1. BASIC COUNSELING
SKILLS
TRAINING FOR DIRECT
SERVICE STAFF AT ST.LUKE’S
HOUSE,THRESHOLD UNITED
INC.

2. Goals of thisTraining
 Learn how to work with challenging clients
without getting into power struggles
 Build rapport with clients while maintaining
appropriate boundaries
 Using client strengths and goals to drive
interactions
 All interactions are interventions

3. THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE
 To be an effective counselor, a therapeutic
alliance must be established with the client.
 To develop this alliance requires a series of
purposeful interactions that acknowledges
the worth, competency and importance of the
consumer as well as the respect and interest
of the counselor.
 Every action is an interaction.

4. Core Concepts
 Acceptance or unconditional positive regard
 Attending behavior
 Empathy
 Reflective listening
 Simple reflection and paraphrasing back
 Affirm
 Genuineness, self disclosure and boundaries
 Transference and counter transference
 Strength based counseling, solution focused and
client centered


5. ACCEPTANCE OR
UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE
REGARD
 Carl Rogers believes that this is central to
positive human development. It is central to
non directive, client centered therapy.
 Allows a person to be themselves without
feeling judged or criticized.
 Allows the counselor to maintain objectivity
and accept the client regardless of their past
actions or behaviors

6. ATTENDING BEHAVIOR
 Body Posture
 Tone of Voice
 Proximity
 Conveys empathy
 Encourages the other
person to talk
 Eye Contact
 Level of Relaxation

7. EMPATHY
 Empathy is the ability to name the emotions you
are observing and being able to ask the speaker if
you are accurate in your perceptions
 Empathy is different from sympathy which implies
pity and maintains distance from another’s
feelings. It is more a sense of feeling with a
person rather than feeling sorry for them
 It is not, “I know how you feel.”
 It is paraphrasing the content and
reflecting it back to the client
 It is always about the client
 The skills involved in empathy: listening/reflecting

8. REFLECTIVE LISTENING
 “I am listening.”
 “I want to listen.”
 “I want to understand more about your
experience.”
 Use body language here, nodding, leaning in
 “Can you tell me more about that?”
 Reflective listening is a way of CHECKING
rather than ASSUMING that you know what
is going on.

9. SIMPLE REFLECTION AND
PARAPHRASING BACK
 Client: “I know that it doesn’t help my
depression to just stay in the house all day
and not go out.”
 Counselor: “It sounds like you know that you
should avoid staying in the house all day and
that you have some good insight into what
might help your depression.”

10. BARRIERS TO
REFLECTIVE/EMPATHIC
LISTENING
 Cultural differences
 Gender
 Seeing the client as an object
 Not understanding your role as a counselor
 Your preconceived beliefs and ideas
 Discomfort in the presence of the client’s strong
emotions of grief, anger or pain
 Asking too many questions


11. GENUINENESS AND SELF
DISCLOSURE
 Both verbal and non verbal behavior of the
counselor is congruent
 It is not the same as self disclosure
 It does not mean you express your feelings
 It is finding a comfortable level of sharing
without violating boundaries

12. ETHICS
 According to the APA, and a consensus
among psychologists and psychiatrists, any
relationship between the therapist and client
that causes harm is unethical and thus
prohibited in the workplace

13. BOUNDARIES
 The most important thing to remember when
entering into any helping field, is that
professional boundaries are necessary.
 What if professional boundaries are not
maintained?
 Why are professional boundaries crossed?
 Counselors need to consider professional
boundaries as they relate to other behaviors on
the job.

14. TRANSFERENCE AND
COUNTER TRANSFERENCE
 Transference is generally thought of as the
redirection of a client’s feelings from a
significant person in their life to their
counselor and is mostly unconscious.
 Counter transference is defined as a
counselor’s feelings toward a client and
depending on the counselor’s self knowledge
and experience, may or may not be
conscious.

15. STRENGTH BASED, SOLUTION
FOCUSED, CLIENT CENTERED
COUNSELING
 Focus on building client’s strengths, not
weaknesses
 Focus on what client would like to accomplish
– less focused in the past – more present and
future oriented
 Understands and develops the intrinsic ability
of the client to be part of their wellness

16. POWER STRUGGLES
 Once a power struggle begins, there are no
winners
 It takes two
 Put your fears and ego away – remember that
you are working for the client
 It is their life and the choices they make are
theirs
 Allow time and choices for a person to respond
differently
 This is where flexibility and
creative thinking come
into play

17. Avoid arguments
 Arguments are counterproductive
 Defending breeds defensiveness
 Resistance is a signal to change strategies

18. Rolling with resistance
 Perceptions can be shifted
 New perspectives are invited but not imposed
 The client is a valuable resource in finding
solutions to problems

19. GROUPS
 Social/Skill Building Groups – Provides social
skills training
 Participant Driven Groups - Peers create the
subject matter and share a common area of
interest. They are support groups and the
facilitator is mostly involved in keeping the
group feeling safe in sharing and
encouraging everyone’s participation.
 Decision Making Groups – Intended to
complete a specific task

20. GROUPS (continued)
 Support Groups – Intended to offer support
for specific issues, eg. grief, dealing with
mental illness, etc.
 Education or Informational Groups – Topic
focused eg. Medication management
 House Groups – May be used in residential
settings as a way to keep communication
flowing among housemates

21. LEADERSHIP FUNCTIONS
FOR GROUP FACILITATORS
 Executive Function – Setting limits, providing
rules and managing time
 Caring – Showing warmth, support,
acceptance, etc.
 Meaning Attribution – Explaining and
clarifying the group’s goals and objectives
 Emotional Stimulation – Challenging, at times
confronting and modeling behaviors

22. GROUP LEADERSHIP
TECHNIQUES
 FacilitatingCommunication – Providing
constructive feedback and preventing
members from engaging in negative
behaviors
 Set rules and limits – Address confidentiality,
keep the flow of the group going, make sure
everyone participates. This may involve
interrupting if one person is dominating
group.
 Model Appropriate Behavior