BASIC COUNSELING

SKILLS & PROFESSIONAL

ETHICS
DEFINITION OF TERMS

COUNSELING:
•A helping process in which clients learn how to use
their personal resources to make decisions/choices,
and formulate new ways of behaving, feeling and
thinking.

•It is a special kind of relationship aimed at helping

clients respond to the challenges of their lives.

•Ituses specific skills and techniques to help people

become more competent, contended and creative.
Definitions contd…
SKILL:
 Ability to do something with proficiency,
competence and expertness.
BEHAVIOUR:
 A generic term covering acts, activities,
responses, reactions, movements, process,
operations (overt)
GOALS OF COUNSELING
 To help a person become fully alive and fully
functional
 To help clients better understand themselves
and other people and situations/circumstances
 Help clients find possible ways of making good
choices
 Help clients in making plans to achieve their life
goals
 Facilitate behavior change
 Enhance coping skills
 APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING
DRUG ABUSE BEHAVIOUR
 Social, cultural variables: Mass media, interests,
family variables
 Biological variables: Genetic transmission, alteration
in some biological process serves as a predisposition for
problem drinking
 Psychological approaches:
i. Psychoanalytic perspective in ADA behaviour
 ADA behaviour is deterministic
 ADA behaviour is determined by sexual or aggressive
drive
 ADA is determined by unconscious motives and drives
 ADA is caused by the conflict in the structure of
personality
 ADA is a manifest of defense mechanisms
 Approaches contd…
ii. Behaviour perspective in ADA behaviour
 ADA behaviour is learned
 ADA behaviour is a product of an environment-
assertiveness should be taught
 ADA is not the symptom of behaviour problem,
but the behaviour problem

iii. Humanistic Perspective in ADA behaviour

 ADA behaviour is a result of conflict between the
real self and ideal self
 ADA behaviour is a result of in ability to be REAL
self and hence resists societal values
 ADA behaviour arises when one relies on others
and evaluating self from external locus of
evaluation rather than internal
Approaches contd…
iv. Cognitive perspective in ADA behaviour
 ADA behaviour is a result of irrational thinking
 ADA behaviour is as a result of self blame,
absolustic language SHOULD, MUST.
 In ADA behaviour, attitudes, opinion, belief play a
great
 ADA is as a result of development of negative
triad i.e. negative view about the world, self and
future hence magnification, overgeneralization,
selective abstraction and minimization
Approaches contd…
iv.The Gestalt approach in ADA behaviour
 ADA behaviour emenates from the
unfinished business which are expressed
feelings/emotions which linger in the
background i.e. rage, anger, grief, guilt etc.
 ADA behaviour is a result of unmet needs
 ADA behaviour is as a result of one pre-
occupation with the future- focus on the
HERE $ NOW, not past or future.
THE COUNSELING PROCESS
By Gerard Egan. Comprises three stages;
Exploration
Understanding
Action
 The above are preceded by a stage for
attending, where counselor demonstrates
to client that he/she is willing to become
involved with client.
 Aimed at welcoming and settling/relaxing
client to make them be at ease.
Counseling process contd…
Exploration stage:
 Aimed at gaining a full and accurate
understanding of client’s issue.
 Client given much freedom to present their
case without much interruption.
 Skills used here are questioning, reflecting
of client’s statements, summarizing and
active listening.
Questions to ask yourself at
exploration stage
 What concerns has the client focused on?
 What important areas have been omitted?
 What are some of the implications of these
concerns on the client?
 Who else is involved?
 When do these problems typically arise?
 What has the client tried to do about them?
 What support does this client have?
 Counseling process contd…
Understanding stage:
 Counselor seeks to gain a deeper understanding
of client’s issue. Counselor sees world from
client’s viewpoint
 Counselor aids client to gain a better and deeper
understanding of their issues. i.e. client aided to
gain insight, especially how they have contributed
to the situation
 Client assisted to set goals
 Skills used are empathy, questioning.
 Challenging skills used here to pick discrepancies.
Counseling process contd…
Action stage (Treatment stage):
 Client regarded as decision maker with
counselor acting an empowerment agent
and facilitator to action.
 Support and inspiration provided here
 Termination then follows.
BASIC COUNSELING SKILLS
Acquisition of appropriate counseling skills is key
for effective peer education.
 Structuring;
Both physical and psychological.
 If special room used, should be well organized
with similar seats, no barriers
 Room should be plain without distractions
 Peer educator mind should be focused on client
issues only
 Basic counseling skills contd…
 Contracting;
 Involves giving of vital information to client
 Role of client and peer educator
 Confidentiality
 Punctuality and commitment
 Termination
 Active listening;
Very key since enables peer educator to get
implication/underlying meaning
 Peer educator able to respond appropriately
Basic counseling skills contd…
 Observation skills;
 Helps peer educator to get non-verbal
communications from client in order to infer
meaning.
 Responding skills;
Skills used by peer educator to explore the
client’s issue.
 Encouragers/minimal prompts
 Restatement-(use of content in same way)
 Reflection of content
 Reflection of feelings
 Paraphrasing (use of content in own words)
Responding skills contd…
 Focusing (to avoid digression)
 Concreteness-(makes client be specific and stop
blaming others)
 Questioning( open ended) - helps in probing and
understanding. Closed ended questions are
interrogative and puts client on defense.
 Summarizing- (for clarification, focusing on most
pressing issue and shows client you are still with
them). Used throughout session.
 Silence-Can indicate information processing or
resistance. Peer educator should be comfortable
with it.
Responding skills contd…
 Advanced level empathy;
 Enables peer educator to pick underlying
messages in client’s statement e.g. I feel like a
doormat
 Challenging skills;
 Immediacy-Handling of anything that will
interfere with counseling e.g. ‘you are too young
to understand’
 Confrontation-Confrontation of irrational
thinking/belief, also used to clarify in
congruencies in verbals and non verbals
 Self disclosure-Used only when used for good
of client. Aimed at showing that peer educator
also human
MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES
 Empathy;
 Ability to accurately understand what another person is
experiencing and communicate that understanding
 A respectful listening to client with a desire to
understand client’s attitude.
 Unconditional positive regard (UPR).
 Entails accepting client without being critical, judgmental
or blaming
 Client accorded respect and warmth despite their state
or condition
 Genuineness;
 Refers to honesty, congruence and authenticity
 Is the willingness to be real and open/transparent with
client-no facade
Motivational techniques contd..
 Support self efficacy;
 Self efficacy refers to person’sbelief in their
capacity to perform certain tasks successfully.
 Aimed at helping client discover their
potentialities and take the lead in their
treatment.
 Helper increases person’s perception about their
capability and competence to cope with
obstacles and succeed.
 Assertive training;
 Very important for those that allow others to
run their lives, and cannot say NO, yet hurting
themselves
 Aimed at empowering individuals to voice their
feelings and thoughts.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
IMPORTANCE
Ethics are important for a number of reasons:

1) The client gets better treatment, and the assurance of

their privacy and safety.

2) Other counselors can trust that their fellow counselors

are held to such high standards.

3) The standards add a level of professionalism that is

shown to those outside the field, which is always a
challenge.
Elements of ethics
 Non-Discrimination
 Client Welfare
 Client Relationship
 Trustworthiness
 Compliance with Law
 Rights and Duties
 Dual Relationships
 Preventing Harm
 Duty of Care
 Confidentiality
 Misrepresentation
 END
THANK YOU