Counseling Notes PDF

COUNSELING Williamson o defines as a means of helping people to learn how to solve their own problems. Patterson o is a helping relationship which includes: Someone seeking help (the client) Someone willing to give help (the therapist)...

COUNSELING Williamson o defines as a means of helping people to learn how to solve their own problems. Patterson o is a helping relationship which includes: Someone seeking help (the client) Someone willing to give help (the therapist) Who is capable of or trained to give help in a setting which permits that help to be given and received. 4 Things to Consider in Counseling Process client counselor/mentor capability environment What Counseling Is not? counseling is not lecturing counseling is not giving of advice counseling is not just teaching counseling does not resort to compulsion Elements of Counseling Needs of the client o TO BE HEARD ▪ To be heard is to be understood o TO HAVE A REALISTIC AND GOOD PERCEPTION ▪ To develop new insights that are realistic and available Scope of Counseling Educational Vocational Social Personal Marital Moral Family Relational Goals in Counseling Enhancing coping skills Improving relationships Facilitating client potential Facilitating behavior change Promoting decision making WHAT IS COUNSELING? Counseling (Gibson and Mitchell) It is a goal-oriented relationship between a professionally trained, competent counselor and an individual seeking help for the purpose of bringing about a meaningful awareness and understanding of the self and environment, improving planning and decision making and formulating new ways of behaving, feeling and thinking for problem resolution and/or development growth. BEFORE REPUBLIC ACT 9258 Anyone who finished a course in counseling or psychology in the undergraduate or graduate level could work as a counselor without passing the board examinations. The Councilor and Facilitator Peer Counselor o term used for students or employees who were helping fellow students or employees even with their limited training. Peer Facilitator o new name for PEER COUNSELORS. GOALS OF COUNSELING Generic Goals o targeted for everyone, depending upon the stage at which an individual encountered. o pertains to the general classifications spelled out by Gibson and Mitchell. o Developmental Goals ▪ are assisted in preparation for their human growth and development in the physical, personal, emotional, social, cognitive and spiritual dimensions, the goal of counseling may be developmental in nature. o Preventive Goals ▪ at the time they are not experiencing any problem but are helped to avoid experiencing undesired outcomes, the goal may be preventive. o Enhancement Goals ▪ need is to be helped to identify , recognize and enhance unused or underused talents, skills and abilities, the goal may be enhancement. o Reinforcement Goals ▪ When clients are already taking action for resolving their concerns or already have planned course of action when they come for counseling, the goal would be to help them recognize that what they are doing, thinking and/or feeling may be okay or may need some fine tuning. o Remedial Goals ▪ Clients are assisted to overcome or solve an already existing concern are called remedial. ▪ Target of most counselors in the Philippines. o Exploratory Goals ▪ When clients do not believe they have an existing problem but can benefit from examining options, testing skills and trying new and  different activities, environments, relationships and so on, they can be helped to explore other pathways. Human Dimensional Goals o refer to the various dimensions of a human being that must be addressed when they discuss following goals. o Cognitive Goals ▪ these goals refer to the development of the intellect and this is a concern mainly in schools; focus; acquisition of the basic foundations of learning and cognitive skills. o Psychological Goals ▪ these goals refer to the development of good intra/interpersonal skills: social/interaction skills, emotional control, self-esteem and the like. o Physiological Goals ▪ these are the goals whereby clients are helped to develop the basic understanding and habits for good health, such as those done by fitness and diet counselors. o Spiritual Goals ▪ helping individuals focus on internal processes within them which have to do with wholeness and inner peace constitutes the spiritual goals whether this includes the relationship with God or not. TYPES OF COUNSELING (According to Areas Covered) Academic/Educational Vocational/ Occupational/ Career Personal/Social Diet Counseling Crisis Counseling Grief Counseling Pastoral Counseling Leisure Counseling Addiction Counseling (substance abuse, cyber addiction, addiction to addicted) TYPES OF COUNSELING (According to Participants) Individual Counseling Group Counseling Multiple Counseling Couple Counseling Family Counseling COUNSELING APPROACHES Clinical or Directive Counseling o Human beings have potential for both good and evil and if not properly guided, the person could choose evil. o Aims at enabling the individual to arrive at enlightened self-understanding and self-direction through appropriate problem – solving.  