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Counseling Explained
For you to best fully understand what counseling can be, it is helpful to ask yourself what preconceived notions you may have, and more importantly, what expectations you may have.
Simply stated, counseling is a service intended to provide guidance for some kind of personal challenge. As such, it will mean different things to different people in differing situations.
In general terms, here is a definition of professional counseling developed out of my last 15 years of experience and study:
An educated, trained, & licensed (or certified) professional, from a range of techniques and theoretical orientations, assists and supports a client(s) to explore, understand and change elements of life quality, personal characteristics and behavior; and/or guides and supports a client(s) in problem resolution.
While a generalized description, I believe it illustrates the services that can be offered to individuals, relationships, families, and other groups of humans.
No matter what their counseling orientation, the therapist/counselor will most likely use a style of "client centered" format. This is a mutual activity between the professional and client where they engage in a conversation directed towards generating solutions and discovering obstacles.
This is different from a passive setting where the healthcare professional treats a disorder, and the client receives the treatment. |
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Most forms of counseling and psychotherapy take a viewpoint that by understanding the problem, and learning the necessary skills and techniques, the client can produce the change(s) that will improve their circumstance.
It is believed that the client has the "answers", and the resources, to modify or cope with their living expereince, and the counselor or therapist helps the client in their discovery. |
What is the difference between counseling and therapy?
The difference may have as much to do with the counselor's/therapist's
point of view (i.e., orientation) as the actual experience for the client.
Essentially, what motivates someone to seek counseling or psychotherapy?
My experience has been that people come to a behavioral healthcare professional for relief from mental or emotional pain, or to alter a difficult situation/problem.
Whether a therapeutic (i.e., curative/treating) or counseling (i.e., advise/consult) form is used, the result is intended to be what the client wants: stopping the distress. And, since the purpose is change, an additional intent is to prevent future repetition of the behavior or circumstance. |
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Interestingly, research to find out what works best in the therapeutic process has lead to the discovery that the relationship between the therapist/counselor and the client is a significant predictor of success, while the specific technique plays a less important role
In a study by M. J. Lambert,1 it was estimated that 40% of client changes are due to extratherapeutic influences (i.e., client motivation and the severity of the problem), 30% are due to the quality of the therapeutic relationship, 15% are due to expectancy (placebo) effects, and 15% are due to specific techniques. |
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Why use the services of a professional counselor? |
Counsel, or advice, can be obtained from anyone. Just ask, everyone has well meant answers and opinions. Some may be helpful and others can be harmful.
Your friend(s), relative(s) or co-worker(s) may know how to help treat a heartburn; however, if you have a heart attack, they probably don't know much beyond how to administer CPR or call 911 (unless they are a cardiac specialist).
Also, your friend(s), relative(s) or co-worker(s) will have general knowledge about human behavior because:
(1) they are a human being;
(2) they have spent time interacting/observing others; and
(3) in high school or college they took a course in psychology.
So, they can, and often will, provide you with "counseling". The questions to ask for yourself are: Is the information you're getting accurate? Is what you're being told free from personal bias, and in you're best interest? Will they keep what we say confidential? And the most important question, do they really know that much about counseling and psychology?
Most times, you would want a level of service that is above this general counsel, and would seek the assistance of a professional provider. Here's a listing of:
The Professions of Psychotherapy and Counseling
Orientation Of The Counselor/Therapist
The various orientations of counselors and psychotherapists are diverse and there are numerous methods of treatment. A fairly extensive list of the many forms can be found here in an article on WikipediaŽ.
Many of these can be beneficial, while some are considered questionable by the overall behavioral healthcare community.
Most mainstream counseling and psychotherapy will fall into one of several schools of thought that make attempts to provide a basis for human thinking and behavior, and offer insight into how this thinking and behavior can be dysfunctional. This is known as the therapist or counselor's "ORIENTATION". The orientation used on My Counseling Site is Cognitive-Behavioral.
The counselor or therapist will base their general thinking in this orientation; however, most will practice a form of "Eclectic Therapy".
This manner of counseling and therapy acknowledges the unique character of the client and/or situation and recognizes that individuals can benefit from a variety of approaches and techniques. This also allows the behavioral healthcare provider to custom tailor the methods used, and prevents clients from receiving a "cookbook" form of counseling and therapy that limits the outcome.
The counseling -- psychotherapy process page offers a brief glimpse into what you can expect to happen during a session.
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**REFERENCE:
1Lambert, M. J. (1992). "Implications of outcome research for psychotherapy integration", in J. C. Norcross & M. R. Goldfried: Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration, 94-129.
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