COUNSELING SKILLS

Role of counseling in Therapeutic relationship

Role of counseling in Therapeutic relationship

Introduction to Counseling

There is a strong relationship between counseling and therapeutic practices. The strong bond between these two factors may result in positive changes in patient's health. The primary aim of counseling practices is to help the client to make him/her feel better about himself/herself, so that he /she can make sense out of things happenings around him/her so that he/she returns back to the normal state of life with full confidence and sense of responsibility. Counseling a patient can prove to be a difficult task as well because counselor has to gain an access to his past life experiences and identify the cause of problem and transform his feelings in a more meaningful form than before. Counseling is a process of forming a distinctive relationship between counselor and patient, it involves a lot of talks free of all kind of biases in order to achieve fruitful results and changes in patient's behavior and think process (Anon. 1983, p. 64-90).

Therapeutic Relationship

Process of Counseling takes place in a therapeutic atmosphere. Counselors do not have any special powers in making clients do and feel what they want them to feel. It is all a result of creating therapeutic relation between counselor and patient. It comprises of effective listening and communication skills, which helps in forming a more than friendly environment that is free from worldly assumptions and demands, give importance to the views and feelings of patients. Treatment via therapeutic relationship takes place in mentioned environment as above. It has been studied for a long time that nothing makes a real sense without sense of belonging, similarly its applies to form a therapeutic relationship for example; a mother is more than anything for a infant except for doing things for him so a mother-infant relationship can be taken as an example for forming the trustworthy relationship between client and counselor. This environment is created to diagnose the problem of patient, and make him realize the reality of external and internal demands at the same time. In addition, Therapist suggests the coping strategies to clients after complete diagnosis. Therapist has to free himself/herself from all kinds of distractions in order to be attentive to the client's subjective world (Anon. 1983, p. 64-90).

Skills required to maintain relationship between Therapist and Patient

Best results from counseling can only be achieved as a result of formation of a healthy relationship between therapist and patient. Therapist must adapt several techniques to establish this special bond with their clients. Some of the techniques that has been practiced at personal level and experienced by most of the senior therapists are described as follow:

Empathy

Empathy is about the capability of the therapist to understand the feelings of patient and make him feel so confortable that he/she shares his/her personal feelings with you. This technique will help therapist to analyze the situation and condition of patient. It is considered as an elementary skill that is necessary for all therapists to adapt it their ...