Lesson 1: Introduction to Counseling and Psychotherapy

The counselor as a therapeutic person

• Authentic Person

• It is within the context of such a person-to-person connection that the client experiences growth.

• Our own genuineness can have a significant effect on our relationship with our clients.

• Engaging in appropriate self-disclosure.

• The person of the psychotherapist is inextricably intertwined with the outcome of psychotherapy.

• Clients place more value on the personality of the therapist than on the specific techniques used.

• Personal and interpersonal components are essential to effective psychotherapy, whereas techniques have relatively little effect on therapeutic outcome.

Contextual factors

The alliance, the relationship, the personal and interpersonal skills of the therapist, client agency, and extra-therapeutic factors—are the primary determinants of therapeutic outcome.

Therapy relationship and therapy methods

It is not theories and techniques that heal the suffering client but the human dimension of therapy and the ‘meetings’ that occur betweet therapist and client as they work together _____ and the _____ used influence the outcomes of treatment.

Personal characteristics of effective counselors

• Effective therapists have an identity.

• Effective therapists respect and appreciate themselves.

• Effective therapists are open to change.

• Effective therapists make choices that are life oriented.

• Effective therapists are authentic, sincere, and honest.

• Effective therapists have a sense of humor.

• Effective therapists make mistakes and are willing to admit them.

• Effective therapists generally live in the present.

• Effective therapists appreciate the influence of culture.

• Effective therapists have a sincere interest in the welfare of others.

• Effective therapists possess effective interpersonal skills.

• Effective therapists become deeply involved in their work and derive meaning from it.

• Effective therapists are passionate.

• Effective therapists are able to maintain healthy boundaries.

Personal therapy for the counselor

Should people be required to participate in counseling or therapy before they become practitioners?

A review of research studies on the outcomes and impacts of the psychotherapist’s own psychotherapy revealed that more than 90% of mental health professionals report satisfaction and positive outcomes from their own counseling experiences (Orlinsky, Norcross, Ronnestad, & Wiseman, 2005).

The Role of Values in Counseling

Our values are core beliefs that influence how we act, both in our personal and our professional lives. Personal values influence how we view counseling and the manner in which we interact with clients, including the way we conduct client assessments, our views of the goals of counseling, the interventions we choose, the topics we select for discussion in a counseling session, how we evaluate progress, and how we interpret clients’ life situations.

Bracketing

Managing your personal values so that they do not contaminate the counseling process is referred to as “____.” Counselors are expected to set aside their personal beliefs and values when working with a wide range of clients (Kocet & Herlihy, 2014).

Value imposition

• Counselors must have the ability to work with a range of clients with diverse worldviews and values. Counselors may impose their values either directly or indirectly.

• _____ refers to counselors directly attempting to define a client’s values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

American Counseling Association Code of Ethics

The _____is explicit regarding this matter:

• Personal Values. Counselors are aware of—and avoid imposing—their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Counselors respect the diversity of clients, trainees, and research participants and seek training in areas in which they are at risk of imposing their values onto clients, especially when the counselor’s values are inconsistent with the client’s goals or are discriminatory in nature. (Standard A.4.b.

Client’s responsibility

• Who should establish the goals of counseling? Almost all theories are in agreement that it is largely the ______ to decide upon goals, collaborating with the therapist as therapy proceeds.

• Counselors have general goals, which are reflected in their behavior during the therapy session, in their observations of the client’s behavior, and in the interventions they make.

Effective Multicultural Counselor

It is an ethical obligation for counselors to develop sensitivity to cultural differences if they hope to make interventions that are consistent with the values of their clients. The therapist’s role is to assist clients in making decisions that are congruent with their worldview, not to live by the therapist’s values.

Diversity

_____ in the therapeutic relationship is a two-way street. As a counselor, you bring your own heritage with you to your work, so you need to recognize the ways in which cultural conditioning has influenced the directions you take with your clients.

Acquiring Competencies in Multicultural Counseling

Effective counselors understand their own cultural conditioning, the cultural values of their clients, and the sociopolitical system of which they are a part. Acquiring this understanding begins with counselors’ awareness of the cultural origins of any values, biases, and attitudes they may hold.

Beliefs and Attitudes

First, effective counselors have moved from being culturally unaware to ensuring that their personal biases, values, or problems will not interfere with their ability to work with clients who are culturally different from them. They believe cultural self-awareness and sensitivity to one’s own cultural heritage are essential for any form of helping.

Knowledge

Second, culturally effective practitioners possess certain ____. They know specifically about their own racial and cultural heritage and how it affects them personally and professionally. Because they understand the dynamics of oppression, racism, discrimination, and stereotyping, they are in a position to detect their own racist attitudes, beliefs, and feelings.

Skills and Intervention Strategies

Third, effective counselors have acquired certain ____ in working with culturally diverse populations. Counselors take responsibility for educating their clients about the therapeutic process, including matters such as setting goals, appropriate expectations, legal rights, and the counselor’s orientation.

Incorporating Culture in Counseling Practice

It takes time, study, and experience to become an effective multicultural counselor. Multicultural competence cannot be reduced simply to cultural awareness and sensitivity, to a body of knowledge, or to a specific set of skills. Instead, it requires a combination of all of these factors.

