What is counseling?
Counseling is a major component of psychology. More
specifically, it comes under the study area of psychotherapy in which counselor
helps to address the mental, emotional and psychological problems/issues of a
person, group, or family. Counseling psychologist deals more on practical issues of psychology or applies
psychology in real problem of human life related to mind and behaviors.
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| Counseling: What, How & Why? |
Counseling in a very simple term is helping or supporting the patient in hospital, student in a school, employee in an organization, costumer in business, a family member and relative in personal and family life.
If you check the meaning from Oxford Dictionary
counseling is 'giving advice'. If you are young and looking for your career
then your career officer counsels you to choose good career for you.
'A professional guidance by a person by using
professional methods to support a person in a specific context'
Many people believe counseling as a talking therapy
among other various types of therapy. Counselor and his/her client/friend take part in a talk where they
attempt to explore the past and present scene which would help them to figure
out the present problem and address it with many alternatives.
The major misunderstanding for many people is the
suggestions or the main job of a counselor is not only to suggest the client
for doing something but assist him/her in exploring what is happening and
furthermore sometimes to know what is going on with his life/job/family/future
etc.
Counseling and Psychotherapy Same?
Counseling and psychotherapy are similar and
interrelated. Many scholar believe they (counseling and psychotherapy) are not
same but the relation between them is the whole-part in one sense and on the
other in case of order counseling comes before the psychotherapy but not
always. Whatever the case both of them assist to address the ongoing problem
and challenges that the client is facing right now.
Basic Principles of Counseling
There are basic rules or principles for the successful counseling. The counselor has to guide himself by all those
principles. They are as follows:
a. Principle
of acceptance: The counselor has to accept the client from all the angles and
aspects i.e. physically, psychologically, socially, economically and
culturally.
b. Principle
of communication: The interaction and communication should be comprehensible
both in verbal as well as nonverbal communication. That is to say not only on
what the counselor and client say but also the facial expression, gesture,
posture and body language should be understood properly.
c. Principle
of empathy: It is a process of understanding the patient properly and explained
what the client has said before.
d. Principle
of non judge: The counselor has not to take patient's response negatively.
e. Principle
of confidentiality: In counseling, the counselor has to keep secret the
personal information. Mainly not the name and the problem particularly.
f. Principle
of individuality: A good counseling actually respect the individual as an
unique being at one hand and on the other hand the problem should also be
understood and treated.
g. Principle
of using professionalism but not the emotional activity: The counseling process
should be professionally dealt.
Is counseling process or product?
The debate is counseling Counseling is not a product rather it is a process.
It is systematic plan which obviously has got so many specific steps in order.
Both the counselor and client have planned and structured dialogue. Both of
them work to identify the sources of problem and challenge that the client is
experiencing.
What are the common steps of counseling process?
As it is noted that counseling is a process which
certainly has got series of actions and event has to be implemented to be
completed. The common steps of counseling process are as follows:
Relationship building (Initial Disclosure)
There must be a good relationship between the
counselor and the client because we know counseling is not possible from one
way understanding. There must be a trust in between them. Another important
thing to understand is the context could be understood well once they are out
of the doubt and misunderstanding. The common way of building relation is an
interview, understanding all the verbal and non verbal clues.
Problem assessment (In-depth Exploration)
During the time of rapport building and knowing each
other properly, another important task also begins that is to say, the
information related to client life and need of counseling are recorded to
classify. In other words, the counselor makes a record of data related to the
life of client and on the reason why s/he is looking for counseling.
Goal Setting (Commitment to action)
The overall counseling process depends on what types
of goals i.e. course of action/activities are set on to do. It means the commitment
we make to address the issues/problems.
Counseling Intervention (TCC)
Now at this stage, the counselor starts to act some
activities based on a particular/specified psychological theories and
principles as per the context. Here TCC means Theories-Counselor-Context. For
example, the behavioral theory gives guidelines to the counselor on what s/he
does to alter the problematic behavior of the client. In this stage, either the
counselor dictates or goes for participatory approaches as an participant of
the issues and challenges.
