Jeffrey Kotler and Robert Brown (1992) state that "the days of the counseling generalist are numbered" (p. 57). In their book, they defend this remark by reporting how the needs of a community or of the practitioner's clientele will often force a counselor to pursue a particular specialty. They say that the more one studies a particular issue on behalf of a client, the more one becomes specialized as a counselor. As they point out, however, this acquired specialization is neither bad nor to be avoided. A further advantage for acquiring and even seeking a counseling specialty, which they also cite, is the benefit of increased employability, plus the mastery of one's profession.
Thomas W. Hosie (1995) counters the Kottler and Brown position by stating that the counseling profession is moving too quickly toward specialization. He suggests that such a move probably leads to separatism among counselors and that it is also breaking down a sense of unity felt among the various specialty groups and the American Counseling Association (ACA) divisions. Hosie writes that past research (Hosie, West, & Mackey, 1988, 1990, 1993; West, Hosie, & Mackey, 1987, 1988) in mental health, substance abuse, and employee assistance programs has shown that general, generically trained counselors are quite able to provide the required services to their clients.
Because career and personal counselors seem to use the same basic skills, all counselors should be trained in the basics of counseling (Nagel, Diana P., Hoffman, Mary Ann, & Hill, Clara E., 1995). The purpose of counseling is to promote cognitive and behavioral change within the life of the client. Therefore, all counselors should be trained in those skills which lead to that cognitive and behavioral change.
Ronald Hawkins (1987) identifies the functions of counseling as guiding, educating, removing blockages, encouraging, sharing-disclosing, listening, helping, and restoring. Charles Waehler and Richard Lennox (1994) break down the counseling process into five slightly different stages: (1) relationship building, (2) assessment, (3) goal setting, (4) intervention, and (5) termination (see Table 1). They, then, suggest that these five stages are always present to some degree within the counseling process.
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Table 1. The Waehler and Lennox Five Stages of Counseling
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Waehler and Lennox (1994) describe relationship building as the establishing of a therapeutic relationship between the counselor and the client, also of developing a sort of rapport between the two. Counselors are to be relationship specialists (Kottler & Brown, 1992; Hawkins 1987). Kottler and Brown (1992) write that "it is clear that the counseling relationship is a special and necessary aspect of the therapeutic counseling encounter" (p. 67).
To enhance the right kind of relationship, counselors must be there for their client. They need to be healers of the mind and the emotions, and they need to make their client feel secure. Counselors must be nonjudgmental and flexible. They must also be facilitators of change. Whenever possible, the counselor should provide a model for the client as that client goes about effecting the desired changes in his or her life. Hawkins (1987) points out that the Apostle Paul made himself a model to his young follower, Timothy. The apostle also encouraged Timothy to follow the examples of his mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois (II Timothy 1:5, King James Version).
As the founder of client-centered counseling, Carl Rogers focussed heavily on the counselor-client relationship. He believed that human beings are basically growth oriented and that they tend toward self-actualization. He thought that the qualities of trust, openness, acceptance, permissiveness, and warmth had to be present in the counselor-client relationship in order that the desired results of the counseling process could be realized (Kottler & Brown, 1992).
Samuel Gladding (1995) expands on the value of the counselor-client relationship by discussing how the use of humor is a positive part of counseling. Table 2 lists the eight reasons why Gladding thinks that humor can help establish the right counselor-client relationship and also lead to change in the client. He emphasizes, however, that humor must be used with great care because the results can sometimes backfire.
Humor is a valuable aid in conducting the counselor-client relationship. Another valuable component to the maintenance of that relationship is intimacy. In transactional analysis (TA), the client is looking for affirmation over past decisions. He or she has a need to feel good about him or herself, and meeting that need is usually enhanced when the client thinks that the therapeutic relationship is based on honesty and openness. Honesty and openness are contributing factors to intimacy. Kottlar and Brown (1992) write that "intimacy . . . is designed to bring people together, not keep them apart" (p. 110). Irving
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Table 2. The Use of Humor In The Counselor-Client Relationship
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Yalom was an existentialist counselor. He saw isolation as the "universal symptom" of humanity. Therefore, he believed that the experience of intimacy in the counselor-client relationship was permanent and also very important to the success of the whole counseling process (Kottlar & Brown, 1992).
Relationship building is an important initial step in therapeutic counseling. Maintaining that counselor-client relationship continues to be important throughout the entire session. The second important stage in the counseling process, and also one which continues throughout the treatment period, is assessment. Waehler and Lennox (1994) describe assessment as the process by which the counselor determines the client's psychological status. To learn more about his or her client, the counselor must use techniques such as observation, interviewing, obtaining life history data, performing standard assessments, and making clinical judgments.
Gladding (1995), as was shared above, indicated that humor can be a useful tool for gaining insight into the client's situation. Multimodal counseling uses client observation to identify the client's sequential firing order and, then, asks follow-up questions to monitor or assess the client's progress between sessions. Client-centered counseling, as another example, relies on active listening to gain insight into the client's feelings (Kottlar & Brown, 1992).
