Category: Counseling

In any field of services there would be some sort of either oral or written form of guidelines or ethics when it comes to assess the situations based on an individual’s reaction or perceptions. Ethics is describe as a philosophical discipline that concerned with the human conduct and moral decision-making. Therefore it comes to no surprise that in the field of counselling, a guideline must be formed. In Malaysia, the code of ethics for counsellors to act upon their practices were formed in the year 1998 labeled as ‘counsellor Act 580’ (Act, C.,1998). In Britain and United States, they have the British Association for Counselling (BAC) and American Association for Counselling and Development (AACD) respectively (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc, 2018). There are five moral principles based on Kitchener (1984) theory comprising of fidelity, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc, 2018).

There is a research to investigate the relationship between “benevolence” and different culture among trainee counsellors. The research also tries to investigate the relationship between “respectfulness” and different culture among trainee counsellors, and to investigate the relationship between cultural differences and morale application among trainee counsellors. Lastly, to investigate the use of “benevolence” and morale application among trainee counsellors (Ghazali, N. M., etc.). The instruments used to measure the variables are by using the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS), Multicultural Attitude Scale (MAS) and Vision of Morality Scale (VMS). The findings show that the virtue ethics (benevolence and respectfulness) on counselling morale application is important in making decision among counsellors in counselling process (Ghazali, N. M., etc.).

Fidelity principle requires the counsellor to show loyalty, honoring commitments and quality. Based on the ACA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice (2015), fidelity can be a form of professional responsibility. A counsellor must not practice beyond their own capabilities and understanding to avoid malpractice and misjudgments of diagnosis of client’s needs (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018). The counsellor should undergo a continuous education to maintain their professional competencies. As being a counsellor is being human that makes errors doesn’t mean that we don’t have our own disadvantages and weaknesses thus the said individual should refrain from offering any more professional services until they have deal with their problems or situations accordingly (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018).

The aim of the author for a study was to develop a continuous professional development training module based on multicultural counselling competency for professional counsellors in Malaysia (Aga Mohd Jaladin, R., etc., 2019). The research methodology of this study have three phases which at first the participants will undergo a training need assessment by using a survey method. Then, the participants will create a module design and describe its development. Lastly, conducting a module evaluation by using an experimental design. The author uses the Multicultural Counselling Competency Survey-Malaysian Counsellor Edition questionnaire to collect data from 116 professional counsellors from various work settings (Aga Mohd Jaladin, R., etc., 2019). The findings of this research study implies that the continuous professional development training module is necessary for enhancing multicultural counselling competency of Malaysian professional counsellors (Aga Mohd Jaladin, R., etc., 2019).

There is also a study that tries to identify the knowledge pattern of counsellor ethics in Malaysia and the differences in the adaptation of knowledge based on the demographic factors like age, gender, experience and counsellors’ qualification. It is a quantitative study that uses descriptive study design. There were a total of 355 counsellors participated in this study (Rani, N. H. M., Jaafar, W. M. W., etc., 2017). The study instrument adopted is Ethical and Legal Issues in Counselling Questionnaires-Revised (ELICQ-R). The findings of the ethics knowledge of counsellor is at moderate and high level. The findings also shows that there is a significant differences between counsellor qualification and the counsellors’ ethics knowledge in Malaysia. Moreover, there is no difference in the ethics knowledge based on the demographic factors like age, gender and the experiences of the counsellors in Malaysia (Rani, N. H. M., Jaafar, W. M. W., etc., 2017). Overall, counsellors in Malaysia still have to increase their ethics knowledge so that they can deliver an effective counseling service to clients. The emphasis on ethics courses in the counseling program also has to be enhanced so that ethical counsellors can be produced in the future. Other than that, high ethics knowledge can help counsellors in behaving ethically (Rani, N. H. M., Jaafar, W. M. W., etc., 2017).

Autonomy principle focuses on the counsellors to address the concept of independence. This concept may be a two-way situation where by the counsellor should advise client that they have the power to decide for themselves (if it is a mild case) and counsellors should only be a voice of reason or guidance so that the client can fulfil his goals (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018). According to the ACA (2015), a counsellor should not discriminate the client based on their age, culture, skin color, disability, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic and marital status (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018).

They are increasingly needed not only in public and private institutions but also in the events of natural disaster and tragedy that happens in the country like the tsunami incident on 26th of December 2004, the major flood in Kelantan in 2014, and the flights of MH370 and MH17 crash incidents in December 2014. They must also work around various groups such as children, school-going students, people with disabilities, single mothers, teenagers, university students, parents, spouses, and workers (Rani1a, N. H. M., etc., 2017). That being said, they must offer their services in an ethical manner and avoid committing any unethical behavior. These ethical codes and principles can guide counsellors in practicing counselling services (Rani1a, N. H. M., etc., 2017). If there are a few situations where the clients would want to terminate the services thus a counsellor must oblige and begin the process of termination accordingly.

Counsellors must have the value of justice by treating everyone as equal to avoid any discrimination that would result in the risk of diagnosing the clients. At any given situation, counsellors must also take appropriate actions should there are reasonable doubts of other counsellors not acting in an ethical manner. In any legal investigations, a counsellor must cooperate with the proceedings and requirements as required, for example, by the ACA Code of Ethics Standards of Practice (2015). Even so, it must only be based on the selected jurisdiction over those charged with violations and only then the client’s background information shall be released to the authority (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018).

There is a study investigating on Malaysian counselors’ self-perceived Multicultural Counseling Competence (MCC) and its relationship with clients’ satisfaction. A total of 104 participants (52 counselor-client dyads) completed the survey. Of the 52 dyads, 26 were registered and licensed counselors in Malaysia (professional counselors) and another 26 were internship students (paraprofessional counselors). The findings shows that there was a significant positive relationship between counselors’ MCC and client satisfaction and there was also no significant differences between professional and paraprofessional counselors on MCC and client satisfaction (Siok Ping, V., & Mohd Jaladin, R., 2017). Multicultural theorists suggest that before one attempt to learn about the other, one must first learn about themselves to in order to avoid assuming that their clients see and experience the world as they do (Pedersen, 2001). Attaining MCC requires that one choose interventions that are respectful of a cultural group’s intact beliefs and values (McCormick, 1996; Morissette & Gadbois, 2006).

If the counsellor fails to implement an appropriate amount of degree of self-awareness, it will increases the risk of a number of cultural transgressions within the counseling relationship, such as ethnocentrism and racism (Siok Ping, V., & Mohd Jaladin, R., 2017). The author also mentioned that the counsellors in Malaysia usually rely on counseling model or theories, strategy or technique that originated in Britain and United States but work with clients who are culturally different. Moreover, many counselors are trained outside the country because it is important for counsellors to have some creativity in the adaptation of knowledge, skills, and techniques learn in order to contribute to the sensitivity and efficiency of services provided. Any model or theory, technique or strategy can never be wholly imported from another culture with expectations of similar results; culturally appropriate modifications will always need to be made (Siok Ping, V., & Mohd Jaladin, R., 2017).

Non-maleficence principle describe that a counsellor is an individual that do not cause harm to others. A counsellor must show the role of a nurturer and listener. According to ACA (2015), a counsellor should also avoid causing psychological harm (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018) that could risk the ongoing treatment. It is critical for the counsellor to ensure that information obtained from doing any research studies are kept as confidential unless there is a court order for it to be released. Counselling service is regarded as a fundamental service essential for the human beings to achieve their goals. As professionals, counsellors may face many difficulties in addressing professional issues and ethical dilemmas in their professional practice to handle a few sexuality cases. There is a research study conducted to achieve its main objective, which is to explore the competency of Malaysian counsellors in the aspects of knowledge, skills and attitude (Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M., 2018a). The author used an in-depth interview method through the purposive sampling technique to obtain information. This research included 15 participants who were made up of registered counsellors and have experience in conducting counselling sessions involving gay and lesbian clients (Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M., 2018a). The data was analyzed by studying the transcriptions of interview recordings and identifying the themes that emerged based on the research objectives. The findings shows the lack of knowledge and understanding of gay and lesbian people, information regarding gays and lesbians, application of definitions or terms, basic counselling skills, communication skills, openness attitude, and unconditional acceptance attitude. It is hoped by the author that the results of this research would provide guidance for counsellors, especially for counselling involving gays and lesbians (Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M., 2018a).

Another research study conducted was to achieve its main objective of addressing counsellors’ obstacles and challenges in counselling gay and lesbian clients in Malaysia. This study used in-depth interview method through a purposive sampling technique. It involves eight study participants comprising of registered counsellors that have conducted counselling sessions with gay and lesbian clients (Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M., 2018b). The data were analyzed by studying the transcription of recording interview and identifying the themes emerged based on the objective of the study. The findings demonstrated five emerging themes pertaining to the obstacles and challenges of counsellors in counselling gay and lesbian clients such as the counsellors’ expertise limitation, the transparency issue, the client’s referred issues, the counsellors’ value and the absence of reference model (Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M., 2018b). The findings of this particular study provided knowledge and understanding to all parties on gay and lesbian issues in Malaysia regarding the kind of ethical practices of counselling services. It helps the counsellors to understand, be more prepared and to improve on their counselling services in a better and competent way (Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M., 2018b).

