D.

Kokota 2023
A process of guiding a person or a group faced with a
problem, in order to overcome the difficulties and be more
productive.
 It is a professional relationship between a trained counsellor
and a client.
 This relationship is usually person-to-person, although it may
sometimes involve more than two people.
 Counsellingand Psychotherapy Seem interchangeable to
many people but has a different meaning for those in the
helping professions.
 Literally means ‘treatment of the Psyche’
 Treatment of an individual’s behaviour disorders by a
therapist using talking and psychological methods
(Speltz)
 Psychotherapists are Professionals who help clients
change certain behaviours, thoughts or emotions so that
the client feels and functions better.
1. Psychotherapy deals more with mental disorders than
counselling (Everyday problems & adaptation).
2. Counselling is a relatively short process, between 1 to 5
sessions. Psychotherapy usually runs for many sessions
& can continue for many years
3. Counselling is usually seen as problem-oriented while
psychotherapy is person-oriented.
1.Both are psychological processes that use the same
theoretical models.
 What is the difference between counseling and everyday
conversation?
❑ Counselling is offered by trained professionals
❑ Counsellors are objective
❑ Counselling is confidential and has clear boundaries
❑ Counselling is non-judgmental
❑ There is structure to counselling
❑ There is a goal to counselling.
Class discussion
A counsellor supports and guides clients with issues, which
can arise in any sphere of their lives.
 the 4 most common types of counsellors are:
1. School Counsellor
2. Rehabilitation Counsellor
3. Mental Health Counsellor
4. Career Counsellor

