INTRODUCTION

GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

In today’s fast-moving world, each and everyone needs help. From a small child to the
elderly, the need for help is inevitable in every phase of life. For example, when children
finish their schooling, they need help in choosing what course they have to study, after
which they need help in choosing their career pathway, adults need help in choosing a
good job, a suitable life partner, then in reaching the children, getting them a suitable
life partner, then managing the difficulties of life and it goes on till the end of life. Every
human being needs help from each other to go on in life as we are a social being.

There is a great need for provision of guidance and counselling services. Guidance and
counselling services can also help the young people to prepare for adult life. This would
help them to acquire the right values and attitudes that would make them productive and
useful citizens. It would also help them to acquire self-esteem, a sense of identity, values
and beliefs that can guide behavior and form their characters.

Meaning of Guidance.

The guidance refers to advice or information provided by a person of experience, to solve

a problem or improve something. The guidance refers to the process of helping individuals
to discover and develop their potential. The need of guidance is something that cannot
be ignored by anyone.

“Guidance is the assistance provided to individuals to be able to choose, prepare and

assume a position and making progress in his/ her chosen position” (Frank Parson, 1951).

The definition given by psychologists Schertzer and Stone (1976) has been regarded as
the standard definition of guidance. They define it as;

“The process of helping and individual understand himself and his world.”

From the above definitions, it should be born in our minds that guidance helps an
individual to discover his or her personality and decide how best he or she can use his or
her assets to overcome challenges.
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Lecture Notes for Guidance and Counseling for CGN/CMW YEAR 3 @ Namigugu Ayub
Guidance essentially consists of giving information that can enable an individual to make
his or her choices and the essential function of guidance is to help in making individuals
responsible.

It is important to emphasize the following;

• Guidance is an ongoing process that helps the individual to recognize and use his
or her inner resources to set goals, make plans and solve problems in the most
appropriate and healthy manner.
• Guidance is needed at every stage of growth that is to say from early childhood,
through adolescence, adulthood and even up to old age so as to enable the
individual to adjust to changing situations in life. The relevant information and
assistance helps in guiding the individual in making choices and solving problems.
• Guidance promotes self-understanding through an increased understanding of
one’s limitations, resources and problems. Guidance is a generalized and
specialized service meaning that everyone; sociologists, teachers, parents,
doctors, administrators and many others can play a crucial role in the programme.
• It is a specialized service because qualified people such as counselors, care- taker
psychologists and psychiatrists have specialized roles to play in assisting the
individual to solve his or her problems.

Meaning of counseling

Counseling is a collaborative effort between the counselor and client. Professional

counselors help clients identify goals and potential solutions to problems which cause
emotional turmoil; seek to improve communication and coping skills; strengthen self-
esteem; and promote behavior change and optimal mental health. Ideally, counseling is
terminated when the problem that you pursued counseling for becomes more
manageable or is resolved. However, some insurance companies and managed care plans
may limit the number of sessions for which they pay.

Counselling is also a process but it is part of guidance. In other words, guidance is a

much more comprehensive process and counselling is only part of guidance.
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Pietrofesa, Hoffman & Splete (1984) defined counselling as a relationship between a
professionally trained, competent counselor and an individual seeking help in gaining
greater self-understanding and improved decision making and behavior change skills for
problem resolution and/ or developmental growth.

Counselling can be defined as a service given to a person who has got an emotional
problem.

Hahn and Maclean (1955) defined counselling as a process which takes place in a one-
to- one relationship between an individual beset by problems with which he cannot cope
alone and a 3 professional worker whose training and experience have qualified him to
make others reach solutions to various types of personal difficulties.

The differences between guidance and counseling

Guidance Counseling
Guidance is less personal and less intimate. Counselling is more personal, intimate and
It is usually structured and more public less structured. It is interpersonal, private
and confidential
Guidance is informative. Counselling is largely emotional and flexible.
Guidance is usually initiated by the Counselling is usually initiated by the client.
counselor.
Guidance is knowledge based and it deals Counselling is affective. It is value oriented.
with facts, principles and methods laid down. It basically deals with perceptions,
motivation needs and feelings.
Guidance is a broad term Counselling is viewed as part of guidance
services.
Guidance is given to people in order to Counselling attempts to find solutions to
prevent or minimize their personal, existing or perceived problems.
educational and vocational problems.

