Unit 10 Counselling

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Counseling ProcessesUNIT 10 COUNSELING PROCESSES

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to understand:

importance of counseling, process of counseling, counseling in organizations.Structure

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Basics of Counseling

10.3 Salient Features of Counseling

10.4 Qualities of an Effective Helper/Counselor

10.5 Counseling Outcomes

10.6 Process Goals in Counseling

10.7 The Basic Conditions of Counseling

10.8 Counseling in Organizations

10.9 Ethical Issues in Counseling in Organizations

10.10 Training for Counseling Who Work in Organisations

10.11 Summary

10.12 Self-Assessment Questions

10.13 Further Readings

10.1 INTRODUCTION

First let us distinguish between the two terms `counseling' and `psychotherapy'

which have been used interchangeable, though the process and implications for

both are different, if not totally but to a great extent. Psychotherapy is practiced

mostly by psychiatrist, the clinical psychologist and, sometimes psychiatric social

workers. The goal of psychotherapy is to bring about a deep personality change in

psychotic and chronic psychoneurotic patients, in terms of a more effective

reorganization of psychological process. This is a time consuming process and maylast for months or years. Counseling on the other hand is used for marital problems,

family set ups, schools, work organizations and in other social situations. The goal is

to achieve better personal/social adjustment and growth in maturity, by stimulating

the counselee to exploit his/her potentials and optimize use of resources. The people

who go for counseling are normal people who need help to cope with different kinds

of problems. The personal changes to be achieved may or may not be as deep as in

psychotic patients. They consist mainly of a deeper self-knowledge, a change of

attitudes, a modification of self-perception and a modification of perception of others.

The temporal length of counseling is much shorter than psychotherapy.

10.2 BASICS OF COUNSELING

People seek the service of professional helpers - counselors, social workers,

psychologists and psychiatrist - when their capacities for responding to the demands

of life are strained, when desired growth seems unattainable, when23


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important decisions elude resolution, and when natural support systems are

unavailable or insufficient. Sometimes the person in need of help is urged or required

to seek counseling by a third party, spouse, parent, employer, teacher, or judge who

believes the individual is failing to manage some important aspects of life effectively.

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Interpersonal Processes

The purpose of counseling, broadly conceived, is to enable the client to cope with life

situations, to reduce stress, to engage in growth related activity, and to make effective

and important decisions. Counselors increase their control over present adversity and

present future opportunity as a consequence of counseling process.

Persons of any age, in any walk of life, and with almost any kind of problems can be

helped to gain power over the adversities and opportunities of their lives. Counseling

to achieve client empowerment is viewed by some as a generic process that includes

same elements inherent of the context in which it is used. It does not matter whether

it is performed in an organization, school, hospital or in a community counseling

clinic, the basic structure of the helping process remains same. Let us examine a few

salient processing of counseling in general in the next section.

10.3 SALIENT FEATURES OF COUNSELING

1. Understanding

To be truly effective, the counselor must have a thorough understanding of human

behaviour in its social and cultural context and be able to apply that understanding to

the particular set of problems or circumstances of each client.

Diagnosis and hypothesis generating are critical and inevitable parts of counselor's

work. The process of diagnosis has two interrelated functions: first, to describe

significant patterns of cognition, behaviour, or affective experience and second to

provide casual explanations for these significant patterns. The process includes of

developing tentative hypotheses, confirming their validity, and using them as the

basis of making critical decisions concerning the. focus, process, and directions of the

counseling experience. The process of arriving at a diagnosis is a mutual one in

which the client and counselor work together to identify these patterns and their root

in the client's experience.

This diagnostic and hypothesis-generating process has four dangers. One is that the

process often becomes a game that applies labels to clients, that puts them into

categories. Once categories, the clients is stereotyped. The client's uniqueness as an

individual may be lost. Worse, other important attributes of the client are overlooked

because categorizing creates perpetual blinders for the counselor. A. second danger is

that helping professionals often make mistakes in their diagnoses, resulting in

effective and sometimes counter productive helping efforts. Third, not all counselors

use the same. diagnostic terms for the same client experiences. One may identify aset of problems as depression, another as a manifestation of a dysfunctional socialsystem. Fourth, as is true of many aspects of counseling, the diagnostic and

hypothesis-generating process is sometimes affected by the cultural or societal

attitudes towards oppressed or culturally diverse groups can reduce the objectivity

and fairness.

These dangers are real. But they are not inherent in the diagnostic process itself;

rather, they are dangers of the misuse of the process. Counselors who accept the role

as an understanding ofhuman behaviour and its social and cultural context plays in

their works and who comprehend the proper function of diagnosis will

work hard to avoid these dangers. It is part of their ethical responsibility.


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Counseling Processes

2.

3.

4.

Change in the Client

The ultimate purpose ofthe counseling experience is to help the client achieve some

kind of change that s/he will regard as satisfying.

Virtually every significant theory of counseling states that creating growth-oriented

change in the client is the ultimate intended outcome of the counseling experience.

Some say over behaviour change is the sine qua non of the experience. Others say

that behaviour change is just symptom change, real and lasting change comes whenthe client develops new perceptions on self, signifies others, and life. Furthermore,

some counselors take a remedial approach; they attempt to help the client change

dysfunctional behaviour to more functional patterns, such as overcoming shyness,

reducing anxiety, controlling counterproductive anger, or reducing interpersonal

conflicts. Others believe that the goal of counseling is to help people make important

life decisions, here the counselor's role is to help the client use a rational thinking

process to resolve confusion and conflict. Still other counselors view their works as

stimulating favourable personal and interpersonal growth. Remediating

dysfunctionality and assisting in decision making may become important

contributions to the overall growth experience of the client for them.

It is often difficult to document the change in the client. Behaviour change, if itoccurs, is probably the easiest to observe because it is the most tangible. However,

clients may also change their views about certain behaviours that they previously

regarded as undesirable, they may change in the extent to which they experience

stress related to an unwanted situation, or may reduce their general levels of

emotional distress or their values as they progress through counseling. For example, a

person may come to value family relationships more and work achievement less or

may become more tolerant of persons with different political, religious, or social

philosophies. It is thus quite difficult to conclude about change.

The Quality of the Relationship

The quality of the helping relationship is significant in providing a climate forgrowth.

The critical elements of the helping relationship that promote openness are described

often in the literature of the field: respect (rather than rejection), empathy (rather than

shallow listening and advice giving), congruence or genuineness (rather than

inconsistency), faculative self-disclosure (rather than being closed), immediacy

(rather than escapism to the past or future), and concreteness (rather than abstract

intellectualising). Counselors must communicate respect for clients as persons with

rights who are trying to live the best lives they can. Genuine caring is shown when

counselors try to understand the client's world as if it were their own and give the

client's cues about that understanding. Effective counselors share their reactions to

the client with the client, using the feedback as a way of helping the client to reachdeeper level of self-understanding.

The quality of the relationship not only provides a safe and comforting context from

which interventions that may help the client are introduced but can also be

therapeutic in itself. The experience of a genuine and immediate relationship can

itself sometimes be transforming even if there is no other counseling intervention.

Self-Disclosure and Self-Confrontation

The counseling process consistsprimarily ofself-disclosure and self-confrontation

on the partofthe client, facilitated by interaction with the counselor.


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5.

6.

