Counselling Introduction

1. Counselling
Prepared
Narendra Singh Chaudhary

2. Definitions of Counselling
• The term ‘counselling’ includes work with individuals and with
relationships which may be developmental, crisis support,
psychotherapeutic, guiding or problem solving . . . The task of
counselling is to give the ‘client’ an opportunity to explore, discover
and clarify ways of living more satisfyingly and resourcefully.(BAC
1984)
• Counselling denotes a professional relationship between a trained
counsellor and a client. This relationship is usually person-to-person,
although it may sometimes involve more than two people. It is
designed to help clients to understand and clarify their views of their
life space, and to learn to reach their self-determined goals through
meaningful, well-informed choices and through resolution of
problems of an emotional or interpersonal nature. (Burks and
Stefflre 1979: 14)

3. • Counselling is a process that focuses on enhancing the
psychological well-being of the client, such that the client is
then able to reach their full potential. This is achieved by the
counsellor facilitating your personal growth, development,
and self-understanding, which in turn empowers you to adopt
more constructive life practices.
• Counselling may be helpful in a number of ways.
• It can enable you to develop a clearer understanding of your
concerns and help you acquire new skills to better manage
personal and educational issues.
• The counsellor can offer a different perspective and help you
think of creative solutions to problems.
• Sharing your thoughts and feelings with someone not
personally involved in your life can be most helpful.

4. Counselling and Its Benefits
• Counselling is a process used to identify, discuss and resolve
issues that are affecting an employee. Counselling takes place
between an employee and a counsellor. Often the counsellor
is the employee's direct leader.
• Counselling is frequently used to identify issues affecting an
employee's performance where the performance level is
continually below acceptable levels or has markedly declined.
However, counselling can also be used to:
• Improve interpersonal relations between team members
• Help individuals with career development
• Resolve grievance issues
• Deal with disciplinary issues
• Help individuals deal with issues that are affecting their work
attendance

5. Benefits for employee's can
include:
• Identifying issues and receiving help to resolve them
• Receiving advice for dealing with issues
• Receiving an opportunity to voice grievances
• Formulating career development plans
• Improving work performance which can then improve the
employee's self esteem and self confidence

6. Benefits for the organisation
include
• Conflict resolution
• Performance improvement
• Satisfied employees
• Higher retention of staff

7. Types of Counselling
• Counselling can be split into two distinctive forms:
• Directive counselling
• Non-Directive counselling
• Directive Counselling:- involves a formal process where the
counsellor assesses the situation, decides an appropriate
course of action and directs the employee to follow this
course of action.
• Non-directive Counselling:- involves the counsellor facilitating
a process where the employee deals with their issues. The
counsellor assists the employee to:
• Assess the situation and clearly identify the underlying issues
• Identify alternative courses of action
• Identify an appropriate course of action to deal with the issues

8. Nature of Counselling

9. Scope/Issues of 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

10. Goals of Counselling
• The five major goals are :
• Facilitating behavior change.
• Improving the client’s ability to establish and maintain
relationships.
• Enhancing the client’s effectiveness and ability to cope.
• Promoting the decision-making process .
• Facilitating client potential and development.

11. Results/Expectations of
counseling can include:
• Insight and understanding of oneself, with greater self-awareness.
• Changing of one's beliefs and mental models.
• Increased acceptance and appreciation of oneself.
• Increased emotional intelligence.
• Increased ability to control oneself and one's urges.
• Development of skills and abilities that require self-management.
• Improved motivation towards actions that are good for one's self.
• Understanding of others and why they act as they do.
• Increased appreciation and care for others.
• Improvement in relationships with others.
• Changing of relationship with family, friends and others.
• Making amends for past negative actions.

