Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Introduction

Counseling is a dynamic process that includes interconnected and systemic aspects of client variables, counselor variables, and what occurs between the counselor and the client. Counseling is also defined as the interactive process between the counselor and the client. The counseling process includes the events, characteristics, or conditions that take place during the interactions between the counselor and the client (Ruhani, 2016).Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

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An example of the counseling process is the therapeutic relationship developing during counseling sessions. Client experience is thus important in understanding the impact of the counseling process on the change for the client (Edwards, 2018). Therefore, what the counselor does with the client during the counseling process and how change occurs to the client is also a part of the counseling process. The interpersonal skills and qualities of the counselor significantly contribute to the counseling process. This paper will describe an interview report of a trained counselor; discuss theprocess of counseling and its relation to the interview; and finally, discuss the communication skills and integration to interview.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Part A: Interview Report

The interview involved a trained counselor in our school and it focused on the counselor’s experience in conducting counseling sessions with clients. The first question revolved around the counseling environment. According to the counselor, the counseling environment should be welcoming where the counselor should greet clients appropriately and make them comfortable, for instance by trying to sit at the same level. The counseling session should be free of any distractions where the counselor is not supposed to pick phones during the session (Ruhani, 2016). Additionally, the counseling environment should be private and provide confidentiality to the client. For example, the counselor should ensure that other people cannot hear the discussions during the counseling session.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

According to the counselor, it is important to encourage the client to talk about their feelings by validating their feelings using reflective listening. The counselor should also give the client an opportunity to speak, provide the missing information when necessary, and discuss about the views of the client and goals. The counselor further added that it is important to be vigilant enough when counseling clients by observing signs of trouble and preparing for potential threats ad violence because some clients may be aggressive or having psychosis. During the session, the counselor explained that clients should be encouraged to develop positive energy to develop solutions and agree on the necessary steps the client needs to take to change the current situation.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

The counselor reported that the first step during counseling is to build relationships and focus on engaging the client to explore the main issue affecting them. During the counseling process, it is important to establish a rapport with the client basing on respect, trust, and mutual purpose. The counselor added that she makes sure that she is empathic, genuine, and compassionate during counseling to further improve relationship building. According to the counselor, she ensures that she moves according to each client’s phase and avoids moving too quickly during the counseling. She is always sensitive and responsive to every client’s worldview.  The counselor allows clients to express their feelings, explores the problems by asking clients to narrate their story, and clarifies the expectations of the client from the counseling process. The counselor stated that this helps to open up and be honest during the counseling process.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

During the interview, the counselor revealed that she avoids being judgmental to clients, but instead tries to be understanding and compassionate. She also indicated that she avoids leading the clients and therefore allows clients to freely share their experiences, feelings, and views without influencing them or interrupting them. This is supported by evidence that indicates that counselors should be objective and always use a non-judgmental approach (Anvari et al., 2020). Therefore, she personally avoids giving advice regarding the feelings and actions of the client but instead uses talking therapy to help clients see things more clearly and from an optimistic viewpoint.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay. She was confident that her clients are always free to express their feelings and thoughts because they are sure they will not be criticized or judged. This is because the counselor contains and manages her reactions, and instead tries to be supportive and act professionally. However, the counselor was quick to add that some confessions and issues from clients can be very overwhelming and thus it takes a lot of effort to manage one’s feelings.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

According to the counselor, one of her strongpoints is to ensure active listening when the clients are talking and expressing themselves. She achieves this by giving clients full attention, ensuring there are no distractions, which makes the clients feel valued and supported.Active listening is very crucial in establishing a therapeutic relationship with the clients because with active listening clients feel their issues and problems are acknowledged and understood empathetically but impartially (Trupkovic et al., 2018). Through active listening, one takes in what clients say and also encourages clients to keep expressing themselves and talking. However, the counselor added that she always tries to strike a balance between talking and listening to the client and recognize when every action is required. She further added that she is always attentive to the body language of the clients, listens and observes the silences and pauses, maintains eye contact with the clients to illustrate that she values what clients are saying, and ensures that she moderates her tone of voice so that the client does not feel rushed.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

According to the counselor, she uses open-ended questions to encourage clients to express themselves and talk about their feelings as much as possible. This not only gives the clients an opportunity to express themselves but also allows the counselor to collect as much data as possible. Open-ended questions refer to questions that cannot be answered using few words and thus encourage clients to talk and express themselves, giving the counselor an opportunity to collect information about clients and their issues and concerns (Ntshuntshe et al., 2020).Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

The counselor also added that during counseling she always conducts in-depth exploration to assess the problem and the issue the client is facing. During this step, she collects and classifies information regarding issues the client is facing, and this includes the reasons for seeking counseling. At this point, the counselor emphasized the importance of establishing a good therapeutic relationship with the client and providing a good and compassionate environment during counseling as this enables the client to freely give the reasons for the visit and talk about life issues. The counselor should acknowledge the uniqueness and importance of each client. According to the counselor, the rationale for conducting the in-depth exploration is to enable her to make an accurate diagnosis, determine the most appropriate treatment plan for the client, and make setting and attainment of measurable goals easier.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

The counselor also added that she always sets conditions and the projected outcomes from the counseling session. This helps her and the clients to determine what can and cannot be achieved through counseling. When setting goals, the client in collaboration with the counselor identifies the specific ways the issues can be resolved and the course of action to help to resolve the issues and problems.