For counseling to take place the client must disclose personal information to the

counselor, who will try to understand the client's world in a context of what s/he

knows about how people respond to life situations. Although clients may reveal

significant personal information in their nonverbal behaviour, communication in

counseling is primarily verbal. Clients reveal their thoughts and feelings to a

perspective counselor by what they say, the affect with which they say it, and what

they choose to leave in their verbalisations. The more the totally self-disclosure, the

more effectively the counselor can help the client discover new ways of coping.

Some clients may find self-disclosure easily and for others it is more difficult.Counselors need to be aware of the potential difficulty with self-disclosure,

especially with clients from diverse cultural and family backgrounds, where such

behaviours are not so commonly fostered. In such circumstances, counselors must be

particularly attentive to the establishing trust and must have skills for facilitating

client self-disclosure.

As the counselor becomes more confident of his/her understanding of the client, s/he

may choose to move to a more comprehensive form tentative view point. Because

such feedback comes from the counselor's frame of reference, frequently, it will be

viewed that the client has not previously considered. It is important for the counselor

to be a free of vested interests as best possible in using confrontation as a counseling

tool.

The client must confront the self with new ways of seeming and understanding it in

life situations. Through this process, a new understanding of personal needs, desire,

perceptions, assumptions, and cognition's emerge and new coping skills are

developed and used.

An Intense Working Experience

Counseling is an intense working experience for the participants. Sustained energy is

required for the counselor. For the related activities of attentive listening, information

absorption, message clarification, hypothesis generation, and treatment planning.

Beyond these, largely intellectual activities are the emotional experience of caring foranother being is lost in those emotions and therefore diminished as the facilitator.

The client's hard work comes in the effort to understand what is difficult to

understand, in the endurance of confusion, conflict, and in the commitment to

disclose to him or herself that which it is painful to think about. This effort,

endurance, and commitment require a level of concentration that may never have

been experienced before. Growth through counseling is always demanding on the

client and is often painful, though at the same time fulfilling and rewarding.

Counseling is not the same thing as conversation. In conversation, two or more

people exchange information and ideas. The experience is usually casual and relaxed.

Counseling, on the other hand, is characterised by much higher level of intensity.Ideas are developed slowly, experienced at a deeper personal level, and understood

more carefully than in casual conversation.

Ethical Conduct

To provide professional people helping service obligates the helper (counselor, social

worker, psychologist, and so forth) to function in an ethical manner. Codes of ethics

published by the relevant professional associations will serve to set some needed

parameters.

Ethical practice may be defined as providing with care, and conscientious effort a

helping service of which one has been appropriately trained. Unethical practice

occurs when counselors practice outside the limits of their competence, fail to situate

clients' interests ahead of their own needs, or fail to respond sensitivity. Because

counselors present themselves to the public as persons with special skills


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help people in need, they have a great burden not to do harm than other citizens who

do not purport to be expert helpers. Counselors need to be aware of the great

responsibility they take on. Counseling that is incompetent or insensitive or that

serves the interests of the counselors not only cause harm to the clients who receive it

but also damages the reputation of the counselor's employer and the profession as a

whole. Ethical practice means valuing each client as a person with rights to fair

dignified and compassionate service.

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There are ethical dilemmas that present themselves in counseling practice.Understanding ethical principles underlying the codes and broader ethical theories

are necessary for resolving some complicated ethical dilemmas. In the long run, the

responsibility for ethical action always rests with the judgment of the individual

practitioner.

Through the years, the characterisics of effective helpers have been among the most

popular dissertation subjects. An extensive research literature on this subject by

established scholars as well. Most studies attempt to relate particular characteristics,

such as dogmatism or experience in the professional, to counselor effectiveness.

Counseling is so complex that each study contributes but a small part of the total

pictures of what makes an effective counselors. Counseling has often been taken as

professional help rendered to those who need it. What qualities are required to be aneffective helper, let us now examine them.

10.4 QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE HELPER/

COUNSELOR

1.

2.

3.

4.

Effective helpers are skillful at reaching out: Helpers are able to encourage other

to communicate openly and honestly with them. They avoid creating

defectiveness. This is done by participating in active and involved listening. The

ability to concentrate fully on what is being communicated and to understand the

content of what is being said but also to appreciate the significance of that

verbalisation to the client's present and future well-being. Effective helpers listen

actively for feelings, beliefs, and perspectives and assumptions about self,significant others and life circumstances.

Effective helpers inspire feelings of trust, credibility, and confidence from people

they help: The presence of effective helpers facilitate the clients to sense that it is

safe to risk sharing their concerns and feelings openly and that they will not be

made to feel ashamed, or criticised for the thoughts, feelings and perceptions they

share. Nothing "bad" will happen as a consequence of sharing and there is a very

real chance that something productive will come of it. Effective helpers are also

credible. What they say is perceived as believable and hones with no hidden

agenda. Finally, they ought to be attractive to clients, not because of their

personal beauty but because of their likeability and friendliness. Clients who see

their counselors as experts, attractive, and trustworthy are more likely to gainfrom counseling than those who fail to see their qualities in their counselors.

Effective helper are able to reach in as well as to reach out.: Effective helpers do

a lot of thinking about their actions, feelings, value commitments, and

motivations. They show a commitment to non-defensive, continuous self-

understanding and self-examination. They are able to respond with depth to the

question "Who am I?" They can help others think openly and non-defensively

about themselves and their own concerns because they are not afraid to

participate in these experiences themselves.

Effective helpers also like and respect themselves and do not use the people they

are trying to help satisfy their own needs: People who only satisfy their own

needs can eventually alienate others and make them afraid. This


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interpersonal pattern blocks honest communication and instead leads to game

playing. Truly effective helpers feel secure about themselves and like themselves

and thus are not dependent on the people they are trying to help for respect,

recognition and acknowledgement.

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5.

6.

7.

8.

Counselors who are under great stress in their personal lives are at a risk of

focusing on their own needs rather than the client's during counseling sessions. In

order to avoid burnout, counselors must take time away from work to care for

themselves, nourish their own personal support system and get a clearerperspective on their accomplishments as professionals.

Effective helpers communicate caring and respectforthe persons they are trying

to help: By their demeanor, effective counselors communicate to their clients the

following unspoken statement: "It matters to me that you will be able to work out

the concerns and the problems you are facing. What happens to you in the future

also matters .to me. If things work out well for you and you achieve success, I

shall be happy about it. If you encounter frustration and failure, I shall be

saddened." The opposite of caring is not anger but indifference. Effective helpers

agree to offer time and energy to other because the future well-being of the people

to whom they are reaching out matters to these counselors.

Effective helpers have expertise in some area which will be a special value to the

person being helped: Employment counselors have special knowledge about the

career development process, the skill needed for decision making, and jobs

available in their local community. Counselors who work with children have

special knowledge of child development, special counseling tools effective with

children, and skill in family counseling. Counseling employed in geriatric settings

understand human aging and its positive and negative effects on psychological,

social and physiological functioning.

Effective helpers attempt to understand the behaviour of the people they try to

help without imposing value judgements: People tend to make value judgements

about the behaviour of others-to judge the behaviour of others by one's ownstandards. Though appropriate when casting a vote, this value judging tendency

seriously interferes with the process of effective helping. Effective helpers work

hard to control the tendency to judge the values of their clients. Instead, they

accept a given behaviour pattern as the client's way of coping the same life

situation, and they try to understand how the pattern developed. The helper will

develop opinion about whether the behaviour pattern is effective or ineffective in

serving the client's goals but will refrain from classifying the client's values as

"good" or "bad".