Dealing with Anxiety

Most beginning counselors have ambivalent feelings when meeting their first clients. A certain level of ____ demonstrates that you are aware of the uncertainties of the future with your clients and of your abilities to really be there for them.

Being Yourself and Self-Disclosure

If you feel self-conscious and anxious when you begin counseling, you may have a tendency to be overly concerned with what the books say and with the mechanics of how to proceed. Inexperienced therapists too often fail to appreciate the values inherent in simply being themselves.

Avoiding Perfectionism

Perhaps one of the most common self-defeating beliefs with which we burden ourselves is that we must never make a mistake. Although we may well know intellectually that humans are not perfect, emotionally we often feel that there is little room for error. To be sure, you will make mistakes, whether you are a beginning or a seasoned therapist. If our energies are tied up presenting an image of perfection, this will affect our ability to be present for our clients.

Being Honest about Your Limitations

You cannot realistically expect to succeed with every client. It takes honesty to admit that you cannot work successfully with every client. It is important to learn when and how to make a referral for clients when your limitations prevent you from helping them. However, there is a delicate balance between learning your realistic limits and challenging what you sometimes think of as being “limits.”

Understanding Silence

Silent moments during a therapeutic session may seem like silent hours to a beginning therapist, yet this silence can have many meanings. The client may be quietly thinking about some things that were discussed earlier or evaluating some insight just acquired. The client may be waiting for the therapist to take the lead and decide what to say next, or the therapist may be waiting for the client to do this.

Dealing with Demands from Clients

A major issue that puzzles many beginning counselors is how to deal with clients who seem to make constant demands. Because therapists feel they should extend themselves in being helpful, they often burden themselves with the unrealistic idea that they should give unselfishly, regardless of how great clients’ demands may be.

Dealing with Clients who Lack Commitment

Involuntary clients may be required by a court order to obtain therapy, and you may be challenged in your attempt to establish a working relationship with them. It is possible to do effective work with mandated clients, but practitioners must begin by openly discussing the nature of the relationship. Counselors who omit preparation and do not address clients’ thoughts and feelings about coming to counseling are likely to encounter resistance.

Tolerating Ambiguity

Many beginning therapists experience the anxiety of not seeing immediate results. They ask themselves: “Am I really doing my client any good? Is the client perhaps getting worse?” I hope you will learn to _____ of not knowing for sure whether your client is improving, at least during the initial sessions.

Countertransference

_____ defined broadly, includes any of our projections that influence the way we perceive and react to a client. This phenomenon occurs when we are triggered into emotional reactivity, when we respond defensively, or when we lose our ability to be present in a relationship because our own issues become involved.

Developing a Sense of Humor

Therapy is a responsible endeavor, but it need not be deadly serious. Both clients and counselors can enrich a relationship through humor. What a welcome relief when we can admit that pain is not our exclusive domain. It is important to recognize that laughter or humor does not mean that clients are not respected or work is not being accomplished.

Sharing Responsibility with the Client

You might struggle with finding the optimum balance in sharing responsibility with your clients. One mistake is to assume full responsibility for the direction and outcomes of therapy. This will lead to taking from your clients their rightful responsibility of making their own decisions. It could also increase the likelihood of your early burnout.

Declining to Give Advice

Quite often clients who are suffering come to a therapy session seeking and even demanding advice. They want more than direction; they want a wise counselor to make a decision or resolve a problem for them. However, counseling should not be confused with dispensing information. Therapists help clients discover their own solutions and recognize their own freedom to act.

Defining your Role as a Counselor

One of your challenges as a counselor will be to define and clarify your professional role. As you read about the various theoretical orientations, you will discover the many different roles of counselors that are related to the various theories. As a counselor, you will likely be expected to function with a diverse range of roles.

Learning to Use Techniques Appropriately

When you are at an impasse with a client, you may have a tendency to look for a technique to get the sessions moving. Ideally, therapeutic techniques should evolve from the therapeutic relationship and the material presented, and they should enhance the client’s awareness or suggest possibilities for experimenting with new behavior.

Developing Your Own Counseling Style

Be aware of any tendency to copy the style of a supervisor, therapist, or some other model. There is no one way to conduct therapy, and wide variations in approach can be effective. You will inhibit your potential effectiveness in reaching others if you attempt to imitate another therapist’s style or if you fit most of your behavior during the session into the Procrustean bed of some expert’s theory.

Maintaining Your Vitality as a Person as a Professional

• Ultimately, your single most important instrument is the person you are, and your most powerful technique is your ability to model aliveness and realness. It is of paramount importance that we take care of ourselves, for how can we take care of others if we are not taking care of ourselves? We need to work at dealing with those factors that threaten to drain life from us and render us helpless.

• If you are aware of the factors that ____ your vitality as a person, you are in a better position to prevent the condition known as professional burnout. You have considerable control over whether you become burned out or not. You cannot always control stressful events, but you do have a great deal of control over how you interpret and react to these events.

Self-monitoring

is a crucial first step in self-care. If you make an honest inventory of how well you are taking care of yourself in specific domains, you will have a framework for deciding what you may want to change. By making periodic assessments of the direction of your own life, you can determine whether you are living the way you want to live.