PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE COUNSELOR

Professional Guidance Counselor

Professional Guidance Counselor

Introduction

Any attempt to define what a counselor is will raise more questions than it answers. These questions may include why seek counseling; what is the counselor's role and skills; is change possible*; and how does a counselor differ from other family, social or professional contacts?

The first of my definitions implies that counseling is for problem solving. My second definition of counseling attempts to avoid the problem/fixer definition by saying that counseling is simply about learning. Both my definitions suggest that counseling is a process where the client will gain some resolution or understanding about one or more issues or problems. Counseling is about personal change. Why is it that people need to resort counselors for problem solving anyway? One answer is that counselors have developed skills that are found to be useful in problem solving. This implies that a counselor is someone who is skilled in facilitating this process (Parry 1999).

Counseling is a process; counseling is more than just listening. Obviously a counselor will be a good listener in that they will pay attention to what the client is saying. Good listening skills are a basic requirement.

On top of listening skills, a counselor will need to be able to think about the client and the client's problems. What the counselor does next will depend on their philosophy, experience and training. Simple counseling skills include paraphrasing what the client has said. Psychoanalytic techniques might include asking the client about related early memories. A currently contentious technique is self-disclosure, where the counselor reveals personal information to the client. The idea is that this will engender confidence in the client by demonstrating how genuine the counselor is. My position here is that trust is an important component in the client-counselor relationship and that self-disclosure may appropriate if it comes from being real (Locke & Kiselica 1999).

There are many ways that trust is conveyed and instilled (in any relationship). There is a difference between realness and modeling realness. Being real is crucial. In counseling I question the need to use contrived techniques. Of all the counseling skills or styles perhaps the most important is simply paying good attention to the client.

I have had a long involvement with Buddhist meditation and also with Re-evaluation Counseling. With this background I find that I am most comfortable with the Existential approach to counseling. I agree with Corey that "quality of presence" is one of the most significant characteristics of an effective counselor. I think that quality of presence is one and the same as quality of attention, something that we are all capable of.

While on Existentialism, I take this opportunity to outline some of my thoughts on bad faith. Attitudes like 'I can't help it because that is the way I am', can be said to be bad faith - a failure to choose what we are becoming. My position is that to class another's attitude as bad faith is itself, bad faith. We are in effect saying 'you are stuck in ...