Counselor Roles and Functions

Counselors: Who They Are

• Counselors are trained professionals who assist clients facing difficulties through counseling.

Roles of Counselors

• As Counselors: They help clients reach their potential through warm, trustworthy, and confidential relationships. This includes assisting clients with self-awareness, acceptance, decision-making, and problem-solving.
• As Coordinators: They act as intermediaries between clients and resources (people or agencies) to gather and share information to help clients.
• As Consultants: They provide expert opinions and strategies to aid clients without direct contact.
• As Conductors of Activities: They plan and implement activities to support client development.
• As Change Agents: They act as catalysts, helpers, solution providers, and stabilizers to facilitate change in clients.

Functions of Counselors

• Counseling: A process assisting personal development in clients.
• Assessment: Systematically gathering client information to create a comprehensive picture.
• Career Assistance: Helping clients explore career options.
• Placement and Follow-up: Helping clients find suitable positions (a "niche") and monitoring their progress.
• Referral: Directing clients to specialists or other counselors when needed.
• Consultation: Discussing client needs with third parties to gain broader support.
• Research: Generating data to improve counseling practices.
• Evaluation and Accountability: Evaluating program effectiveness and personnel performance.
• Prevention: Empowering clients through knowledge and awareness to prevent problems.

Competencies of Counselors

• Knowledge: Understanding counselling techniques and theories.
• Skills: Mastering counselling theories and techniques, exhibiting essential abilities like interpersonal communication and conceptual understanding.
• Interpersonal Skills: Communicating, listening, and observing nonverbal behaviour effectively.
• Conceptual Ability: Analyzing client information, understanding problems and their potential outcomes, and connecting them to larger contexts.
• Social Systems Understanding: Recognizing and working within the client's relationships with others.
• Micro-skills (Ivey and Galvin): Attending, open and closed questions, feelings reflection, influencing, observation, structuring interviews, encouraging, paraphrasing, summarizing, focusing on problems, and confrontation.
• Attitudes: Establishing a working relationship through curiosity, inquisitiveness, active listening, empathy, emotional insightfulness, introspection, tolerance of intimacy, comfort with power, and the ability to laugh.

Competency Areas (McLeod, 2003)

• Personal Beliefs and Attitudes: Acceptance of client's values and beliefs.
• Personal Soundness: Awareness of impact on a client.
• Openness to Learning and Inquiry: Interest in expanding knowledge for client benefit

Career Opportunities

• Various sectors (School, Community, Religious, Industries, Health Care and Rehabilitation, Military) display different counseling roles, from school counselors, career counselors, rehabilitation specialists, crisis counselors, to specialized roles like marriage or family counselors.

Ethical Principles for Counselors

• Autonomy: Client freedom
• Beneficence: Doing good and preventing harm
• Fidelity: Faithfulness
• Justice: Fairness
• Nonmaleficence: Avoiding harm

Unethical Behavior in Counseling

• Confidentiality violations
• Exceeding professional competence
• Negligence
• Claiming expertise
• Imposing personal values on clients
• Sexual relationships with clients
• Dual relationships
• Questionable financial arrangements
• Improper advertising
• Plagiarism

Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004 (RA 9258)

• Valid registration and identification
• Restrictions on representation when license is revoked or suspended
• Allowing individuals to practice using existing licenses.