INTRODUCTION TO

COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY
__________________________

Presented by
Mohamad Avicenna

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WHAT IS COUNSELING?

Interactions between a counselor and one or more

clients. The purpose is to help the client with
problems that may have aspects that are related to
thinking, emotional suffering, or problems of
behavior. Counselor may use their knowledge of
theory of personality and psychotherapy or
counseling to help the client improve functioning.
The counselor's approach to helping must be
legally and ethically approved.

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 The important of theory in
counseling
• With theory counselor can differentiate between
normal and abnormal behavior.
• Theory can help the counselor to understand the
cause of the problems.
• With the theory also, counselor can modify client
behavior.
• Theory can help the counselor to predict client
behavior.
• Without theory counselor will work try and error. So it
can make relationship between client and counselor
not effective.
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 Major Theory
• How many type of theories?

• Which is the best theory?

• Which is the most popular?

- Single orientation
- Eclecticism orientation

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 American Counseling
Association (ACA)
• Counseling is a professional relationship
that empowers diverse individuals,
families, and groups to accomplish mental
health, wellness, education, and career
goals (ACA, 2010).

https://www.counseling.org/about-us/about-aca/20-20-a-vision-for-the-future-of-counseling/consensus-definition-of-counseling 7
 Society of Counseling
Psychology (APA-Div17)
A psychological specialty facilitates personal and
interpersonal functioning across the life span with a focus on
emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related,
developmental, and organizational concerns. Through the
integration of theory, research, and practice, and with a
sensitivity to multicultural issues, this specialty encompasses
a broad range of practices that help people improve their
well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve
crises, and increase their ability to live more highly
functioning lives. Counseling psychology is unique in its
attention both to normal developmental issues and to
problems associated with physical, emotional, and mental
disorders.
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https://www.div17.org/
Canadian Psychological Association
• Counselling psychology is a broad specialization within
professional psychology concerned with using psychological
principles to enhance and promote the positive growth, well-
being, and mental health of individuals, families, groups, and
the broader community. Counselling psychologists bring a
collaborative, developmental, multicultural, and wellness
perspective to their research and practice. They work with
many types of individuals, including those experiencing distress
and difficulties associated with life events and transitions,
decision-making, work/career/education, family and social
relationships, and mental health and physical health concerns.
In addition to remediation, counselling psychologists engage in
prevention, psychoeducation and advocacy (CPA, 2009).

https://cpa.ca/sections/counsellingpsychology/counsellingdefinition/ 9
 GUIDANCE?
• The process of helping people make
important choices that affect their lives
(Gladding).
• To help individual to more recognize
various information about his/herself
(Daniel Mc)

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 Psychotherapy
• Psychotherapy is a collaborative treatment based
on the relationship between an individual and a
psychologist (APA, 2014)
• Psychotherapy is a type of therapy used to treat
emotional problems and mental health condition
(NHS UK, 2014)
• Psychotherapy refers to a variety of techniques
and methods used to help children and
adolescents who are experiencing difficulties with
their emotions or behavior (American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2014)

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 Counseling & Psychotherapy
• Counselling and psychotherapy are
umbrella terms that cover a range of
talking therapies. They are delivered by
trained practitioners who work with people
over a short or long term to help them
bring about effective change or enhance
their wellbeing (British Association for
Counselling & Psychotherapy, 2010)

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• Psychotherapy and Counselling are
professional activities that utilise an
interpersonal relationship to enable people
to develop self understanding and to make
changes in their lives (Psychotherapy &
Counselling Federation of Australia, 2014)

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 Differences
Subjects Guidance Counseling Psychotherapy
Clients Normal Normal Severely disturbed
Numbers Group and Individual Group and Individual Individual