Lastly, beneficence principle shows that counsellors will always look out for the welfare of their clients needs and expectations. The counsellor act as a proactive agent and preventing any harm when possible. This is somewhat similar with non-maleficence principle but the different would be that this act would ensure that any given information by the clients shall be kept as confidential especially during group work therapies (Ahmad, Dr Z. A., etc., 2018). The author conducted a study that aimed to explore how school counsellor in Perak, Malaysia define and execute ethical practice in counseling. The research design is a case study which involves three school counselors (Har, N. Y., & Jusoh, A. J., 2015). All of the data was collected through various interviews and was analyzed by using qualitative methods. The results from the data showed that the participants of this study all agreed that a counsellor should have one or a few recognized qualifications before they may do counseling to a client (Har, N. Y., & Jusoh, A. J., 2015). The findings also show that counsellors often face a few conflicts with the school especially when it comes to the ethics of confidentiality, which enables them to provide information that involves client privileged communication. Overcoming this issue, the three participants were found to comply with the procedure such as attending informed consent seminar or workshop before conducting counseling sessions with clients (Har, N. Y., & Jusoh, A. J., 2015). The findings of the study also found that the participants will manage client cases categorically by type: mild, simple or serious. It is stressed out that the personality of a counsellor plays an important role in determining the effective practice of counseling ethics (Har, N. Y., & Jusoh, A. J., 2015).

A guideline or code of ethics for any standards of practices must be prioritize to ensure a positive result of outcomes. In the Malaysian counsellors’ code of ethics mentioned that should a counsellor in any situation has been convicted or charge upon that involves fraud, dishonesty or moral depravity will be, “…order the name of the registered counsellor to be removed from the Register.” (Act, C., 1998). This is covered under the disciplinary committee. Furthermore, there are three more type of situations that have shown to be the consequences of these actions such as the convicted counsellor will heed the order that the name of the registered counsellor is to be suspended from the Register for a period not exceeding two years; the order that the imposition of a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit; and the order that the registered counsellor to be reprimanded (Act, C., 1998).

References

1. Act, C. (1998). Counsellor Act 580. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan Nasional Berhad.
2. Ahmad, Dr Z. A.,Wan Ahmad, Prof Dr W. A. K., Syed Mustafa, S. M., & Phillips, Prof Dr J. A. (2018). HPGD2103 Guidance and Counselling. (2nd ed). Open University Malaysia.
3. Aga Mohd Jaladin, R., Amit, N., Anuar, A. A., Fernandez, J. A., Salleh, S., Rais, H., & Lim, H. S. (2019). Development of a continuous professional development training module based on multicultural counselling competency for professional counsellors in Malaysia. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 1477971419896375.
4. Ghazali, N. M., Mustafa, N. A., Jaafar, W. M. W., Anuar, A., & Fern, L. M. Influence of Virtue Ethics on Counselling Morale Application amongst Trainee Counsellors who undergo Internship. Retrived from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f203/befdcc1050506470173896212ab808d7c09c. pdf
5. Har, N. Y., & Jusoh, A. J. (2015). View on Counseling Ethics among School counsellors in Malaysia. Online Journal of Counseling & Education, 4(4).
6. Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M. (2018a). Competency of Counsellors in Handling Gay and Lesbian Clients in Malaysia. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 8(9), 638-650.
7. Jamal, S. H., Amat, S., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. M. (2018b). Obstacles and Challenges in Counselling Gays and Lesbians in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(6), 953-964.
8. Rani1a, N. H. M., Jaafar2a, W. M. W., Mohd, S., Noah3a, S. M. J., & Bistamam5a, M. N. (2017). An Overview of counsellor Ethical Code and Ethical Principles in Malaysian Setting. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(2), 2222-6990.
9. Rani, N. H. M., Jaafar, W. M. W., Noah, S. M., Ghazali, M., & Izwan, M. (2017). The Ethics Knowledge among Counsellors in Malaysia. International Research Journal of Education and Sciences (IRJES), 52.
10. Siok Ping, V., & Mohd Jaladin (PhD), R. (2017). The Relationship Between Malaysian Counselors’ Multicultural Counseling Competence And Client Satisfaction. Mojpc: Malaysia Online Journal Of Psychology & Counselling, 1(1). Retrieved from https://mojc.um.edu.my/article/view/5562

The UK’s NHS website defines counseling as “a talking therapy that involves a trained therapist listening to you and helping you find ways to deal with emotional issues.” Counselling is the development process in our Bhutanese school setting where it has fully established in our country. Guidance and counselling is essential tools and technique to enhance the students’ need and aspects and to bring the changes in clients in fruitful aspirations. If all individual understands the needs of counselling in Bhutanese schools then it is going to upgrade the students to lead in a proper direction in everyday activities. It is one of the helping ways in many dimensional for all human beings’ need and aspects to show the best medicine to the problems. All those ways will be changing and developing the growth of the students in the schools who seek help from the counsellor. In every school all over the globe and in our Bhutanese context, counselling play major roles in curriculum developments and provide training in various activities in school. By having counsellor in schools, the counsellors will be counselling to understand the students and school matters as a responsible person when they have a limited resource. According to Hohenshil (2010), “the growth of counseling around the world is one of the major and most exciting emerging trends in the counseling profession.” Therefore, it is well know the importance of counseling’s effectiveness and roles and major aspiration carried away by the counseling in the schools and the community as a whole.

In the Bhutanese school setting counselor’s roles is to deal with the students who is undergoing mental issues, using technologies at younger age and putting them in high rest engaging social activities.

Implication of counselor are to understand students/ schools from their internal frame of reference, culturally responsive counseling skills and interventions are essential, some issues are universal across cultures, be spontaneous and creative when there are limited resources, consider the impact of globalization when conceptualizing the clients and concern, consider how counseling may need to be adopted to fit with the student’s/ school’s cultural frame of reference and remember the importance of advocacy, consultation, and collaboration. (Lorelle & Guth, 2013, p. 8).

The counselors in schools must be aware of new issues that constantly arise around the world that influences students learning environment and school as a whole. In school, counselor tries to help students at the very crucial point of their life because most of the students are diverting their mind in different directions and into not so important activities where they could get lost from track. Words from the counselor are helpful to the student’s life to improve their outlook in the school, society, family and future. The counseling is given individually and those who seek individual counseling are maintained confidential between counselors and counselor seekers. As of now in the Bhutanese school system most of the students are referred to counselor when they have behavioral and attitude problem and mostly difficulties when they faced in studies. As the counselor is resources person, he should advocate the students well beings for their educational achievement and enhancement. Counselor should listen to students issues and problems they faced and help students them from bullying, any kind of social issues, communication troubles and poor academic performance. They give counseling in order to change or develop student’s misbehavior and attitude to resolve their problems like conflicts, decision making, communicating, and creating positive environment learning which the students feel interest to learn. Counselor should understand clients/students/school systems from their internal frame of reference; culturally responsive counseling skills and interventions. Counseling need to be adapted to fit with the student’s/school’s cultural frame of reference.

Counseling can help the person to deal with wide range of problems. In Bhutanese school most common problems that student undergoes are behavioral problem, addiction, difficulties in coping up with rapid transition of life, changing environment and setting, unaware of one’s own potential and difficulties in decision making. Counseling can help students to overcome all those problems. With the help of councilors one can facilitate behavioral change in one’s life. As Rogers (1961, p. 23) stated that behavior changes as a necessary result of counseling process, although specific behaviors receive little emphasis during the counseling experience. For instance, students are seen spending most of their free time watching television. They come across protagonist having all sorts of fashionable looks and showing dangerous stunts. Being immature this is the image of hero for them and they try to act like them. But this kind of behavior is not accepted in Bhutanese schools and it causes trouble for them as there is pressure from school and parents. Being immature they don’t have the ability to reflect on their behavior but councilor uses different theories and techniques to draw out the best choice from the client. Students can differentiate between right and wrong. Without using physical force the students will be able to get the right discipline and behavior in them.

The major problems and social issues with the students are with addictions to drugs or dependent students on drugs. As Hamilton, Noah and Adlaf (2009) claimed that Children and adolescents living in low social economic status where mostly in urban environments have a higher exposure to substance use and are at a higher risk for substance abuse. Some students may realize its bad impact and want to come out of addiction but it is out of their control by then and some of the addicts are advised by teacher to see the counselor. Most of the reasons for addicts are due to increasing pressures in academic, difficulties in adjusting with parents, teachers and peers as well as adjusting themselves in the rapid transition of life. The substance like alcohol, drugs and substance abuse can be openly discussed with counselors but not with parents. In this case counselor will be the best to help them out. As asserted by Mclaughlin and Vacha (1993) that the bond created by school counselors with students who are at risk for substance abuse can sow a climate of trust and assist these students with enhancing protective factors. Drugs and alcohols are strong ongoing substances which can make its user the urge to use again and again. Counseling helps those people to escape the carvings for those substances. Cognitive behavioral therapy would be best in this case. CBT teaches how to recognize moods, thoughts and situations that fire up drug carving. Counselor teaches them how to avoid these triggers. This will help them replace negative thoughts and feelings with healthy ones that will help them stay clean.

