INTRODUCTION TO COUNSELING

Counseling is a wonderful twentieth-century invention. We live in a complex, busy, changing

world. In this world, there are many different types of experience that are difficult for people to
cope with. Most of the time, we get on with life, but sometimes we are stopped in our tracks by
an event or situation that we do not, at that moment, have the resources to sort out. Most of the
time, we find ways of dealing with such problems in living by talking to family, friends,
neighbors, priests or our family doctor. But occasionally their advice is not sufficient, or we are
too embarrassed or ashamed to tell them what is bothering us, or we just dont have an
appropriate person to turn to. Counseling is a really useful option at these moments.
In most places, counseling is available fairly quickly, and costs little or nothing. The counselor
does not diagnose or label you, but does his or her best to listen to you and work with you to find
the best ways to understand and resolve your problem. For the majority of people, between one
and six meetings with a counsellor are sufficient to make a real difference to what was bothering
them. These can be precious hours. Where else in our society is there the opportunity to be heard,
taken seriously, understood, to have the focused attention of a caring other for hours at a time
without being asked to give anything in return?
Being a counselor is also a satisfying and rewarding work role. There are times when, as a
counselor, you know that you have made a profound difference to the life of another human
being. It is always a great privilege to be allowed to be a witness and companion to someone
who is facing their own worst fears and dilemmas. Being a counselor is endlessly challenging.
There is always more to learn. The role of counselor lends itself to flexible work arrangements.
There are excellent counselors who are full-time paid staff; others who work for free in the
evenings for voluntary agencies; and some who are able sensitively to offer a counseling
relationship within other work roles, such as nurse, doctor, clergy, social worker or teacher.
WHAT IS COUNSELLING?
The case vignettes presented above give some brief examples of what can happen when someone
goes to see a counselor. But what is counseling? What are the ideas and principles that link
together the very different experiences of these counseling clients? How can we understand and
define counseling? Counseling is not just something that happens between two people. It is also a
social institution that is embedded in the culture of modern industrialized societies.
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It is an occupation, discipline or profession of relatively recent origins. In Britain, the Standing

Council for the Advancement of Counseling (SCAC) was formed in 1971, and became the
British Association for Counseling (BAC) in 1976. The membership of the BAC grew from
1,000 in 1977 to 8,556 in 1992 (BAC 1977, 1992). Renamed the British Association for
Counseling and Psychotherapy in 2001, this organization entered the new millennium with over
18,000 members. In the USA the more specialized Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) of the
American Psychological Association expanded from 645 members in 1951 to 2695 in 1978
(Whiteley 1984). These figures indicate only the extent of the growth in numbers of more highly
trained or professionalized counselors in these countries. There are, in addition, many people
active in voluntary organizations who provide non-professional counseling and who are not
represented in these statistics. And the majority of people now working in the human service
professions, including nursing, teaching, the clergy, the police and many others, would consider
counseling to be part of their work role. Counseling has been a relatively recent addition to the
range of human service professions, and its meaning and place within contemporary culture are
still evolving.
DEFINING COUNSELLING
These are some definitions of counseling formulated by professional bodies and leading figures
in the field: The term counseling includes work with individuals and with relationships which
may be developmental, crisis support, psychotherapeutic, guiding or problem solving . . . The
task of counseling is to give the client an opportunity to explore, discover and clarify ways of
living more satisfyingly and resourcefully. (BAC 1984)
Counseling denotes a professional relationship between a trained counselor and a client. This
relationship is usually person-to-person, although it may sometimes involve more than two
people. It is designed to help clients to understand and clarify their views of their lifespace, and
to learn to reach their self-determined goals through meaningful, well-informed choices and
through resolution of problems of an emotional or interpersonal nature. (Burks and Stefflre 1979:
14) a principled relationship characterised by the application of one or more psychological
theories and a recognised set of communication skills, modified by experience, intuition and
other interpersonal factors, to clients intimate concerns, problems or aspirations. Its predominant
ethos is one of facilitation rather than of advice-giving or coercion. It may be of very brief or
long duration, take place in an organisational or private practice setting and may or may not
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overlap with practical, medical and other matters of personal welfare. It is both a distinctive
activity undertaken by people agreeing to occupy the roles of counselor and client . . . and an
emerging profession . . . It is a service sought by people in distress or in some degree of
confusion who wish to discuss and resolve these in a relationship which is more disciplined and
confidential than friendship, and perhaps less stigmatising than helping relationships offered in
traditional medical or psychiatric settings. (Feltham and Dryden 1993: 6) It can be seen from
these definitions that counseling can have different meanings. For example, Burks and Stefflre
(1979) stress the idea of the professional relationship, and the importance of self-determined
goals. The BAC definition places emphasis on exploration and understanding rather than action.
