Counselling- Therapeutic Relationship - Assessment Answer

Counselling Assignment

Assignment Task

Part 1: Compulsory

Identify the nature of counselling and the counsellor’s role. Include in this a discussion, with examples, of the differences between professional counselling and informal helping.

Part 2: Chooseoneof the following two topics

Part 2a:What is meant by the core conditions of the therapeutic relationship?

Why are these such important elements of counselling?

Part 2b:Discuss the importance of self-awareness for the counsellor

What is counselling?

Part 1:

Counselling is a relationship between a client and a counsellor where in the counsellor undertakes a process to resolve the issues that client is facing. The nature of counselling is majorly of problem solving(Taegtmeyer et al., 2013).It helps the normal people with normal problems to solve them using life experiences. Counselling is thus an interactive process where a therapist expects the client to participate fully so that the problems that are being faced by the client can be solved(ACA, 2012).The nature of counselling is very wide because this is an application of psychological, mental health and human development principles through affective, cognitive, systematic and behavioural intervention strategies that address personal growth, wellness, career development and pathology. This suggests that counselling deals with overall well being of a human being(Meams et al., 2013). Counselling has potential to provide support to the will of a human being and it also makes a human being strong. Many researchers support that it is a road to live life even more satisfyingly. It is not only concerned with solving the problems but sometimes counselling is just providing an opportunity to people to talk with its series of interventions.

In the process of counselling a counsellor plays a very significant role. It is not easy to describe the role of a counsellor in a few sentences because of wider scope of the role of a counsellor. There are many individuals who are in an impression that any individual can undertake counselling. This is not true. Counselling requires a specific set of knowledge and skills so as to talk to the client effectively(McLeod, 2013). Counselling is a very sensitive process and even a slight mistake can spoil someone’s career or life and this is why the role of counsellor is very important. Many individuals think that counsellors give answers and fix clients’ problems but this is again not true. The role of a counsellor is to empower the clients so that they can find their own answers. This is a point where most of the people get confused about the role of a counsellor. Counsellors are non-judgemental and they surround their clients with a positive aura by providing them a safe and secure therapeutic environment where the clients can understand their problems and the burdens that bother them. Counsellors listen to the problems of the client with full empathy and acceptance and provide full support to make client comfortable. Along with this counsellors understand the feelings of their clients and help them in assessing their lives. The most significant role of a counsellor is to help their clients in developing strategies that will help them in accepting their situation and changing this situation. They also help in developing self-awareness and individuality there by promoting the well-being. Overall a counsellor plays a vital role in helping the clients who are suffering from depression, low esteem, parenting problems, separation, anxiety, stress, relationship problems, etc.(Bond, 2015). In all these situations the clients can expect respectful, caring, non-judgemental and empathic treatment with a proper guidance.

It is also significant to know that there is big difference between informal help and professional counselling. There are many people who find themselves as playing the role of a counsellor in some point of their life even though they do not have a true understanding of the concept of counselling. A professional counsellor and a person who uses some counselling skills are different. People sometimes play a role of a counsellor as a colleague or a friend(Trower et al., 2015). For example sometimes a colleague gives advices so as to overcome problems. A professional counsellor is the one who is highly trained and who is able to use a wide range of counselling approaches on their clients. Counselling is not attempting to sort out the problems and in informal help an individual usually tries to solve the problem as a friend. When someone is providing informal help in that case they are emotionally attached with the client but in case of professional counselling this can never be true. A professional counsellor is not emotionally attached to the emotions of a client. In an informal help it is expected that the client will behave in a manner that the counsellor wants but in professional counselling the counsellor uses non-judgemental approach and ask client to behave in a manner they want. For example, parents trying to help out their children. This is why professional counselling is an act of helping clients to see thing in a clearer manner and from a different point of view. This will also lead client to focus on a positive change. Thus a friend that offers help in the time of problem can’t be called as counselling because the friend is emotionally attached and may be judgemental at times and is attempting to sort out the problem by assuming it as their own problem.

Part 2: Importance of self-awareness for the counsellor

Self-awareness is a very significant part of a counsellor and it is argued that self-awareness is as important as micro-skills. It can be thus said that without self-awareness a counsellor will not be able to play an important role in the life of a client. Self-awareness is a concept that helps a counsellor in differentiating thyself from the client. It is very necessary that the counsellor shall be able to distinguish between the feelings and values of the client and themselves. This is only possible if s counsellor knows about self-awareness. Self-awareness is also related to self-disclosure. For a counsellor it is important to enhance the self-disclosure ability of their clients and for that they also need to do self-disclosure. The counsellor shall know the extent to which self-disclosure for their side is required so as to motivate the client for self-disclosure(Bond, 2015). But, first of all it is very necessary to know about the self-awareness and its importance to a counsellor.

For a counsellor it is not possible to know someone else until and unless they know themselves. To understand the meaning of self awareness there is a very good framework provided by Ivey and this framework is in acronym of ‘respectful’. If these acronyms are elaborated then it makes religious/spiritual identity, economic class background, sexual identity, psychological maturity, ethnic/racial identity, chronological challenges, various forms of trauma and health of well-being, family background and history, unique psychological characteristics and location of residence and language differences. These are the aspects that help a counsellor in self-awareness and knowing the client well. Self-awareness is something that grows over the time with more exploration. Self-awareness helps a counsellor in opening the heart and mind to the experiences of inner selves. This will help the counsellor to communicate more easily with their clients by reflecting on their thoughts and values. Self-awareness has a big role to play in differentiating between one’s own values and other’s values. This is very important for a client to differentiate the values of client with his own values and only then the counsellor can provide better guidance to the client(Taegtmeyer et al., 2013).Without self-awareness it is nearly impossible for a counsellor to provide non-judgemental suggestions and help to a client. Self-awareness helps counsellor to know more and more about themselves and if they will not know enough of their personality and nature it will not be possible for them to help others. Just because of self-awareness the counsellors are able to know the nature of clients and then act as per the requirement of the client. At the same time self-awareness also helps counsellors in using their skills and knowledge in a better way.

Self-awareness is a tool that helps counsellors in clear perception about their personalities, strengths, beliefs, thoughts, emotions and motivation. It also helps counsellor to understand how clients perceive them. This also helps in making changes in the thoughts of clients. The most significant aspect of self-awareness is that a counsellor is able to make changes in the thoughts and interpretations that he makes in his mind. Changing these interpretations enable a counsellor to change their emotions and this is something that is very significant in achieving success as a counsellor. There are a number of results of self-awareness and these results are very positive to the clients. It helps in making positive changes in the lives of clients. With the help of this a counsellor can enable the client to perceive their problems in a different manner. This also helps the client in better understanding the issues through which they are going. Self-awareness has a tendency to make counsellor more competent and understand an issue from all the perspectives and this is very much required to get succeeded. It further enables the counsellor to facilitate the client with new ways of learning and relating to others. In this manner self-awareness is very vital for a counsellor to do their job effectively and without self-awareness there is no possibility of understanding the actual issues that the client is facing.