PSYCHOLOGY CAREER

COURSE: COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL GUIDANCE

PRINCIPLES OF COUNSELING
 SESSION ACHIEVEMENT

At the end of the session the student applies the principles of

the cen model
brought into solutions through a simulation of a session
therapy in the clinical or educational setting.
Principle The customer is (almost) always right
1

The therapist's task is to help the clients achieve what they propose for therapy, taking advantage of their way
of doing things, and not to conform them to a priori parameters.
 Principle 2: Understanding a problem is good.
p solve it, even better.
Listen to the story of the problem, understand
give to our interlocutors and make them
they feel understood
 It is necessary to convey to the people we work with that we understand their problems, but the
fundamental thing in counseling is to actively help them solve them.

Limiting ourselves to empathizing with

clients or helping them "unload" their
negative emotions will not help them solve
their problems.

Help them effectively change the

present situation.
Principle : Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today
3
Each session with the consultants,
even the first, can be the last, and
therefore it is important to try to have
closure and an autonomous
therapeutic effect.

We would consider dedicating an entire session to having the consultants describe in detail the
relapse they have had and leaving for
the next session the analysis of how
they can avoid new setbacks.
Principle When in doubt, choose the
4 simplest
Although our objective is to carry out an
effective intervention, it does not mean
that we should show great changes from
the beginning.

Mr. J.

LEF4HL
Let us always seek to choose the simplest
and most comfortable option for you, as a
counselor and for the client.
Principle Everything is
5: relational
It is of little use to design a spectacular task if the consultants do not yet trust us or to ask a skillful sequence of
questions about possible changes with someone who does not really accept our help.

Kindness of
Effective the
guidance counselor
and active
listening

Welcome in
the initial
moments

Relatio
nship
Principle : Valuing the principle of use
6

The relationship between counselor and client should be characterized by collaboration and
respect for the client's ideas and goals.

It is important not to lose sight of our clients'

objectives and collaborate with them to achieve
them, working mainly on their posture
(perceptions) and the use of their language.
Principle : It is more respectful, and more effective, to see the consultants as
7 allies and not as adversaries: the "death of resistance"

Death to Belief that clients oppose change, either for intrapsychic reasons
the or to maintain family homeostasis.
enduranc
We prefer to think that anyone we work with in
therapy collaborates in the best way they can with
us.
THERAPIES BASED
ON It is possible that the way our consultants
collaborate may seem at some point “not
THE
appropriate,” but our task is to know how to take advantage of that
style
II of collaboration in favor of change and therapy.
Principle 8: make the most of the resources of the
consultants.

To work in counseling it is important to trust the resources of our consultants, believe in their
abilities and their possibilities.

It is not possible to have a problem 100% of the

time, 100% of the time, and everyone does
things well sometimes. That is why we are
attentive to exceptions (occasions in which the
problem is expected but it does not occur) and
to the solutions that the consultants themselves
implement successfully.
Principle 9: make the most of the relational matrix and the
Aocial of the network
s
consultants.
It is not only about taking
advantageofofthe
resources theconsultants, but When we work with a family we do not do it because we think that the family "is the problem",
also those of their entire relational but because we understand that it
network can be "part of the solution."
extended family, friends and also other professionals
involved in the case.

We should not only limit ourselves to the

family. The relevant relational network
may include the
 Principle To do brief psychotherapy you have to go
10:
slowly
elationship that each particular consultant establishes with us, as well as the phase of change in which they are located.

It is easier to achieve small goals. Remember that achieving some objectives makes it easier to achieve the
following ones. Therefore, we try to set small goals and
Concrete.

Not trying to cause major transformations, but rather promoting small changes
and then helping them to be maintained and expanded, in a kind of "snowball
effect"... "CHANGE IS INEVITABLE"
Principle It is not possible to change the consultants,
11: they change themselves

Our task is not actually to produce changes (much

less force our clients to change), but to co-construct
with the people we work with contexts in which
changes are more likely.

As Humberto Maturana (Maturana and Varela, 1990) would

say, an instructive interaction is not possible, since the
effect of our interventions will depend on what the consultants want and can change.
Principle The principles are to be skipped
12

The principles are general beliefs that guide our

decision making in counseling, however the most
important thing is our clients.

There will always be exceptions to all the principles presented

and in some situations some may not be useful. Therefore, it
is important that we know how to identify the context and
reality of our client and what they expect from the session.
Final activity
• Students will apply the most
important ideas collected in the
reading regarding the principles
of the brief solution-focused
approach, simulating a real
therapeutic session in a clinical
or educational context.