12. The Counseling Process
• The counselling process will depend on the
individual counsellor, the individual client and the
specific issue. However, there is a general
counselling process that the counsellors will follow:
• 1. Background information collection
• 2. Identification of core issues
• 3. Case formulation
• 4. Goal setting for the therapeutic process
• 5. Implementation of intervention
• 6. Evaluation of intervention
• 7. Closure

13. Steps in Employee Counselling
• Identify the need for counseling.
• Prepare for counseling.
• Conduct counseling.
• Follow up.
• IDENTIFY THE NEED FOR COUNSELING - Quite often organizational
policies, such as counseling associated with an evaluation or
counseling required by the command, focus a counseling session.
However, you may conduct developmental counseling whenever the
need arises for focused, two-way communication aimed at
subordinate development. Developing subordinates consists of
observing the subordinate's performance, comparing it to the
standard, and then providing feedback to the subordinate in the
form of counseling.

14. PREPARE FOR COUNSELING
• Successful counseling requires preparation. To prepare for
counseling, do the following:
• Select a suitable place.
• Schedule the time.
• Notify the subordinate well in advance.
• Organize information.
• Outline the counseling session components.
• Plan your counseling strategy.
• Establish the right atmosphere.

15. CONDUCT THE COUNSELING
SESSION
• Counseling sessions consist of:
• Opening the session.
• Discussing the issues.
• Developing the plan of action.
• Recording and closing the session.

16. FOLLOW UP
• You must observe and assess this process and possibly modify
the plan to meet its goals. Appropriate measures after
counseling include follow-up counseling, making referrals,
informing the chain of command, and taking corrective
measures.

17. Counselling Approaches Compared
Person-Centred Transactional Analysis REBT
Carl Rogers Eric Berne Albert Ellis
Humanistic School Psychodynamic School Behavioural School
Here and now Presenting past How we think
Counsellor believes the client is an expert on
themselves and helps the client gain self
acceptance
Counsellor is an ‘expert’ helps the client to
realise how childhood experiences effect their
life today
Counsellor is an ‘expert’ helps the client to
think more rationally about life.
Believes that humans can self heal if the core
conditions are in place
The basis of the model is Parent, Adult, Child
Ego states
The basis of the model is Action ,Belief and
Consequence
Core conditions
necessary and sufficient
Core conditions Desirable Core conditions Desirable
The relationship between the client and the
counsellor is the most important aspect of
the therapy succeeding
Counsellor teaches techniques ,homework and
uses worksheets to aid the therapy
Counsellor teaches technique,homework and
uses worksheets to aid the therapy

18. Humanistic Approach –
Carl Rogers
• The ‘core conditions’ are basically attitudes that
the counsellor displays that show acceptance of
the client, valuing them as a human being of
worth.
• The first condition is called Empathy, sometimes
referred to as a frame of reference.
• The second condition is known as Congruence
this means the counsellor is genuine and real,
this condition is important as it allows the client
to build a trusting relationship with the
counsellor.
• The third and final condition is known as UPR
short for Unconditional Positive Regard, for a
client it can be a relief to talk about their
problems without someone saying ‘why did you
do this?… or do think that was a good idea?.

19. How Maslow’shierarchy of needs influenced
Person-CenteredCounselling?
• Abraham Maslow who in the 1960’s developed a theory called
‘Self Actualization, he then developed an idea later know as
Maslow’s Triangle often referred to as the Maslow hierarchy
of needs.
• Maslow and Rogers believed that human beings need certain
conditions to be in place before they could reach their full
potential and have fulfilled life.
• To describe his idea he came up with that is now called the
Maslow Pyramid

21. • At the bottom of the triangle was what he described as
physiological needs such as, air, water, food, going to the toilet etc.
Maslow believed that these were the basic elements that humans
need to survive.
• The second part of the pyramid is safety needs this means that
humans feel safe and protected this usually means having
somewhere to live.
• Third on the triangle in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is love and
belonging, this means having friendships, and a loving relationship
with family or a partner, and could include having a physical
relationship (a sexual relationship).
• Self-esteem is the fourth part of the triangle and is about how
people feel about themselves in the wider world being employed,
doing an activity that they can feel is a personal achievement such
as going to college, playing an instrument, or a hobby could be seen
as building self-esteem.