Effective helpers develop an in-depth understanding of human behaviour.. They

understand that behaviour does not simply occur. Their approach is that all

behaviour are purposeful andgoaldirected, that there are reasons and explanationsfor human behaviour, and that truly helping another means understanding the

reasons for that person's behaviour must be understood rather than judging them.

9. Effective helpers are able to reason systematically and to think in terms ofsystem:

A system is an organized entity in which each of the components relates to each

other and to the system as a whole. Examples of systems include the human body,

the organizational setting in which a person works and the family unit. Effective

counselors are always aware of the different social systems of which clients are a

part, how they are affected and how they.in turn influence those systems. In other

words, effective helpers are aware of the forces and factors in a client's life space

and the mutual interaction between the client's behaviour and these environmental

factors.


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10.

11.

12.

Effective counselors are able to understand the social, cultural and political

context in which people operate and have a world-view of human events:

Counselors are aware of important present-day events in all the systems affecting

their lives and the lives of their clientele. They are aware of the significance and

possible future implications of these events. The counselor must have understood

current social concerns and of how these events affect the views of clients -

especially their views about the future. Among the important contemporary

issues which a counselor must attend is how bias and discrimination against some

groups in society affect their personal well-being and progress toward self-actualisation.

Effective helpers are able to identify behaviour patterns that are self-defeating

and help others change the behaviour to more personally rewarding behaviour

patterns: People frequently do things that are counterproductive and goal

disruptive. People run away from frightening situations rather than confront the

aspect of a situation that cause anxiety. Others do things to betray trust and

cannot understand why others do not trust them. Effective counselors are capable

of seeing such patterns and of assisting clients in developing alternative patterns.

Effective helpers have a model or image of the quality and behaviour patterns of

a healthy and effective, or fully functioning, individual: Included in this model isan elaborate image of effective and ineffective, ways of coping with the stressful

situations of life. Effective counselors are able to help others look at themselves,

at both their likable and less admirable aspects, without debilitating fear, to

identify personal changes that would promote growth and improvements, and to

develop approach to bring about those improvements.

10.5 COUNSELING OUTCOMES

Counseling is an interactive process which is characterised by an unique relationship

between counselor and the counselee, and this leads to change in the counselee in one

or more of the following areas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Behaviour (changes in the ways the counselee acts, copes, makes decisions or

relates)

Beliefs (ways of thinking about one self, others and the world) or emotional

concerns about these perceptions.

Level of emotional distress (uncomfortable feelings or reactions to environmental

stress).

Attitudes (negative attitudes towards self or others)

Possible Effect of Counseling

The desire for change can stem from identified problems, such as loneliness,

uncontrollable anxiety, or poor social skills, or from a desire for fuller life, even in

the absence of clear problems in functioning. In the latter case, a couple might enter

counseling seeking a more intimate relationship even though neither partner feels

dissatisfaction or frustration currently, or a worker might consult with counselor prior

to an important job change. In all cases, counseling should result in free and

responsible behaviour on the part of the client, accompanied by more insight into him

or herself and an ability to understand and better manager of negative emotions.

Change in counseling can take several forms: over behaviour change, improvementin decision-making or coping skills, modification of beliefs or values, or reduction of

the level of emotional distress. Here we examine each category ofchange, beginning

with behaviour change.


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Behaviour change is probably the easiest type of change to recognize because it is

overt and observable. A behaviour change might be the solution of a problem, as in

the case of a child who learns to get what he wants from others through verbal

requests and negotiation, rather than through physical aggression. A behaviour

change might also enhance one's potential for personal growth, as in the case of a

middle-aged person who returns to school or embarks on a new career. Many

counselors believe that changes in thought and attitudes must precede changes in

behaviour, and they work to understand those changes.

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Counseling may also enhance an individual's ability to cope with life situations.

Certain environment conditions are adverse and difficult to change, but learning how

to manage one's life in the face of adversity creates room for accomplishment and

enjoyment inspite of such conditions. For instance, some people with terminal illness

refer to the period after they got sick as one of the best of their lives because of the

closeness to and honesty with loved ones that their impending death brought. Clearly,

they are not glad that they got sick rather, they mean that they are able to appreciate

the precious gains the illness provided, inspite of its devastating consequences.

Coping ability depends on the individual's skill in identifying the questions to be

resolved, the alternatives that are available, and the likely results of different actions.

Sometimes coping means learning to live with what one cannot change.

Counseling may also contribute to a client's ability to make important life decisions.

The counselor teaches the client about self-assessment procedures and how to use

information to arrive at personally satisfying answers. Career decision making, for

example, is still a major focus of school and college counselors. Counselors prepared

in contemporary career development methods focus heavily on helping clients to

identify relevant sources of information. Generally on refrains from giving advice

and see career decision making as a life long process rather than a single decision

made during young adulthood.

Though not directly observable, change in beliefs (also called personal constructs) may

occur in counseling and can be assessed from the client's verbal output. A commongoal of counseling is that the client will improve his or her self-concept and come to

think of himself/herself as a more competent, lovable, or worthy person. People who

think they. are incapable, feel embraced about performing in front of others and will

act on those personal constructs by avoiding anything challenging.

An additional function of counseling is the relief of emotional distress. Many clients

enter counseling because they feel bad and need a place where they can safely vent

those feelings and feel sure that they will be accepted and understood. Their level of

emotional distress may be interfering with their daily activities, and they need relief

from their psychic pain.

Change that occurs in counseling can influence feelings, values, attitudes, thoughts,and actions. Among the broad variety of potential changes, some will be obvious and

others very subtle. Because the scope of possible change covers essentially all

dimensions of human experiences, it can correctly be stated that if change in at least

one dimensions does not occur, counseling has not succeeded. The result of

counseling may be inner peace with little outward sign of change.

One of the significant outcomes that are expected from counseling is the

establishment of free and responsible behaviour

Freedom is the power to determine one's own actions, to make one's own choices and

decisions. Throughout the history, human beings have migrated from one location to

another in search of a social order that would allow freedom and many democracieswere founded by people searching for freedom. However, freedom is fragile, and

some of it must be sacrificed as the price for living in


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any kind of social system. Freedom is also limited by the responsibility to consider

the freedoms of others as one determines one's actions, it is not license to do exactly

as one pleases.

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One of the roles of counselors is to help clients assess the true margins of their

freedom by focusing their thoughts on the consequences of their actions and

decisions. Clients who feel that freedom is license for must be helped to see that

family, friends, teachers, employers, or the society at large will exact a price for

behaviours that are perceived as threatening to the client's self-interest for others.

Counselors raised on cultures that places storing emphasis on the rights and freedom

of the individual must also understand that not all cultures emphasize individual

freedom to the same degree. Hence, counselors need to respect the value of clients

who place the good of the group or the family ahead of the desires of an individual.

Counselors are obliged to show respect for community along with their

encouragement of personal growth.

Another very important domain in terms of outcome is understanding and managing

negative feelings and attitudes.

It is a common misunderstanding that counseling eliminates negative feelings. In thebeginning counselors are tempted to set the elimination of anxiety, sadness, or anger

as one of their missions, and clients will reinforce them in this goals. The counselor

needs only to look within self and to friends and family to realize that negative

feelings are present even in people who are leading satisfactory lives. It is definitely a

goal' of counseling to help people understand these feelings and to reduce debilitation

anxiety, overwhelming sadness, or extreme anger.