Evaluation, termination or referral
Finally the counseling process ends with evaluation,
termination or sometimes with the referral. It is the art rather than a task.
According to Fragkiadaki & Strauss (2012), at
final stage the success of counsel should be manifested or felt. The counselor
should create positive atmosphere/conclusion by avoiding anger, sadness or
anxiety. Although the counseling process should reach the final stage, a good
counselor should be ready to welcome all the new updates and contexts.
The Client: Steps for the readiness and effective results
The client has to be ready for the following steps.
Willingness
First of
all, the client who needs counseling has to be ready or must be interested for
the process of understanding the real problem at one hand and on the other hand
should come out from the comfort zone and need to dare in taking action to
overcome the anxiety.
Motivation
The client
has to go through sustainable motivation because it actually needs patience and
continuous effort till the problem properly addressed.
Commitment
Obviously
the client has to be committed to do all the required action and activities.
Commitment is from the very beginning to the end.
Faith
Counseling
means sharing many private/personal information which is not possible when
there is no faith in between the counselor and client. The counselor has to
convince and assured the client that s/he will bring the better solution to the
problem and the data and information won't be used for secondary purposes.
In the
same way, the counselor has to be unconditional positive regard at any cost.
Whatever information are received or finding something unexpected or
undesirable. There must be empathy and congruence (correspondence). A good
counselor to get success has to have the following aspects.
·
Introduce
clearly and with warmth.
·
Tell
the client to be comfortable and give him the seat to sit.
·
It
is always better to call them by their names.
·
Do
not force him/her to the confine topic rather you should start with social
conversation or context.
·
While
listening to the client it is better to pay attention to the nonverbal clues
and body language from which we can get reality at one hand on the other verify
what the client has spoken or described.
·
Start
conversation with open ended and interview type of question rather than check
list or yes/no question type.
·
Don't
interrupt the client while s/he shares something. Give them the time to express
and describe comfortable.
·
Behave
that they are like a person rather than a mere client.
Each of
the above steps is important. Taken together, they can facilitate the formation
of a valuable counseling relationship.
Importance of counseling in financial institution
Financial counselors assist individuals in
developing financial skills and improving their overall financial health.
Financial counselors frequently assist low-income households in managing current
spending, saving for the future, making debt repayment plans, and navigating
public assistance benefits.
Counseling in the financial institution like bank
and cooperative actually help the people in their finance while taking loan for
their business and work.
Micro finance actually supports in
financial services to the poor and women for sustainable development. They need
counseling how they can make their life financially better for a long term. Furthermore,
what type of business they should invest and work.
Practices of
counseling in local micro-finance institutions
Microfinance Institutions are also known
as MFIs in abbreviation which provide
services in various aspects. They can be termed microcredit, savings, insurance
and Business Development Services. That is approached towards low income people.
It helps to approach new businesses and/or expand the existing businesses.
Microfinance Institutes cater/supply to
micro enterprises. The company or institution which has got 10 employees or
worker comes under the microenterprise.
Counseling practices in local micro-finance
can be listed as follows:
Conducting research
Choosing the right business model
Choosing your IT/MIS
Product development
Change leadership plan
Conducting a successful pilot
Working with regulators
The right market environment is
essential
Thus, counseling is essential in every
field but in the financial institution it plays more important role.
References
Timilsena (2023). Discussion Platform for the Students of BBA
Murphy,
David. Counselling Psychology: A Textbook for Study and Practice (2017)
Aryal,
Timothy. BASIC BOOK OF COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY
Berven,
Norman L. Bezyak, Jill L. Basic Counseling Skills
Zofia Bajorek, Stephen Bevan. Demonstrating the effectiveness of workplace counseling: Reviewing
the evidence for wellbeing and cost-effectiveness outcomes.
July 2020
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