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 Guidance assists the person in choosing the Counselling is always one-to-one
best alternative
The guide takes the decision for the client The counselor empowers the client o take
decisions on his/her own

Evolution of Guidance and Counselling

∙ The history of guidance and counselling can be described as being disappointingly
inadequate (dismal) in nature. However, its genesis can be traced back to the origin
of man in society. As man evolved, he sought factors that can guide him in his
existence e.g. seeking guidance of spirits or gods and/or from persons who they
consider to “know” better than themselves. Within society, elders took guidance roles
for the younger ones, guiding their practices, behavior and decisions considered for
their good in the form of: parent-children relationship, teacher-students relationship,
and elders young relationship.
∙ The kind of guidance done in historic times involved giving help or assistance, by
different untrained, but experienced persons. The theories/ models of human
behavior used were unscientific/un-realistic in nature, highly superstitious and /or
religious. “Guidance” at that time was more compulsive and influenced by the person
providing the assistance. There was no room given for the individual’s cognitive
restructuring (there was no transformation of ideas).

Theories/ models applied during historic times

• In times of the ancient Greek civilization, some of the functional diseases (major
personal and emotional problems) for example; a person with an epileptic fit was
considered to be in communication with his God.
• In the mediaeval (middle ages-1000-1450AD) functional diseases came to be
looked upon as instances of transactions with Satan. They were supposed to be
caused by evil spirits and the victims were treated inhumanly. Exorcism, was one
of the most sought-after methods of curing.
• This was followed by the time when “loose morals” were considered to be the

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Lecture Notes for Guidance and Counseling for CGN/CMW YEAR 3 @ Namigugu Ayub
 reason behind all the problems concerning human beings.
• Then came another theory which propagated “lack of proper communication
(within a family), as the major cease behind emotional or personal problems of a
human being.
• These were followed by some more theories that were not without short comings.
∙ Due to the above qualities, traditional counselling was disqualified from being
regarded as real counselling. Guidance and counselling is thus examined in the
Western perspective. The indigenous African counsellor does not exist in the
dictionary of Western practice (although the majority of Africans still regard
him/her highly). If recognized at all, he/she was referred to as a local herbalist, or
a divinator, or at best an advisor whose techniques and procedures are unorthodox
and unscientific. ∙ The short comings of the historical theories eventually led to
the development of modern counselling skills and theories (which are highly
realistic in nature).

Development of Guidance and counselling in the United States of

America ∙

The spread of guidance and counselling in the US was influenced by the diversified
nature of factors which include:
• Rapid advancement of modern science, technology and industrialization during
renaissance which led to tremendous progress, social and vocational mobility
(Migration from farms to towns or cities).
• Development of graduate education.
• Increase in specialization and professionalization instead of depending on
amateurs. So rather than relying on teachers to provide guidance, trained
counselors were introduced into the school system to prove professional
service to the pupils and students.
• Profound transformations in the social order that took place after the civil war.
• Greatest of all was the change in values and norms as the nations shifted from
agrarian to an industrialized, urbanized society. The rise of industrialization (as
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 well as rationalization and bureaucratization) and modernization were
accompanied by severe social disorganizations, as well as creating many other
unprecedented problems such as social mobility which affected child rearing
and society’s “dependent classes” i.e. Paupers, insane, criminal groups
emerged. ∙
• Persistent poverty was aggravated by cyclical depressions wretched housing,
inadequate schools and oppressive work arrangements characterized crowded
urban slums and poor rural areas.
• To cope with the rapid changing environment (after renaissance), there was
growth of the spirit of humanism e.g. the Philanthropic and Humanitarianism
Movement (American philanthropists) and the attitude towards people with
functional diseases changed. The need to help mankind in order to restore
peace and happiness in their lives was identified. Traditional guidance could
no longer cope with much of the complexities in the societies. The guidance
movement (Vocational guidance) was thus started in the first decade of the
20th Century to help people overcome obstacles in their personal growth. This
led to the growth of counselling psychology (based on man’s concern for his
fellow men and their well-being, particularly the younger members of society).
Hence, the misfits had to be vocationally guided to eliminate or reduce the
maladjustment in society. They emphasized job placement as a way of
rehabilitation. The focus was on moral and vocational guidance. They believed
that if people were well tutored and counseled, they would select the right
vocations.
• Modern counselling is therefore a wonderful twentieth-century invention
that depends on psychological theories to inform practice. The 1950’s
theories placed emphasis on assessing the environment as the causal
factors in psycho- pathology. I.e. they propagate the environmental
factors (social determinants of behavior) as the reason for all the personal
and emotional problems concerning the human beings and rest upon skills-
based models. For example, according to Kurt Lewin ( 1951), behavior is
a function of persons in interaction with their environment.
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 • Prior to the development of the spirit of humanism, medicine was the
earliest known science which was concerned with eliminating human
suffering caused by organic factors. However, for a long time in the history
of medicine, functional diseases were not recognized as such. It took over
ten centuries for people to realize that an insane person is essentially a
sick person deserving sympathy and humane treatment. But it did not take
time to recognize the futility of the methods that were focused on
eliminating pathology (medicalization).