o The counselor can give prescriptions or advice, provided these are based on a thorough knowledge of the clients’ concerns and circumstances. o Most friendly to the different guidance services. o Uses the Consultation Service to help significant others deal with the client and his/her concerns appropriately. o Referral and Placement services become handy for improving on the environment of the client. o STAGES are: ▪ Analysis ▪ Synthesis ▪ Diagnosis ▪ Prognosis ▪ Counseling ▪ Follow – up. Client Centered Counseling o Previously known as the nondirective approach, later called Rogerian Approach after its proponent Carl Rogers. o Also been referred to as the Person – Centered Approach. o Stresses the client’s ability to handle his/her own concerns. o Goal is to help the client at self-actualization. Eclectic Counseling o By Charles Frederic Thorne, he believed that human beings are active, dynamic, motivated and striving for self-actualization. o This approach allows the counselor to use a combination of the strategies and appeal of FLEXIBILITY. o Focus is the person in the present situation, rather than the past, although etiological factors are explored and dealt with. o Counselor can shift to the more active role of friendly adviser who can take control when the client is unable to control himself/herself, before returning the ultimate control to the client. Behavior Modification o By B.F Skinner, “all behaviors are learned and can therefore be unlearned”. o Operant Conditioning ▪ uses the social laws of learning to help people learn and unlearn certain behaviors. It attempts to eliminate maladaptive behaviors through various means. o Extinction ▪ removing reinforcements following the maladaptive behavior. o Satiation ▪ urging person to continue performing the maladaptive behavior until it loses its novelty and attraction. o Negative Reinforcement ▪ withholding the reinforcer for as long as the maladaptive behavior is being performed and giving it immediately upon the performance of the positive behavior.  o Counter Conditioning ▪ rewarding a positive behavior that cannot be performed simultaneously with the maladaptive behavior. Reality Therapy o Introduced by William Glasser, focuses on the development of success identity, which is characterized by right, responsible and realistic behavior. o Failure Identity ▪ created when two basic needs of human beings are not satisfied. o STEPS are the TECHNIQUES themselves: ▪ involvement, current behavior, evaluation of the current behavior, goal – setting, commitment, no excuses, no punishments and never give up. o Work is on the here and now behavior rather than on the past or on feelings since the latter could be used as excuses for irresponsibility. Responsibility is the goal. Rational-Emotive o Introduced by Albert Ellis; ▪ Problems and unhappiness arise because of irrational ideas not because of events, therefore therapy should focus on the development of rational ideas or changed philosophy of life which all human beings are capable of. o ABC Theory ▪ the focus of a RE therapist; briefly describes the steps of counseling ▪ while A is often considered the activating agent or the event encountered and seen as causing the problem, it is actually B, the belief of the client about the event that brings about C or those negative consequences. o The RE Therapist ▪ Active-directive, teaching , confronting, deindoctrinating and redoctrinating Gestalt Counseling o Introduced by Fritz Peris, aims to help the client. o Develop self – integration. o Believed that the health person is not one without needs but one who is aware that has needs and does something to have these needs met. o The GESTALT Therapist ▪ attempts to increase response-ability, coupled with a person’s assumption of responsibility for himself/herself. o Awareness ▪ key word in Gestalt Counseling. ▪ Only the present is considered important “here and now” ▪ The individual learns to use “I”.  