Students to research other types of counsellors

 work at the school level (usually as an in-house counsellor)
 help students to deal with social, behavioural, personal and
academic problems that arise.
 Help people deal with the personal, social, and vocational
effects of disabilities.
 They help people with both physical and emotional
disabilities caused by birth defects, illness or disease,
accidents, and other causes.
 Address and treat mental and emotional disorders.
 They use therapeutic techniques to deal with issues such as
depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidal impulses, stress,
trauma, low self-esteem, grief, etc.
 Help high school students, college students and working
professionals to find direction in their career and resolve
career-related issues.
 They help people to know and understand themselves to
make career, educational, and life decisions.
 Problem-solving
 Finding a solution to a specific problem that the client had not
been able to resolve alone.
 Acquiring a general competence in problem-solving.
Insight (Awareness)
 Understanding of the origins of emotional difficulties, leading to an
increased capacity to take rational control over feelings and
actions.
Relating with others.
 Becoming better able to form and maintain meaningful and
satisfying relationships with other people: for example, within the
family or workplace.
Self-acceptance
 The development of a positive attitude towards self, marked by an
ability to acknowledge areas of experience that had been the
subject of self-criticism and rejection.
 Psychological education
 Enabling the client to acquire ideas and techniques for
understanding and controlling behaviour.
Behaviour change
 The modification or replacement of maladaptive or self-destructive
patterns of behaviour.
Systemic change
 Introducing change in the way social systems (e.g. families)
operate.
Empowerment
 Working on skills, awareness and knowledge that will enable the
client to take control of his or her own life.
counseling is not;
1. Giving advice
2. Interviewing clients (questioning and getting answers)
3. Just a conversation.
 The case of Maggie
 Privacy and confidentiality
 The location should be conducive to counselling and for
maintaining confidential counselling.
 No need to disclose issues discussed within a session to a
third party without the consent of a client.
 There must be a purpose for counseling
 Counseling is usually at the request of the client or by
referral.
 It is entered into following an agreement between the client
and counsellor.
 In medical settings, the physician may suggest counselling to
be part of effective management of patients.
 This refers to the individual’s capacity to think, decide and
act freely and independently.
 A counsellor does not just make decisions on behalf of the
client.
 It is not simply doing what one wants to do but doing so on
the basis of thorough reasoning.
 Incorporates the exercise of rationality, decision-making,
preferences and choices, action and responsibility for
outcomes of those decisions and actions.
 Counseling can be offered either on an individual basis or on
a group basis.
 There must be a procedure followed for each type (Duration,
number of sessions, type of counselling).
 Counseling is guided by different theories.
 Be organized within your practice
 Practice ethically and professionally (Avoid immoral
practices).
 Educate yourself (Always strive to improve your skills)
 Be confident in your position and responsibility
 Be respectful and non-judgmental
 Have good communication skills
 Have a flexible attitude
 Be a good listener.
The following are basic counselling skills:
1. Communication and action skills
2. Mind skills
3. Attending skills
4. Active listening skills
5. Questioning and probing skills
6. Empathizing skills
7. Reflecting skills
8. Paraphrasing skills
9. Summarizing skills
 Communication is the ability to convey information
effectively and efficiently.
 There are two types of communication:
1. Verbal communication
2. Non-verbal communication
 The use of words to convey information.
 A great deal of information can also be obtained by paying
attention to the manner in which things are said e.g. the
voice tone, volume, pitch and pace.
 These tell us more about a person’s meaning than the actual
words said.
 Conveying information without using words.
 It is important to observe the client’s non-verbal
communication.
 You become aware of the underlying message or feelings that
the client has been unable or afraid to put into words.
 Aspects of non-verbal communication are Posture, eye
contact, facial expression, gestures and touch.
May include:
A. Posture
B. Eye contact
C. Facial expression.
D. Gestures
E. Touch
 A. Posture
 The position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting.
 A client’s posture can communicate different attitudes, including
shyness, fear or discomfort, sadness, dominance, etc.
B. Eye contact
 Looking into someone's eyes.
 Can communicate something
 Maintain the correct degree of eye contact.
 Too much eye contact tends to be unnerving for many people.
C. Facial expression
 Motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face.
 Clients may register strong feelings like anger, sadness or joy through
facial expressions.
 D. Gestures
 A movement usually of the body or limbs that expresses or
emphasizes an idea, sentiment, or attitude.
E. Touch
 Different Forms/kinds of touching carry different meanings.
 There are also cultural differences in the amount of touch
which people give and in the way people respond to it.
 These are skills for controlling one mind.
 Examples of mind skills are:
1. creating positive self-talk
2. creating rules
3. Creating perception
 1. creating positive self-talk
 clients are made aware that they have control over how they
feel during situations.
 Clients are helped to make coping self-statements that assist
them to stay calm and cool e.g. I can still do this.
 Instead of talking to themselves negatively during, before
and after specific situations.
 People’s unrealistic rules make irrational demands on them,
on others, and on the environment.
 For instance, a client may have personal rules like ‘I must
always be happy’, ‘others must look after me’ and ‘my
environment should not contain any suffering’.
 Such rules make the susceptible to stress and other
emotional problems.
 Instead, they can develop realistic and preferential rules
like: ‘I prefer to be happy most of the time’, but it is
unrealistic to expect this all the time or ‘one can sometimes
fail in life.’
 Clients can be taught to test the reality of their perception
rather than jump to conclusions.
 A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
 Attending means being in the company of someone else,
giving that person your full attention.
 This is sometimes known as a rapport (defined as being fully
in touch with a client who feels conscious of this).
 It involves such elements as friendliness, eye contact,
relaxed body posture, vocal tone and speech rate.
 Commitment to time and contractual obligations also shows
attending.
 Reporting late for appointments reflects badly on the
counsellor; it tells the clients that the counsellor is not giving
his/her full attention to them.
 Attending to a client can best be summarized using the
acronym SOLER.
 S-Sitting: face your client, avoid any barriers (e.g. desk) and
be conscious of distance.
 O-Open posture: ensure that your posture communicates
openness (Avoid crossed arms, crossed legs)
 L-Lean toward the client. This shows involvement
 E- Eye contact: Face your client. this shows interest and
attention. It is important to maintain the right level of eye
contact.
 R- Relax: be natural with the client. Being nervous could
make the client nervous too.
Listening
 Listening is an act of capturing and understanding what is
being communicated.
Active listening
Active listening involves:
a. Listening to and understanding verbal messages
b. Listening to and interpreting nonverbal messages
c. Listening to the client in context
d. Listening with empathy (Understanding the client’s