Development of modern counselling theories and techniques

It’s during this time that James Braid (1843), a British physician presented before
the royal society a paper on neurohypnology or the rationale of nervous sleep. This
ushered in hypnosis as a therapeutic technique and the discovery of psychoanalysis
opened new prospects in psychotherapy. Sigmund Freud in 1896, a neurologist
finished the development of “psycho analysis” as a form of therapy for those with
serious internal, emotional conflict. Psychotherapy focuses on a person’s unconscious
and the belief that mental illness is the result of repressed memories and emotions.
Treatment uses interpretations to bring such memories to the forefront.
Since then various modern theories have been proposed. A counsellor is therefore
faced with many approaches to choose from. Four main theories were practiced
before the 1950’s.These include, Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud), Trait – factor
and directive theories (E.G. Williamson), Humanistic and client centered theories
(Carl Rogers), and Behavioural theories (F.B. Skinner). After the 1950’s,new theories
began to emerge such as Systematic desensitization ( Joseph Wolpe),Rational
Emotive Therapy ( Albert Ellis), Transactional analysis ( Eric Berne) and Cognitive
theory ( Aaron Beck).
• The modern concept of guidance and counseling started with an emphasis on
human development through education. This was reflected in the works of early
Greek Philosophers like Plato (427-337) the first great counselor of the early
civilization who was recognized as the first to organize psychological insights into

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 a systematic theory and his student Aristotle 480-BC who made many significant
contributions to the field of psychology, such as the study of people interacting
with their environment. After these persons many others have engaged in
Guidance and Counseling roles and activities especially in its comprehensive form.
• The most basic form of counselling – talking as a form of treatment for emotional
problems was practiced in the form of advice and information in the 19th
century. Early counselling professionals called themselves teachers and social
advocates. Their areas of focus involved child welfare, education, employment
guidance and legal reform.
• In America and Europe, the field of guidance and counselling was much
recognized , when Carl Rogers in 1942, published his book “Counselling and
Psychotherapy”, which emphasizes a focus on the “personhood” of the client and
the non-directive approach to counselling. His theory was controversial and was
based on the belief that clients were responsible for their own growth and would
know themselves better if they felt accepted and heard. This development shed
light on the importance of building a relationship with the client in counselling
and brought about a clear delineation to the difference between guidance and
counselling.

Qualities of a good counselor (counselors attributes)

In order for a counselor to carry out his/her duties effectively and impartially, he
should demonstrate a number of characteristics or attributes. Failure to exhibit these
characteristics may lead to the whole counselling being flawed and undermined and
may make a client to experience a deep sense of grief. These characteristics are;

Respect

Respect starts with self so that others can respect you also. If you do not respect
others, how do you expect them to respect you? As a counselor, you must therefore

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 respect clients. You have to know yourself. You should respect the situation of your
clients and do not hurry to impose your values on them or to condemn them. You
have to praise the individuality and uniqueness of your clients

Empathy

Empathy is the capacity to feel into a person or have feelings for another person. It
enables the counselor to grasp the implication of events for that particular client and
for him alone. Empathy therefore would means that a counselor puts himself/ herself
in other individuals shoes and imagines you are undergoing the same experience that
a person is going through, empathy should not be confused with sympathy, once you
have sympathy towards someone, you feel sorry for them without necessarily
imagining yourself in their situation. Empathy therefore is your ability to understand
what your client is going through and to communicate this feeling.

