Barefoot Counsellor

barefoot counsellor Written by Fr.Joe Currie.

Reviewed by: Rupak Majumder(B2-46)

About the book

This book deals with several counselling processes and vivid illustration of this processes. It also gives an insight of one’s personality.

How a problem arises in one’s mind, how this

small problem proliferates into the thinking process and creates several travails in the mind of counsellee.

This book is a counselling guide to the barefoot counsellor.

Contents

Proposition one Proposition two Proposition three Proposition four Proposition five Proposition six Self disclosure The Facilitative dimension The action-oriented dimension Dimension of counselling

Proposition one

Two people, the counsellor and the counsellee.

An intensely personal and subjective relationship.

Person to person relationship, not as a scientist and an object of study.

Proposition two

The counsellee is in a state of incongruence. He is anxious or prone to anxiety, confused. Not able to accept himself or others, or his

present situation The state of incongruence

REAL ME IDEAL ME

POSSIBLE ME

Proposition three

The counsellor is in a state of relative congruence.

He can accept himself better. He is in a better control of his feelings

whether they are good or bad. He can communicate them to others IF and

WHEN appropriate.

Proposition four

The counsellor experiences EMPATHIC UNDERSTANDING of the counsellee.

He lets himself go in understanding the others.

He sees the world as if he were the counsellee.

He is good in listening and responding.

Proposition five

Unconditional positive regard from the counsellor to the counsellee.

He “prizes” the counsellee as a person of self worth, a person of value irrespective of his conditions, behavior or his feelings.

Proposition six

Providing optimal therapy that enable the client to explore the strange, unknown and dangerous feelings in himself.

The result is the movement of the counsellee in positive directions i.e moving toward self-actualization, growing toward socialization.

Proposition six

The more the individual is understood and accepted, the more he tends to drop the false fronts with which he has been meeting life.

He will be confident enough to take charge of his won life and not be dependent on others and their expectations.

Self disclosure

“Will the real ME please stand up?” There is a conflict between our ideas and

reality. The sharper the conflict, the more vehement

the excuse; “he protests too much.” As we cannot be happy with our self, we

shall remain uneasy with our self and therefore with others

The facilitative dimension

According to Carkhuff- it is the nondirective, personalized approach.

The counsellor provides a relationship that is characterised by

1.responsiveness or a listening attitude;

2.warmth,acceptance and respect; and

3.feminine “sensitiveness”

The action-oriented dimension

Assertiveness or taking the initiative in the interview;

Offering directions when called for; and Masculine “frankness”. Immediacy and concreteness. The art of confrontation.

Dimension of counselling

Genuineness

AcceptanceUnderstanding

Facilitative dimension

Action-oriented dimension

Criticism