When student are adapting and coping up in the new setting with new people around the school and places they face difficulties and creates an excessive anxiety in their mind. Counselors can help them cope with different situations they tend to face in their school life. For example that can be related in our daily life like how should the students talk politely or relate the circumstances with their peers. It will give them perspective on how should they behave in certain scenarios. Difficulties in coping up with ones changing body during puberty period and stresses can also be dealt with the help from councilor. When we have a better knowledge of ourselves then we will be able to experience the freedom that we need in our life and then celebrate the uniqueness of individuals. This empowers us to make changes and build on our areas of strength and potentials. But youth these days has formed their imaginary self in the world of illusion and they are not able to discover their potentials and strength. They often find themselves lost and not able to deal with challenges in life. As asserted by Srivastava (n.d) “research shows that self awareness is directly related to both emotional intelligence and success.”

Whenever the students face such issues they should be referred to counselors because counselors can help them the best. Counselor can help them choose the right path to pursue the opportunities that best fit their skills, preferences and abilities. It helps them create achievable goals because they are aware of their strength and potentials. It leads them to greater personal and interpersonal success. For example the school offers wide range of courses and co-curricular activities. Counselors role come here to help students distribute their energies into the learning opportunities available to them. Every student needs help in planning their major course of study and pattern of co-curricular activities. Some students are indecisive. They can never come to conclusion or one decision. It will have impact on their career choice as well due to limited knowledge regarding job trend and indecisive nature of them. Career counseling helps students understand themselves, as well as work trends so that they can be informed about it. As Kabir (2017) stated that “Counselor provides information, clarifies and sorts out personal characteristics and emotions, and even attitudes affecting decision making.” Schools in Bhutan have career class as well which is especially meant for classes 10 and 12. This is a time of many changes taking place in their life such as transitioning from school to college and it is also a time when career decisions are made. Students who do not qualify for Government College and are not able to afford college on their own then they will have to make a career decision. If they are given career education during schools then it will help them pick the right career based on their qualification and interests. It will bring stability in their thought and helps remove career related frustration.

Counseling is very important aspect in our education system. With the work and art of the counseling, many People have a notion that counseling is advice giving. According to my view counseling with skepticism notion such as it does not work; kid would be pampered or spoiled by counseling. In one of the study, Khakpoor (1998, as cited in Alavi, 2012, p. 4788) found out that 2.7 percent of the examined counselors suffered from severe exhaustion and 10 percent of them suffered from slight to average exhaustion. Kuenga Dem shares her experience as a counselor in her research ‘addressing the complexities and challenges of the school counseling community in Bhutan through a critical narrative inquiry’ as very difficult in convincing her principal and colleagues. She mentions about the heavy workload being a lone counselor in the school. Almost every school in Bhutan has only one counselor each. It is difficult to manage alone where there are at least one thousand students in the school. She also points out about the limited skills possessed by school counselors.

“It was more intense whenever I came across a situation where problem of the client seem beyond my capacity or comprehension. In such time, I remained helpless as I did not have any other expert counselors for consultation nor supervision and undermined the quality of my service to the clients” (Dem, 2017, p.13).

However to overcome the challenges and issues first of all counselors should be competent enough with skills and knowledge. They should posses all the basic skills and techniques to help the client or students if in school. For this purpose counselors should be given frequent professional development trainings to enhance their skills. Whiston and Sexton (1998) suggest that counselors should be excluded from leadership role and should be responsible for non-school counseling duties because students should be open enough to share their inner self for the counselors to have appropriate decisions for client. This is because to reduce their work load and help they focus on client. In order to encourage students to avail counseling services they should be convinced that whatever is being discussed between counselor and they will be kept confidential and counselor is well trained to create a safe therapeutic environment with unconditional positive regard and a nonjudgmental atmosphere. Counselor should make them understand that their role is to help them and not judge them.

Therefore, school counselor brings a positive impact in their student’s lives which help them to realize and to see positive change in themselves. Counseling is a learning process in which a counselor helps an individual or individuals learn, understand themselves and their environment and be in a position to choose the right type of behaviors that will help them develop, grow, progress, ascend, mature and step up, educationally, vocationally and socio personally (Egbo, 2013). The counseling program plays an effective role in school climate and in advancing student’s achievements. Education is a major social service and development process in developed and developing countries. Along with the growth and expansion of the education services, the guidance and counseling services as part of this are increasingly being deployed. Today, present practitioners can readily develop a mind set to recognize, understand, manage and contain the challenges in counseling practices in the school context.

References

1. Alavi, M., Boujarian, N., &Ninggal, M.T. (2012). Retrieved on April 17, 2020 from https://www.sciencedirect.com
2. Counseling conference in Thimphu.(n.d). Retrieved from the NBCC International website, http://www.nbccinternational.org/newsforum/news16.
3. Egbo, A. C. (2013). The Role of Guidance and Counselling in Effective Teaching and Learning in Schools: The Nigerian Perspective. The European Conference onEducation, Official Conference Proceeding 0392.Retrieved from http://iafor.org/archives/offprints/ece2013.
4. Guth, L. J. & Lorelle, S. (2013). Establishing the school counseling profession in Bhutan: reflections from the field. 5(8). Retrieved from www.googlescholar.com
5. Hamilton, H., Noah, S., &Adlaf, E. (2009).Perceived financial status, health and maladjustment in adolescence.Social Science & Medicine, 68, 1527-1534.
6. Kabir, S.M.S. (2017). Essentials of Counseling. A bosar Prokashana Sangstha, ISBN: 978-984-8798-22-5, Banglabazar, Dhaka-1100.
7. Mclaughlin, T.F., &Vacha, E.F. (1993). Substance abuse prevention in the schools: Roles for the school counselor. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 28, 124-132.
8. Srivastava, G. (n.d). The importance of self-awareness. Retrieved from https://www.whiteswanfoundation.org
9. Whiston, S. C., & Sexton, T. L. (1998). A review of school counseling outcome research: Implications for practice. Journal of Counseling and Development, 76, 412-426.

To explain that how career counseling help in losing jobs and business at this pandemic situation of covid-19, it’s important to first explain the career counseling so it will help to understand what is career counseling how its work and how it can be done and what are its uses and how much it’s helpful.

After that we will shortly talk about covid-19, And then we will talk about the how career counseling can be helpful in this pandemic situation of covid-19 for those whom lose their jobs and businesses.

Career counseling

History

Career counseling was first emerged in the united state in late nineteen centaury where people was facing difficulty in jobs, they were losing jobs, face transitions and change, for their joblessness they career counseling was originated to help them out with this problem and to educate them. Career counseling is also called vocational guidance.

In late nineteen centaury career counseling help worker to educate them and to provide information related to their jobs and employment. Career counseling is the branch of counseling psychology.

It provides the historical bottom line for the counseling field. The counseling field emerged from three (3) distinct movements which are:

• The vocational or career guidance,
• Psychological measurement, and
• Personality development.

Career counselor gives information and set a line more frequently during career counseling than general counseling. Career counselor plays role to identify aspects of self-exploration, support and educating as the most important and helpful element of career counseling interferences.

Broadening the narrow view of career counseling

Students often ceased that counseling is a sequence of interferences that like to be the following: First the client appears for career counseling, the client’s information/data is collected by the counselor and a test battery is administered. After that the counselor describes a few appropriate occupational/career opportunities or ways to the client.

Aspects of the career counseling approach

The counselor is the supervisor of the process. Counselor is directive and authoritative. Clients in this approach are passive participants of test battery that is taken in beginning. It’s something that is done to the clients and something that can be done combine by the counselor and the client.

By definition: career counseling is an interpersonal process made to help a person with career or vocational development problems. Career counseling can be therapeutic, and is more effective and difficult than psychotherapy.

Strategies

Career counseling help to respond to global unemployment, downsizing, jobless economy, worker less factories, increase in number of companies offering daycare and people work from home and also identifies a social contract between the boss and the worker.

Counselor can also tell the requirements of work place to the clients which are: Use to technology (computer, laptop, online working). And engage in lifelong learning. Effectively interact to diverse co-worker. Tolerating ambiguity and being careful in sustaining a high level of self and occupational awareness to maintain profitability/marketability.

Phases of career counseling process

There are the following four phases of career counseling which are:

1. Opening phase

In the first stage, the relationship is established between the client and the counselor. It’s an effective relationship which helps to work on further phases to resolves the client’s career issue.

2. Phase of information gathering

In this phase the information is collection from the client and the data is gathered about the client. There they define and make goals for the counseling.

3. Working phase

Here the work is done on the information gathered from client and the goals and concerns or issues are explored in depth to reach the goal. After that a specific plan is develop for the client and implemented for action.

4. Final phase

Final phase is the ending or termination phase in which the all work done from the phase one to middle phase which is working phases are connect with each other to help client with current situation or status.

In these four phases the client assessed to achieve his/her goals and to know about the opportunities available to the client. And after that the client is terminated. There can be Premature closure or termination of the career counseling on the basis of; when client believe that his goals are achieved, or if the counseling experience doesn’t meet the client’s expectation.

