COUNSELLING AND LISTENING

• CULTURE

• GENDER

• SPIRITUALITY
 Relationship Building
• Empathy
• Unconditional positive regard
• Congruence
• Respect
• Immediacy
• Confrontation
• Concreteness
• Self-disclosure
 The six stages of the counseling process
• Relationship Building
• Assessment and Diagnosis
• Formulation of counseling goals
• Intervention and problem-solving
• Termination and follow-up
• Research and evaluation
 Empathy
• Description – communicating a sense of
caring and understanding

• Purpose – to establish rapport, gain an

understanding of the client, and
encourage self-exploration in
the client
 Unconditional positive regard
• Description- communicating to the
clients that they have value
and worth as individuals
• Purpose – to promote acceptance of the
client as a person of worth as
distinct from accepting the
client’s behavior
 Congruence
• Description – behaving in a manner
consistent with how one
thinks and feels
• Purpose – to be genuine (not phony) in
interactions with the client
 Respect
• Description – focusing on the positive
attributes of the client

• Purpose – to focus on the client’s strengths

not weaknesses
 Immediacy
• Description – communicating in the here-and-
now about what is occurring in the counseling
session

• Purpose – to promote direct mutual

communication between the counselor and
client
 Confrontation
• Description – pointing out discrepancies in
what the client is saying and doing ( between
statements and non-verbal behavior), and
how the client is viewed by the counselor and
client
• Purpose – to help clients clearly and
accurately understand themselves and the
world around them
 Concreteness
• Description – helping clients discuss
themselves in specific terms

• Purpose – to help clients focus on pertinent

issues
 Self-disclosure
• Description – Making the self known to
others
• Purpose - to promote increasing counseling
–relevant communication from the client,
enhancing the client’s evaluation of the
counselor, and increasing the client’s
willingness to seek counseling
 Assessment and Diagnosis
• Develop an in-depth understanding of a client
• Identify mental disorders that require
attention

• Can facilitate goal-setting and also suggest

types of intervention strategies
 Assessment
• Standardized measures include psychological
tests that have standardized norm group
• Non-standardized measures do not have a
standardized norm group and include
strategies such as clinical interview and
assessment of life history
 Diagnosis
• Facilitating communication shorthand

• Indicating possible treatment strategies

• Aiding in scientific investigation

 Formulation of Counseling Goals

• Motivational
• Educational
• Evaluative
• Process goals
• Outcome goals
 Five outcome goals
• Facilitating behavior change

• Enhancing coping skills

• Promoting decision –making

• Improving relationships

• facilitating the client’s potential

 Intervention and problem-solving

• Counseling strategies

• Values and beliefs

• Strengths and weaknesses

 Problem-solving strategies
• Problem detection

• Problem definition

• Identification of alternative solutions

• Decision-making

• Execution

• verification
 Nystul problem-solving method
• What the client is doing and adding “ing”

• Psychology of use of client’s behavior

• Client realize the cost of not changing

• Client develops a new approach that meet the

needs identified
 Termination and Follow-up
• Discussion of the end of counseling

• Review of the course of counseling

• Closure of the client-counselor relationship

• Discussion of the client’s future

• Post-counseling plans
 Contd.
• Ultimate goal in counseling is for counselors to
become obsolete or unnecessary to their clients

• This can occur when clients have worked through

their concerns and able to proceed forward in
their lives without a counselor’s assistance
• A brief follow-up counseling session can be
arranged to see how the client is doing and
provide additional counseling sevices
 Research and Evaluation
• Can occur at any time during the counseling
process/ termination
• Single case/small-group research designs
• Any other intervention strategy
• Are an integral part of the counseling process
• Contribute to the knowledge of psychology by
promoting an understanding what is occuring
in counseling
 Listening Skills
• Helps clients tell their story and feel connected
and understood by a caring and interested person
• Attending the verbal and nonverbal messages of
clients
• Encouraging clients to freely express themselves
• Developing a phenomenological understanding of
clients
• Responding in an appropriate manner
 Primary Listening Skills
• Open-ended questions
• Paraphrasing
• Reflection of feeling
• Minimal encouragers
• Clarifying remarks
• Summarizing
• Perception check
 Secondary Listening Skills

• Normalizing

• Structuring

• Probing
 Effective listening Don’ts
• Avoid moralizing or being judgemental

• Avoid premature analysis

• Avoid parroting

• Avoid gimmicky phrases

 Effective listening dos
• Be in the role of the counselor

• Try to sense the client’s inner message with a

‘third ear’

• Be aware of the non-verbal communication

• Allow yourself to correct impressions