22. • The final part of the triangle, ‘the peak ‘is known as self-
actualisation the best way of describing this to think of
individuals like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, or individuals
who have overcome personal difficulties to achieve great
things.
• Carl Rogers adopted the self-actualisation concept and
integrated it into the Person-Centred Approach. Rogers
believed that as clients overcome barriers they move towards
becoming a more fully functioning person by means of self-
actualisation.
• Remember the triangle works from the ground up and you
cannot exchange one need for another, for example
exchanging the need to breathe air for shelter, each level of
the triangle must be met before progressing to the next level.

23. Sigmund Freud
• The Case of Anna O
• The case of Anna O (real name Bertha Pappenheim) marked a
turning point in the career of a young Viennese
neuropathologist by the name of Sigmund Freud. It even went
on to influence the future direction of psychology as a whole.
• Anna suffered from hysteria, a condition in which the patient
exhibits physical symptoms (e.g. paralysis, convulsions,
hallucinations, loss of speech) without apparent physical
cause. Her doctor Josef Breuer succeeded in treating Anna by
helping her to recall forgotten memories of traumatic events.
Breuer discussed the case with his friend Freud. Out of these
discussions came the germ of an idea that Freud was to
pursue for the rest of his life.

24. • In Studies in Hysteria (1895) Freud proposed that physical
symptoms are often the surface manifestations of deeply
repressed conflicts. However Freud was not just advancing an
explanation of a particular illness. Implicitly he was proposing
a revolutionary new theory of the human psyche itself.
• This theory emerged “bit by bit” as a result of Freud’s clinical
investigations and it led him to propose that there were at
least three levels to the mind.

26. • Freud (1900, 1905) developed a topographical model of the mind,
whereby he described the features of mind’s structure and function.
• In this model the conscious mind (everything we are aware of) is
seen as the tip of the iceberg, with the unconscious mind a
repository of a ‘cauldron’ of primitive wishes and impulse kept at
bay and mediated by the preconscious area.
• However, Freud found that some events and desires were often too
frightening or painful for his patients to acknowledge. Freud
believed such information was locked away in a region he called the
unconscious mind. This happens through the process of repression.
• Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious
mind, and a primary assumption of Freudian theory is that the
unconscious mind governs behavior to a greater degree than people
suspect. Indeed, the goal of psychoanalysis is to make the
unconscious conscious.

28. • The ego develops from the id during infancy. The egos goal is
to satisfy the demands of the id in a safe a socially acceptable
way. In contrast to the id the ego follows the reality principle
as it operates in both the conscious and unconscious mind.
• The superego develops during early childhood (when the child
identifies with the same sex parent) and is responsible for
ensuring moral standards are followed. The Superego
operates on the morality principle and motivates us to behave
in a socially responsible and acceptable manner.
• The superego can make a person feel guilty if rules are not
followed. When there is conflict between the goals of the id
and superego the ego must act as a referee and mediate this
conflict. The ego can deploy various defense mechanisms
(Freud, 1894, 1896) to prevent it from becoming
overwhelmed by anxiety.

29. Psychosexual Stages
• In the highly repressive “Victorian” society in which Freud lived and
worked women, in particular, were forced to repress their sexual
needs. In many cases the result was some form of neurotic illness.
• Freud sought to understand the nature and variety of these illnesses
by retracing the sexual history of his patients. This was not primarily
an investigation of sexual experiences as such. Far more important
were the patient’s wishes and desires, their experience of love, hate,
shame, guilt and fear – and how they handled these powerful
emotions.
• It was this that led to the most controversial part of Freud’s work –
his theory of psychosexual development and of the Oedipus
complex
• Freud believed that children are born with a libido – a sexual
(pleasure) urge. There are a number of stages of childhood during
which the child seeks pleasure from a different ‘object’.