Feltham and Dryden (1993) highlight the areas of overlap between counseling and other forms of
helping, such as nursing, social work and even everyday friendship. The existence of such
contrasting interpretations and definitions arises from the process by which counseling has
emerged within modern society. Counseling evolved and changed rapidly during the twentieth
century, and contains within it a variety of different themes, emphases, practices and schools of
thought.
It is important to be aware that the definitions of counseling listed here share one important
feature in common: they are framed from the point of view of the counselor. What this means is
that they largely reflect the aim of professional bodies to establish counseling as a professional
specialism within contemporary society. It can be argued that counseling is a term in everyday
use, and as such carries meanings that transcend such professionalized definitions.
COUNSELLING AND OTHER HELPING PROFESSIONS
There are several other occupational titles that refer to people who are practising counseling. A
term that is widely used is counseling psychologist. This refers to a counselor who has initial
training in psychology, and who uses psychological methods and models in his or her approach.
This label explicitly imports the language of science into counseling, by associating it with a
specific scientific discipline. There are also several labels that refer to counselors who work with
particular client groups: for example, mental health counselor, marriage counselor or student
counselor. The distinctive feature of these practitioners is that they will possess specialist training
and expertise in their particular field in addition to a general counseling training.
There are also many instances where counseling is offered in the context of a relationship that is
primarily focused on other, non-counseling concerns. For example, a student may use a teacher
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as a person with whom it is safe to share worries and anxieties. A community nurse may visit a
home to give medical care to a patient who is terminally ill, but finds herself giving emotional
support to the spouse. In these situations it seems appropriate to see what is happening as being a
teacher or nurse using counseling skills rather than engaging in an actual counseling relationship.
They are counseling, but not being counselors. This is a useful distinction to make, because it
reserves counseling (or psychotherapy) for situations where there is a formal counseling
contract and the counselor has no other role in relation to the client.
However, there are many situations where it can become difficult to draw a line between
counseling and the use of counseling skills. The nurse in the example above, for instance, might
be able to work with the spouse in a counseling mode over a fairly lengthy period, and anyone
listening to a tape recording of their sessions might be unable to tell the difference between what
the nurse was doing and what a trained bereavement counselor would have done.
From the point of view of the client or patient, what he or she is looking for, and receives, is a
counseling relationship, which for them serves exactly the same function as going to see a
professional therapist in a consulting room. It is probably not helpful to draw rigid lines of
professional demarcation which deny that teachers, nurses, probation officers or social workers
can ever be counselors to their clients. Nevertheless, it is also important to recognize that clients
can become confused, or damaged, when the people who are trying to help them become
enmeshed in role conflicts through attempting to be counselor as well as, for instance, teacher or
nurse.
It can also be damaging for both client and worker if the counseling process moves into areas
beyond the training or competence of the helper. The difficulties involved in making clear
distinctions between counseling proper and the use of counseling skills have been a matter of
much debate (see Bond 1989). Even more difficult to define, as varieties of counseling and
psychotherapy, are hypnotherapy and a whole range of activities in the area of healing. The use
of hypnosis as a means of helping people with emotional or behavioural difficulties can be traced
back to the eighteenth century. For a variety of reasons, however, hypnosis has never been
accepted as part of the mainstream of psychotherapeutic or counseling thinking.
