Psychotherapy and Counseling Techniques

Counseling (Psychotherapy)

• Counseling is a professional helping relationship between the client and the counselor.
• Counseling helps a person:
  • Reduce emotional pain
  • Give hope
  • Raise self-esteem
  • Give new ideas and skills

Techniques in Counseling

• Two major techniques used in counseling:
  • Reflective Techniques
  • Directive Techniques

Reflective Techniques

• Active Listening:
  • Attending or listening is the most fundamental and important skill in communication
  • Listening involves both verbal and nonverbal techniques
  • Use of minimal responses (e.g., "nodding", "yes", "ok", "right")
  • Eye contact (establishing rapport, considering cultural norms)
  • Posture (distance and angle between client and counselor)
• Reflection of Content or Paraphrasing:
  • Reflecting back the essence of what the client said
  • Communicating understanding and acceptance
• Reflection of Feeling:
  • Focusing on emotions expressed in tone, rate, and volume of speech, posture, and other verbal and non-verbal behavior
  • Communicating acceptance and encouraging the client to express emotions
• Summarizing:
  • Bringing together all points discussed in a counseling session
  • Includes verbal contents and feelings expressed by the client

Directive Techniques

• Asking Questions or Probing:
  • Encouraging the client to open up and disclose
  • Helping the client to be specific
  • Helping the counselor reach a clearer understanding of the client's statement
• Interpretation:
  • Exploring alternative ways of looking at a problematic situation
  • Helping the client to become more flexible and explore new points of view
  • Helping the client understand their problem more clearly and generate new solutions
• Confrontation:
  • Increasing the client's awareness by pointing out discrepancies in their presentation
  • Appropriate in situations where the client is overly focused on the past or future, or where their non-verbal behavior doesn't match their verbal behavior
  • Should only be used after other skills have failed to increase the client's awareness