Counseling involves relationship: the client-counselor relationship is central to counseling process. Counseling service is a process by which client learns how to make decisions and formulate new ways of behaving, feeling and thinking. It aims at assisting individuals in understanding themselves and in making choices that are individually satisfying and socially effective. Counseling is a more intensive and personal process. It is generally concerned with helping people cope with normal problems and opportunities.
Purpose and goals of counseling:
The major goal of the counseling process is to be of help to clients change. clients needs to be able to make changes in the way they think and/ or the things they do, so that they are less likely to repeat patterns of thinking and behaving which lead to negative consequences for them.
Desirable qualities of the counseling relationship:
Effective counseling depends upon the quality of relationship between the counselor and the client. It is obvious that the relationship between a client and counselor is dependent in the counselor’s personality, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.
Goals of counselling: we cannot help effectively if we do not understand where we are going. New behavior is the overall goal of helping.
- In order for an individual to learn new behavior, s/he must first explore where s/he is. He or she must explore himself or herself in relation to himself or herself and in relation to the world. We must know the problems before we can change the behavior.
- In exploring herself/himself, the person seeking help is attempting to understand where s/he is in relation to where s/he wants to be.
- The only purpose for understanding behavior is to be able to act to learn new behavior. In acting, the person acts upon how to get from where s/he is to where s/he wants to be.
- Moreover, real understanding comes from the learning that follows action. Having calculated effective action, the client must now explore and understand the feedback, which s/he gets. Finally s/he modifies his/her action in accordance with a more accurate understanding of herself.
Who can gain from counseling?
All can gain from counseling. Some of the typical client issues he has handled successfully in the past include, anxiety, depression, panic attack, Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD), low self-esteem, childhood trauma, Posttruamatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), shaming experiences, grief work, and marital and family issues. He has also conducted therapy for clients with personality disorders such as borderline personality disorders, schizophrenia and paranoid personality disorders.