Quality of spontaneity and genuineness

Spontaneity means the capacity to relate honestly to client and reveal oneself as one
human being to another. So there is actually no need of keeping a social and
emotional distance between you (counselor) and the counselee like it happens in
teaching situation. The counselor must be prepared to talk honestly and openly to
clients, allowing them to criticize us in our presence when necessary. This does not
mean loss of our personal standards. Genuineness refers to the consistency between
what you say and what you do. Genuineness means that you as a counselor should
be honest, transparent and trustworthy before your client.

Confidentiality

This is the ability to keep secrets. As a counselor you need to note that the client can

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 only reveal his or her secrets to you only if he or she trusts you and if he or she is
convinced you will not reveal the secrets to others. So the client’s secrets have to be
kept. But there may be instances when you can reveal secrets to others.eg when you
fail to help certain client because of your inability or because of familiarity you may
refer this client to another counselor. It’s like when a doctor fails to treat a certain
disease and refers his or her patient to another doctor.

Emotional Stability and Maturity

A counselor should be able to handle his or her own problems before he or she can
help others to solve their own problems. The counselor should be free from anxiety
and insecurity if he or she is to provide objective and reasoned assistance to the
client. A good counselor should have a good working knowledge of the social norms,
values and traditions of the people and quick at decision making He/she should be
dedicated and committed to his or her job as a counselor. It is all the devotion to
duty.

Self-awareness

It’s important that all counsellors can separate their personal issues from topics
discussed with their clients. Counsellors are human too, and it’s highly likely that, at
some point in your career, your sessions will cover issues you have personal
experience with.

When this happens, you need the self-awareness to manage your responses and
your reactions.

Self-care

Counsellors need the ability to care for themselves, as well as others. Supporting
others with their traumas, issues, and concerns, can be extremely demanding

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 mentally. So you must be able to set personal limits and boundaries and recognize
when you need to care for yourself.

Knowledge of laws and regulations

Finally, a good counsellor will always ensure that they have a sound knowledge and
understanding of the laws and regulations that regulate the industry. This is
incredibly important all counsellors must demonstrate that they are able to carry
out counselling sessions in line with these boundaries.

Non judgemental

A good counselor is non judgemental. They never judge the client based on class,
creed, race or ethnicity. They value all clients equally despite the differences in socio
demographics. For a good counselor, a case with the history of rape, a case with the
history of homosexual practices and a case with depression are all of equal
importance. Good counselors do not judge clients based on their behavior patterns.
They don’t label the clients rapist client, homosexual client or depressed client.

APPROACHES OF COUNSELLING

Directive/Authoritarian/psychoanalytic Approach

The chief exponent of directive counselling is B.G.Williamson. This form or approach

is often referred to as counselor – centered counselling or clinical counselling. The
counselor when using this technique gives a lot of information to the client. He or
she provides facts and methods and the client uses this to sort out what are relevant
to his or her situation. The counselor in this approach takes a central role. It is the
opposite of non – directive counselling and is therefore counselor centered and not
client centered. The goal of this method is to help the learner to understand himself.
The counselor suggests steps the client should take in solving his problems and

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 directly helps the client to explore his strengths and weaknesses.

The information on which the counselor bases assistance can be obtained from the
cumulative record file (CRF) of the client. Information can also be obtained from the
interview which the counselor can obtain through interaction with the client. In some
instances however, the counselor may administer a psychological test in order to
ascertain the psychological state of the client which calls for a lot which is not always
readily available in developing countries like Uganda.

N.B The directive approach is largely associated with the work of Sigmund Freud.

Positive contributions of the Directive approach

• It is time saving
• The client gets a direct solution to the problem
• The method focuses on intellectual adjustment of the client rather than
emotional adjustment.

Criticisms of the approach

• The process is counsellor oriented and, therefore, the client becomes

dependent on the counsellor.
• The approach is undemocratic as it does not give any rights to the client.