o Gestalt counseling is not the usual talk therapy that most counselors engage in. It employs various techniques which can only be limited by the counselor’s creativity or the lack of it. Transactional Analysis o Introduced by Eric Berne – human beings have three ego states (the parent, adult and child). o PARENT – shoulds/oughts o ADULT – let’s wait and see. o CHILD – lets have fun, let’s do it. o Psychological disturbances are seen as due to the unwillingness of one ego state to give up its control in inappropriate times, client is assisted in gaining social control of his/her life by learning to use all ego states where appropriate. o Structural Analysis ▪ helps the client see what his/her predominant ego state is and how this might be affecting the way he/she is living life. o Transaction Analysis ▪ shows matches or mismatches in communication. o Game Analysis ▪ helps people recognize games they play in order to gain approval. o Life Script Analysis ▪ used to discover the early parental teaching and early decisions people made as children and carry around as adults. Neurolinguistic Programming o Has been discovered to produce significant therapeutic changes. o An individual does not respond to the world as it truly is; rather each person creates his/her own world map which is much smaller than the real world because of the neurological, linguistic and individual history constraints that operate. o Richard Bandler & John Grinder ▪ introduces a number of techniques to expand the world map of the individual. o Villar ▪ expanded on the techniques developed by Bandler and Grinder. Brief Therapy o Deals with problem at a time and looks for bite-size one solutions. o People operate out of their internal maps and try to make the best choice for themselves at any given moment. o “Change can be effected most easily if the goal is reasonably small and clearly stated. The experience of a small but definite change leads to further self- improvement.” o PERSUASION is required to help the client change “what they look for” and what they think so that their perception, beliefs, truths and reality will also change.  Cognitive Therapy o Operates on the assumption than thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, beliefs and perceptual biases and influence what emotions are experienced and to what extent. o Is a treatment designed by Aaron Beck to alter negative thoughts that create negative emotions and consequently, felt problems. o For cognitive therapy to be effective, individuals need to learn how to identify their negative automatic thoughts about themselves and others; learn to dispute their negative thoughts after they have been identified; and begin to think in a more realistic manner. COUNSELING PROCESS Relationship Building o Refers to the counselors’ effort to establish a climate conducive to mutual respect, trust, free and open communication and understanding from the very start of the session. o This stage is called rapport building. o Verbal and Nonverbal Communication ▪ should indicate attentive listening, positive regard and respect, accurate empathy and genuineness. o The quality of the relationship built will determine whether the client will cooperate on the first session and return for subsequent sessions. Problem Identification and Exploration o Define the problem ▪ Defined accurately if the components and the contributing factors, duration and severity are pointed out to the client. o Explore the problem ▪ Actual data gathering; fully understand the problem, on how, by whom and when information can be obtained. o Integrate the information ▪ All information should be systematically organized and integrated into a meaningful profile of the client and the problem. o The information gathered along the way should lead the counselor to distinguish between the surface problem and the real one. Planning for Problem Solving o Set the goals ▪ client and counselor must also agree upon the goals to work toward. o Identify and list all possible solutions ▪ Brainstorming for possibilities. o Explore the consequences of the suggested solutions. ▪ looking for ways to implement each solution and evaluating them along with the possible outcomes. o Prioritize the solutions towards desired outcome. ▪ At this point it is good to identify a specific, pertinent and attainable goal COUNSELING SKILLS both science and an art, may spell the difference between success and failure , Micro skills in counseling are crucial. Three Basic Skills in Counseling Articulation Skills o nonverbal communication o verbal Communication ▪ LUCIAN (1975) Leads and Responses Acceptance Restatement Clarification Summarization General Leads Reassurance Interpretation Supposition Facilitation Interpellation Rejection Listening Skills o basis of counselor competence. o PARALANGUAGE ▪ volume, tone, pitch, etc., Observation Skills o color changes, tics , breathing patterns etc., COMMANDMENTS OF COUNSELING Be Non- Judgmental Be emphatic (Not a brick wall) Don't give personal advise Don't ask questions that begins with "Why" Don't take responsibility for other person's problem Don't interpret Stick with here and now Deal with the feelings LISTENING SKILLS 1st skill: Nonverbal and minimal