Other reason can be; if the client lack commitment to counseling and/or client may fear about what can be uncovered in career counseling. There is a proper set of questions asked from client when he/she is terminated. These questions are about the content review, reemphasizes client’s strength, review of the counseling process. Other questions that counselor asked can be about the exploration on unsaid thing and providing a direct and clear structure for the next step of the client.

Career counseling can be done Individually or in a Group. In group counseling there are more opportunities to deliver information to each other. Form group counseling it is important that the group have a same specific issue and their concerns are same. Groups are of two types;

• Structured career counseling groups, and
• Less structured counseling groups.

There are mostly 3-7 sessions. Stages of group counseling are same as the phases of career counseling.

Those stages are;

1. Opening stage
2. Investigation stage
3. Working stage
4. Decision/operational stage.

Uses of career group counseling:

• Members learn new information about themselves and others.
• Members of the group also get support from other group members; support can be emotional and social.
• Members learn new things from new friends in a similar situation.
• They can also share ideas and concepts with each other.

Criteria for successful group:

As members are in communication with each other openly so they understands each other’s concept and their thinking become broadening by share different ideas and talking on different things.

They share goals with each other and those who are having common goals help each other. On the basis of their goals they set standards that give them direction for their activities. They work combine towards satisfaction of individual needs, they set roles to play in group and develop interpersonal attraction.

Covid-19

Covid-19 is actually a corona virus disease, it’s a respiratory disease, and it spread through the droplets of saliva that generate from the infected individual. It also transmits through the air when an infected person sneezes or cough. It’s one of the dangerous diseases. It spreads mostly all over the world, as more than 150 countries have this virus. Because of this pandemic situation most of the countries fire their employees and they become jobless, many countries did lockdown and in some countries even curfew had been imposed. Because of all this people are facing difficulties to sustain their family needs and food because they are not having jobs so they can’t earn money.

In this pandemic virus situation, people are instructed to stay at homes and make distance of 2 feet to prevent from this disease. They are also instructed to stay safe from this disease and do wash your hands for20 seconds, make use of sanitizers and wear gloves to avoid touching, they are also instruct to wear masks which is the most important and to make social distancing and avoid social gatherings.

Because of this entire stressful and pandemic situation, people are very stressed, worried and disturbed. They are not even able to think about the opportunities to get a suitable job for them. As we discuss all about the career counseling and covid-19 it’s clear that how people lost their jobs and through the details of career counseling we can also know how career counselor work and what are the processes.

Career counselors can be helpful to those who are losing jobs and businesses in the situation of covid-19 pandemic. Counselors can help employees working in factories, schools, offices, chambers, institutes etc.

This joblessness greatly affect the lives of people they are really much stressed and in trouble, they are unable to take step for their self because of pandemic. The joblessness and losing businesses damaged people’s life, it also affect their personal life badly. They are not having jobs and are at homes which is making their personal life worse and affecting their families.

They are so anxious and stressed and because of this situation people are facing domestic violence, marriage discord, family fights and even killing happened. As they have lost their jobs and are as home so many people take out their frustration on another family members living with them in same residence. Job was one of the reasons to make people busy in their life and they had to spend hours on working because of which they were not free to think on extra things and after working for many hours their mind become tiered and they want rest. But if we compare this with present situation it’s totally opposite of it. They are at homes and they mostly thinks about their unemployment which makes them frustrated and they are unable to cope with this situation and in result of it many violations occurs at houses.

Also people are committing suicide because of this entire pandemic and because of they are unable to provide food to their families, their basic needs are not fulfilling and people are starving.

The first task of career counselor or vocational counselor in this entire situation is to encourage the clients to develop self-assertion and by this they will be able to know their value worthiness which will be helpful or beneficial for them. By this their confidence on themselves and their self esteem will increase, this will help them to protect against stress and it will become the performance of problem solving. It will bring positivity in them and they will think that they can face this situation.

And after that the second task of the counselor is to assist client for his/her career, provide assessment and information about different fields and different opportunities and provide knowledge of jobs according to his/her personality.

There are following characteristics of career development intervention that develop the desire of self-Affirmation:

• Counselor can provide counseling to the client on the basis of career assistance and can provide support to the client in different ways. For developing self assertion in client, the counselor must have to get knowledge about the client’s life structure issue.
• Counselor makes the clients to clarify their self concept; the ways h thinks he is, and on the basis of this make their own lives. This career counseling happens cross culturally and because of it the counselor should exhibit the understanding that every counseling relationship is cross cultural.

As we discuss above that counselor provide support to the client, so it can be of different types.

Types of support:

• Emotional support.
• Informational support.
• Assessment support.

On the basis of this, counselor can provide emotional support and it can be very helpful and useful in this situation of covid19. Counselor can support client with empathy as that we all are facing same situation and in a same state. All this will end soon but we have to believe in ourselves and have to keep struggling.

Career counselor also provide informational support, in this type of support he give information to the client about the circumstances and the opportunities and advices for the benefit of the client. In the situation of covid-19 client can also be informed about the resources, like the government had made some schemes on basis of this they are providing food to people who have lost their jobs, so it will help you a little bit.

They can give information to clients about the online jobs foe jobless people. And those who had lost or losing their business because of lockdown or curfew, they can be provided with information that you can make a platform for your worker and through which they can work online from their houses. So their business will not lose nor can the other people become jobless.

Other information can be given to clients in this pandemic situation can be of who to manage your vacancies for job, what opportunities should be provided to employees and what rules should be imposed to make better environment for productive work.

Information by career counselor are provided to the principals of the schools in this situation, as they are very worried about the student’s future and their studies so career counselor help them by providing information on study through media, they are instructed that their studies can run through media from which students can take advantage.

Besides this, teachers of private universities also seek career counselor that they are at homes and everything is closed and the universities are unable to pay them and they students who were about to develop their career are also suffering, and for this reason career counselor after assessment can give the advice of online classes through which studies will not be effected nor can teachers become jobless.

Career counselor can also provide information to general stores workers as they said people become jobless and are unable to earn money their job are also making loss to them. On this the counselor can give advice to the manager of general store to make a possible change in the rates of things or food that is acceptable for people so they can also buy things and your budget will not be get effective so much.

There are different kinds of informational support that can be provided to clients from the counselor. The last is the assessment support which is given to clients. In this support certain tests or techniques are used to assess the personality of the person. As people can do work well that is according to their personality and characteristics. On the basis of their assessment of personality, further support of information is given to the client. Career counselor assists their early experiences, role models, books, and movies etc. and after that counselor turn the life themes into career goals.

Career counselor can provide online counseling to the client for their career in this covid-19 pandemic situation. They can assist them and provide informational and emotional support. Career counseling is very helpful for those who are losing jobs and businesses they can get advantage from counseling and get awareness about themselves and job opportunities and about new thing for their businesses.

While providing support and career counseling to the client in this pandemic situation, some client can be resistant or rigid because of excessive stress and tension and they may see their previous job as they only one job or only way of fulfilling their family’s basic need. Counselor here; will use different ways which can be;

• Using presuppositions
• Using embedded questions and directives
• Labeling and reframing
• Identify irrational beliefs and distorted thinking
• Recognizing and dealing with resistance
• Focusing on excuses and using reflective judgment stages.

There are different types of clients who can get benefit from career counseling by two ways and that are;

Subjective intervention, and Objective intervention

In is covid-19 situation, there can be clients who get benefit from different ways of the above and for this purpose we will explain the both terms of subjective and objective intervention. It don’t require as much of the time of the counselor as compared to subjective assessment. It provides a useful starting point for subsequent consideration of career option. So both these strategies can be used with the different clients in this pandemic situation of covid-19 by first assessing them and their personalities and difficulty of case.

Whether to apply objective assessment or subjective assessment the important thing is to make a framework for the client, in which there are some steps to further lead the counseling sessions to the achievement of goals. These steps includes; helping client deal with change, same as in this pandemic situation people are helped by career counselor to deal with the drastic change and find ways for employment. Career counselor can help client to narrow or broad the choices and make plans.

In this pandemic situation of covid-19, career counselors can provide counseling to clients both individually and in groups. Groups can be structured or less structured.

People seeking counseling generally come from all walks of life, so being conscious of the diversity is essential. In this paper will be looking at need or importance of Multicultural awareness by defining multicultural counseling in general and multicultural counseling in the South African context with reference and comparison from a study Enhancing Critical Consciousness Through a Cross-Cultural Immersion Experience in South Africa( October 2015 (43). P244-26).

Multicultural counseling is an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on people’s relationship with their cultures. This strategy is intended to know how distinct groups of individuals communicate with each other and create relationships. It aims to define how cultural variations shape these relationships.

With the frequent mingling of cultures in educational settings, the workplace, and in the social arena, we are bound to encounter cultural differences. The purpose of this research article is to explore the role of multicultural counselors in helping students learn about their own cultures and how they can integrate them into their own lives as an example some students did mention that they had never thought their experience would be like this, and they are grateful to be American but have a great deal of respect for our culture.