Certainly, the training that most people who call themselves hypnotherapists have had would
tend not to be recognized or accepted by the main professional bodies in counseling or
psychotherapy. Similarly, healing approaches, which may involve techniques such as meditation,

prayer and the use of massage and herbal remedies, have generally been regarded as outside
mainstream counseling. The theoretical basis and practical techniques associated with both
hypnotherapy and healing do not, currently, fit readily into the ways that most counselors and
psychotherapists think and work, although many counselors are interested in these perspectives
and there have been many attempts to bridge this gap (Sheikh and Sheikh 1989; Graham 1990;
Sollod 1993). To summarize, it can be seen that it is no easy matter to define counseling.
In some respects this can be frustrating for people seeking counseling, because it means that
there are many situations in which it can be hard for them to know exactly what is on offer when
they consult someone who labels himself or herself as a counselor. On the other hand, the fact
that counseling has been, and continues to be, influenced and shaped by so many different
traditions and helping approaches gives it a great deal of its vitality and energy. The whole
question of what is counseling? is discussed very fully by Feltham (1995).
THE DIVERSITY OF THEORY AND PRACTICE IN COUNSELLING
Karasu (1986) reported having come across more than 400 distinct models of counseling and
psychotherapy. The fact that this whole field of study is of relatively recent origin means that
there has not yet been time for the explosion of new ideas that appeared between 1950 and 1970
to have become integrated into a unified approach. There is some evidence of the emergence of a
strong trend towards integration and unification of approaches in the 1980s. However, despite the
movement in favour of theoretical unification and integration, it is widely recognized that the
three core approaches of psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural and humanistic represent
fundamentally different ways of viewing human beings and their emotional and behavioural
problems.
There also exists a wide diversity in counseling practice, with counseling being delivered
through one-to-one contact, in groups, with couples and families, over the telephone and even
through written materials such as books and self-help manuals. The mix of cultural, economic
and social forces that contributed to the emergence of a multiplicity of counseling theories has
also given rise to a wide diversity of settings where counseling is practised and client groups at
whom it is targeted. There are, for example, many counseling agencies that are funded by, or
attached to, organizations that have a primary task of providing medical and health care. These
range from mental health/psychiatric settings, which typically deal with highly disturbed or

damaged clients, through to counseling available in primary care settings, such as GP surgeries,
and from community nurses.
There has been a growth in specialist counseling directed towards people with particular medical
conditions such as AIDS, cancer and various genetic disorders. Counseling has also played an
important role in many centres and clinics offering alternative or complementary health
approaches. One of the primary cultural locations for counseling and psychotherapy can
therefore be seen to be alongside medicine. Even when counselors and counseling agencies work
independently of medical organizations, they will frequently establish some form of liaison with
medical and psychiatric services, to enable referral of clients who may require medical or
nursing care.
Counseling also has a place in the world of work. A variety of counseling agencies exist for the
purpose of helping people through difficulties, dilemmas or anxieties concerning their work role.
These agencies include vocational guidance, student counseling services and employee
assistance programmes or workplace counseling provided by large organizations in industry and
the public sector. Whether the work role is that of executive, postal worker or college student,
counselors are able to offer help with stress and anxiety arising from the work, coping with
change and making career decisions.
There is yet another whole section of counseling practice that is not primarily focused on
arriving at solutions to problems, but is instead directed towards the exploration of meaning and
the expansion of awareness. This kind of counseling is strongly represented in private practice
and growth centres. A number of counseling agencies have evolved to meet the needs of people
who experience traumatic or sudden interruptions to their life development and social roles.
Prominent among these are agencies and organizations offering counseling in such areas as
marital breakdown, rape and bereavement. The work of the counselor in these agencies can very
clearly be seen as arising from social problems. For example, changing social perceptions of
marriage, redefinitions of male and female roles, new patterns of marriage and family life, and
legislation making divorce more available represent major social and cultural changes of the past
century. Counseling provides a way of helping individuals to negotiate this changing social
landscape.
