WHAT MAKES A GOOD COUNSELOR

What Makes a Good Counselor

What Makes a Good Counselor

Introduction

Counseling is counseling is counseling. Counseling is consistent it never changes, either you can counsel or you can't. Once you've learned the necessities of counseling, you can counsel anyone. A counselor should be able to be given any particular case and have the knowledge to apply a variety of theories that would help the client over come their problem.

Counselling can assist you to think through your problems and explore your emotions and behaviour in a safe and totally confidential environment. And at its best, it can help you renew your faith in yourself and your judgement, put your situation in perspective, find some practical solutions so that you will feel more in control of your life, and allow you to deal more effectively with the people around you. (Zeinert 1999)

As a counsellor you may think I don't know what it feels like to be a client? Well you'd be wrong. I have been a client myself, as during my counselling training I was required to have 20 hours of personal therapy. The reason for this is that as counsellors, we need to be aware of any emotional baggage we may be carrying around with us, so that we are more self-aware when issues arise with our clients. For example, in the early days when a client didn't show up, I felt quite low and rejected. Through personal therapy, I realised it was because it was reminding me of a time during my own childhood when I was rejected. I was able to work through this, and realised that it wasn't a personal rejection by a client. In fact, the same clients would return a couple of weeks later to say they simply hadn't felt up to coming for counselling on that particular day, so it was nothing to do with me on a personal level.

During a session what is most important to a client?

To be listened to and understood. If the counsellor you have is not listening to you and talking more than you are, then there is something wrong somewhere. A good counsellor will put you at ease, so that you can open up to them, and feel safe to disclose your thoughts and feelings. As a client you should not feel 'blocked' by the counsellor. You should feel able to talk about things without feeling that you are being judged.

So should my counsellor talk about his/herself during a session?

Yes, this is acceptable for your counsellor to give a small amount of 'self disclosure' if it will help, but you are the client and you shouldn't feel that you are counselling your counsellor! Sometimes it can help to know that your counsellor as been through something similar to yourself. I work voluntarily with mental health clients and have let some of them know that I once suffered with depression. But what I DON'T do is to tell them what they should be doing, as we are ...