Problems Educational / Educational, vocational, Personal

vocational marital, health, mental
health, career, sport, etc.
Workplace School, career centre School, career centre, Hospital (Private)
(public & private) office, jail, mosque,
church, hospital (Private)
Relationship Less personal intimate Need more personal Need more
intimate personal intimate
Sessions Short-term Short-term Long-term
(8-12 sessions) (15-40 sessions)
Experts Qualified person Psychiatrists, Psychologists,
psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists
social worker. 14
 Counselor as a Professional
• Occupations that require knowledge in a field of
science or learning typically acquired through
education or training pertinent to the specialized
field, as distinguished from general education.
The work in a professional occupation requires
the exercise of discretion, judgment, and personal
responsibility for the application of an organized
body of knowledge that is constantly studied to
make discoveries and interpretations, and to
improve the data, materials, and methods
(Theresa E. Neal).
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WHO CAN DO COUNSELING?
Not everyone can do counseling

• One must have a master’s degree in counseling

• Other Bachelor’s degree holder in counseling may be

allowed only due to shortage of resources – but under
close supervision of a qualified senior counselor

• Long years of training, experience, practice, supervision

• A member of a recognized counseling association

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Keputusan AP2TPI Nomor: 01/Kep/AP2TPI/2019

https://ap2tpi.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Nomor-01-Tahun-2019.pdf 17
 Credentialing
Is the process of establishing the qualifications
of licensed professionals, organizational
members or organizations, and assessing their
background and legitimacy:
•Licensure
•Certification
•Accreditation

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 Negative background for
becoming a counselor
• Emotional distress
• Vicarious coping
• Loneliness and isolation
• Desire of power
• Need for love
• Vicarious rebellion
(Guy, 1987)
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Personal characteristics of the
effective counselor
• Curiosity and inquisitiveness
• Comfort with conversation
• Ability to listen
• Empathy and understanding
• Emotional insightfulness
• Introspection
• Tolerance to emotional closeness
• Ability to laugh
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 Carl Rogers
• Congruence
• Unconditional positive regard
• Empathy

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Problems Faced by Trainee
Counselor
– Competition
– Supervision
– Course structure
– Workload
– Disruption of social support
– Client distress and self-doubt

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 Issues faced by beginning
counselors
• Dealing with our anxiety
• Being & disclosing ourselves
• Avoiding perfectionism
• Being honest about our limitations
• Understanding silence
• Dealing with demanding clients
• Dealing with uncommitted clients
• Accepting slow results
• Avoiding losing ourselves in our clients
• Developing a sense of humor
• Establishing realistic goals
• Developing our own counseling style

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 Maintain effectiveness as a
counselor
• Associate with healthy individuals
• Work with committed colleagues and
organization that have a sense mission
• Use stress-reduction stress
• Modify environmental stressors
• Set aside free and private time

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Ethic and Legal Aspects in
Counseling

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 Definitions
• Ethics – a philosophical discipline that is concerned
with human conduct and moral decision making
• Professional ethics - beliefs about behavior and
conduct that guide professional practices
• Moral – involves judgment or evaluation of action. It
is associated with such words as good, bad, right,
wrong, ought, and should.
• Law – the precise codification of governing
standards that are established to ensure legal and
moral justice, usually created by legislation, court
decision, and tradition.
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 Ethics and counseling
• Professional counselors are concerned
with ethics and value.
• Counselors treat ethical complaints with
the same seriousness that they treat
lawsuits.
• Take many forms, such as obvious and
willful; and more subtle and unintentional.

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 Most prevalent unethical
behavior
• Violation of confidentiality
• Negligent practice
• Claiming expertise one does not possess
• Imposing one’s values on a client
• Creating dependency in a client
• Sexual activity with client
• Certain conflicts of interest – dual relationship
• Questionable financial arrangements
• Improper advertising
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 Purposes code of ethics
• For ensuring protection of clients rights
• To protect client from charlatans and incompetent
counselors
• To protect client and counselor from malpractice
(act & suit)
• To help control internal disagreement and bickering
• To provide some guidelines
• Without code of ethic cannot be considered
professional organization
• Increase public trust toward the profession

