COUNSELING AND PSYCHOTHERA

What Is Counseling?

1. Counseling is the artful application of scientifically derived

psychological knowledge and techniques for the purpose of
changing human behavior (Burke, 1989).

2. Counseling is a helping relationship that includes someone

seeking help and someone willing to give help who is trained to
help in a setting that permits help to be given and received
(Cormier & Hackney, 1987).
What Is Counseling?

3. Counseling consists of whatever ethical activities a

counselor undertakes in an effort to help the client engage in
those types of behavior that will lead to a resolution of the
clients problems (Krumboltz, 1965).

4. [Counseling is] an activity . . . for working with relatively

normal-functioning individuals who are experiencing
developmental or adjustment problems (Kottler & Brown,
1996).
 What Is Psychotherapy?
1. A conversation with a therapeutic purpose (Korchin, 1976).
2. The purchase of friendship (Schofield, 1964).
3. [A] situation in which two people interact and try to come to
an understanding of one another, with the specific goal of
accomplishing something beneficial for the complaining person
(Bruch, 1981).
4. When one person with an emotional disorder gets help from
another person who has less of an emotional disorder (J.
Watkins, personal communication, October
13, 1983).
5. Psychological treatment of emotional problems in which a
trained person deliberately establishes a professional
relationship with the patient in order to: (a) remove or modify or
retard existing symptoms; (b) mediate disturbed patterns of
behavior; (c) promote positive personality growth and
development (Wolberg, 1995).
COMPARISON OF COUNSELING AND PSYCHOTHERAP
COUNSELING
STRUCTURE OF Addresses the conscious
PERSONALITY mental state
FOCUS Developmentalfosters Remediativeaimed at
coping skills to facilitate
development and prevent
problems
CLIENTS PROBLEMS Problems of living More complex
GOALS Resolution of immediate
concerns (short-term)
COUNSELING Includes preventative
APPROACHES approaches and various
counseling strategies
SETTING Offered in schools,
churches, and mental
health clinics
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Ventures into clients
unconscious process
helping clients overcome
existing problems such as
anxiety and depression
Short-term and long-term
goals; Long-term goals
involve helping the client
overcome a particular
mental disorder
More complex, utilizes
strategies that relate to
conscious and unconscious
processes
Offered in private
practice, mental health
centers, and hospitals
Working Definition of Counseling and Psychotherapy

At the very least, there are strong similarities between the

practice of counseling and psychotherapy. At the most, they
may be considered virtually identical procedures.

Counseling and psychotherapy is a process that involves

a trained person who practices the artful application of

scientifically derived principles for establishing professional
helping relationships with persons who seek assistance in
resolving large or small psychological or relational
problems. This is accomplished through ethically defined
means and involves, in the broadest sense, some form of
learning or human development.
TYPES OF
COUNSELING
Directive Counseling

It is the process of listening

to a members problem, deciding with the member what
should be done, and then encouraging and
motivating the person to do it.

It accomplishes the function of advice; but it may also

reassure; give emotional release;
and, to a minor extent, clarify thinking.
TYPES OF
COUNSELING
Nondirective Counseling

It is also known as client-centered counseling since it is

the process of skillfully listening to a counselee,
encouraging the person to explain bothersome problems,
and helping him or her to understand
those problems and determine courses of action.

This type of counseling focuses on the member, rather

than on the counselor as a judge and
advisor; hence, it is client-centered.
TYPES OF
COUNSELING
Nondirective Counseling
.
Its unique advantage is its
ability to cause the members reorientation. It
stresses changing the person, instead of dealing
only with the immediate problem in the usual
manner of directive counseling.

The counselor attempts to ask discerning questions, restate

ideas, clarify feelings, and attempts to understand why these
feelings exist.
 DISCOURAGING FACTS ABOUT COUNSELING

It is time consuming. This process does not end in one

sitting/session.

It is emotionally tiring.

It is physically exhausting.

It is frequently unsuccessful because we cannot impose on

them what can be perceived as the best and swift solution.

It looks unrewarding.
 PERSONAL QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE HELPERS
Helping Formula developed by Brammer:

Personality of the helper + Helping Skills =

Growth-facilitating Conditions Specific Outcomes

Personality of the helperthe self as an instrument of change

Helping Skillscounseling techniques

Growth-facilitating condition mutual trust, respect, freedom

of expressing ones self

Specific outcomes facilitating behavior change, enhancing

coping skills, promoting decision-making and improving
relationship
 THE ROLE OF THE COUNSELOR

To provide a relationship between counselor and counselee,

the most prominent quality of which is that of mutual trust with
each other;
To provide alternatives in self-understanding and in the
courses of action open to the client;
To provide for some degree of intervention of the situation in
which the client finds himself and with important others in the
clients immediate life;
To provide leadership in developing a healthy psychological
environment for his clients; and
To provide for improvement of the counseling process through
constant individual criticism and extensive attention to
improvement of process through research.
PERSONAL QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR

Encouraging
Emotionally stable
Has self-awareness
Has positive self-esteem
Has self-disclosure
Patient
Has tolerance for ambiguity
Artistic
Empathic and caring
Has self-acceptance
Has self-realization
Courageous
Nonjudgmental
Has spirituality
 ETHICAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING AND
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Clients welfare
Counselors competency

Informed consent

Confidentiality
Privacy
Confidentiality
Privileged Communication

Personal relationship with clients

Dual Relationship
Sexual Relationship