10.6 PROCESS GOALS IN COUNSELING

The definition said that counseling is an interactive process characterized by a unique

relationship between counselor and client. To understand counseling as a process,

one must distinguish between outcome goals and process goals. Outcome goals

(described in the previous section) are the intended results of counseling. Generally,

they are described in terms of what the client desires to achieve as a result of his or

her interaction with the counselor. In contrast, process goals are those events the

counselors take as helpful and instrumental in bringing about outcome goals.

Outcome goals are described in terms of change in the client that will manifest after

the counseling and outside the counselor's office. Process goals are plans for events

that take place during the counseling sections and in the counselor's office. They are

events that the counselor considers helpful and instrumental in achieving outcome

goals.

Process goals can also be described in terms of the counselor's actions and at othertimes in terms of effect to be experienced by the client. For example, a counselor may

think, "If I am to help this client, I must actively listen to what he is saying and

understand the significance of his concerns for his present and future well-being. I

must understand how the attitudes he is describing influences the way he behaves

towards significant others. I must understand the surrounding circumstances

(including cultural background) that relate to his concerns, and I must understand the

reinforcing events that support his behaviour". All of these statements are process

goals that relate to the counselor's behaviour.

Another kind of process goal refers to the way the consumer can act as a model for

new ways of behaving. By modeling appropriate responses to frustration,

disappointment, or negative feelings, the counselors indirectly teaches the clientalternatives to accustomed ways of responding. For example, a counselor who deals

assertively to a chronically late client is demonstrating to the client an alternative way

to cope with feelings of frustration.


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1.2.3.

4.

Stages of the counseling process

A process is an identifiable sequence of events taking place over time. Usually there

is the implication of progressive stages in the process. The stages if the counseling

are discussed below:

Stage I: Initial Disclosure

At the beginning of counseling, the counselors and clients typically do not know one

another well. Neither participant can know in advance the direction their discussionwill ultimately take, and the client is probably a bit anxious about disclosing concerns

because s/he is not sure how the counselor will receive the disclosures. Without

disclosure, counseling is an empty process.

In the initial disclosure stage of counseling, clients must be helped to articulate their

personal concerns and to place those concerns in a context so that the counselor can

understand the personal meanings and significance the client attaches to them. To

define the problem is the first step in learning the meaning of the situations of the

particular client.

To encourage disclosure, the counselor must set conditions that promote trust in the

client. Rogers (1951) described these trust-promoting conditions as the characteristics

of the helping relationship.

Empathy - understanding another's experience as if it were your own, without

ever loosing the "as if" quality.

Congruence or genuineness - being as you seem to be, consistent over time,

dependable in the relationship.

Unconditional positive regard - caring for your client without setting conditions

for your caring (avoiding the message "I will care about you if you do what I

want").

Egan (1988) adds another condition that has relevance throughout the

counseling process:

Concreteness - using clear language to describe the client's life situation.

Effective counseling procedures in the initial disclosure stage lead to sustained self-

disclosure by the client for the following purposes:

to let the counselors know what has been occurring in the client's life and howthe client thinks and feels about (hose events;

to encourage the client to gain some feeling of relief through the process oftalking about his or her problems;

to encourage the client to develop a clearer definition of his or her concernsand greater understanding about exactly what is disturbing;

to help the client being to connect components of his or her story that may leadto new insight.

Stage II: In-depth Exploration

In the second stage of counseling, the client should reach clear understanding of his

or her life concerns and begin to formulate a new sense of hope and directions. It is a

useful rubric to think of emerging goals as the "flip side" of problems.

The process that facilitates formulation of a new sense of direction builds on the

conditions of the initial disclosure stage and becomes possible only if trust has been

built in that first stage and is maintained. But the relationship has become less

strenuous and fragile than it was at the beginning and so the counselor can use a

broader range of intervention tools without increasing tension beyond tolerable

limits. The first stage merges into the second stage as the counselor perceives the

client's readiness.


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In the second stage, the counselor begins, subtly at first, to bring into the discussion

his or her diagnostic impressions of the ciient's dynamics and coping behaviour. The

empathic responses of the counselor now include coping behaviour. The empathic

responses of the counselor now include material from prior sessions and focus more

on the client's mind state that the counselor has an understanding of his or her world

and provide an impetus for still deeper exploration.

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As the relationship becomes more secure, the counselor also beings to confront the

client with observation about his or her goals behaviour. Broadly speaking,constructive confrontation provides the client with an external view of his or her

behaviour, based on the counselor's observations. The client is free to accept, reject

or modify the counselor's impression.

Immediacy is another quality of the counselor's behaviour that becomes important in

the second stage of counseling. According to Egan (1988), immediacy can be defined

in three different ways. First, it refers to general discussions about the progress of the

counseling relationship. The counselors give the client an immediate reaction the

client's statements or asks the clients to disclose current thoughts about the counselor.

The third kind of immediacy response is a self-involving statement that expresses the

counselor's personal to a client in the present.

The focus of counseling is clearly on the client by the second stage, the counselor

may begin sharing bits of his or her own experience with the client without fear of

appearing to oversimplify the client's problems or seeming to tell the client's "Do as I

did". Incidents in the counselor's life may be shared if they have direct relevance to

the client's concern.

The second stage of counseling many a times becomes emotionally stressful, as the

client repeatedly faces the inadequacy of habitual behaviour and must begin to give

up the familiar for'the unfamiliar. This stressful task must be accomplished within a

caring relationship in which it is clear that the counselor is not criticising the client's

past behaviour. The thrust is toward helping clients realise more clearly what they do

not like in their responses to present situations or decisions making and to gain asense of what kinds of responses might be more satisfying.

Stage III: Commitment to Action

In third and final stage of counseling client resolve how to accomplish any goals that

have come over during the previous two stages. Concerns have been defined and

clarified on the context of the client's life situation. The clients have to realised how

his or her own behaviour related to accomplishing the goals that have been clarified

through the counseling process. What remains is to decide what, if any, overt actions

the client might take to alleviate these problems. If no action is indicated, then the

third stage of counseling can focus on increasing the client's commitment to a view

that s/he has done everything possible or desirable in the given situation.

This stage includes recognising possible alternative courses of action (or decision)

the clients might choose and evaluating each of them in terms of the likelihood of

outcomes. Once an action decision is made, the clients usually try some new

behaviours are habitual and because new behaviours while remaining in touch with

the counselor. Together, the counselor and client monitor the initial steps of the

change process.

Often the client needs to be reinforced to behave in new ways, both because the old

behaviours are habitual and because new behaviours may not bring about immediate

results. Especially when the goals involve improving interpersonal relationships with

one or more people, the other parties may not respond instantly


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to the client new direction, which can be discouraging.

34


Particular actions cannot be evaluated for a goal that has not been defined, and a goal

cannot be defined if a concern has not been explored and clarified. Even so, the

segments of an individual's life cannot be fully separated and treated as independent

problem. Eventually, each sector must fit back into a whole picture of the individual's

life, much as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fit together to procedure a complete

picture. The process of counseling may involve refining the edges of one piece so

that it fits the picture.

10.7 THE BASIC CONDITIONS OF COUNSELING

To support client's disclosure of meaningful issues during the initial disclosure stages

of counseling, the counselor maintains an attitude of receiving the client, often

referred to as the core condition of counseling. Three of these conditions - empathy,

positive regard and genuineness - were described by Carl Rogers (1957) as the

significant and sufficient conditions of personality change. The fourth condition,

concreteness, is the counselor's skill focusing the client's discussion on specific

events, thoughts and feeling that matter, while discouraging a lot of intellectualised

storytelling.