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 Limitation of Ethical Code
• Some issues cannot be resolved by a code
• Enforcing ethical codes is difficult
• Some legal and ethical issues are not
covered in the codes
• Ethical codes do not address cross-cultural
issues
• Ethical codes do not address every
possible situation
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 Guideline in Making Ethical
Decisions
Ethical Principles:
• Beneficence (doing good and prevent harm)
• Nonmaleficence (not inflicting harm)
• Autonomy (respecting freedom of choice and
self-determination)
• Justice (fairness)
• Fidelity (faithfulness or honoring commitments)
• Veracity (truthfulness)
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 Other Guidelines for Acting
Ethically
• Act with personal and professional
honesty
• Act in the best interest of clients
• Act without malice or personal gain
• Justify an action “as the best judgment of
what should be done based upon the
current state of the profession

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 Maqashid syariah
(Yusuf Al-Qardhawi)
Menjaga kemaslahatan umat manusia
• hifdzul mal (menjaga harta)
• hifdzul nafs (menjaga jiwa)
• hifdzul nasl (menjaga keturunan)
• hifdzul aql (menjaga akal-pikiran)
• hifdzul nas (menjaga umat manusia).
• hifdzul alam (menjaga lingkungan hidup).
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 Client Rights: Confidentiality
• Confidentiality is considered as a central
concept in client-counselor relationship.
• Confidentiality needs to be discussed with
clients from the onset of the relationship.
• Minor or incompetent clients: Counselors
act in the best interest of those unable to
give voluntary consent.

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 Records
• Provide access to records when requested
by clients
• Disclosure of transfer
• Permission to record
• Anonymity in research
• Respect for privacy in consultation

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 Ethical or Unethical
• 1.) You are a successful counselor. One of your clients
tells you that you have been very, very helpful to him,
and in order to show his appreciation to you, he gives
you a $10,000 diamond ring as a gift. You accept the
ring.
• 2.) One of your clients feels sexually attracted to you,
and tells you this. Immediately following the termination
of counseling, you and the client mutually agree to start
a dating relationship.

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 Ethical or Unethical

• 3.) You and your friends have a dinner at your

home. One of your friends tells you that he is
emotionally disturbed by some conflict in his
marriage. You take your friend into the next room
and provide him with a brief counseling session
there.
• 4.) You go to lunch with another counselor. In the
restaurant, you each talk about some of your cases
to learn from each other. Neither of you mentions
the names of any of your clients.

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• Case Study: An elderly male client with a
history of chronic pain reports feeling
down and no friends or family to talk to. He
discussed feeling as though life isn’t worth
living with his constant pain and that no
one would miss him anyway. He stated
that he has a full bottle of prescription pain
medication at home, which would be the
easiest way to commit suicide.
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 Use Corey, Corey, & Callanan’s
model to solve the problem
1. Identify the problem
2. Identify potential issues involved
3. Review relevant ethical guidelines
4. Review law
5. Obtain consultation
6. Consider possible course of action
7. Enumerate consequences of various decisions
8. Decide on best course of action

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 Dual Relationships
• Having sexual or romantic relations with a client during
therapy
• Having sexual or romantic relations with a member of
the client’s immediate family during therapy
• Having sexual or romantic relations with a client or a
member of the client’s immediate family after the
termination of therapy
• Buying goods or services from a client, or entering into
a business agreement with a client (in addition to
counseling)
• Employing a client, or providing therapy to an employee
• Providing therapy to a friend or relative
• Going out to eat with a client after a session
• Inviting clients to a personal party or social event
• Providing counseling to a supervisee or student
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Working with Counselors who
may act unethically
• Prevention:
1. Identify the problem
2. Apply professional ethical code to problem
3. Approach informally
3. File an ethical complaint