A further field of counseling activity lies in the area of addictions. There exists a range of
counseling approaches developed to help people with problems related to drug and alcohol

abuse, food addiction and smoking cessation. The social role of the counselor can be seen
particularly clearly in this type of work. In some areas of addiction counseling, such as with hard
drug users, counselors operate alongside a set of powerful legal constraints and moral
judgements. The possession and use of heroin, for example, is seen by most people as morally
wrong, and has been made a criminal offence. The counselor working with a heroin addict,
therefore, is not merely exploring ways of living more satisfyingly and resourcefully (BAC
1984), but is mediating between competing social definitions of what an acceptable way of
living entails. In other fields of addiction counseling, such as food, alcohol and cigarette abuse,
the behaviour in question is heavily reinforced by advertising paid for by the slimming, drink and
tobacco industries. The incidence of alcohol and smoking-related diseases would be more
effectively reduced by tax increases than by increases in the number of counselors, an insight
that raises questions about the role of counseling in relation to other means of control of
behaviour.
The range and diversity of counseling settings is explored in more detail in Woolfe et al. (2002)
and Palmer and McMahon (2000). It is important to acknowledge that counseling is not merely a
process of individual learning. It is also a social activity that has a social meaning, Often, people
turn to counseling at a point of transition, such as the transition from child to adult, married to
divorced, addict to straight. Counseling is also a culturally sanctioned means of enabling
adaptation to social institutions. Counselors are rarely managers or executives who hold power in
colleges, businesses or communities. Counselors, instead, have a more liminal role, being
employed at the edge of these institutions to deal with those in danger of falling off or falling out.
THE AIMS OF COUNSELLING
Underpinning the diversity of theoretical models and social purposes discussed above are a
variety of ideas about the aims of counseling and therapy.
Some of the different aims that are espoused either explicitly or implicitly by counselors are
listed:
Insight. The acquisition of an understanding of the origins and development of emotional
difficulties, leading to an increased capacity to take rational control over feelings and actions
(Freud: where id was, shall ego be).
Relating with others. Becoming better able to form and maintain meaningful and satisfying
relationships with other people: for example, within the family or workplace.
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Self-awareness. Becoming more aware of thoughts and feelings that had been blocked off or
denied, or developing a more accurate sense of how self is perceived by others.
Self-acceptance. The development of a positive attitude towards self, marked by an ability to
acknowledge areas of experience that had been the subject of self-criticism and rejection.
Self-actualization or individuation. Moving in the direction of fulfilling potential or
achieving an integration of previously conflicting parts of self.
Enlightenment. Assisting the client to arrive at a higher state of spiritual awakening.
Problem-solving. Finding a solution to a specific problem that the client had not been able to
resolve alone. Acquiring a general competence in problem-solving.
Psychological education. Enabling the client to acquire ideas and techniques with which to
understand and control behaviour.
Acquisition of social skills. Learning and mastering social and interpersonal skills such as
maintenance of eye contact, turn-taking in conversations, assertiveness or anger control.
Cognitive change. The modification or replacement of irrational beliefs or maladaptive
thought patterns associated with self-destructive behaviour.
Behaviour change. The modification or replacement of maladaptive or self-destructive
patterns of behaviour.
Systemic change. Introducing change into the way in that social systems (e.g. families)
operate. Empowerment. Working on skills, awareness and knowledge that will enable the client
to take control of his or her own life.
Restitution. Helping the client to make amends for previous destructive behaviour.
Generativity and social action. Inspiring in the person a desire and capacity to care for others
and pass on knowledge (generativity) and to contribute to the collective good through political
engagement and community work.
It is unlikely that any one counselor or counseling agency would attempt to achieve the
objectives underlying all the aims in this list. On the whole, psychodynamic counselors have
focused primarily on insight, humanistic practitioners have aimed to promote self-acceptance and
personal freedom, and cognitive behavioural therapists have been mainly concerned with the
management and control of behaviour. However, any valid counseling approach should be
flexible enough to make it possible for the client to use the therapeutic relationship as an arena
for exploring whatever dimension of life is most relevant to their well-being at that point in time.