideas
and feelings or test different
behaviour.
• e) Interpretation
Explains meaning behind the
client's statements.

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