Empathy

Rogers (1961) defined empathy as the counselor's ability "to enter the client's

phenomenon world -- to experience the client's world as if it were your own without

ever losing the as if quality tailing how it is perceived in client-centered,

psychoanalytic, behvioural and cognitive, postmodernist".

The important components are:

Empathic rapport - primarily kindness, global understanding, and tolerant

acceptance of the client's feelings and frame of reference.

Experience near-understanding of the client's world - what it is like to have the

problems the client has, to live in the life situation the client lives in ... what it is

like to be him.

Communicative attunement - the therapist tries to put himself or herself in the

client's sic shoes at the moment, to grasp what they are trying to consciously

communicate at the moment, and what they are experiencing at the moment.

Empathy focuses on two major skills: perceiving and communicating. Perceiving

involve an intense process of actively listening for themes, issues, personal

constructs, and emotional. Themes may be thought of as recurring patterns, forexample, views of oneself, attitudes towards others, consistent interpersonal

relationship patterns, fear of failure, and search for personal power. Issues are

questions of conflict with which the client is struggling:"What do I want for my

future?" Relative to each theme or issue a client will have emotional of elation, joy,

anger, anxiety, sadness, confusion, and so forth. Understanding the emotional

investments is a critical part of the perceptual element of empathy.

In the communication component of empathy, the counselor says something that tells

the client that his or her meaning and feelings have been understood. If a counselor

listens carefully and understands well but says nothing, the client has no way of

knowing what is in the counselor's mind. Sometimes the client may even misinterpret

a counselor's lack of response as a negative judgment about what they have, said. It isoften through hearing his or her meanings and feelings repeated that the client takes

anotherlookat life events and begins to perceive them differently.


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Effectively communicated empathy has a number of desired effects in the initialdisclosure stage of counseling. First, the energy required to listen actively expresses

caring and affirmation to the client. The counselor is saying, "I care enough for you

that I want to invest everything into understanding clearly".

35


Second, the feedback that comes from the counselor's contact with significant themes

helps the client see his or her own themes more clearly. This helps the client

understand himself/herself more deeply and re-examine relevant perceptions,

attitudes, and beliefs.

Third, such responding establishes expectations about the nature of the counseling

experience. Counseling is conveyed to the client as a process that involves attending

to oneself, exploring, searching, and perceiving oneself more clearly. Counseling is

established as an experience involving work, not simply conversation. Indeed, the

counselor's work is to stimulate the client's work of self-discovery.

A fourth effect is that is the counselor is careful to offer a level of empathy that is

consistent with the client's level of readiness, the client will feel safe to continue the

counseling experience. The client learns that nothing bad will happen as a result of

communicating and that something helpful is likely to occur.

A fifth effect is that empathy communicated to the clients that the counselor has

social expertise to offer. Empathy is not routinely experienced in the events of daily

life. A counselor who can make empathic contact establishes himself/herself .as

having some special skill, which in turn helps the client experience a sense of

optimism about future sessions.

Positive Regard

Positive regard is caring for your counselee for no other reason than the fact that s/he

is human and therefore worthy. Caring is expressed by the enthusiasm one person

shows for being in the presence of another and by the amount of time and energy one

is willing to devote to another's well being. The experience of being cared abouthelps develop and restore a sense of caring for oneself. It creates energy and

encourages a person to respond to the demand of life. A counselor's caring can

increase the client's enthusiasm for work and growth.

The Problems the Counselor may Face Personally

To work through feelings of disregard for a client, the counselor must first

acknowledge them and take responsibility for their existence. After recognition, the

counselor's task is to identify specific characteristics of the client that s/he does not

like. Lying, defensiveness, manipulation, destructiveness to oneself and others,

unwillingness to conform to reasonable social rules, and irresponsibility to others the

traits that often trigger dislike for many counselors.

Several parameters of human behaviour may help counselors work through their own

emotions. One is that the counselor may be tempted to impose "should" statementson the client.

A second parameter is that anxiety often accompanies feelings of dislike for a

client. The counselors may feel threatened by client's behaviour that raises concern

about his or her own unresolved issues or by the fear that the client's problems are

beyond his or her ability to help. Excessive resistance by the client or power struggles

in the counseling sessions can also trigger counselor anxiety.

A third parameter is that some characteristic of the clients may remind the

counselor of some other person for whom there are feelings of anger or resentment.

In such circumstances the counselor does not perceive the client with


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full accuracy but instead has some distortion in his or her image of the client.

36


An effective counselor will experience positive regard for this vast majority of his or

her clients. Although caring is usually not as directly expressed as empathy, it will

become apparent to the client thought the counselor's spontaneous statements that

acknowledge the validity of the client's struggle for a more satisfying life.

Activity 1

Think of two people in your life. Person A is an individual you perceive to be

genuine. Person B is an individual you do not perceive to be genuine. Develop a clear

vision image of each person. Recall one or two significant experiences that you have

had with each one. Now, while remembering these experiences, answer the following

questions, writing down your answers or sharing them with other person.

1.

2.

3.4.

5.

6.

What specific observations have I made about person A that gives me the

impression that s/he is a genuine individual?

What specific observations have I made about person B that give me the

impression that s/he is not a genuine individual?

Differences are there in the way of relating to me?

How would I describe my inner experience in the presence of person A,

particularly my emotions?

How would I describe my inner experience in the presence of person B,

particularly my emotions?

From my personal experience, what principles about genuineness seem valid to

me?

As stated earlier in the chapter, it is the counselor's responsibility to identify which ofthe client's statements are central to his or her reasons for being a client and to

encourage talk about those issues. The client is still the person who determines what

will be introduced as the content of the session, but the counselor manages to process

in such a way as to make it easier for the client to talk about what matters. What the

counselor responds to, the client will probably follow up on; what the counselor

ignores will likely to be dropped. As diagnostic skills improve with experience, it

becomes easier for the counselor to identify important themes to be pursued, but at

the beginning counselors can easily distinguish between small talk and self-

disclosure. Beyond initial social amenities that may contribute to client comfort.

Small talk wastes valuable counseling time of specific interaction between the client

and the other person will shed much light on the relationship dynamics. "Picking on

me" may actually mean "Every time I don't have my homework done, the teachercalls attention to it in a public way and embarrasses me".

The language used by the client and by the counselor can also contribute to

unfocused discussion. Vagueness, abstractness, and obsecurity are the opposites of

concrete communication. Therefore, the counselor should model direct

communication as well as challenge the client to become more specific. The more

fully and concretely the troublesome events in the client's life are re-created,

complete with affective tone, within the counseling session, the more likely it is that

new understanding and more positive feelings can be developed.

The following example includes three counselor responses, each of which is at least

minimally responsive to the client's statement. The responses increase in their level ofconcreteness and thereby increase in their potential to focus the client's self-

exploration.


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CLIENT: I feel so frustrated with my teenage daughter. She is completely out of

control. No matter what I do she stays out till all hours and won't get up for school in

the morning. I've tried everything but I just seem hopeless.

37


Response with little concreteness:

You seem very upset and worried.

Response with moderate concreteness:

You seem pretty frustrated with your daughter's behaviour and are running out of

ideas.

Response with a high degree of concreteness:

You are frightened that your daughter is harming herself and feel powerless and

hopeless. At the same time you haven't given up. You are here and ready to try. to

work out some other way to help.