Arthur Clark (1995) describes the use of projective techniques for learning about the client. "Projective techniques offer a means other than direct verbal disclosure for the client to express him or herself" (Clark, 1995, p. 311). With projective techniques, the client performs a task rather than answering a series of questions or taking some kind of test. The client might be asked to draw human figures, describe early recollections, or complete a sentence.
Drawing human figures is good for dealing with all clients, but is particularly good with children, because the drawing often has a pleasant association and can be completed with a reasonable degree of interest (Clark, 1995). Clark (1995) writes that drawing figures can help the counselor maintain a solid client-counselor relationship by aiding in the consideration and planning of future conseling sessions. The second technique, which is that of asking the client to recall earlier events from his or her personal life, is useful because it is viewed by the client as nonthreatening. Lastly, sentence completion allows the counselor to observe the client in a writing effort and promotes counselor-client interaction (Clark, 1995).
Performing standard assessments or the giving of tests is another way to assess the client. The counselor, however, needs to be careful to not prematurely label or stereotype the client as a result of such tests. In the past, this kind of labeling has sometimes intensified the client's problems by causing him or her to act out a particular negative stereotype which might have been implied by the test (Hawkins, 1987). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R) is often used to help the counselor avoid such improper labeling.
The DSM-III-R provides a standard terminology which can be used by all counselors. It provides guidelines for any of the counselor's necessary record-keeping, and it classifies clientele according to certain statistical categories. These classifications are usually used for accountability purposes and/or for research. Most importantly, though, is that the DSM-III-R manual is a vital source of information for helping the counselor understand the client's specific therapeutic disorder. This manual provides expectations about the effects of certain treatments, plus it is useful for constructing an actual treatment plan (Kottler & Brown, 1992).
According to Waehler and Lennox (1994), the third stage of counseling is goal setting. Hawkins (1987) and Kottler and Brown (1992) say that goal setting is highly important to the counseling process. It is at the foundation of the therapeutic counseling process (Hawkins, 1987). If cognitive and behavioral changes do not occur in the client over the course of the counseling sessions, then those sessions will have been a failure (Hawkins, 1987).
Waehler and Lennox (1994) say that "goal setting involves the determination and expression of cognitive, behavioral, or affective changes, or a combination of these" (p. 17). Kottlar & Brown (1992) say that it is the counselor who should help the client set the right kind of goals. To do that, the counselor must be able to quickly and accurately assess the client's problem(s) and then assist him or her in finding the right solution(s).
Hawkins (1987) says that goals should be specific, measurable, realistic, psychologically and emotionally healthful, and arranged in their order of importance. Once the goals have been established, the client must accept responsibility and assume ownership for them. Hawkins (1987) even suggests that the counselor and client might wish to enter into a contract to ensure that the goals are accomplished.
The fourth stage of the counseling process, according to Waehler and Lennox (1994), is intervention. They describe this step as the counselor's attempt to help the client reach the aforementioned goals. In this sense, the counselor and client really are entering into a form of quasi-contract.
The counselor should "help the client translate [his or her] immediate issues of concern into a relevant developmental framework so [that] the necessary growth can be identified and initiated" (Kottler & Brown, 1992, p. 44). The counselor should help the client grow psychologically and emotionally. Richard Hayes (1994) writes that the counselor should set an atmosphere of trust for the client, one where the client can both feel trusted and also trust him or herself and the counselor in making the correct decisions.
Once the client has begun to meet or attempt to meet the established goals, Kottler and Brown (1992) say that the counselor and client need to frequently evaluate the client's progress and make changes, when necessary, to get back on track.
Waehler and Lennox's (1994) final stage in the counseling process is termination. They say that termination is a time for "reviewing and dissolving the counseling relationship" (p. 17). Hawkins (1987) reiterates that the counselor must know when the counseling process is complete. He needs to realize when the goals of the sessions have been accomplished, or in some cases, when all that can be done has been done.
While a counselor might seek a particular specialty within the profession of counseling, doing so is not imperative. The basic stages of counseling, as have been presented in this paper, identify the important tasks of counseling that need to be performed. In most cases, the therapeutic counselor can be both successful and effective simply by practicing these basics.
Clark, Arthur J. (1995). Projective techniques in the counseling process. Journal of Counseling & Development, 73, 311-316.
Falwell, Jerry (Ed.). (1988). The Liberty Annotated Study Bible. Lynchburg, VA: Old Time Gospel Hour.
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Hawkins, Ronald E. (1987). Worktext For Counselor Professional Identity, Function, and Ethics. Lynchburg, VA: School of Lifelong Learning, Liberty University, pp. 1-1.
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Waehler, Charles A., & Lennox, Richard A. (1994). A concurrent (versus stage) model for conceptualizing and representing the counseling process. Journal of Counseling & Development, 73, 17-22.
West, J. D., Hosie, T. W., & Mackey, J. A. (1987). Employment and roles of counselors in mental health agencies. Journal of Counseling & Development, 66, 135-138.
West, J. D., Hosie, T. W., & Mackey, J. A. (1988). The couselor's role in mental-health: An evaluation. Counselor Education and Supervision, 27, 233-239.
Tom of Spotswood "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
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