The interview concluded by the counselor explaining that she always informs her clients about the possible termination of counseling sessions, sensitively. This involves discussing closure and evaluating if the set goals have been achieved and the progress of the client. If the counselor determines that the client needs referral and further evaluation, she refersthe clients to a psychiatrist for further evaluation and treatment.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

The Process of Counselling and its Relation to the Interview

According to Scheel et al (2018), the counseling process refers to a structured and planned dialogue between the counselor and the client where they collaboratively develop a plan to deal with the client’s issues. The first step during the counseling process is relationship building that involves developing a relationship and engaging the client to explore the issue affecting them. Just as the interviewed counselor indicated, when establishing a therapeutic relationship with clients, a counselor should avoid excessive questioning, being judgmental, or giving advice. Instead, the counselor should introduce her/himself, invite the client to sit, ensure the comfortability of the client, invite social communication to decrease anxiety, observe the non-verbal behavior as indications for the client’s emotional condition, and invite the client to describe their reason for attending counseling session and indicate that one is very interested in the conversation.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

The second step is to assess the problem where the counselor collects information from the client. The interviewed counselor highlighted this step where she collects information regarding the life situation of the client and the reasons the counseling was sought. The third step is to set goals in order to give direction and indicate the expected outcomes from the counseling process. The interviewed counselor similarly indicated that she always sets goals with her clients. Tadros & Finney (2018) provide that the goals should be measurable and feasible. The goals should also be within the skills and knowledge of the counselor and should be positively stated. The third step is an intervention where the counselor comes up with an approach to provide therapy to the client. The interviewed counselor indicated that she utilizes the collected data to come up with a treatment plan for the clients.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay. The treatment plan involves the treatment approach such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing, among other therapeutic approaches. Motivational interviewing is used to motivate and encourage the individual to change their behavior, while CBT is used to alter the maladaptive thinking pattern for the clients to ensure they adopt a more positive thinking pattern (Barrett et al., 2018). There are other therapeutic techniques used to counsel clients. After the therapy, the last step is an evaluation to assess if the set goals have been achieved, and the termination of the counseling process. If the set goals have been achieved, termination is conducted sensitively. The client should be informed early enough to ensure they are prepared for the termination of the counseling.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

The Communication Skills and Integration to the Interview

Active listening is an important communication skill during counseling. Active listening involves the counselor giving full attention to the client and being fully alert. The counselor should focus and show full concentration when the client is talking and it also involves listening to and interpreting the nonverbal messages of the client such as body posture and facial expressions (Jahromi et al., 2016). The counselor should also listen to understand the client in context and listen with empathy. Empathic listening includes attending, listening, and observing the client to enable the counselor to fully understand the client (Jahromi et al., 2016). Similarly, the interviewed counselor reported that she listens actively to her clients, which makes them feel valued, and shows them that the counselor is interested in their recovery.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Empathy is also an important skill during communication. Basic empathy when communicating with clients includes understanding them and their issues and concerns as best as one can and communicating the understanding in a way that prompts the client to understand her/himself more and act on their understanding. Empathy also involves recognizing and acknowledging the feelings of another individual person; it involves understanding the client’s world and temporarily “stepping in their shoes” (Voutilainen et al., 2018). Similarly, the interviewed counselor reported that she is always empathic with her clients, which makes them feel that someone understands them. This encourages the client to open up and to be more willing to recover.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Probing and asking the appropriate questions during communication is very important. During communication and conversation, asking questions is an indication that one is interested in the conversation. Probing entails questions and statements from the counselor that enables the client to further explore the issues and problems in their lives. The interviewed counselor indicated that she prefers to use open-ended questions during counseling. The open-ended questions enable an in-depth exploration of the clients’ problems because the client is able to explain her situation, providing adequate information.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Clarifying and summarizing is also important during communication because it ensures that what one is hearing is the correct information. In addition, it is important for the counselor to summarize the counseling session in order to provide a focus on what was discussed and challenge the client to move forward (Rocco et al., 2018). However, during the interview, the counselor did not explicitly discuss about summarizing the counseling session. However, she was clear that she seeks clarification from clients to gain a full understanding of the information the client provides. Reflecting during communication involves clarification and verification of what the client expresses to the counselor.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Moreover, counselors should use the appropriate volume, tone, and rhythm when communicating with clients (Chichirez & Purcărea, 2018). Similarly, the counselor should observe and interpret the nonverbal communications from the clients. The counselor stated that she always ensures that the appropriate tone and other nonverbal communications are used appropriately.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

As Skarbalienė et al (2019) provide, communication skills ought to be integrated naturally within the counseling process. A competent counselor should continually listen and attend, and utilize both empathy and probing to assist clients to come to grips regarding their problems and issues. The client should use and choose communication skills depending on each client, the client’s needs, and the problem situation.

Conclusion

Counseling is the interactive process between the counselor and the client, and it includes the events, characteristics, or conditions that take place during the interactions between the counselor and the client. The interview involved a trained counselor at school. The counselor provided some of the steps she used during counseling sessions such as establishing rapport and therapeutic relationships with the clients, probing and assessing clients to understand the client’s problem, and setting achievable and measurable therapeutic goals. The counseling session should be terminated in a sensitive manner and on time to prepare the client for the end of the counseling. The counselor also pointed out some of the communication skills used during counseling such as active listening, probing, using open-ended questions, and being empathic to the clients.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

PURPOSE:

The assignment aims at giving learners the exposure on the counselling process and to enhance learners understanding on the counselling terms and concepts.

REQUIREMENT:

Part A: Interview report

Interview a trained counsellor in your school or any government or private sector by discussing his/her experience in conducting counselling session with clients. Questions may be asked about the counselling process and the communication skills involve in the process.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.

Part B: Integration report

Based on the above interview, relate the information to the following:

• The stages in counselling. Relate these stages to the experience of the counselor you interviewed.
• The communication skills in counselling consultation. Relate these skills to the experience of the counsellor.Introduction to Guidance and Counseling Essay.