COUNCELLING: MEANING, NATURE, SCOPE, PROCESS

MEANING:
Glanz (1972) –
“open-ended, face to face problem solving situation within which a student with professional assistance, can
focus and begin to solve a problem or problems”.

Rogers (1965)
The assistance which comes to a child through face to face contact, with a professionally trained person in a
psychological relationship using either talk or play as the primary medium of communication.

A relationship in which one of the parties has the intent of promoting the growth, development, maturity and
improved functioning of the other.

Shostrom and Brammer

“A purposeful, reciprocal relationship between two people in which one, a trained person, helps the other
to change himself or his environment” (Shostrom, Everett L. and Lawrence M. Brammer; The Dynamics of
the Counselling Process; McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.; New York; 1962).

Brewer (1933)
“Counselling is talking over, a conference, a friendly discussion, upon as equal terms as may be, with no
attempt to impose a decision, and with every effort to stimulate the thought of the student to find or
generate such technical knowledge and wisdom as will lead him to a right decision.”

• A process and relationship

It is a process by which concerted attention is given by both counsellor and a counselee to the
problems and concerns of the student in a setting of privacy, warmth, mutual acceptance and
confidentiality.
• As a process, it utilizes appropriate tools and procedures which contribute to the experiences.
It is a relationship characterized by trust, confidence and intimacy in which a student gains
intellectual and emotional stability from which he can resolve difficulties, make plans and realize
greater self- fulfilment.

NATURE:

COUNSELLING has been defined as “a process by which a person is assisted to behave in a more
rewarding manner. As a process, it takes place over a period of time and promotes healing, comfort,
clarification, and reconciliation. People who seek counselling have usually attempted to change some
behaviour that is not, in the final analysis, rewarding to them. However, their attempts have been
unsuccessful and so they come to counselling with aspirations and anxieties, hoping for a helper who will
relieve their distress and help them replace it with something more rewarding.

The three basic elements in counselling are the counselee (the person in pain desiring to be healed), the
counsellor (the helper who listens), and the negative experience, or that which causes pain and distress. The
counselee identifies the negative experience and is helped to choose a path that is more satisfactory. Those
seeking help are so-called experts on the problem; they have been living with it for weeks, months, and often
years. Now they want release. The counsellor must, therefore, carefully listen and help the counselees spell
out their needs. Counsellors assist individuals to identify and achieve goals that they have selected in
response to the difficulties they are experiencing. The counsellor provides an atmosphere of acceptance and
genuine caring to facilitate the process.
SCOPE:

Individual Counselling
 Adolescent identity, concerns, teen-parent relationships, peer relationships
 Anxiety
 Anger management
 Children’s concerns within the family unit, sibling relationships, school experiences, peer
relationships
 Depression
 Family of origin dynamics and issues
 Gender: identity, sexuality, homosexuality
 Grief and bereavement
 Relationships: personal and interpersonal dynamics
 Sexual abuse recovery
 Seniors: challenges, limitations, transitions
 Singles: single, newly single, single through divorce or being widowed
 Spirituality
 Stress management
 Workplace stress and relationships
 Young adult: identity, relationships, vocation
Marital and Pre-marital Counselling
 Marital and relational dynamics
 Extended family relationships
 Fertility issues
Family Counselling
 Adolescent and child behaviours within family dynamics
 Adult children
 Divorce and separation issues and adjustment
 Family dynamics: estrangement, conflict, communication
 Family of origin / extended family issues
 Life stages and transitions
 Parenting patterns: blended, single, co-parenting families
 Remarriage relationship counselling

PROCESS:

Counselling is a psychotherapeutic process, which has several stages through which a person can
successfully achieve his goal. In the process of counselling a counsellor develops a friendly relationship and
ease of communication with the client for the development of self-understanding through which the client
can take initiatives for future betterment.

ESTABLISHING INITIAL STRUCTURE

• Ccounselling has to be done in the peaceful place there should not be any kind of disturbance that
can interrupt and create any chaos between client and counsellor. Everyday counselling must be start
 at a fixed timing otherwise it could be the first flaw of the process, because time management is an
integral part of counselling.

• The counsellor should gather and organize the information about the client and outline the key
components of the counselling process. That includes planning the counselling strategy and self-
role induction.

RAPPORT DEVELOPMENT

• The counsellor’s role is more like a guide, counsellor does not impose his decisions on the client he
always let the client choose the best possible solution for himself from the available possibilities. In
rapport development counsellor does not judge his client because clients can quite the process if he
thinks the counsellor is criticizing or evaluating his decisions/actions.

• Initially or later in the process, counsellor should avoid ordering, advising and arguments in the
process these things kills the effectiveness of the process.

KNOW YOUR CLIENT

once the counsellor gathers all the information about the client, he should start outlining the basic elements
of his clients mood, to understand the mind-set of the client, if the client is emotionally unstable, counsellor
can share his experience’s to provide moral support and creating emotional link and if the client is
involuntary then counsellor can outline the process of counselling to the client or If counselling process is
designed for a child then counsellor can use humour and engage the child in different activities.

IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM

Problem identification is the mutual effort of counsellor and the client, they both work together to find out
the problem that the client has been facing. Here, majority of work is done by the client. The counsellor acts
as a facilitator to the client. After the problem is identified, the counsellor starts working to know that is it
the real problem of the client or not?

Counsellor may also refer the client for group counselling services to provide assistance to the individual to
achieve more and grow personally and socially and get better educational and vocational development.

EXPLORING SELF PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOUR

To know the behaviour of the client there are many tests and other source of information through which
accurate results can be achieved. Cumulative Record helps to know all the basic information of the client
including his family background and educational settings.

Questionnaire tests can be administer according to the need of the counselling process, rating scale can be
used for the behaviour of the client, case study is also a very important element for some critical and
emotionally disturbed client, and counsellor could also make some observations on the client’s behaviour
during the session.

Interview is the most commonly used tool for counselling. Through Autobiography counsellor can get the
details of personal information, Family background, Personal history, previous counselling experience &
Client's current life setting etc.

DECISION MAKING

This is the step in which gathered information about the client is evaluated to find the best solution of the
client’s problem. For Decision making all the relevant information is gathered and arranged according to the
priority of actions. Then the effectiveness of the information used is analysed. Appropriate Choice of
decision and solutions are made according to the importance of action.

PLAN OF ACTION

Plan of action is a step to achieve desired goal.

To obtain the desired result the client is meant to do what is planned through the counselling session with
the counsellor. This step is very specific it only tells the client how to maintain and made necessary
modification in his behaviour. Plan of action must not be complex it should be simple and specific to
achieve the goal for successful development. For example; a client should not be told to go through several
steps to implement the action. All the details and other information must be discussed during the decision
making step.

FOLLOW UP

The process of counselling is a continuous process; it does not end with the counselling session, it proceeds
with the implementation of the plan of action and evaluation of results. After the counselling process,
counsellor should encourage the clients as he implements on the action that is planned in the counselling
session. Counsellor should make observation on the actions of the client and make some changes if
necessary to make the plan successful through which client can achieve his goals.

TERMINATION

The Termination Stage is the final stage of the counselling process, but it is as important as the initial stage
of counselling. The counsellor discusses the whole process of termination with his client. If the solution is
found then the process is terminated, but it depends on the counselee' if he is satisfied with the whole
process he can stop or proceed it further. The client can consult his counsellor anytime he wants.