Counselling Referrals

of the therapy, the client meets the therapist to describe specific problems and to set goals they

Counsellors are required to have adequate training and supervision to help maintain them throughout their professional lives. Counsellor must be respectful of their professional position and remain loyal to their clients.

Flynn-Piercy (2002) conducted a heuristic study examining the impact of Relate counsellors training on their relationships with their partners. It was found that there was a significant impact on these relationships, which trainees had been unprepared for. The advantages of their training included improved communication, a disadvantage was that partners became “personally de-stablised” (Flynn-Piercy, 2002: 55). Despite the advantages, there was an overall threat to the relationships. This study is, however, not generalisable to all trainee counsellors since it only examined those training as Relate counsellors who specifically work in the area of relationships.

In this step, it is extremely important for the counselor to see if the situation that the client is facing contains ethics. The counselor must be able to gather all the required information and get more understanding about the problem the client is facing. This can only done by strengthening the relationship with the client, if the client is able to trust you, he/she would be willing to tell you what they are facing. After the client is done describing the problem that they are facing, the counselor

The beginning of the counselling process starts when the client first meets the counsellor, the saying “first impressions count” is absolutely true for both the client and counsellor, the client will be very nervous and unsure what is about to take place.

I understand counselling to be a helping practice that differs from other helping activities, such as teaching for example. Counselling requires professional training and is specifically contracted or explicitly agreed. It has a theoretical base and uses specific methods within an ethical framework. The relationship between the counsellor and the client is built upon mutual expectation and is central to the process of the client under-going significant change in their lives.

This essay will explore the counselling relationship along with the benefits and limitations as well as discussing other factors that have an important impact in relation to the outcome of counselling. Counselling is an interpersonal relationship between the client and qualified therapist, the relationship involves communicating with the client and using skills to explore the client's feelings. The counselling/ therapeutic relationship can be used in all types of counselling such as psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioural, person centred and cognitive therapy. As mental health disorders increase so does the need to deliver effective counselling, which means that the therapeutic relationship is more crucial than ever. (Miller, Hubble, Duncan and Wampold 2010; Norcross and Lambert 2011).

The counsellor is in their right to inform the counsellor that they can not keep the confidentiality on the particluar piece of information been shared. It is important that the counsellor does not arrange to meet the client outside of the counselling sessions and that both client and counsellor keeps to the agreed appointment times. The counsellor is there to purely counsell the client and should by no means become in involved in other aspects of the clients life for example offering to find out something on behalf of the counsellor. It is important that once the costs/fees are agreed upon that the counsellor does raise these costs or waive them for something in return. At the first counselling session the counsellor should offer the client a set number of weeks that they maybe counselled and it is important that the counsellor does not extend these without any clear reason to do so as this may result in the client becoming dependant on the counsellor. The counsellor must on no terms exploit the client in anyway and recieving or giving of gifts is not acceptable during the time the client is being counselled.

At the start of each new counselling session it is important that a contract is set out between the client and

Professional counsellors are also bound by other ethics such as being non-judgemental and should not exploit their clients in any way. They must be respectful of how their clients choose to live and their right to self-determination. Counsellors must not impose their own thoughts or feeling on other people & should not have any expectations or impose any conditions on their clients. The relationship between counsellor and client should be one of equality. Although, the client may not feel that there is equality, they may feel powerless, as they are seeking help. The counsellor must try and convey a sense of equality and use their skills and knowledge to enable the client to take control of their life and feel empowered.

Moving further on in the counselling session, the counsellor must be able to "tune in" with client. Being on the same wavelength is important aspect of "joining". By tuning in to the other individual past experiences that made them who they are today, we will be able to understand their beliefs and principle is life whoich resulted from their each unique experiences. By doing so, we will be able to respect and value our client as an individual thus building mutual respect between us and the client in the relationship. This will also refrain us from talking down to our client but instead will be able to get along well. This is what we need to acheive as counsellors.

Decision making techniques can provide invaluable help to someone that is confused by helping them to paint their scenario options and then looking into the future and imagining them playing out. The client can then predict how their will manage this type of situation, how they would feel and how successful this option may be. The counsellor should also explain how unproductive it is to stay tortured about things and not come to a decision. Counsellors should help the client to sort through what they need to consider and make a date in order to meet a certain and effective decision. Counsellors should also analyse decisions and make sure the client has the necessary commitment to carry them out. Counsellors should make client’s realise that not all decisions will feel great, sometimes they are the best of two painful outcomes and may involve a loss. If a decision is delayed or must be delayed for any reason, a new date must be made for finalising it.

It is important, during these final stages, that the counsellor and client can resolve any unfinished business and have time to consider the complex feelings about endings. According to Dryden and Feltham (1994), ‘a fear of loss may cause some clients to cling on to relationships in life and this will obviously have some bearing on the therapeutic relationship.’ As the counsellor, I need to be aware of what an ending might signify for the client, and for me, and manage these ethically and with the guidance of my supervisor.

This essay is an evaluation of two counselling models applied to a situation where a client has experienced loss and how a counsellor can create a therapeutic relationship with the client using each counselling model. It will also contain other skills a counsellor could use to obtain/maintain a good therapeutic relationship with the client.

When setting up a coaching session a way in which the coach can ensure that the coach carries out the coaching relationship in a professional manner, is to set up a contract with the client prior to the start of the relationship. This may be either written or verbal but should include both the coach and clients expectations, responsibilities if the worst fears materialise, it should also include the issues of confidentiality, boundaries and professional and ethical conduct.