The primary aim of multicultural counseling is to build a favorable and friendly atmosphere when counseling individuals from various ethnic backgrounds.he main goal for counselors is to recognize issues of multicultural diversity in today’s society. These potential clients can include people in business, medical, or manufacturing as well as, students, and immigrants. The culture centered approach to counseling in a positive way but these behaviors can have no meaning, until both the client and the therapist understand the cultural context. The basic concepts and approaches include an establish an accurate awareness of how the therapist is culturally similar and culturally. Ethical issues are very common in multicultural counseling today. Counselors may or may not understand how to advise individuals of distinct races, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status of sexual identity, disability, age, or spirituality.

Multicultural counseling effectiveness relies on the counselor’s capacity to comprehend and configure their counseling strategy to what best suits the client’s cultural diversity. Specific problems influence some groups of cultural age (Carney, Myers, Louw & Okwundu, 2014). Such as the older society has been brought up in a social climate different from that of the current adolescent group. Within the counseling session, cultural beliefs and social climate could become a disincentive.

South Africa is a country with a diverse and beautiful culture. This nation was called ‘The Rainbow Nation,’ a name that represents this incredible place’s variety. But South Africa’s various ethnic and cultural groups appreciate their own beliefs and customs. Apart from African culture, many of these traditions are affected by European and Western heritage. The country’s complex and diverse population has had a strong impact on different cultures. There are forty-five million individuals; black, five million white, three million colored and one million Indians are about thirty million. There are a big number of rural individuals residing in poverty among the black population. Cultural customs are mostly preserved among these inhabitants. South Africa has 11 official languages: English, Afrikaans, Ndebele, Sepedi, Xhosa, Venda, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Zulu, Swazi, and Tsonga. Cultural diversity in South Africa is a sense of behavior that has been learned from difficult experiences passed from one generation to the next through communication. Ethnicity plays a major role in the culture of South Africa. Ethnic identity refers to a certain cultural group being involved. Shared cultural practices like holidays, language and customs define it. South African people may share the same nationality, but they have different ethnic groups. Ethnic groups may be a minority or a majority in a population such as South Africa’s black and white, but cultural diversity refers to human qualities that differ from ours and those of groups that one may belong to. There is a lack of counseling tradition in Black neighborhoods, according to Raubenheimer (1987). The lack of counselors in the immediate past was due to Blacks seeing them as state instruments intended to psychologically enslave them. Because most counselors were white, they were seen as the oppressive establishment’s minions. He also says that counseling in South Africa has reached a dead end because it has failed to win people’s confidence. Raubenheimer (Raubenheimer 1987). Furthermoree, it states that counseling in South Africa relied too heavily on external authorities to give direction in the context of South Africa, ‘instead of considering the needs of their own people, South African psychologists relied almost exclusively on the views of American counseling experts'(page). Moreover, black people have tried and tested community-based ways to address their psychopathological issues: witchdoctors, fortune tellers, sangomas, etc. Healers, who always come from the same community or racial group, have some knowledge and understanding of their clients ‘ life-world and interpersonal relationships.

In South Africa, the memories of previous apartheid and oppression make cross-cultural counseling vulnerable. Therefore, most Black people may still have a mistrust of the empathy of White psychologists towards them, and White psychologists may still mistrust their therapeutic abilities when it comes to Black customers (Spangenberg, 2003, Pack-Brown, 1999). According to Pederson (1982), cultural differences generate obstacles to understanding Hickson and Christie (1989) further state that ‘cross-cultural skills are of significant importance for enabling meaningful therapeutic encounters as well as the subsequent appropriate distribution of psychological services’ (p. 168). These writers also think that South African psychologists ‘ interventions should be directed at alleviating the pain and broadening all members of society’s understanding. Freeman (1991) believes that psychologists can not be educated only to cope with like-minded individuals. Rather, they need to know about their potential customers ‘ cultures and values-hence all South African racial and ethnic groups-so that their therapeutic procedures can be more meaningful and efficient

Education is a lifelong process of growth and development which alters the human behavior and attitude and enhances students’ knowledge, skills and abilities. During the process of learning children undergo through various changes in and around them which sometimes pose a threat to learning. Therefore, counseling by relevant professionals is required in school because it helps students to harmonize their abilities, interest and values. According to Brown (2012),” counselling refers to services offered to prevent problems with work behavior regardless of level of education.” To enumerate, counselling is a generic term and it is used to describe a wide range of activities where a trained professional act on his or her roles in accordance. According to Welsh assembly (2007), “it directs students on an appropriate career and subject choices; solving discipline, social and psychological problems; and general adjustments to school life”

A school is a platform of students before going for higher education in colleges and building up a career. As a matter of fact, the Bhutan’s vision 2020 also asserts importance for a holistic education that would eventually prepare student to face the global challenges. Counseling in school is not a part of disciplinary action but a part of learning. A study carried out by Bahati division Nakuru district by Nigeria (2007) showed that the counseling had a positive impact on academic performance. Unlike traditional methods that focus more on paper work, the professional counsellor today proactively comes up with innovative ideas that make students able to concentrate well, get enough ideas about the particular topic which leads the students to do performance well. Accordingly, a study carried by John carey and Karen Harrington in Nebraska school (2005) has shown that counseling had a positive impact on academic performance.

In addition to helping students to set a base for higher education and a good career, this professional relationship helps them to accomplish enhanced wellness and health. According to a report from national research council and institute of medicine, at any given point, between 14 and 20 percent of children and adolescents will experience a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder. During this age limit if students are given counseling then the student will be able to overcome emotional and psychological problems including substance abuse, family problems and peer pressure. Alice notes that the views on guidance and counseling have changed over the years and it now focus more on understanding the youth issues and solving problem (2015, p.52). By giving better advices on how to overcome their mental health issues such as depression then they will set a foundation for handling personal and emotional conflicts which will help the student in various field all alone and will be able to help other students.

According to Adder & Erktin (2010), Counseling student’s self-regulation can reduce anxiety and increase academic performance. Anxiety can have a negative effect on the students in their life which will directly affect them. People with anxiety have difficulty storing and retrieving information (Nelson and Harwood, 2011). Some students face difficulties to formally or informally access because of anxiety. Not all teachers understand the signs of anxiety and effects on their students. If teachers can recognize the signs, they can help the students cope up with academic anxiety. To put it differently anxiety negatively affects memory and academic performance henceforth in order to help students, counseling by professionals is required to let students overcome anxiety.

Counseling is viewed as an accessible service, increasing the range of options available to students who need to talk to professional about issues in their lives. Counseling has been placed utmost importance in Bhutan. The MOE also trains 15 counsellors every year at Samtse College of education under PGDGC program (2012). Counseling decreases classroom disturbances. Counseling services support teachers in class room and enable teacher to provide a quality instruction designed to assist students in achieving high standards. According to Mutie and Ndumbuki (12 May 2011, third paragraph) “a student faces many difficult situations in life today, he or she has to make intelligent choices”. To enumerate the classes are less likely interrupted by students who have received counseling by professional counsellor. To have a good progress in class a professional counsellor is a very important factor in the school.

School counseling programs have significant influence on discipline problems. Baker and Gerler (1998) reported that students who participated in counseling program had significantly more appropriate behaviors and positive attitudes toward school than those students who did not participate in the program. It may be true that students due to lack of trust in counsellor does not seek counselling as some counsellors makes students issue public but it is more beneficial if a student receive counselling as it will help students both physically and mentally. According to curry (2012, p.22) “Having a diverse curriculum and educational opportunity to develop skills and competencies.” Through this program conducted students will be having no discipline issues in school.

In the final analysis counseling is an intervention that students can voluntarily enter if they want to explore, understand and overcome issues. Schools are dynamic, complex, challenge and fun so in order to help students to harmonize their abilities, values and interest counseling is a important factor. Counselling includes making them ready to face the transition stage and assure the students college and carrier readiness. In the long run all these emotional and psychological problems such as anxiety and depression acts as a barrier to learning so as a matter of fact counseling by relevant professional in Bhutan is required in the schools to help students to realize their own capabilities and potentials.

References

1. Brown, S. D., & Lent, R. W.(eds.). (2012). counselling: putting theory and research. http://www.ebrary.com.ezproxy2.drake.brockport.edu
2. McGannon, W., Carey, J., & Dimmit, C. (2005). The status of school counselling outcome. Monographs of the counseling outcome. Retrieved from http://www.umass.edu/schoolcounsellingmonographs
3. Whiston, S. C.; Tai, W. L. and Rahardja, D. and Eder, K. (2011). “school counseling outcome: a meta-analytic review”. Journal of counselling psychology, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 150
4. Evans, J.H. and Bruck, H. D. (1992). The effects of counselling on academic achievement: a meta-analysis”. Journal of counseling and development, vol.71, no.1, pp. 63-68

Encountering difficulties is a part of life. You cannot shut the doors when troubles knock at your doors. If you shut your eyes to ignore it, the size of worries enhances until it reaches acme. So what to do? How to avoid it? In reality, no talisman can help you remove the pain from your life. The only thing which you can do is share it. This manages in mitigating your pain and offers you a way to deal with problems instead of escaping from it. Counseling can be a great way to help you with this.