Although the first response identifies something of the client's feelings, the second

adds more of the client's meaning as well. The third response included feeling and

meaning in more detail, and it begins to structure towards hope that exploration

might lead to new possibilities for helping. Any of the three responses would likely

sustain the conversation, but the more concrete the response, the more likely the

client will focus energy productively.

10.8 COUNSELING IN ORGANIZATIONS

Of all the things that characterise the organizational and business work of the

nineties, change comes first. It is only a matter of time before counselors will be

acknowledged as offering models not only of individual, but of organization change.

When organization set up counseling provision, there are four different counselingarrangements:

1. For their employees: Workplace counseling is increasing more and morecompanies, both the private and public sector, are paying counselors to work

with their employees. Counseling provision can take the form of either in-house

counseling, where counselors are also employees of the organization, or external

provision where Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) provide counseling.

For their consumers: Most Higher Educational establishments, for example, run

counseling services for their students.

2.

3.

4.

For members of the public: For example, a local authority fund a YouthCounseling Agency. Here, young people up to a certain age can refer

themselves, or be referred, for counseling that is paid for by the local authority.

Specifically to engage in counseling: As a counseling agency it offerscounseling that is either paid for by its private customers or by some other

group, for example, doctors, local authorities, etc.

A number of authors have struggled with the issue of whether or not workplace

counseling can justifiably be called `counseling' in the professional sense of the work

(Ready, 1987; Carroll and Holloway, 1993; Nixon and Carroll, 1994. The Institute of

Personal Management's Statements on Counseling in the Workplace being with

`Workplace counseling is not counseling in the modern definition of the term butrelates to situations which require the use of counseling skills' (1992; 1). Applied to

members of the organizations such as managers, personnel officers, human resource

personnel, it makes sense that they integrate counseling skills into their already

established role/s with people in the organization. But


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there is also a place for the professional employee counselor whose task is to set up

and maintain therapeutic working alliance with members of an organization.

38


Literature on Counseling in Organizations

There are few literary resources that deal exclusively with counseling in

organizations. Those that do so (Lewis and Lewis, 1986; Reddy, 1987) often dwell

on introducing counseling skills, setting up employee support systems in a particular

organization or dealing with specific problem areas, but do not cover substantially theissues and demands of introducing counseling provision into an organization. Carroll

(1996b) has outlined a six-stage model of preparing for, assessing, contracting,

introducing, terminating and evaluating counseling with individuals within an

organization and applying a similar model to counseling in organizations. Bull (1995)

has published a short document to give purchasers and providers guidelines on

workplace counseling. Much work still needs to be done on all of these areas.

The aims and objective of introducing counseling into organizational settings is still

unclear. There seems to be some kind of unwritten agreement that such counseling is

valuable and its objectives obvious. The latter is far from the case. We are still

uncertain about how to relate organizational aims, policies and procedures to the

purposes and objectives of counseling. There is little material on the actual impactwhich various organizational cultures have no counseling provision and there is no

agreement on what actually constitutes counseling in organizations.

A recent book by Summerfield and Van Oudtshoorn (1995) focuses on counseling

skills in the workplace and is written primarily for personal and human resources

managers who want to integrate counseling into their already existing work. Carroll's

(1996b) is one of the few British books that looks at professional counseling in

organizations. These contributions have opened up areas for discussion about the

differences between professional counseling and the use of counseling skills and the

relationship between counseling and the allied roles of mentoring appraisal and

indeed, organizational development.

Most counselors who use particular counseling approaches apply their counseling

theory within organizations in the same way as they do when practicing

independently. There is some understanding of how organizations are assessed using

a particular counseling model: for example, Krets de Vries and Miller (1984) and

Hirschhorn and Barnett (1993) have used a psychoanalytic approach to designate

different types of organizations; Critchley and Casey (1989) have applied the Gestalt

Model to explain how organizations get stuck at various levels of their development.

However, most counseling orientations do not have such a typology. Their main

interest is still focused almost exclusively on individual and the organization

dimensions of counseling work are largely ignored.

Understanding Counseling in Organizations

To date there is no theoretical basis to counseling in organizational settings. There is

no text that struggles with what types. of counseling are best suited to organizational

counseling or what evaluates the various counseling models vis-a-vis application to

particular organizations and settings (Carroll, 1996b). Short term counseling work is

continually suggested as the main focus of workplace counseling but what kind of

short-term counseling? Ought it to be psychodynamic humanistic, cognitive-

behavioural, systemic, or integrative'? All of these have much to contribute to

counseling at large, but their application to organization is left to the individual

allegiance of particular counselors rather than to a studied and prepared application

of which counseling models are most suited to which organizations - not, indeed, that

is suggested here that there is one


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39


1.2.3.

model of counseling that exceeds others in effectiveness when applied to

organizations.

Workplace counseling could be viewed as on a continuum with varying opinions on

its aims and objectives spanning from converting the business goals into clinical goal

to totally focusing on the individual in a particular context. There is a range of

positions between the two poles which combine the above with varying emphasis on

one position or the other. Some companies predetermine approaches with policies

such as the length of time clients can be seen for (for example, four-six session), orby insisting that assessments are first made by a psychologist or psychiatrist before

referral to the counselor. This, again, points out the lack of clarity about the precise

aims and objectives of workplace counseling. Sworder has suggested a framework in

which problem at work can be assessed.

Problems arising within the individual.

Problems caused by the work organizations acting on the individual.

Problems arising outside the individual or the organizations; either (a) having

visible effects on the work of the individual, or (b) not having visible effects on

the work of the individual.

While recognising that there may well be `mixtures' of these three problem areas such

a framework, at least, gives the counselor a model for deciding when workplace

counseling is called and when it is, or may, outside the domain of the workplace

counseling service.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Various Types of Counseling Provision

in Organizations

Counseling in an organization can be set up to two ways: in-house counseling

provision and out-house (external) counseling provision. There is almost no research

on the values of internal (in-house) versus external counseling services, and whetherwhich one is better than the other. Even through EAPs (Employee Assistant

Programme) are an essential part of workplace counseling is not the only way in an

organizational setting.

External based models of counseling are those brought in from outside the

organization. Usually in the form of EAP, they are administered and organised from

outside. Table 1.1 outlines some of the strengths and weaknesses of externally based

models of counseling. It must be remembered that these strengths and weaknesses

can vary according to the context and that what is a strength for one organization

could be a weakness for another. They do not apply to all EAPs and providers may

have overcome the potential weaknesses that are prescribed here.

There are a number of formats of external counseling provision used by organization:

some employees established EAPs, others set up an internal EAP, and others opt for

employing individuals to work on a session basis with employees. Externally base

models of workplace counseling have increased in number over the past decade and it

is anticipated that they will continue to increase over the next few years.

In-house counseling provision can be set up in a variety of ways: with an in-houseEAP, with a team of counselors, with an individual counselor, within a particular

department or outside all departments, with part-time or full-time provision.

Conflicts between the Values of Organizations and Those of Counseling

Oberer and Lee articulate a major concern about counseling in organizations: the

most obvious one (area of difficult) ) involves the primary role of business versus


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the counselor's professional goals (1986). Is there an inherent contradiction between

the aims and purposes of industry and those of the counseling profession? Are

counselors compromised by working within industry? There is no doubt that the aim

of counseling is to promote growth and autonomy, to encourage clients to care for

themselves, to be assertive and to develop their potential. These are not always in

accord with the aims of particular organizations which perhaps do not wish their

employees to be autonomous. Many organizations want team-work rather than a

concentration on the individual, many require `passive employees' rather than active

ones, and many growth-oriented employees would clash with `macho managers'.From a social-work perspective but again dealing with the organizational issues, it

can be said again that executives are concerned with funding, organizational stability,

regularity issues, and external politics. Clinicians are concerned about client

problems and available services.

