Errors in Counselling
1. Explain what counselling is and some of the common errors made by counsellors. What are the ingredients of non-verbal attending in counselling?
People seek help from counsellors for a vast number of reasons, which may be because, they are unhappy, in distress, need to make a decision, cannot cope, feel life upsets them, have experienced a bereavement, undergoing a divorce, cannot manage their life and they may be frightened. Counselling includes direct work with clients, through which they are helped to change or to tolerate some aspects of themselves or their environment.
Counselling is helping people explore problems so that they can decide what to do about them. Therefore, the client takes the responsibility in the relationship, with the help and support of the Counsellor with emphasis upon action by the client, not by the Counsellor.
Carl Rogers, the American psychologist, suggests that counsellors need to communicate three basic qualities if a helping relationship is to be successful . These are empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence. When these three core conditions are present and communicated to the client in a counselling relationship , change and development by the client will take place. Rogers called this a Client – Centred approach.
EMPATHY
Empathy is the ability to see the world from the point of view of someone else. Not to be that person, but to be “as if” you were and to imagine how it feels. The counsellor must put themselves in another person’s shoes by setting aside their own view of things and trying to experience someone else’s views. Empathy therefore is a necessary ingredient of virtually all-successful relationships in counselling and failure to communicate empathy may leave the client feeling that the counsellor does not understand or care. Empathy is expressed through active listening and responding to the other person in a way
People seek help from counsellors for a vast number of reasons, which may be because, they are unhappy, in distress, need to make a decision, cannot cope, feel life upsets them, have experienced a bereavement, undergoing a divorce, cannot manage their life and they may be frightened. Counselling includes direct work with clients, through which they are helped to change or to tolerate some aspects of themselves or their environment.
Counselling is helping people explore problems so that they can decide what to do about them. Therefore, the client takes the responsibility in the relationship, with the help and support of the Counsellor with emphasis upon action by the client, not by the Counsellor.
Carl Rogers, the American psychologist, suggests that counsellors need to communicate three basic qualities if a helping relationship is to be successful . These are empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence. When these three core conditions are present and communicated to the client in a counselling relationship , change and development by the client will take place. Rogers called this a Client – Centred approach.
EMPATHY
Empathy is the ability to see the world from the point of view of someone else. Not to be that person, but to be “as if” you were and to imagine how it feels. The counsellor must put themselves in another person’s shoes by setting aside their own view of things and trying to experience someone else’s views. Empathy therefore is a necessary ingredient of virtually all-successful relationships in counselling and failure to communicate empathy may leave the client feeling that the counsellor does not understand or care. Empathy is expressed through active listening and responding to the other person in a way