What is counseling?

Counseling is psychotherapy, where conversing is used as a technique to disperse your problem. The conversation could be in a group or individually. The purpose is the same. It is intended to create a vent to reduce your pain.

Counseling is meant for anyone of any age. In fact, there are child counselors who help to improve your child’s behavior towards others. Adults can also opt for this therapy. These counseling services could be of any duration, depending upon your problem. You need to ensure that you require it.

Types of counseling

There are many types of counselors who offer you this service to ensure your welfare. The most common ones are –

Marriage counseling – Conjugal felicity is a blessing, but not all have this in their married life. Under certain circumstances, where it appears that the marriage of an individual is at the brim of breaking, then they look for this type of counseling. It develops a thread of words to allow both individuals to open their hearts and share their issues.

Relationship Counseling

Some relationships are challenging to handle. Under Couple therapy, this type of counseling is done. Here both the partners disclose their views about each other. This way, the relationship could be taken to the next level. Many times, a communication gap gets created among partners. These could be diminished if both talk openly and share their feelings.

Career and Educational counseling

Career guidance is a necessity for all. Most people are not able to make the correct decision concerning careers. This therapy helps students to learn more about their liking of a field and opt for it accordingly. The informed decision offers fruitful outcomes. That is why these types of counseling have become quite popular.

Substance abuse counseling

Many of you get into the habit of taking illegal drugs. Then, you may look for therapists who offer counseling to help you reduce the intake of such unhealthy substances from your life. Alcoholics also opt for counseling to get rid of their habit of consuming alcohol daily.

Conclusion

Apart from the aforementioned types, there are also other counseling, such as Rehabilitation counseling, Physical Pain Counseling, Mental health counseling, and many more. Concerning your problem, you may select any counseling. Always remember receiving help from a professional is good for you.

This paper will cover the history of Group Counseling, professional organizations of group counseling, as well as training and credentialing that is involved with group counseling. Group counseling is a form of counseling where a small group of people meet regularly to discuss, interact, and explore problems with each other and the group leader or therapist, typically a counselor(s). Members gain insight into their own thoughts and behavior, and offer suggestions and support to others within the group and without judgment. This paper gives insight as well into the history of where it all started, as well as what it means to become a counselor (education wise).

History

Group counseling or group therapy was first found to be successful in the early 1900s for treating patients with tuberculosis (Schachter, 1995). Group therapy/counseling was later used during World War II for emotional reactions or those suffering from emotional instability. In the 1950’s Wilfred Bion a British psychoanalyst was best known for his work with group therapy and at that time emerging group psychotherapy. Kurt Irwin had an impact on social psychology and group psychology/group therapy with his field theory study (Schachter, 1995). He was able to argue that people may come to a group with very different dispositions, but if they share a common objective, they are likely to act together to achieve it. This is what is described as Lewin’s field theory (Schachter, 1995). “What if some of the changes to the field do not represent advances, but instead retrogression? What if marketplace considerations demanding quicker, cheaper, more efficient methods act against the best interests of the client” (Yalom & Lesczc, 2005, p. xi)? The 1950s was primarily concerned with remedial and educational groups while addressing methodological issues; the1960s thrust was toward attempts to link group process to treatment outcome (Bery & Landreth, 1990). This trend continued into the1970swith the emergence of human potential groups, personal growth groups, and the treatment of children and adolescents. In the1980s, researchers continued to try to correlate such variables as curative factors, group stages, leadership style, and member roles to treatment outcomes. (Bery & Landreth, 1990) Long term group therapy has been around for many decades and has accumulated a vast body of knowledge from both empirical research and thoughtful clinical observation (Yalom & Lesczc, 2005, p. xi).

According to the reading there are 11 identifiers that make group therapy effective: Universality, Group Cohesiveness, Altruism, Instillation of Hope, Imparting Information, Interpersonal Learning, Development of Socializing Techniques, Imitating Behavior, Corrective Recapitulation of the Primary Family Group, Catharsis, and Existential Factors (Schachter, 1995). Groups have the potential to increase hopefulness and increase peer connectedness among members. It is anticipated that increased levels of individual therapeutic factors and the experience of therapeutic factors as a whole will have a positive relationship with participants’ hope, coping, and suicidality. Although various approaches to group therapy have different goals, the group as an entity is central to all of them. By nature of the group interaction, the group itself takes on an identity that is a function of, yet different from its members (Schachter, 1995).

In supporting the psychoanalyst and previous researchers the theories provided seemed to hold true even to this day when holding group counseling sessions (Schachter, 1995). Group therapy teaches the client how to identify the thoughts that underlie their feelings but in a group setting so the client does not feel alone. Group therapy provides creates a safe emotional environment and the therapist redirects the group to functionally work on the skill that the clients need. The therapist also uses tools need to help guide those in need that were once given by former researchers and psychoanalyst. Research has come a very long way but some tools are still used today (Schachter, 1995).

Professional Organizations

The American Counseling Association (ACA) is the largest association for counselors because the organization is open to all counselors. The association also serves as an educational and occupational portal for counselor as well as a rehabilitation and employment center for counselors. The other organizations are Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling (ACAC), Association for Adult Development and Aging (AADA), Association for Assessment and Research (AARC), American College Counseling Association in Counseling (ACCA), Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) and countless other organizations. Some of these associations offer credentialing services and many provide opportunities for their members to earn continuing education credits. Some carry group insurance for professional practitioners. The groups advocate before law-makers and keep their members abreast of current counseling issues through magazines and other communications. Through their membership requirements, they act as a quality assurance check for counselors. (ACA, 2020)

Credentialing and Training

Two bodies recognized by the American Counseling Association (ACA) accredit counselor educational programs: CACREP, which provides accreditation in a variety of counseling specialties other than rehabilitation counseling, and the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE), which accredits only rehabilitation counselor educational programs. Both bodies are recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Clinical training required includes 9–15 semester hours or 14–23 quarter hours. Counseling supervisors must have at least a master’s degree in an allied mental health field and 5 years of post-master’s work experience or a doctorate in an allied mental health field and 3 years of postdoctoral work experience. (Additional requirements are also imposed on supervisors.) Credentialing involves the review and usually primary source verification of each practitioner’s professional document portfolio. All MBHOs list providers’ professional training credentials (such as MD, PhD, LPC, MFT, and CSW) and certifications (NAP, 2010).

References

1. ACA (2020) About ACA retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/about-us/about-aca (July 5th, 2020)
2. Berg, R.C. & Landreth, G. L. (1990) Group Counseling: Concepts and Procedures. Second Edition.
3. Schachter, R. (1995) Using the Group in Cognitive Group Therapy Retrieved from adaa.org (July 5th, 2020)
4. National Academies Press (2010) Requirements Related to the Practice of Counseling Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK259170/ (July 5th, 2020)
5. Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2005). Theory and practice of group psychotherapy (5th ed.). Basic Books.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a counselor is someone who is trained to listen to people and give them advice about their problems.

Within the framework of psychology, effective counseling requires, first of all, the cooperation of the client and the consultant. To be an effective consultant, you need to be able to first assess your client; it opens the door to communication and involvement in the problem. Before you begin counseling any client, make sure that it is clear on boundaries, pros, and cons. This gives the client a choice if they want you as their counselor. While establishing boundaries it is also important to discuss timeframes, goals, and progress. It is very important that the counselor explains being honest about their thoughts and feelings. A counselor should make sure that the client clearly understands the personality, approach, and style of their counseling. This will form some type of chemistry that they are both comfortable with. This will give the client a chance to look for another counselor with match chemistry and comfortability is what they are looking for.

It is up to the client to make changes in their lives, but an effective counselor will be able to pinpoint the obstacle that blocking them. Then, once the obstacle is pinpointed, the counselor can help the client overcome them. The effectiveness of a good counselor can identify the negative thinking that can lead to habits, depression, suicidal thoughts, and panic attacks. Once identification has taken place the counselor then can approach with encouraging words, strengths, and momentum. Even a good counselor can help pull the positive attributes within the client’s environment. Pulling out the positive areas within the clients allows a counselor to help them recognize and admit where life has gone down a negative path. “By your counselor teaching clients, effective techniques to communicate it send clear exchanges on who may be causing pain in the client’s life” (Ponton, Lynn, 2020). Many times the clients have no idea where these negative things start happening in their world. It takes an effective counselor with experience to help the client, but not in an offense type of way. “The client should be able to recognize their own behavior and negative patterns by the way of an effective counselor” (Ponton, Lynn, 2020).

In summary, an effective counselor within psychology should have the traits of a good communicator, acceptance, empathy, problem-solver, rapport-building skills, flexibility, and, multicultural competency.

The feeling of being a client

As this is the first time I am attending a counseling session, I felt curious and excited during the first counseling session because I had only a brief idea of the counseling session which is clients have to express their feelings and problems of own to find a solution. After I attended counseling sessions, I found that counseling is not just about pouring emotions but taking it as a learning process to make life better. Some things I felt in the counseling session were openness and honesty about feelings. During the session, listening to my own reactions and feelings, and sharing them with the counselor and fellow clients made the session more insightful. I also experienced that counseling can give realistic expectations as it is not a quick fix for a problem, rather it is a process. With some effort from both parties, it can be a successful tool for resolving problems. I have studied in psychology that each person is unique in their personality and behavior.

