ADVANCED

COUNSELING
SKILLS/TECHNIQUES
 ADVANCED COUNSELING SKILLS
OR CHALLENGING SKILLS
1.) Confrontation
2.) Accurate advanced empathy
3.) Immediacy
4.) Helper self-disclosure
5.) Giving information/Education
6.) Identifying themes
 1. CONFRONTATION

• This is not skill at putting the client

down for doing something wrong!!

• This is an invitation to the client to look

more closely at behavior that is not
working or interfering with growth,
change, or healthy functioning.
 CONFRONTATION

• It is also presenting the client

with two apparently
contradictory statements that
they have made, or else putting
side by side what they are telling
you with what someone else has
said or might say.
 CONFRONTATION

• Before you confront someone you want to

make sure the relationship is strong and able
to withstand the challenge of the
confrontation.

• Example: “You have said you want to change

this behavior but it seems you keep doing it over
and over again. Help me to understand what is
going on and how repeating this pattern is
helpful to you.”
2. ACCURATE ADVANCED EMPATHY

•Sharing hunches with clients

about their experiences,
behaviours and feelings, in
order to help them to move
beyond blind spots and
develop the new perspectives
they so much need.
 3. IMMEDIACY

•Discussing aspects of
your relationship with
your client in order to
improve the working
alliance.
 IMMEDIACY
• This involves a counselor’s understanding and
communicating of what is going on between
the counselor and client within the helping
relationship. There are 2 types:
• Relationship immediacy. (Between client &
counselor)
• “Here & Now” immediacy focuses on some
particular event in the session.
 4. HELPER SELF-DISCLOSURE

•Sharing with a client some

aspect of your own experience as
a way of modelling non-
defensive self-disclosure and
helping them move beyond blind
spots.
 SELF-DISCLOSURE

• Self-disclosure is making oneself known to

another person (the client) by revealing personal
information.

• Counselors self-disclosure is only necessary as it

relates to the therapeutic process. Too much self-
disclosure hinders the counseling process, while
not enough, may inhibit the client from forming a
bond with the counselor.
 5. GIVING INFORMATION/
EDUCATION

•Giving a client information (or

helping them to search for it)
to help them see problem
situations in a new light and to
provide a basis for action.
 6. IDENTIFYING THEMES

•Helping a client to pull

together pieces of their
story in order to see the
bigger picture and to move
on in the counselling
process.
• Homework is what the client must
do/practice to work hard on an identified
need or concern.
• We do this for a variety of reasons:
• 1. To reinforce that positive change is hard
work.
• 2. To help clients become more self aware.
• 3. To educate them, to provide them with
tools for themselves and others.
 POINTS TO BEAR IN MIND:
• Clients can change if they choose to do so.
• Clients have potential resources for change
which tend to remain unchallenged.
• Clients are psychologically tougher than
we tend to imagine.
• Change is possible even in the case of
severe or chronic conditions
 THE GOALS OF CHALLENGING ARE:

• To help clients to make sense of

experiences, behaviour and feelings; to
develop new perspectives.
• To help clients to explore the consequences
of their thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
• To help clients to move towards taking
action and making changes.
 TRANSFERENCE & COUNTER-
TRANSFERENCE

• A concept as old as
Freud, transference
and
countertransference
are issues that affect all
forms of counseling,
guidance, &
psychotherapy.
 TRANSFERENCE & COUNTER-
TRANSFERENCE

• Transference.
• This is the client’s projection of past or
present feelings, attitudes, or desires
onto the counselor. It can be direct or
indirect and will cause the client to
react to you as they would in the past
or present relationship.
 TRANSFERENCE & COUNTER-
TRANSFERENCE

• Counter-transference.
• This is the counselor’s projected emotional
reaction to or behavior towards the client. It
can take on many forms, from a desire to
please the client, to wanting to develop a
social or sexual relationship with the client.
When this happens, supervision or
counseling for the counselor is called for.
Transference.pptx
 TERMINATION OF A SESSION
• There is no great secret to
ending sessions. There are
some guidelines:

Start and end on time.

Leave 5 minutes or so for a summary of the
session.
Introduce the end of the session normally
(“Our time is coming to a close.”).
Assign homework.
Set up next appointment.
 TERMINATION OF THE
RELATIONSHIP
• Termination is the end of the professional relationship
with the client when the session goals have been met.

• A formal termination serves three functions:

• Counseling is finished and it is time for the client to face
their life challenges.
• Changes which have taken place have generalized into the
normal behavior of the client.
• The client has matured and thinks and acts more effectively
and independently.
 TIMING OF TERMINATION
• There is no one answer when termination is to take
place. Questions you may wish to ask yourself
concerning termination include:

• Have clients achieved behavioral, cognitive, or affective

goals?
• Can clients concretely show where they have made progress
in what they wanted to accomplish?
• Is the counseling relationship helpful?
• Has the context of the initial counseling arrangements
changed?
 RESISTANCE TO TERMINATION

• Clients & Counselors may not want

counseling to end. In many cases this
may be the result of feelings about the
loss and grief or insecurities of losing
the relationship. For clients, this is
something to process. For counselors,
this is an issue for supervision.
 PREMATURE TERMINATION
• Client.
• Many clients may end counseling before all
goals are completed. This can be seen by
not making appointments, resisting new
appointments, etc… It is a good idea to try
and schedule a termination/review session
with the client so closure may take place.
At this time, a referral may be in order.
 PREMATURE TERMINATION

• Counselors.
• At times, counselors have to end
counseling prematurely. Whatever the
reason for the termination, a summary
session is in order and referrals are
made, if appropriate, to another
counselor.
 REFERRALS

• At times, a counselor needs to make a referral.

When this is done, specific issues need to be
addressed with the client:
• Reason for the referral.
• Note specific behaviors or actions which brought the
need for a referral.
• Have the names of several other counselors ready for
referral.
• You cannot follow up with the new counselor to see if
the client followed through (Confidentiality issue).
 FOLLOW-UP
• At times, a follow-up may be scheduled
for various reasons including
evaluation, research, or checking-in
with client.

• Follow-ups need to be scheduled so as

to not take the responsibility of change
away from the client.
THE END