Theories of Counseling

Running head : Theories of Counseling

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1 . What is counseling and what are the most essential characteristics of a helping relationship

Counseling is a process that involves helping people individually or in small groups to deal with the concerns or difficulties they are experiencing . Counseling can be a tool for preventing 'normal ' problems from becoming more serious and resulting in delinquency and emotional disturbance . It can be a method for creating a healthy environment to assist people specially students in coping with the

stresses and conflicts of their growth and development . Specific techniques implemented by the counselor to elicit client change are important component of the counseling process (Ackerman , 1958

Techniques in counseling and psychotherapy , however , are offered with the precaution that the acquisition of techniques alone merely produces a technician skilled in gimmicks , not a therapist whose intention is to effect change . The counseling experience is much more than the counselor 's use of technique the human dimension of the relationship as well as the readiness and responsiveness of the client are also very important (Ackerman , 1958

Fundamentally , a technique may be conceptualized as a strategy of the counselor and may be drawn from many available sources . The skillfulness with which the intervention is implemented is critical . A counseling technique must be organized around a fundamental principle of treatment and directed toward the ultimate goal of wellness . It should contribute to the therapeutic goal by becoming an assimilated force in the counseling relationship

The core therapeutic dimension capsulated focuses on the differences and similarities in group and individual counseling on the following dimensions : interactive client-therapist relationships , therapeutic interventions , and therapeutic factors . This is followed by factors that promote the efficacy of group counseling , curative factors in the group process , and counselor-therapist intentions in the counseling /therapeutic process . From these distinct dimensions are specific attributes that differentiate individual and group process

Theory helps to explain what happens in a counseling relationship and assists the counselor in predicting , evaluating , and improving results Theory provides a framework for making scientific observations about counseling . Theorizing encourages the coherence of ideas about counseling and the production of new ideas

The therapeutic relationship is the core of the helping process . The following characteristics are the same for both the individual and the group process . Relationships are reciprocal and collaborative . The importance of the counseling relationship is widely supported by empirical literature

2 . Explain in detail the key elements that you must cover in the first session with a new client and why you must cover them

Every psychological problem can be explored and resolved as a polarized conflict between two aspects in personality . Fiebert (1983 ) identified four stages in the unfolding of a therapeutic session and the corresponding counselor behaviors that serve to guide a conflict into awareness , expose its ramifications and internal experience , and aid in its resolution

The first stage involves a client bringing into awareness with increasing intensity a major conflict in the here-and-now to...