As I was a client in a group counseling session I experienced the uniqueness of people. The counseling session I attended gave me the opportunity to know more about people and their different life experiences including good and bad which can be taken as an example to improve myself. The fellow clients in the session also gave me a new experience about exploring their past to make an example for my future as I had never heard anyone’s inspiring past story face to face except in books and social media. Being able to discuss their experiences during the counseling session, especially their perceptions about life, made me better understand and make sense of my own life. In other words, being able to engage in counseling experience provided opportunities for me to understand myself in a better perspective. I felt that evidence at that time that engaging in positive experiences makes people perceive a positive impact of the counseling services.

At the same time, I also experienced a meaningful conversation. I see this experience in this counseling as an opportunity to have another person listen to their stories. Being able to have another person listen to a story was a meaningful and relieved feeling moment for me. The feeling of relief created an opportunity to better understand the experiences fellow clients had previously gone through. I also experienced a team effort. If one does not take an active part in the session, there will be no space to find the counseling experience valuable. Next, I learned to properly think from both sides of the parties in a conflict situation to make a better decision. Despite reading theoretically in psychology textbooks, I found practically that it is important to maintain patience as a counselor in counseling sessions to understand fully a situation and to respect the client’s feelings.

Positive Characteristics of Counselor

One of the positive characteristics I found in the counselor is skillfulness. It was shown by helping in searching for a way out of an issue or situation that the clients have experienced. I noticed that the counselor was aware and knew how to help clients. For example, he was listening to our situation and being able to discuss a situation that I brought up in the session, and he was able to lift my spirits. He also has good communication skills. As I can see he has a natural ability to listen and be able to clearly explain ideas and thoughts to others. He keeps clients in counseling sessions by communicating to clients the feeling that the session will be worthwhile.

Another characteristic is patience. For example, I noticed that he goes to the next step of explanation or conversation only when the client has clearly understood the content of the information. In addition, he waits until the client stops explaining about a situation to give more chances for clients to talk more as inputs are taken only if the client finishes talking.

Apart from that, he is non-judgemental. The counselor hears all kinds of information and encounters all types of people in counseling sessions. He did his best to refrain from judgment and instead communicate positive regard to make the clients feel more to talk about.

Knowledgeable is another positive characteristic I found in the counselor. I thought he was doing something he wanted to do, and he was in the right field. The way he listened to the clients with proper eye contact, how he worked and focused on it, and how he made us make our own suggestions and advice for our own problems showed maturity of in counseling. His words used in conversation also was easy to understand as there were no complicated phrases used.

Negative Characteristics of Counselor

Across the counseling sessions I attended with my counselor, I could not find any negative characteristics in him except that only once at a point he had interrupted me to rephrase my conversation while I was talking.

counselor’s Skills

The counselor has applied some counseling skills during each counseling session. First, he used attending behavior skills. The counselor is orientated physically to indicate that he is aware of the client. Eye contact, nods, not moving around, mirroring, and body posture were used well by him during every counseling session to encourage clients to speak and to show that he is interested in hearing more from me and fellow clients. He has also captured and understood the verbal and nonverbal information communicated by me by observing skills. The counselor understands and interprets the information that we gave him correctly. He did that by showing attentiveness in non-verbal ways, such as summarizing and matching our body language and he also gave important facial expressions. He was also aware of what was specifically said and listened carefully for, not only what I said, but also the words, expressions, and patterns used, which able to give a deeper insight.

He also applied questioning skills well. He used many open questions in sessions to assist us in clarifying or exploring thoughts or feelings. At this point, the counselor is not requesting a particular information and not limiting the level of the response to only a yes or no, or very brief answer. After we answered, a good response was given by him in the entire session. He avoided asking too many questions at the same time to us. He follows a response to an open-ended question with a paraphrase or reflection which encourages us to share more and avoids repetitive patterns of question and answer.

He used focusing skills in sessions as well to direct the client’s conversational flow into some particular areas. He used it by actively listening to what the client was trying to say, and then choosing an area to focus on to talk. For example, when a client tells a long story, the counselor clears away some of the less important things and concentrates on the main issue of the story that the client is saying by prioritizing the issue.

The counselor also used influencing skills by interpreting the client’s talking where the client is encouraged to accept his own experience in a more positive way. The counselor encourages this by asking alternative ways of viewing their experience from different clients in group counseling. For example, if a client feels down about staying far away from home in a hostel, the counselor could reframe the feelings to be accepted as an opportunity to experience new cultures, people, and things for better personal growth.

He has also used paraphrasing with the client’s keywords and ideas whereby he said the client’s information it back in a rephrased, and shortened form. The counselor used paraphrasing skills by listening and recalling. This technique showed us that the counselor is listening to our information and processing what have been telling him. He also used paraphrasing to clarify any misinformation that might have occurred. He listened carefully to the whole conversation to make sure he heard it and rephrased it right. He also used the expression of the ability to feel our conversation. He used this technique to show that he was fully aware of the feelings that we experienced. He did that by using the exact words and phrases that we were expressing to him.

In addition, the counselor used psycho-drama in the third counseling session. He asks the clients to express their problems by acting them out in front of him. The scenes clients acted in were past situations that they have faced. In a group setting, other clients play significant roles of significant and the remaining clients as the audience to watch it to get insights. The goals of psychodrama were achieved as we gained new insights and were able to resolve the problem.

Other than that, he also used cognitive-behavioral therapy. This helps us to understand the thoughts and feelings that influence the behaviors. Cognitive behavior therapy is used in sessions to focus on helping clients deal with a very specific problem which is stress because it is the main problem that has been spoken out in the session. During that session, clients learned how to identify and change disturbing thought patterns that have a negative influence on behavior and emotions.

Structuring

Based on my understanding, structuring is essential for consulting in order to establish a mutual understanding between the counselor and the client on the procedures, conditions, and how they would be implemented. The structuring helps me understand what is going to involve my counseling session, how long it will be, and what expectations are going to be expected.

Basically, the structuring of my counseling sessions went smoothly in order. Before the counseling session began, we were given a form to fill up some details about ourselves. The form is also to confirm for us to do whether group counseling or individual counseling. While we were filling up the form we were also given time to fix the day and time for our upcoming sessions as I chose to attend group counseling. After we made a decision together among clients we fixed it as our counseling appointment and told our counselor.

When we entered the first counseling session, the counselor discussed the agenda. This structuring method has allowed us to understand what is going to happen in sessions. We get used to the routine soon enough, and this creates comfort, confidence, and trust in counseling. It is planned to discuss the duration of sessions, how many times they will be carried out, and the responsibilities of clients and the counselor. After we introduced ourselves, the counselor discussed some rules in the session to follow across the sessions. The rule is set based on our agreement. After that, the counselor told us about the flow of sessions, the accurate time of starting the session, and also some confidentiality of the session for us to know briefly about the counseling session and be aware of our responsibility.

Formal verbal structuring has been done as necessary because some of us through group counseling lack the idea of what we are expected to do, and what is the actual role of a counselor. Generally, the conversation progresses more in structuring through the narrative of the client. The structuring often includes keeping to ourselves all the details that were shared in the sessions because everything we talk about stays in the counseling room itself ensuring that the client (me) understands that the privacy principle will help manage resistant clients.

Relationship with client

Warm and friendly is how I perceived the personal characteristics of the counselor towards me. The tone and way of speaking of the counselor is warm and friendly attitude. For example, he would say hello to us, he started to greet us before we said that to him. He showed his comfort with us. His style and character made me feel happy and feel comfortable to have counseling sessions with him. Being able to engage in the counseling session changed my perspective on sharing the story with another person. In other words, the warm and friendly attitude of the counselor created an opportunity for me to change my perspective on counseling services.

He has also explored the client’s understanding well to increase the bonding between us. He started the exploration process and began to understand us. He explored our past and evaluated our current concerns. He also demonstrated unconditional positive regard whereby he accepted who we are. Whereby we felt expressing respect. Counselor Self-Disclosure was also used as a general rule to follow to only share personal information that is beneficial to the therapeutic process. It was also used to help the counselor relate better with us.

Acceptance and respect is another significant thing shown by the counselor to improve the relationship with the client. I noticed how acceptance and respect promoted a feeling of comfort, which contributed to trust in the counselor. For example, I have noticed the nonverbal behavior of the counselor shows as an indicator of acceptance. The acceptance of the counselor created a feeling of ease during that session as he talked in a very relaxed way. Every time I met with my counselor, I noticed that he was always smiling, she was willing to talk with me. There was not a feeling of boredom in that session. Another element that made the relationship between counselor and client stronger is the involvement of the counselor. The involvement in searching for the way out of an issue made way to a better relationship. I noticed that involvement from the counselor made us share more stories about ourselves with him as I have also noticed my fellow clients. Other than that I noticed he has shown empathy to make the client-counselor relationship better. He was able to understand the feelings of others to put himself in clients’ situations and understand the situation from their point of view on both parties. He also made efforts to make a better relationship between him and us. For example, buying food for us before starting the counseling session and making sure that we are safely reached to class after the counseling session.