40


One difficulty with counseling within the organizational context is that the values and

goals implicit in counseling (especially in non-directive approaches) are not easily

reconciled with the economic, rationalistic models which underlie organizational

procedures and process. Counseling is generally concerned with providing

individuals with a greater sense of freedom, while an important organizational

function is the control of its employees.

For texts struggle with the particular problems that arise between the underlying

values, philosophies and policies or the world of organizations and the world of

counseling. It is all easily assumed that these two domains blend together and that

their marriage ought to be one of continual harmony. Warning voices have been

raised about introducing counseling into companies without consultation.

Which come first: the individual client or the organizations as a whole? Counselor

are trained primarily to deal with the individual and to put the welfare of the

individual as a priority. This may conflict with company norms and even policies.

`Values' issues arise when there is a clash between the values of the individual and

the needs of the company. Oberer and Lee put it slightly differently `It is only with a

choice which must be made that places an employee's well-being either ahead of orafter his contribution to profits, that conflicts arise'. However, Reddy (1993) makes

the point that benefits for the organization. The welfare of the employee and the

interest of the organization can proceed hand in hand.

Clashes in values among counselors, clients, organizations and society have to be

faced continually by workplace counselors who are trying `to integrate outer-directed

business values with the more inner-directed humanistic ones'.

The Roles and Responsibilities of Counselors in Organizations

Little consideration has been given to the roles and responsibilities that characterise

the counselor in the workplace. To date, these have not been articulated clearly, andworkplace counselors are asked to fulfill, roles that counselors in other setting find

anathema to their work. It is rare that the employee counselor has one single role with

clients. Rather, s/he is asked often to be trainer, welfare-officer, home-visitor,

information-giver, advocate, consultant to managers, personnel adviser and

organizational change-agent, as well as being counselor. While many fulfill these

myriad roles admirably, there is nothing to help them sort out and decide which roles

fit well together and which result in role conflict with their clients.

The first and most obvious applications (for the counseling psychologist) are in the

career development, training, selection of personnel, consultant, not forgetting, of

course, the mental health contribution, and intervention at the`individual, group, and

system level' by counselor.


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Table 1.1 The Strengths and Weakness of Externally Based Counseling Provision

41


Strengths Weakness

The counseling service is distinctfrom the politics of the organization

It can challenge what is taken forgranted within the company

It can offer training as well ascounseling

It can offer clear confidently It can provide a range of services It can offer a number of counselors

with different skills, backgrounds,

etc.

The organizations are not responsiblefor malpractice of counselors.

The counselors may not be flexible

in what s/he can offer.

The counseling service has to makea profit.

It may not adapt easily to individualcompanies.

The counselor can' unwittingly getinvolved in the politics of the

organization.

The counselor may not understandthe culture of the organization.

The counselor may be seen as an`outsider' by potential clients.

The counselor may not be able to

educate the system to what

counseling means.

The counselor may not have

experience of workplace counseling.

The counselor may know nothing

about the organization from which

clients come.

Source:Carroll, 1996.

Counselors, by training can make significant contributions to a number of

organizational areas. However, making them consultant to almost every part of

organisation may mean overlooking what they do best, that is individual counseling.

It may also fail to recognise the `boundary issues' or role conflicts that could arise

when counselors take part in a number of organizational activities. The counselor in

an organization has to ascertain which roles can exist together without compromise,and which roles, though good in themselves, are incompatible in this context.

All organizations have their own ecology, flavour, ethos, and way of working and

interacting with employees and other organizations. Lane points out that `different

organizations will value different type of counseling service' (1990:542). He then

delineated four types of organizational culture - power cultures, role cultures,

achievement cultures, and support cultures -- indicating how each of these view

counseling differently and have different expectations of a counseling service. Other

authors have suggested different culture typologies. Understanding the ecology of the

organization will help to articulate what may be expected and what needs to be done

within that particular organization. As a , result of such an assessment, a counselor

may decide s/he is not ready or able to work within its ambience. For example, if apower culture organization wants to set up a counseling service, it will do so in a way

that does not allow for organizational change and it will expect the counselor too

work with clients in such a way that they emerge as more dedicated members of the

organization.

Clarkson (1990), in a stress-related understanding of counseling in organizations,

asks key questions about working within an organization. Is counseling for the

individual who is growing or who is deteriorating? Does the individual need

counseling or the organization needs change? Is the organization a healthy

environment to work in or one that `sickness' its employees? Counselors are not,

usually, management consultants, and not, usually in a strong position to assess the

well-being of an organization and its effects on its employees.


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42


Perhaps an area of training for those who would work as counselor in organizational

settings is precise in these skills of how to assess the willingness of an organization to

introduce counseling and whether it is the answer to their employee problems.

Counselors, by training, think interpersonally. In organisational settings they are

asked to think both interpersonally and organizationally. This can be quite a mind-

shift. Counselors are asked to be benefit to the organizations as a whole, not just to

individuals with it. They need to widen their perspective: "Employee counseling

should not be tackled on a piecemeal basis, but should be coherently and effectively

integrated with assessment, training and consultancy endeavours to form a part of acoherent overall strategy for the whole organization".

The list of challenges faced by counseling working in non-counseling

organization:

Being pressured to produce result desired by the agency rather than the client.

Maintaining confidential boundaries

Justifying the cost .of the service

Dealing with isolation

Education colleagues about the purpose and value of counseling Justifying the

cost of supervision

Avoiding being overwhelmed by number of clients, or becoming the conscience

of the organization

Avoiding the threat to reputation caused by 'failure' cases

Coping with the envy of colleagues who are not able to take an hour for each

client interview

Creating an appropriate office space and reception system.

Such demands from some organizations give a flavour of how influential a setting

can be on what happens to a counseling service.

Few resources to understand the particular characteristics or workplace counseling

services (or indeed counselors within this area) merged. How to manage the process

of such provision is still an open question. Where should be counseling rooms

situated? Carroll (1995) has a series of questions centered around `Managing the

counseling process in workplace counseling' that require practical answers.

The types of area covered by counseling management are:

What physical arrangements are needed to provide confidential counseling to

clients in this setting? Where will the counseling room be placed? How will it befurnished?

How will clients contact the counseling service? Can. they be referred by other?

Will the counselor accept referrals and appointments from sources other than the

client, for example from colleagues, manager, supervisor, disciplinary boards,

personal department?

How will the counseling service be advertised/publicised?

What are the circumstances in which a counselor would not accept a referral? For

example, when a manager wants to give a formal warning and insists on

counseling to help the employee change his/her behaviour.

What happens when the client contacts the service? Who is the first contact?

What information does the first contact require?


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43


How is the client assessed, and what referral points are appropriate?

What does the client (and the appropriate manager) need to know about the

counseling service?

What kind of contract is made with the client?

What notes are kept on the client? Where are they kept? Who else besides the

counselor has access to these notes? How long are notes kept after the

counseling has terminated?

What happens when the client terminates counseling?

How are statistics kept within service and how are they publicized?

How will the counselor organize his/her time in respect of clients, publicity,

training, contacting?

Will clients be seen for a specific number of sessions? Will some be long-term

clients?

If the counseling provision is within a department (for example, Occupational

Health, Personnel), what are the relationships involved? What contact will thedepartment have with clients? What will the department need to know about the

clients, if anything?