attending behavior o Nonverbal attending skills ▪ are the foundation on which all the other skills are based. o o Nonverbal Attending ▪ verbal and non-verbal behaviors displayed by the listener that communicate that the listener is paying attention to and is interested in the speaker’s message. ▪ Eye contact ▪ Body posture ▪ Facial expression ▪ Head nodding ▪ Following the counselee's lead 2nd skill: The Open Question o Open Questions ▪ are questions that encourage a person to talk without feeling defensive ▪ Can't be answered by one or two words ▪ Usually starts with "how's" and "what's" ▪ Digs deeper feelings and ideas ▪ USES OF OPEN QUESTIONS beginning a conversation o " What would you like to talk about?" o " What's going on with you?" clarifying & elaborating o " How is this a problem for you? " o What do you mean by ___? o What is it about this situation that bothers you? working with feelings o How do you feel about that? o How do you feel right now? o What would you like to say to him?  problem solving o What options do you have? o How do you feel about each other’s options? o What's the best that could happen? o Closed questions ▪ are the kind asked by a census taker, a doctor, a lawyer, or a parent. ▪ Can be answered by "yes" or "no" or by one word ▪ Starts with "is", "do", "have" etc. ▪ Discourages the person from talking and slows the flow of conversation o example internal mode o example external mode  o DO'S AND DONT'S ▪ DO: Keep questions simple and clear Keep the questions in the here and now and with the person ▪ DONT: Ask questions to satisfy your own curiosity Ask why? Ask long complicated questions Give advise in a question 3rd Skill: Paraphrasing o Paraphrase ▪ is a brief, tentative statement that reflects the essence of what the person has just said. o 3 Main Functions of Paraphrasing ▪ A paraphrase acts as a perception check, to verify that you understood what the other person has said ▪ A paraphrase may clarify what the counselee has said ▪ A good paraphrase can demonstrate that you have accurate empathy o A good paraphrase: ▪ Captures the essence of what the person said ▪ Coveys the same meaning, but usually uses different words ▪ Brief ▪ Clear and concise ▪ Tentative o Reflecting ▪ showing the client that you have ‘heard’ not only what is being said, but also what feelings and emotions the client is experiencing when sharing their story with you. o REASON FOR USING PARAPHASE ▪ To check perceptions ▪ To clarify what the person has said ▪ To give accurate emphathy o DO'S AND DONT'S ▪ DO: Keep it brief and keep it tentative Use standard openings like: " Let me see if I've got it right..." " Sounds like..." " So, in other words..." End by asking, IS THAT RIGHT?  4th Skill: Working With Feelings o Four Basic Steps in Working With Feelings ▪ Ask feelings questions Example: o Counselor: How do you feel about that? Counselee: You might believe you should be angry with her, but what emotions are you really feeling? Counselee: I'm pissed-off at her and frustrated that I haven't told her ➔ Paraphrase spoken feelings Example: o Counselee: I got angry when my sister comes to visit for the holiday and all she does is complain. Counselor: So you're feeling angry, is that right? o Counselor: You seem to be angry... o Counselor: You seem very tense... o Defining and Clarifying the Feelings ▪ Good questions for defining and clarifying feelings are: What does being mad mean to you? What is being nervous like for you? How does that feel physically? What other ways would you use to describe what you’ve feeling? EXAMPLE o Acknowledging the Feelings ▪ EXAMPLE o Dealing With The Feelings ▪ Good questions like: What brings up this feeling of excitement with you?  What’s the situation when you experience these feelings? ▪ Examples of effective questions are: How would you like to express these feelings? What would you like to say to that person? ▪ BUT WHAT IF.... The counselee has difficulty or is uncomfortable, questions such as these may help: o What’s the best (worst) thing that could happen? o What would you like to see to happen? o How have you dealt with this before? o What could you do to feel better? o Summarization ▪ summary is a larger paraphrase It tends to capture the essence of what the person said. ▪ A good summary has several functions: it acts as a perception check It directs the course of future interaction, decisions, and planning. It clarifies the situation, reflects trends, points out conflicts and list priorities. ▪ WHEN TO USE A SUMMARY? A summary is also good to use at the end of the counseling session A summary is useful when shifting mode INTEGRATION OF SKILLS Integration o is putting all your skills together and using each when appropriate. open questions paraphrasing exploring the feelings