Characteristics of an Effective counsellor

Patience
As a counsellor you need to have patience with your clients as they process the discussion. It
may take them time to accept certain things and to move towards positive changes. Some
people need to discuss something many times before they are prepared to make a move in any
particular direction. Also, you are not likely to see large changes in an individual client;
therefore, you must be okay with incremental progress in their lives and rejoice over small
victories

Good Listener
Counselors spend a significant amount of time listening to their clients. You will do more
listening than talking. You must be content to give the client time to express their story and
their feelings. You will need to be intuitive in discerning what the client is really saying and
“read between the lines”.

Compassionate
It is very important that your clients feel your compassion for their problems and that they
sense you truly care about them. You may not be able to relate to every issue that is shared
with you, but you need to be able to have compassion for how it feels to be in their shoes.
Genuine concern yields positive results.

Nonjudgmental
Counselors hear all kinds of private information and encounter all types of people. You may
hear dark secrets from someone’s past involving such things as sexual or criminal behavior.
You must do you best to refrain from judgment and instead communicate positive regard.
There are times when it may be necessary to judge a particular behavior, but the client must
not feel that you are judging them. Likewise, you may encounter clients of different races
and/or cultures. You must not push your cultural or religious views upon them. Multicultural
competency is a necessary skill. The counseling environment needs to be a safe place for a
client to share their most intimate concerns.

Research-Oriented
Being a counselor involves a significant amount of time spent researching. You will need to
stay current on the research in order to help your clients. This involves reading books and
journal articles on a regular basis. You do not learn everything you need to know while in
college. Much of your knowledge will come from personal research after you have begun to
see clients.

Empathetic
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. You need to be able to
put yourself in the shoes of your client and understand the situation from their point of view.
Even if you don’t agree with their perspective, you still need the ability to understand how it
feels to them in order to address their issue effectively. However, it’s important that you are
not too empathetic. Some people struggle as counselors because they are unable to maintain
objectivity and therefore carry home the emotional stress of the job. The level of empathy
necessary can be a fine line between helpful to client and harmful to counselor.

Discrete
Confidentiality is of upmost importance when you are a counselor. You must be able to
maintain confidentiality so the client can trust you with their most intimate concerns.

Encouraging
The ability to encourage is important for a counselor. Many clients are struggling to find hope
in their situation. One of the primary jobs of a counselor often involves instilling hope in a
hopeless individual.

Genuineness:
Rogers as well as Truax considered genuineness, as a very important
p a r t o f c o u n s e l l i n g . T h e employees of various public services are well trained
to meet the public at large, in a very cordial a n d f r i e n d l y m a n n e r .
" G e n u i n e n e s s " i s s y n o n ym o u s w i t h g o o d o r h o n e s t i n t e n t i o n s . A
g e n u i n e interest in the client is a must for the counselling process to succeed.
Warmth:
Personal warmth or being warm is a controversial issue. There is a hairline difference
between being warm or being dubbed as 'sickliness'. The quality of being warm refers to a
situation, where a person shows interest in other individual/group. 'Cold' individuals rarely
become good counsellors. A word of caution here, a too warm counsellor may lead towards
the development of over-dependence on the part of the client. The ideal feeling of being
warm is the one which demonstrates that the counsellor is non-judgmental and is
honestly interested in his/her client. Care should be taken to see that the
counsellor does not try to dominate the process of counselling.
Concreteness:
It can be termed as a type of skill. It is an ability to listen, to what is being said by the client,
insteadof what is being implied. Concreteness in counselling is essential, if the
counselling process has
tos u c c e e d . A c o u n s e l l o r p o s s e s s i n g t h e s k i l l o f ‘ c o n c r e t e n e s s ' d o e s n o t
g o f o r d e t a i l s ( r e g a r d i n g psychological explanations) of what the client is speaking
about, but instead tries to understand what the client is trying to express. Any quick,
preconceived or initial judgment about what the client is s a yi n g
will not be particularly helpful. In fact, it will be counterproductive. T
h e c o n c e p t o f concreteness almost integrates all the important elements of the
counselling process. A concrete counsellor, invariably, listens to and accepts what the
client is saying and does not quickly make his judgments.
Unconditional Positive Regard:
Rogers came up with a term called, 'unconditional positive regard' to re
f e r t o ' n e c e s s a r y a n d sufficient conditions for therapeutic change' in the counselling
relationship. Rogers emphasized that t h e c o u n s e l l o r ' s p o s i t i v e f e e l i n g f o r t h e
c l i e n t m u s t n e v e r b e c o n d i t i o n a l i n n a t u r e . H e f u r t h e r suggested that the
counsellor should feel warmly disposed towards the client, irrespective of the
client’s feelings or emotions, which is almost impractical or unreal. This is impossible.
Further, it is important that a counsellor is broad minded and initially non -
judgmental. Also positive general disposition towards the client is a must for the
counselling process to succeed.
A Tragic Sense:
In order to get involved with a client's problem a 'tragic sense of life' must be developed. All
human beings have some limitations. A tragic sense helps the counsellor to remain humble. It
also inducts a sense of humanity in him. Counsellors are not people w ith better
brains, but are the people who readily listen to the problems of their clients.
A Sense of Humour:
A sense of humour comes quite handy, in rescuing most of the sensitive or delicate situations.
It doesn o t m e a n s t h a t a c o u n s e l l o r s h o u l d r e s o r t t o a c o m e d i a n ' s t a c t i c s .
I t a l s o d o e s n o t m e a n t h a t a c ounsellor should start taking the conversation
during counselling session lightly. But, it means to help a client to regain the sight of
the larger picture of a problem. It helps in calming down the tense atmosphere that builds
up because the clients generally blow the things out of proportion. Even subjects
dubbed as 'taboos', can be easily confronted with the help of a sense of humour.3

Self-awareness:
It means to being aware of oneself i.e. to be aware of one's own limitations and strengths. It
means to explore oneself. It is a realistic attempt of comparing oneself with other people. It
means to explore one’s own life situations. A MAN is literally what he thinks, his character
being the complete sum of all his thoughts.- James Allen in “As a Man Thinketh”A GOOD
COUNSELLOR is also: a positive influencer enthusiastic caring supportive trusting focussed
goal-oriented knowledgeable attentive clear and concise patient observing responsive
Conclusion
An important quality of a counsellor is that he like and respects himself, but he
does not use the c o u n s e l e e t o s a t i s f y h i s o w n n e e d s . E v e r y n o r m a l h u m a n
b e i n g h a s a d e s i r e t o b e r e s p e c t e d , recognized and accepted. Then the counsellor
must qualities of good personality, good character
andwholesome philosophy, health, emotional stability, approachability, sympathi
c understanding of youth, intelligence, social culture, broad knowledge and
interest in guidance and personal working conditions and understanding of social
economic conditions. They above given qualities must be possessed by a counsellor