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 The Law and Counseling
• Iowa Law Review Note (1971)
– Counselors are legally-recognized professionals
• Tarasoff v. Board of Regents of the University of
California (1976)
– Counselors have a duty to warn if an identifiable
person is in danger
• Ramona trial (1993)
– Counselors have a duty to care – a legal obligation
not to act negligently
• Jaffee v. Redmond (1996)
– Communications between licensed psychotherapists
and their clients are privileged and do not have to be
disclosed in cases held in federal court

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Tarasoff v. Board of Regents of the
University of California (1976)

Prosenjit Poddar Tatiana Tarasoff

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Tarasoff v. Board of Regents of the
University of California (1976)
• Prosenjit Poddar told the student health center
that he wanted to kill Tatiana Tarasoff. The
psychologist told the supervising psychiatrist,
who told campus cops, who detained Poddar
but then let him go. Poddar killed Tatiana two
months later. Her parents sued for “failure to
warn.” The Trial Court said that no such duty
existed. The CA Supreme Court cited
Simenson v. Swensen and ordered a trial. The
case was heard twice:
– Tarasoff I: “Privilege ends where public peril begins”
– Tarasoff II: A therapist has an obligation to use
reasonable care to protect potential victims
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 Civil and Criminal Liability
• Liability:
1. Civil liability
“Acting wrongly toward another or…failing to act
when there [is] a recognized duty to do so”
person  person

2. Criminal liability
Acting “in a way the law does not allow”
state  person

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 Civil and criminal liability

• Negligence
– the departure from acceptable professional
standards
• Malpractice
– the harm to a client resulting from negligence

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 The Law and Counseling
• Confidentiality
– is the ethical duty to fulfill a contract or promise to
clients that the information revealed during therapy
will be protected from unauthorized disclosure.
• Privacy
– is a legal concept that recognizes individuals’ rights
to choose the time, circumstances, and extent to
which they wish to share or withhold personal
information.
• Privileged communication
– regulates privacy protection and confidentiality by
protecting clients from having their confidential
communications disclosed in court without
permission.
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Exceptions to Confidentiality
• When a client is a danger to self or others
• In cases of child abuse or neglect
• When vulnerable adults are being abused
• When a client is considering committing a
crime
• When a client has been a victim of a crime
• During court-ordered psychological evaluations
• For the purposes of involuntary hospitalization
• When a client raises the issue of mental
condition in legal proceedings
• In client-counselor disputes
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 Guidelines for Implementing
Duty to Warn Requirements
• Get informed consent
• Plan ahead through consultation
• Develop contingency plans
• Obtain professional liability insurance
• Involve the client
• Obtain a detailed history
• Document in writing
• Implement procedures to warn

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 Legal Issues involved when
counseling minors
• Parental consent
• Limitation of confidentiality
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA)
– Allows parents access to their children’s
records
– Allows children access to their own records

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 Factors that influence
counseling process
• Seriousness of presenting problem
• Structure
• Initiative
• Physical setting
• Client qualities
• Counselor qualities

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 Seriousness of presenting
problem
• Clients reporting higher initial distress take
more sessions
• Unfinished business vs difficulty

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 Structure
• Is defined as a joint understanding between
the counselor and client regarding the
characteristics, conditions, procedures, and
parameters of counseling.
• Considering: time limits, action limits, role
limits, and procedural limits

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 Initiative
• The motivation to change
• Scapegoating - blaming a person when the
problem was not entirely his or her fault
• A reluctant client - who has been referred
by a third party
• A resistant client - who is unwilling,
unready, or opposed to change
• Anticipate the anger, show acceptance,
persuasion, confrontation, metaphors, dll.
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 Physical setting
• Five senses
• Seating arrangements are varied based on
the nature of the relationship, cultural
background, and gender: 90 degree, 30 -
39 inches

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 Client qualities
• YAVIS: young, attractive, verbal,
intelligent, and successful
• HOUNDs (homely, old, unintelligent,
nonverbal, and disadvantaged)
• DUDs (dumb, unintelligent, and
disadvantaged)
• Physically attractive
• Nonverbal behaviors

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 Counselor qualities
• Expertness
• Attractiveness
• Trustworthiness

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