31. • To be psychologically healthy, we must successfully complete
each stage. Mental abnormality can occur if a stage is not
completed successfully – the person becomes ‘fixated’ in a
particular stage. This particular theory shows how adult
personality is determined by their childhood experiences.

33. Gestalt Therapy
• Gestalt therapy, developed by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls, and Paul
Goodman in the 1940s, is an experiential and humanistic form
of therapy that was originally designed as an alternative to
conventional psychoanalysis.
• Gestalt therapists and their clients use creative and
experiential techniques to enhance awareness, freedom, and
self-direction. The word gestalt comes from the German word
meaning shape or form, and it references the character or
essence of something.

34. Principles of Gestalt Therapy
• At the core of gestalt therapy is the holistic view that people
are intricately linked to and influenced by their environments
and that all people strive toward growth and balance.
• Gestalt therapy is similar to person-centered therapy in this
way, as well as in its emphasis on the therapist’s use of
empathy, understanding, and unconditional acceptance of the
client to enhance therapeutic outcomes.
• According to gestalt therapy, context affects experience, and a
person cannot be fully understood without understanding his
or her context. With this in mind, gestalt psychotherapy
recognizes that no one can be purely objective—including
therapists whose experiences and perspectives are also
influenced by their own contexts—and practitioners accept
the validity and truth of their clients’ experiences.

35. • Gestalt therapy also recognizes that forcing a person to
change paradoxically results in further distress and
fragmentation. Rather, change results from acceptance of
what is. Thus, therapy sessions focus on helping clients learn
to become more self-aware and to accept and trust in their
feelings and experiences to alleviate distress.

36. Focus on "Here and Now"
• Gestalt therapy places emphasis on gaining awareness of the
present moment and the present context. Through therapy, clients
learn to discover feelings that may have been suppressed or masked
by other feelings and to accept and trust their emotions.
• Needs and emotions that were previously suppressed or
unacknowledged are likely to surface as well. Through this process, a
person gains a new sense of self as overall awareness increases.
• The focus on the here and now does not negate or reduce past
events or future possibilities; in fact, the past is intricately linked to
one’s present experience. The idea is to avoid dwelling on the past
or anxiously anticipating the future.
• Experiences of the past may be addressed in therapy sessions, but
the therapist and client will focus on exploring what factors made a
particular memory come up in this moment, or how the present
moment is impacted by experiences of the past.

37. Working with a Gestalt
Therapist
• Gestalt therapy sessions do not follow specific guidelines, in
fact, therapists are encouraged to use creativity in their
approach with clients, depending on context and the
personality of the current client.
• What is consistent is the emphasis on direct contact between
therapist and client, direct experience and experimentation,
and the focus on the “what and how”—what the client is
doing and how he or she is doing it—and the “here and now.”

38. • Together, therapist and client will evaluate what is happening
now and what is needed as a result. Therapists refrain from
interpreting events, focusing only on the immediate, including
the physical responses of the client.
• Remarking on subtle shifts in posture, for example, can bring
the client into the present. In this way, gestalt therapy helps
clients gain a better understanding of how their emotional and
physical bodies are connected.
• Understanding the internal self is the key to understanding
actions, reactions, and behaviors. Gestalt therapy helps a
client take the first step into this awareness so that they can
acknowledge and accept these patterns.

39. Transactional Analysis Basic
Concepts
• The Transactional Analysis approach to counselling belongs to
the Psychoanalytical School of therapy and was devised
by Eric Berne a Canadian psychiatrist in the late 1940’s.
• Berne who had studied the work of Sigmund Freud, tried in
1949 to join the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute but was
rejected, so he went on to develop his own interpretation of
Freud’s ideas which he called Transactional Analysis, or T.A. for
short.
• Berne wanted to develop a therapy which was easier for the
general public to understand, using ‘Layman’s terms’ he went
on to write a number of influential books one of which was
called ‘The Games People Play’ which is still popular today, 25
years after it was first published.

