Question 1
Counseling refers to the process where one person offers professional advice to an individual facing social challenges on the ideal ways to resolve or overcome the psychological problems. The primary objective of counseling is to help the psychologically or socially affected individual work through the problems through the help of a counselor. The counselor does so by guiding the client to understand the issues at hand, exploring the available options, and developing strategies that will help the affected person develop self-awareness. Counseling entails three important elements. The first element is to help the client develop a clinical relationship with the counselor to be free to explain the social or psychological challenges that should be solved. The second element is assessing or clarifying the problem or psychological situation that the client intends to get a solution. The final element is to identify the appropriate treatment goals. The counselors then design an intervention plan before implementing it to help the client overcome the challenges faced.
The Nature of Counseling and a Counselor’s Role
A counseling concept is a procedural concept that takes place for some time. The period spent on counseling a client varies depending on the magnitude of the psychological or social problem. The clients with recurring psychological problems often require a relatively longer counseling period to heal, get comforted, and find a solution to their problems. On the other hand, those with mild challenges require relatively shorter counseling sessions to understand the ideal ways of powering through the challenges and the ideal strategies to embrace to overcome similar challenges. Counseling takes place in three distinct stages. The initial stage involves the disclosure of the problems the client is facing and the counselor understanding the magnitude of the challenge his client is experiencing. The second stage is the in-depth exploration where both the counselor and the client explain to each other the experiences of the identified challenge and getting insight into the possible causes of the challenges. The final stage is the action stage, where the counselor guides the client on the ideal strategies to employ to overcome the problem and how to monitor progress and stay positive in life.
The counselor’s role in counseling involves providing therapeutic coaching to the client to help the patients manage the challenge and overcome the distressing emotions. The counselor helps the clients develop an understanding of the situation and guide them in exploring the aspects of their life y opening up about their feelings and attitudes toward their daily encounters. Doing so sets the foundation for self-motivation in the client and guide them to achieve the set long-term objectives. Most noteworthy, counselors play a crucial role in nurturing the clients’ positive decision-making skills, enhance their positive attitudes toward life. The counselor achieves this objective by explaining the benefits that accrue to individuals who practice the concepts of holistic health, positive personal identity, and self-responsibility. The counselor informs the client on the importance of gradually implementing behavior change to learn the effectiveness of improved experiences and change in attitudes. In achieving these objectives, the counselor should always encourage the client to be open in sharing all the issues that relate to the identified challenge. They discuss how the client should overcome them. Notably, the counselor should guide the client on the appropriate strategies to handle each of the identified problems and the change signs to ensure that they are on the right path of progress. Finally, the counselor must encourage the client to identify the appropriate course of action to help them achieve the objective of overcoming the issue. For instance, the counselor should help the client in formulating behavioral goals that should be followed in daily decision making and actions to maintain focus on the ultimate objective of overcoming the social or psychological challenge. By involving the client to identify the preferred course of action, the counselor helps in setting a solid foundation for the client’s self-awareness and enhance their confidence toward achieving the desired positive behavior.
Professional counseling Vs. Friends of Family guidance.
Counseling is a tool that offers help to all people as it primarily focuses on professional guidance to the client to change the behavior and achieve the desired outcomes. Professional counseling differs from family or friends’ help as it focuses on helping the client to improve the decision-making process and building capacity for the person to feel better. Unlike family or friends help, professional counseling does not involve imposing of the counselor’s view on what the client should do to feel. Family guidance involves offering loyalty and a sense of understanding by giving personal opinions based on the character of the other person. Since the family members or friends share a lot in common, the guidance offered is based on the personal understanding of the family members, and it lacks professional content. However, a professional counselor will adopt a process that focuses on positive change. The counselor has a more formal relationship with the client. The guidance offered help reduce confusion and understand the problem faced as a forerunner to developing and implementing plans of action to overcome the challenge.
Question 2 b
Importance of Self-Awareness for the Counsellor
Self- awareness is vital for ethical purposes. Counselors have to adhere to a code of ethics that includes concepts such as self- improvement. For counselors to provide the best services to their clients, they need to understand their personal beliefs and feelings that might otherwise interfere with their work if they are not aware of them. Self- awareness is important for counselors before they try to understand other people.
It is also important for counselors to consider self-awareness when seeking out the reasons for becoming a therapist. If the counselor uses their clients to fill a gap in their lives, it will defeat the purpose of conducting the therapy. Counselors are human beings, and they also have their wants, but it is important to be aware of these needs and not let them interfere with therapy.
Self-awareness allows the therapist to be aware of personal problems in their life and to provide a healthy way of dealing with these problems. According to Fitzpatrick et al. (2015), this will ensure that they do not intrude into their professional lives, making them available to individuals needing therapy. Counselors can also pursue therapy. Therapy can help them from projecting their own reactions to the clients, which can slow down the therapy journey of their clients. If the problems are identified and managed, they can be monitored to prevent them from spiraling out of control.
A counselor needs to understand their own cultural identities and how they are intertwined with the counseling process. Self- awareness allows therapists to develop cultural competency. A therapist is able to know the uniqueness and nature of cultural groups, developing skills on interactions between therapists and clients, and the role of their culture.
Self-awareness minimizes the chances of therapists developing burnout. This is vital since it affects their well-being, which directly has an impact on the clients. The nature of the work therapists has such that they undergo stress due to a myriad of reasons. This includes a lack of referral work, staff shortages, and vicarious trauma. They can be manifested through emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual fatigue. Self-care and self-awareness are directly related. It can be understood that practicing self-care brings about self-awareness. Self-care can improve self-awareness and vice versa.
Ethical violations occur in the workplace inadvertently. Self-awareness helps in decreasing their chances of occurrence. Self- awareness allows the therapist to determine an action that might be problematic ethically and the best plan to repair the damage caused. Putting the clients’ needs first will allow the therapist to make ethically sound decisions (Fung, 2013).
Since self-awareness knows oneself, it, therefore, translates to self-awareness, helping a person to understand what are the best practices for themselves, including steps they might take to make themselves better. A counselor needs to protect their interests in order to serve their clients well. Substance abuse, lack of a spiritual path, lack of support, and lack of self-care are all factors that will prevent a counselor from carrying out their work. Maintaining self-care activities will enable the counselor to promote their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being in the long-run, enabling them to meet their counseling duties.
Self-awareness enables the therapist to be honest with themselves. In this manner, they are able to avoid bias or prejudices. Unless they are able to understand themselves, they will not be able to comprehend why certain clients behave the way they do. To carry out their professional duties effectively, they need to continue to carry out self-assessment on themselves (Arthur & Collins, 2015). Bias and prejudice will negatively impact the clients and will also harm the counseling process.