Why Counseling? Who is the Counselor?

• Many people adapt to life’s challenges, using personal

resources, friends and family, or religious faith.

• But even with these resources, challenges can sometimes

accumulate to the point that a skilled helper can facilitate the
process of growth and adaptation to these challenges.

• Viewed in this way, counseling can assume the function of

CHANGE, PREVENTION, or LIFE ENHANCEMENT.
 Why Counseling?
• As change, we are concerned with situations that, for whatever reason,
have become disruptive, considering that we continue to go through the
normal passage of life. It is without excess stress, dissatisfaction, or
unhappiness.
• As prevention, counseling is able to take into account those predictable
life events that produce stress, thus, cause us to draw out our
psychological resources and ultimately, demand adaption to changing
life’s forces.
• As life enhancement, counseling goes beyond life challenges and
predictabilities. As counseling goal, enhancement attempts to open our
experience to new and deeper levels of understanding, appreciation, and
wisdom life’s many potentials.
 Counseling Goals
• Behavioral Change – will enable the counselee live a more productive life,
satisfying life as he/she defines it with society’s limitations.
• Positive Mental Health – will enable the counselee achieves integration,
adjustment, and independence and behavioral integration.
• Problem Resolution – to be bring about resolution of whatever problems
being brought to the counseling relationship.
• Personal Effectiveness – being able to commit himself/herself to projects,
investing time and energy and willing to take appropriate economic,
psychological and physical risks.
• Decision Making – to enable the individual to make decisions that are of
critical importance to him/her.
 Other Goals of Counseling
• Changing the counselee’s behavior, attitudes or values
• Preventing more serious problems from developing
• Teaching social skills
• Encouraging expression of emotions
• Giving support in times of need
• Instilling insights
• Guiding as a decision is made
• Teaching responsibility
• Stimulating spiritual growth
• Helping the counselee to mobilize his/her inner resources in time of
crises
 Classification of Goals
• Ultimate Goals – take their substance from views of universal human
and of the nature of life. They are philosophical goals

• Intermediate Goals – relate to the reasons why individuals seek

counseling in the first place.

• Immediate Goals – are the moment-to-moment intentions in

counseling.
 Who is the Counselor?
• Being a trained helper, the counselor has the
responsibility for ensuring that the counseling process
is beneficial and therapeutic for the client.

• To a large extent, the degree of helpfulness found in

the relationship is related to the person of the
counselor.
Characteristic of an Effective Counselor
• The willingness to struggle to become a more
therapeutic person is the crucial quality. (Corey, 1991)

• In order to help client, achieve desired outcomes,

counseling must offer clients a new or fresh experience,
or somewhat different from the normal range of
experience in their lives.
 Other Characteristics
• Effective counselors have an identity
• They respect and appreciate themselves
• The are open to change
• They expanding their awareness of self and others
• They are willing and able to tolerate ambiguity
• They are developing their own counseling style
• They can experience and know the world of the client, yet their
empathy is non-possessive
• They feel alive, and their choices are life-oriented
• They are authentic, sincere and honest
• They have a sense of humor
 Other Characteristics
• They make mistakes and are willing to admit them
• They generally live in the present
• They appreciate the influence of culture
• They are able to reinvent themselves
• They are making choices that will shape their life
• They have sincere interest in the welfare of others
• They become deeply involved in their work and derive meaning from it
• They are sensitive to, and understanding of racial, ethnic, cultural factors in
self and others. There are two ways:
1. Etic – the approach is cultural. It emphasizes that all cultures are unique
and must be understood for their uniqueness; and
2. Emic – more subjective, more inclusive approach, taking into account such
variables as gender, sexuality orientation, and physical disability.
 Personal Characteristics of the Counselor
(Collins, 1984)
• Self-Understanding – by knowing about ourselves we better able to
evaluate and control our own behavior, and we can fully appreciate the
feelings and actions of our counselee.
• Understanding others - by listening carefully, watching counselee’s
behavior during the interview, and attempting to see things from his or
her perspective, understanding his or her feelings, attitudes, and
problems.
• Acceptance – having a genuine respect in the counselee as a person
rather than “case.” Such acceptance does not necessarily mean you are in
complete agreement with your counselee.
 Personal Characteristics of the Counselor
(Collins, 1984)
• Social Distance – the counselor must be sufficiently detached to be objective but
sufficiently involved to feel with the counselee.
• Ability to get along with people – good counselors are at ease in a variety of social
gatherings. The key to such is not much of the technique employed, important as
they are, rather it is the total attitude of the counselor, how they feel about people,
what she/he believes about them and about himself/herself.
• Spiritual Characteristics
God-fearing
Honest
Readily available
Willing to get help when encounter difficult crises
Student of the God’s word
 Characteristics of the Counselee
• Effective is not completely dependent on the
counselor’s characteristics and skills. If the counselee
is uncooperative or uninterested in changing his/her
behavior, the counseling process will not be very
fruitful.

• The best result is when the counselee must really

want to change.