Basic Issues in Workplace Counseling Practice

Dealing with your anxieties

Dealing with your anxieties

One way is to openly discuss our self-doubts with a supervisor and peers, the possibilities are rich for meaningful exchanges and for gaining support from fellow interns who probably have many of the same concerns and anxieties.

Being Yourself and Self-disclosure

➢ If we are able to be ourselves in our therapeutic work and appropriately disclose our reactions in counseling sessions, we increase the chances of being authentic.

➢ It is this level of genuineness and presence that enables us to connect with our clients and to establish an effective therapeutic relationship with them.

Avoiding Perfectionism

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.

Understanding silence

➢ Silent moments during therapeutic session may seem like silent hours to a beginning counselor, yet this silence can have many meanings.

➢ When silence occurs, acknowledge and explore with your client the meaning of the silence.

Dealing with demands from clients

One way of heading off unrealistic demands is to make your expectations and boundaries clear during the initial counseling sessions or in the disclosure statement.

Dealing with clients who lack commitment

Counselors who omit preparation and do not address client’s thoughts and feelings about coming to counseling are likely to encounter resistance.

Tolerating ambiguity

Learn to tolerate the ambiguity of not knowing for sure whether your client is improving, at least during the initial sessions.

Becoming aware of your countertransference

Working w/ clients can affect you in personal ways, and your own vulnerabilities and countertransference are bound to surface.

Sharing responsibility with the client

➢ How responsibility will be shared should be addressed early in the course of counseling.

➢ It is counselor’s responsibility to discuss specific matters such as length and overall duration of the sessions, confidentiality, general goals, and methods used to achieve goals.

➢ It is important to be alert to your clients’ efforts to get you to assume responsibility for directing their lives.

Declining to give advice

➢ Counselors help clients discover their own solutions and recognize their own freedom to act.

➢ Our task is to help clients make independent choices and accept the consequences of their choices.

Defining your role as a Counselor

As a counselor, you will likely be expected to function with a diverse range of roles.

Learning to use techniques appropriately

➢ Know the theoretical rationale for each technique you use, and be sure the techniques are appropriate for the goals of the counseling.

➢ Methods need to be thoroughly chosen as a way to help clients make therapeutic progress.

Developing your own counseling style

Your counseling style will be influenced by your teachers, counselors, and supervisors, but don’t blur your potential uniqueness by trying to imitate them.

Maintaining your vitality as a person and 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.