What contact will the counselor have with referral agencies?

What methods will be used to evaluate the counseling service?

When will a client be referred for specialized help?

When will the counselor contact other professionals (fir example, a doctor,

psychiatrist, social worker) with or without the client's permission?

What insurance (indemnity) is appropriate for the counselor to have (personallyand/or organizationally)?

What supervision arrangements are essential (desirable) for the counselor to

have? What will the counselor do in the case of an emergency?

There are six areas that require consideration when managing counseling in

organizational setting-negotiating and defining services, contracting with the

organization and clients, identifying the client group, assessing, using short-term

focused counseling and exploring organizational culture and dynamics. The contracts

that must but into practical relate to the administrative, the professional and the

psychological. There is no doubt that these aspects of organizational counseling, over

and above the actual work with clients, can be the most difficult for counselors. Herethey have to work with the organization, with bureaucracy, with policies, with

departments, with committees which protect clients and meets the organizational

aims as well as being managers themselves to a service that may involve other

counselors, secretarial staff, and possible by houses within a particular department.

10.9 ETHICAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING IN

ORGANIZATIONS

Pryor (1989) puts forward an ethical dilemma where an accountant is referred for

counseling and in the session talks about an embezzlement change which he has

never revealed to the company. What should the counselor do? Employed by the

company and, no doubt, with the company's interest at heart, should a counselor,knowing there is a risk (minor, intermediate, serious?) that this employee might

embezzle again (he is in financial difficulty), rely this information to the relevant

management?


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44


Transport counseling into the workplace and not only does one contend with the full

range of ethical issues emerging from counseling, but another full set of issues arrive

on the scene both from within the organization where counseling takes place and

between the organization and the counselor.

A number of ethical dilemmas arising from counseling in organizations have been

raised in the literature: confidentiality the incompatibility between the organization's

aims and the aims of counseling loyalty of the counselor and managing different roles

with the same client.

The following list of possible ethical pitfalls/dilemmas are adapted from Lakin

(1991):

If the management pay, how can the counselor serve the interests of employees?

Can the targets of the interaction - the employees - share in designing

interventions?

How can the counselor honestly describe what is proposed to those who are tobe affect by it?

What can be said regarding confidentiality?

Can employee refuse to participate in counseling without penalty?

Dare the employee confront a manager/supervisor when the counselor and theemployee have worked on this together?

What safeguards are there for participants against retaliation from supervisors or

aggrieved co-workers for what may take place as a result of counseling?

Workplace counselors face not only a barrage of possible ethical dilemmas, but do so

without clear and helpful frameworks for ethical decision-making in work contexts.

Sugarman, 1992 stresses five focal points for the counselor where ethical concerns

need to be tackled:

Identifying the extent to which the aims of an organization over and above the

aims of counseling compromise counseling ethical foundation.

Identifying the points at which the counseling provision benefits the

organization at the individual's expense.

Identifying any points at which the organization exceeds its right to control

aspects of the employee's behaviour.

Negotiating what is implied by the term `confidentiality' and the conditions

under which it will and will not be maintained.

Identifying whether the resource are sufficient and appropriate to doing more

good than hard, and in what ways the origins of the resource compromise the

aims of the service.

It would be extremely difficult to prioritize ethical issues. However, there is some

validity in presenting confidentiality as one of the most crucial factors that can

determine the credibility of counseling within organizations. Failure in this area will

destroy the reputation of a counseling service and yet it is not easy to maintain

confidentiality when there are a host of factors within organizations. Failure in this

area will destroy the reputation of a counseling service. And yet it is not easy to

maintain confidentiality when there are a host of factors within industry vying withone another to compromise it - managers wanting information on employees,

personal asking to be involved, individual clients sharing material detrimental to

organizational policy, etc. Because of its complexity there have been calls for

specific codes geared to each counseling service within each company.


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10.10 TRAINING FOR COUNSELING WHO WORK IN

ORGANISATIONS

45


There are very few precedents to help design training courses for counselors in

organizations. At present, workplace counseling is in search of a model for its

training and while it waits it draws upon the generic training model for its inspiration.

There is notable absence of specialised training for counselors who work within

organizational settings because being a counselor is not in itself sufficient.

For those who wrestle with the contents of a comprehensive curriculum for training

counselors in organizations there is a tendency for the counselor to become a jack-of-

all-organizational-trades. They are asked to be professional counselors,

organizational consultants, trainers, welfare officers, personnel officers, internal or

external change-agents with expertise in individual work, group dynamics and human

resources management. The all-inclusiveness of their tasks could be interpreted as a

lack of clarity on the particular aims of counseling in organizations. The need to

become acceptable to an organization could drive counselors into roles not

appropriate to their profession.

There are almost no training for counselors who either work or intend to work as

counselors within organizations. Gerstein and Shullman (1992) have summarised thetraining in counseling psychology related to work in industry in the US and have

given outlines of two courses entitled `Occupational Counseling Psychology' and `A

Seminar in Counseling Psychology in Business and Organizational Settings'. While

the second of these concentrates on applied skills, the first covers a range of topics

such as:

The history of counseling psychology in business and organizational settings.

The vocational behaviour of adults (career work).

Vocational assessment strategies with adults.

Models and technologies of consultation and programme evaluation.

Workplace wellness and safety programmes.

EAPs

Research issues and questions of interest.

Trade publications important to the business community.

10.11 SUMMARY

The counseling services ;within organizations are in further need to review their, aims

and objectives as a key focus in the kind of provision needed. A clearer view of these

aims and objectives will clarify, in turn, what kind of counseling is best suited to

particular organization, what concepts of change underline such aims, and what roles

and responsibilities characterise the professional counselor who works in an

organizational setting. This again, will lead to a theory of counseling in organizations

which will influence hopefully the training of such counselors.

10.12 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1.2.3.4.5.

Explain the qualities of an effective Counselor.

Describe the basic conditions of counseling.

Explain the significance and process of counseling in organizations.

Discuss some ethical issues of counseling in organizations.

Explain the steps involved in training counsel who work in organizations.


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Interpersonal Processes 10.13 FURTHER READINGS

Bull, A. (1995), Counseling Skills and Counseling at Work: A Guide for Purchaser

and Procedures, Rugby: British Association for Counseling Publications.

Carroll, M. (1994), `Making ethical decisions in Organizational Counseling', EAP

International, (4): 26-30.

Carroll, M. (1995), `The Counselor in Organizational Settings: Some Reflection',Employee Counseling Today, 7 (1): 23-32.

Carroll, M. (996b), Workplace Counseling: A Systematic Approach to Employee

Care, London: Sage.

Clarkson, P. (1990), `The Scope of Stress Counseling in Organizations?' Employee

CounselingToday, 2 (4): 3-6.

Critchley, B. and Casey, D. (1989), `Organizational Get Stuck Too',Leadership and

Organization Development Journal, 10 (4): 3-12.

Gerstein, L.W. and Shullman, S.L. (1992), `Counseling Psychology and theWorkplace: The Emergence of Organizational Counseling Psychology',, in R. Brown

and R.W. Lent (eds.), The Handbook of Counseling Psychology (2nd edition), New

York: Wiley, pp. 581-625.

Hirschhorn, L. and Barnett, C.K. (1993), The Psychodynamics of Organizations,

Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Kets de Vries, F.R. and Miller, D. (1984), The Neurotic Organization, San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass.

Documents

Unit 10 Counselling