Counseling Principles Quiz

Counseling is the provision of assistance and guidance for resolving personal, social, or psychological problems, usually by a professional.
In 1997, the Governing Council of the American Counseling Association (ACA) defined professional counseling as "the application of mental health, psychological, or human development principles through cognitive, affective, behavioral or systemic interventions, strategies that address wellness, personal growth, or career development, as well as pathology."
Each client must be accepted as an individual, regardless of a counselor's personal opinions of their behavior.
Counseling is a permissive relationship that allows clients to express themselves freely without judgment.
Decision-making rests entirely with the client.
Counseling focuses on the client's difficulties
Counseling aims for behavioral change.
Effectiveness depends on the client's readiness for change and the therapeutic relationship.
The counseling relationship is confidential.
The counselor should be aware of external factors that influence the progress of the counseling process, such as structure, setting, client characteristics, and counselor qualities.

Several characteristics influence the effectiveness of counseling.
The physical setting is important for a successful counseling process.
Important characteristics of a good counseling setting include privacy, confidentiality, quietness, and comfort.

The fundamental skills in counseling include active listening, teaching, processing, and responding.

Encourages client information sharing through verbal and nonverbal cues.
Focuses on all aspects of the client's expression, including body language, tone of voice, and feelings.
Avoids distractions.
Detects client feelings by verbal and non-verbal cues as well as common cognitive and emotional patterns.

Clinicians thoughtfully consider their observations of the client and the communicated information.
They mentally catalog the client's beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and expectations, as well as information from the client's family and their own observations.

Communication of information, feedback, providing emotional support, addressing concerns, and teaching essential skills.
Empathy is essential

Empathy involves understanding, awareness, sensitivity, and vicariously experiencing another's feelings, thoughts, and experiences.

A probing question helps to direct the client's attention toward a deeper understanding of their feelings, situations, and behaviors.
The questions should be open-ended.
Probing encourages detailed clarifications from the client.
Probing can increase self-awareness and deeper understanding and promotes addressing any issues.

The clinician explains the client's issues after observing their behavior, listening to them, and considering other relevant data.
Interpreting requires determining and restating essential messages.
Clinicians use their interpretation to frame messages from a new perspective
They validate their interpretation with the client to ensure accuracy.

Silence can encourage clients to reflect and help continue sharing thoughts and feelings.
It can help the client understand the importance of their own words and thoughts.
Silence can be a useful tool to keep focus on the client.
It can also help clients organize their thoughts for expression.

Advanced empathy encompasses attending to unspoken feelings and thoughts, promoting a broader perspective for the client, and identifying relevant themes.
It encourages introspection and self-awareness.
It aids in exploring deeper insights of the client.

Sharing personal information with the client should only benefit the client, not the counselor, and should be applied sparingly.
Self-disclosure can serve as a model for client self-disclosure, if done appropriately.
Self-disclosure should not detract from the client's focus

Confrontation is a form of advanced empathy that helps clients recognize and examine self-defeating or harmful thoughts and behaviors.
Confrontation is a form of challenge rather than direct criticism or attack.
Confrontation should be delivered with empathy and understanding.
It often highlights discrepancies or inconsistencies in the client's presentation.

Immediacy involves using the present situation between counselor and client to encourage insight into relational dynamics.
Immediacy emphasizes the current relational interactions and challenges.
It is important for a counselor to use present tense language.
This skill emphasizes the intimacy between the client and counsellor.

A form of direction that isn't a command but a form of assistance to clients.
Important to maintain perspective that the counselor's advice is not a command.
The counselor takes ownership of giving the advice rather than the client taking the responsibility.
The client retains the freedom of choice even with counselor's advice.

Feedback provides details about how others see the person.
It enables clients to see themselves more realistically, much like an outside perspective
Effective feedback is concrete, positive, requested or desired, and addresses changeable and controllable issues.