40. • The goal of TA therapy is to
make us aware of which ego
state we tend to be in most
of the time and ask
ourselves is this useful in our
everyday relationships and
interactions with others.
By being more adult in
transactions with people, we
find that our relationships
can be enhanced and we
don’t fall back in to historic
and not useful ways of
interacting with others.
• Eric Berne believed the key
to a fulfilled life was to be
aware of our ego states and
explore them all but not get
stuck in just one!

41. • The theory of TA is (on the surface) is quite simple, Berne
believed that people have difficulty in their lives due to how
the communicate and interact with others. He believed that
human beings have three distinct attitudes or states of mind
which he called Ego States these are;
• Parent (behaving in ways which we learn an re act out our
parents behaviour as adults)
• Adult (using logic and evidence to guide our behaviour, not
becoming emotional)
• Child (replaying childish behaviours as adults)
• The goal of TA is to help clients develop their Adult Ego
State and enhance their communications with other people

42. Freud’s Ego Defense
Mechanisms
• We stated earlier that the ego’s job was to satisfy the id’s
impulses, not offend the moralistic character of the superego,
while still taking into consideration the reality of the
situation. We also stated that this was not an easy job.
• Think of the id as the ‘devil on your shoulder’ and the
superego as the ‘angel of your shoulder.’ We don’t want
either one to get too strong so we talk to both of them, hear
their perspective and then make a decision.
• This decision is the ego talking, the one looking for that
healthy balance.

43. • According to Freud, we only have two drives; sex and
aggression. In other words, everything we do is motivated by
one of these two drives.
• Sex, also called Eros or the Life force, represents our drive to
live, prosper, and produce offspring. Aggression, also called
Thanatos or our Death force, represents our need to stay alive
and stave off threats to our existence, our power, and our
prosperity.
• Now the ego has a difficult time satisfying both the id and the
superego, but it doesn’t have to do so without help.

44. • The ego has some tools it can use in its job as the mediator,
tools that help defend the ego. These are called Ego Defense
Mechanisms or Defenses. When the ego has a difficult time
making both the id and the superego happy, it will employ one
or more of these defenses as follows.

45. • Denial- arguing against an anxiety provoking stimuli by stating it
doesn’t exist, denying that your physician’s diagnosis of cancer is
correct and seeking a second opinion.
• Displacement-taking out impulses on a less threatening target,
slamming a door instead of hitting as person, yelling at your spouse
after an argument with your boss.
• Intellectualization- avoiding unacceptable emotions by focusing on
the intellectual aspects, focusing on the details of a funeral as
opposed to the sadness and grief.
• Projection-placing unacceptable impulses in yourself onto someone
else, when losing an argument, you state “You’re just Stupid;”
homophobia.
• Rationalization-supplying a logical or rational reason as opposed to
the real reason, stating that you were fired because you didn’t kiss
up the the boss, when the real reason was your poor performance

46. • Reaction formation- taking the opposite belief because the true belief
causes anxiety having a bias against a particular race or culture and then
embracing that race or culture to the extreme.
• Regression-returning to a previous stage of development, sitting in a
corner and crying after hearing bad news; throwing a temper tantrum
when you don’t get your way
• Repression-pulling into the unconscious,forgetting sexual abuse from
your childhood due to the trauma and anxiety.
• Sublimation-acting out unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable
way, sublimating your aggressive impulses toward a career as a boxer;
becoming a surgeon because of your desire to cut; lifting weights to
release ‘pent up’ energy.
• Suppression-pushing into the unconscious,trying to forget something
that causes you anxiety
• Ego defenses are not necessarily unhealthy as you can see by the
examples above. In face, the lack of these defenses, or the inability to
use them effectively can often lead to problems in life. However, we
sometimes employ the defenses at the wrong time or overuse them,
which can be equally destructive.