Ending session

The ending session of counseling went smoothly. He mostly used summarizing to finish the session. Reflecting on the important message in the last statement of the client, putting it back into the session’s overall conversation, and then applying the overall technique he used to end the session. He also questions the client if they feel like having a question to end the session for the week. This technique has the ability to cover the entire session in an orderly and proper way. The ending session was also carried out by mutual agreement. After the discussion, if both parties (counselor and clients) have agreed to end the session it will be ended and at the same time make sure to meet on the upcoming session by telling the date. Once in a session, the counselor discussed the goals of the counseling to end the session before informing the next session. The counselor has discussed the approaches and methods developed during the session to ensure that we can focus on these techniques for a positive outcome in the future. He also has us check and see if there is anything that is important the client wants to know before the session is over. For example, he will ask whether is there anything more that we would like to add to our conversation. The way the counselor finishes a session shows that he portrays good time-management skills and effective communication abilities. Another indication of the end of the session is how he will steer the discussion back to the conversation by redirecting the client to the next talk-oriented conversation. For instance, he said that the current session is discussed with many insights by clients and he directs the conversation by pointing to the next session to share more talking by clients.

Counselling is an opportunity that offers a chance for clients to talk individual and privately to a counsellor, bringing forth their issues with relationships, emotions that are unknown as well as personal problems. A councillor will then be allowed to have a look at your point of view and support you without being judgmental.

Counselling techniques are there to assist people in gaining awareness, comprehension and discover solutions and ways of solving their problems. Counselling tools can prove to be effective if used effectively by a counsellor know when and how to apply them to different individuals.

McLeod (2007) writes that, a counsellor’s techniques can prove to be more affective if their own feelings, self-awareness and thoughts are put to use during a session to make an informed response. When using counselling tools, it is important to keep to time as this helps the counsellor know how their client affects them as well as how the session might affect the client.

In this essay, I reflect on my counselling skills, how I used them and what could be improved. I played the role of counsellor to a client who had a gambling addiction allowing me to use some skills to help gain insight to the problem, consider future solutions to help resolve the issue. By watching a video playback of the session as well as feedback sheets from my peers, I was able to observe my skills. I reflect on how effective and ineffective my counselling tools were and find ways I could improve the use of my skills.

Chloe is a single mother in her early 40s, she lives with her children and has her mothers support to help with children. Her presenting problem is that has a gambling problem. Her family are deeply concerned about her gambling problem as she is in serious financial problems and sometimes unable to buy food for the children. Chloe says she does not see why her family are overly concerned with her gambling although she does acknowledge that she might have a problem.

Chloe comes across as a friendly individual who is slightly reserved. During our session Chloe spoke of how she noticed that her gambling is causing her children to be anxious and are beginning to feel unloved. Chloe seems to be hooked onto gambling with the belief that the more she gambles the more chances to make millions. She feels a high when she gambles and a sense of being a provider. During the session Chloe feels like she is only seeking help just to get her family to feel mat ease and tries to deflect her problems. She feels like she has changed from one bad habit to another as she is a recovering alcoholic, each little win she gets from gambling makes her feel livelier. Chloe seems to know where her problem is as she has already started speaking about her own solutions to her problems, she believes if she gets a job her gambling habits will become better but she feels like she is in a stuck. She seems to be depressed as she prefers to stay at home and not have to go out, dress up or brush her hair. She says repeatedly that she feels down all the time and blames herself for her failed relationship with her children’s father. Chloe feels like she needs the confidence to go ask for help and does not think she is worthy enough to be helped. As I continue to engage with her and reflect to her what she is saying, I realise that Chloe has the fear of the unknow as she feels like gambling and drinking helps her with her personality. As the session ends there seems to be a bit of hope that Chloe might want to change and come back for further help.

As I watched back the video and reflected on my skills, I had sense of frustration and the urge to tell Chloe that her she clearly knows the solution to her problem and needs to act on it. At the same time I immediately realise that it is easier said than done and perhaps that the reason she has come for a counselling session. I also realised that it is easy to let our judgemental side come out without giving it a thought. The feeling of concern for her children kept on coming up. I felt like she was trying to provide for them but could do better. My feeling was that she should put more focus on them and ease of the gambling.

Here are some of my counselling skills that I observed I made use of and asses the effectiveness of them:

I made use of my verbal and non-verbal tools. With my nonverbal skills I made constant eye contact and kept my distance neutral not wanting to invade personal space but close enough to hear the client and within eye range of each other not to create a seating of superiority. My verbal communication skills used were “mmm”, “ok” , “I see”. These were used to encourage my client to continue to talk without much interruption and show my interest in what she was saying. Armstrong (2006) explains that the skill to allow the client to talk with minimal interruption is know as attending. Egan (2010) speaks of an effective way for turning into clients SOLAR which is essential at the beginning of a counselling session. SOLAR means

• S – face the client squarely
• O – maintain open posture
• L – lean towards the other
• E – good eye contact
• R – relaxed and natural in these behaviours

A counsellor should actively and genuinely pay attention to a client’s problem. I made use of my listening skill by showing head nods. According to Jones the inclination of listening and understanding clients is focused on deciding to recognise the separates between “you” and “me” rather than staying in your outside casing of reference (Jones, 2013). In counselling listening involves being psychologically and physically present (McLeod, 2007), Egan (2010) is of the same opinion and implores a counsellor to listen not just to verbal words but to a clients nonverbal messages and their feelings.

I noticed that while my client was talking, I paraphrased a lot. I felt that it helped but maybe next time not use to much of paraphrasing and use more skills. According to Armstrong (2006), paraphrasing reflects understanding from the counsellor on what the client has said emphasising important points and is shorter that what the client has said. This skill helped me gain some accuracy to my client’s situation and confirming what they have said or meant to have said. In my session I paraphrased what my client said, “You are concerned about your children”. This to get clarity in what she was trying to communicate with me. I have noticed that skill could be used to pace a session, begin and end a session.

I used my question skills not wanting to put pressure on my client or looking like a bully. In such situation Armstrong (2006) offers different techniques on how to apply questioning skills such as, closed question which can be used to get a factual answer or an open question which encourages the client to say more. An open question which I used was “what do you want?” Chloe then began to open more about her past addictions and her feeling as well as how she would want to change. I used a closed question when I asked Chloe “so you would like to stop gambling?” which helped me gain clarity on what she wanted, this closed question can also be used as a reflection on what my client was saying.

According to Mearns & Thorne (2007), empathy is adopting another person’s frame of reference while leaving our own behind, allowing us to experience and explore the other persons world more. Egan (2010) suggests empathy is a skill that needs to be used throughout all stages of counselling. In my session I used an empathetic response with Chloe “I sense you are worried and anxious”. I could sense that my client was showing a calm exterior, but her voice was bringing out her worry.

I tried to challenge my client, but I felt that it was a bit too early to do so in a first session. I felt that goal setting was a bit premature without exploring my client’s situation fully. My client’s response to my challenge was met with a reluctant and less than persuasive response. I immediately felt like I had put my client on the spot and had a fear that they would not want to continue the sessions further. However, I managed to come out the situation by reassuring my client that we would move at a steady pace according to their needs. Egan (2010) explains that challenging is a route to discovering unused resources the client possesses “to help clients do some reality testing and invest in what they learned from this in their futures” (Egan, 2010, pg211).

Aware of my time and not wanting to drag the session on I started to summarise the session and tried to direct the session to an end. Egan (2010) believes that a good way to summaries a session is to provide focus and direction. I believe I probably did not give enough direction to my client at the end of the session, I could have mentioned that we had discussed a lot and there was much more to discuss in the next session. Instead I went on to give them praise for attending the session and hoped to see them again. I believe if I had summarised differently this would have given my client room to return.

This reflect essay on my counselling skill covered a different skills/tools used by me to try and gain some insight and clarity on the issue at hand for both me and my client. These skills proved to be useful and important for me understand my client and communicate effectively as well as define the problem the client presented. These skills not only helped me to communicate professionally, they helped me in gaining an insight of my client’s issues from a number is point of views.

I believe some skills used by me such as goal setting were premature and could have been used in a different session, however I could have used that opportunity to put in some suggestions of improvements. This shows that not all skills have to be used immediately in a session. I also believe that a counselling session is more tailor made to suit the needs of the client. Personally, I feel that for a client to feel comfortable and at ease when talking to you, there should be a sense and an atmosphere of a safe place where everything they say will not be judged.

Bibliography

1. Armstrong, P. (2006). The practice of counselling. Melbourne: Thomson Higher Education
2. Egan, G. (2010). The Skilled Helper. 9th Ed. Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Belmont, CA
3. McLeod, J. (2007). Counselling Skills. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press
4. Mearns, D., & Thorne, B. (2007). Person-centred counselling in action. 3rd Ed. London: Sage Publications
5. NELSON-JONES, R. Introduction to Counselling Skills: Text and Activities 3rdEd London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2009