feelings).
 Active listening entails not only accurately understanding
speakers’ communications, but also showing that you have
understood.
 As such, active listening involves being skilled in both
receiving and sending communications.
 The counsellor can use Minimal Verbal Response to show that
he is listening. These include mmm..uh-huh or yes
 The following are some of the things that can show that
someone is not a good listener:
❑ interrupting the speaker before he/she has finished speaking
❑ Allowing interruptions during a counselling session
❖ Letting other visitors enter during a counselling session
❖ Play around with documents on the desk
❑ Pretending to be paying attention while thinking of other
things (absent minded).
 Listeningis one of the tools that are used to gather
information from the client.
 There are three basic levels of listening in counseling
context.
 Firstskill involves listening to the client’s verbal
communication
 The second level involves listening to the client’s non verbal
behaviors
 The final level involves listening to oneself as a counselor.
a. Actual words (Content of what is said)
b. Factual information (Facts of the story)
c. Underlying messages (Explicit and implicit meanings)
d. Feelings and mood (expressed positively or negatively)
e. Distortions and gaps (things avoided, omitted, or
misrepresented)
The counsellor can use Minimal Verbal Response to show that
he is listening. These include mmm..uh-huh or yes. These
allow clients to know that you are listening and encourages
them to go on
a. Bodily behavior e. g body movements, posture and gestures
b. Facial expressions e. g twisted lips, frowns, twinkles, smiles
c. Voice tone e. g pitch, voice level and intensity, pauses
fluency
d. General appearance e. g type of dressing, walking
mannerisms.
Non verbal messages are interpreted differently in
different cultures. Therefore it is important for the
counsellor to develop working knowledge of the meaning of
non-verbal behaviour in the environment in which she/he
works.
 The effective counsellor should be neutral, appreciative and
sensitive to the needs and aspirations of his/her client while
at the same time recognizing and addressing the feelings in
a more constructive way.
 When listening to the client, avoid the following common
mistakes.
a. Interupting the client unnecessarily
b. asking long complex questions
c. using jargon.
d.ignoring the client’s verbal or non verbal messages
e. making inappropriate change of topics
f. indicating patrionizing or giving the client judgemental
attitudes,
g. incomplete clarification of important themes,
h. turning the counseling session into an interrogation
 This means talking to someone in order to encourage them to
talk about themselves, and to define their problems.
 Clients may present barriers to successful communication.
 You will develop the skills and techniques in talking with
clients, but it is important for you to recognize when
communication is adversely affected.
 It is used to explore information about the client
 It is used to clarify information given by the client
 It is also used to discover information about the client and
his concerns.
A. use of open ended questions
 Are questions that cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’
or with a fixed response.
 Instead require the respondent to elaborate or provide more
details.
 You give a lead into a subject which needs to be explored or
clarified.
 These kind of questions can start with ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘why’ and
‘could’.
 It serves to
a. gather lots of general information
b. Encourage discussion
For example, how are you coping with your new medicine? Or could
you tell me about yourself? Or What has made you to come here?
 These are specific questions that are asked for direct
responses.
 These questions can start ‘What’, ‘which’, ‘is’, ‘are’, or ‘do’
 Closed ended questions serve to:
 A. gather specific information quickly
 B. close down discussions
 For example. Are you ok? or What is your name?
 When in a counseling session, closed questions should be
avoided or kept at a minimum, for they stop a person from
exploring an issue.
 These are more in context of paraphrase instead of asking
either open or closed ended questions.
 For instance, the question, you are not sleeping badly these
days are you? Becomes a statement thus: ‘You seem as
though you are not sleeping badly these days’
 An interjection is a part of speech that shows the emotion of
feeling of the person, for example ahem! Oh! Hmm
 Interjections are primarily intended to focus the client’s
trend of thoughts or discussion of a particular theme.
 They should be used only occasionally since they tend to
be intrusive
 This is an act of assisting or encouraging a hesitant speaker
 Prompts are used to encourage the client to give detailed
elaboration of the specific words or thoughts and their
meaning.
 Prompts are also used to encourage the client to continue
narrating his story without necessarily interrupting the flow
of thought.
 Reflecting skills act like a mirror; they reflect back to the
client what he or she is communicating.
 They are a way of communicating your understanding of the
client’s perspective
 When reflecting, counselors do not repeat everything the
client has said, but they pick up the most important content
information, and using their own words, feed this back to the
client.
 They are valuable in building a relationship with the client by
communicating trust, acceptance and understanding.
 They help clients clarify for themselves their problems and
feelings.
 They help the counselor gain information about the client
and how he/she views his/her situation.
 They also help the counselor to check his or her perception
of what the client communicates
 They communicate empathy
 A. Reflecting feelings
 B. restating or reframing reflecting content
 C. Affirmation
 Reflection of feelings involves reflection of the perceived
emotional affect of the client
 This reflection may be the result of things which the client
has directly told the counsellor or may be the result of non
verbal behaviour by the client.
 For example the counsellor may have noticed tears or change
in tone of voice e.g. ‘you feel sad.’
 This is when a counselor states what he or she has
understood the client to be communicating.
 The counsellor repeats the content of the message using
slightly different words.
 Affirmation acknowledges the client (Choice).
 It encourages them in the choices they have made
 Affirmation can be given for client’s knowledge, choices or
behaviour.
 This is an important skill for empowering the clients.
 Empathy is described as “putting yourself in someone else’s
shoes”
 It is understanding the clients and their concerns as much as
possible.
 The understanding must then be shared with the client,
either verbally or non verbally.
 The typical framework for responding empathically is “he did
that?” “That might have been difficult for you.”
 By summarizing, a counsellor puts together what was said during a
session.
Summarizing is important in the following ways;
 It helps clients to avoid repeating themselves
 It gives clarity to the counsellor.
 It helps clients to focus if they are distracted
 It can help clients who are stuck to move forward.
When is a summary important?
 A summary is useful at the beginning of an on going counselling
session.
 A summary is useful in clarifying issues during a session.
 A summary is useful at the end of a session.
 involves maintaining silence as you allow a client to process
and reflect on information.
 It involves using minimal prompts such as nodding,
maintaining eye contact, and/or leaning forward.
 Silence can also allow a client to release painful feelings or
emotions.

 Ask the students to discuss the importance of silence

1. Individual Counselling
 Involves 2 pple: one counselor & one client
 One-to-one or face to face
 Highly confidential/private
2. Group Counselling
 More than one person shares a problem with a group
 Usually the group has similar concerns e.g. drug abuse
 The counsellor act as a facilitator