It’s equally important to note that, the directive approach recognizes the final
decisions to be made or taken should be entirely in the hands of the clients.

Non – directive counselling Approach

This approach was formulated by Carl Rogers and it is characterized by the following;
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 • It is client – oriented or client centered. It emphasizes helping the client to
find his own solutions to problems.
• It is the duty of the counselor to provide a facilitating or enabling environment
for the client to find his or her own solutions.
• The counselor should provide warm relationship (rapport) so that the client
can freely express his or her views without fear.
• The counselor should not attempt to impose his or her views, values or
standards on the client.
• The counselor should not have preconceived notions about the client, should
be genuine, empathetic and should be prepared to cater for client’s individual
differences and problems because these may not always be the same.

The emphasis in client-centred therapy is on providing facilitative conditions that

allow the client the freedom and safety necessary for growth. The goal of this
approach is to enable the client to become more fully functioning in becoming more
realistic in their self-perceptions, more confident and self-directing and more mature
and socialized in their adaptive behavior.

Positive contributions of non – Directive approach

• It successfully drives home the point that the counselee rather than the
counselor is at the Centre or focus of the counselling process.
• It emphasizes the importance of the counselling relationship in facilitating
personality change.
• It stresses the importance of the counselor’s attitudes rather than his
techniques in effecting the counselling relationships.
• It emphasizes the importance of the affective domain in the counselling
process and holds that counselling should concern itself with emotions and
feelings.

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 Short coming of the non –directive approach

• It is a time-consuming process as the counselee is not a professional who can

quickly find a solution.
• It emphasizes the affective determinants of behavior, ignoring the importance
of the intellectual, cognitive and rational aspects of human behavior.
• Since the process is client-centred, the solution to the problem may not be
accurate because the judgment and wisdom of the client cannot be relied upon
entirely. This is because the client is the one facing the problem and he may
be under stress and tension and, therefore, may arrive at the wrong solution.
• It ignores the usefulness of providing information which may be of value to
the counselees.
• It claims to give freedom to the client to set the goal but more often
counselling goals emerge from the setting in which the counselee and the
counselor work.

Eclectic counselling Approach

The word eclectic approach was first thought of by Frederic Throne. The word
“eclectic” means selecting, reconciling and choosing appropriate doctrines or
methods from various sources or systems. The choice is therefore, personal and
individualistic. The eclectic counselling believes that a single orientation is limiting
and that procedures, techniques and concepts from many sources should be utilized
to serve the needs of the client best in counselling.

Eclecticism means that you combine various methods of counselling from different
sources. The use of eclecticism in counselling is based on assumptions that human
beings are very complex, with varied behavior patterns. Therefore, it would be unwise
to use a single approach in attempting to solve their problems. Eclectic therapy is a

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 more flexible and multifaceted approach that allows the therapist to use the most
effective methods available to address their client’s individual needs. Some therapists
who don't like how the term seems insufficiently focused might refer to it as multi-
modal therapy.

Some therapists adhere largely to a single orientation, such as psychoanalysis or

cognitive behavioral theory, but use eclectic techniques as needed. Others self-
identify as eclectic in orientation, utilizing whichever techniques work best in any
given situation. Either way, it is important that the therapist possesses a solid
understanding of each theory for the techniques she uses.

The combining of various approaches will depend on your conviction as a counselor

but the client’s needs must always be kept in mind and the need for the client to
adopt them more effectively. The counselor should always motivate the client and
make the counselling atmosphere conducive.

Positive contributions of the eclectic approach

• The counsellor as well as the counselee is active and so a more practical

solution can be arrived at.
• The approach is applicable practically in most cases.
• The approach enables the counselee to get a better insight of his strengths
and weaknesses.

Limitations

• It requires a wide knowledge of guidance and counselling, mastering of several

skills demanded by the different methods is quite an uphill task for the counselor.
• The method requires that the counselor has knowledge of the client. Casual
acquaintance with the client is not enough as the counselor will not have gathered
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 all the information about the client.
• Many people are of the view that both the counselee and counsellor cannot be
given equal rights and cannot be active at the same time in finding a solution to
the problem.

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