Facilitating Counselling And Relationship: Understanding Stages, Types, And Models Of Counselling

What is Counselling and its Importance?

Discuss About The Facilitating Counselling And Relationship.

According to Stanley (2013), the term “counselling” can be described as providing advice or guidance in the process of decision making particularly during emotional situations, which is completely a personal and individual process and aims to assist a person in order to change his or her behaviour. It is a psychotherapeutic relationship with the counsellor in which a client receives help directly from an advisor so as to eliminate the negative feelings the individual possesses and thereby clearing the way for positive growth in his or her personality. A client is a person who receives help and advises from a professional or a counsellor. It is often used to mean patients.

Every client is unique and so are his or her reactions towards the different types of counselling. That is why it is necessary to identify the right type of counselling and to apply it in the right way. Different types of counselling g has emerged throughout the years due to research and practice. Each style of counselling targets a set of issues specific to itself, therefore it requires to understand which of the types of counselling is best suited for the clients. The common styles of counselling include: (i) cognitive therapy; (ii) behavioural therapy; (iii) cognitive behavioural therapy; (iv) psychodynamic therapy; (v) humanistic therapy; (v) schema-focused therapy; (vi) interpersonal therapy; (vii) substance abuse therapy; (viii) group therapy; (ix) family therapy and (x) eclectic therapy (Melrose 2015)

According to Brito (2014), the “therapeutic relationship” can be defined as the connection or relationship that is developed between the psychotherapist and the client over a period of time without which it is not possible to deliver the advises. This is applicable to all the forms of counselling and psychotherapy, regardless of the fact that might be stated in the theoretical knowledge, the relationship between the client and the counsellor is given high importance. There must be a strong bond or relationship between the client and the practitioner so as to make the delivery system or the therapy successful. The relationship with the practitioner and the therapy are mostly valuable for the clients who are struggling to form relationships either in the past or in the present. Psychotherapy helps the clients to identify their relational attachments, bonds and experiences with their friends, families and other fellow beings. 

According to Stanard (2013), the profession of counselling is the most recent profession in comparison to the professions related to other mental health that originated in the industrial societies of the West during the twentieth century. There is a necessity to have a clear sense of the professional identity as this profession continues to establish itself as the most appropriate field having distinct identity. Models of development suggest that a professional identity in the field of counselling can be strengthened along with the development and the experience of the counsellor. Thorley (2016) states that in the early stages of the profession the counsellors often feel insecure and have to rely on others for the guidance. In the later stages of their profession they seem to be confused regarding their theoretical knowledge and the actual life. Finally, when the counsellors completely develop themselves as independent counsellors, they gain complete sense of awareness, experience, become more flexible and secure.

Types of Counselling

The term “counselling process” involves a systematic and professional help provided to an individual. By analyzing different aspects and the definition of the term “counselling”, it can be stated that:

• It is a process of helping by which the counsellors or the experts help the individuals to help themselves. The clients or the individuals recognize and use their own potential for setting their desired goals, take decisions or make plans and perform accordingly.
• It is a continuous process and is required at all stages of the life of an individual- from childhood to the old age.
• The process of counselling involves arrangement of steps and stages, followed by the trained professionals and experts in order to help the client (Feltham, Hanley and Winter 2017).

It is very important to understand the stages involved in the process of counselling as it acts as guidance for the experts. It is easy for the experts to predict the future scenarios of the clients, setting new goals and assess the problems of the clients. Several authors have discussed the process of counselling in different ways. Some see the process of counselling as a three stage process. These stages are (1) Exploration; (2) Planning and (3) Action.

1. Exploration: The client tries to clarify the problems faced by him or her that has brought the person to seek help of the counsellor. The counsellor or the expert helps the client to disclose his or her problems putting the prime focus and as well as clarifies the blind spots and generates new perspectives.
2. Planning: The client has been encouraged to decide and plan for bringing changes in him or her. He imagines a new scenario and goals and the expert encourages him or her to achieve the goals.
3. Action: The client has been encouraged to adopt some steps that are concrete and brings measurable changes to his or her problems. The counsellor then encourages the client to implement the plans and achieve the goals (Cooper et al. 2013)

The theories of counselling help the counsellors to follow a particular approach or model. The term ‘model’ is used to mean the structure of counselling process, which shows relationships between the components and guides the counsellor what to be done next and in what order. A model of counselling explains about the interaction between two persons and the context and the sequence of the interaction so as to make the counsellor effective in the helping process.  There are many models that make the counsellors effective in the helping process and are also practiced by the counsellors (Allan 2014). The various models of counselling are described below depending upon the emphasis placed by them. These models are as follows:

1. Emphasis only on the action: These models of counselling give more emphasis on the actions of the clients rather than focusing on the fact how they are being treated. The model proposes to bring changes in the behavior of the clients only by the actions and this method of therapy is termed as the behavior therapy. This model is followed by the counsellors so that the clients follow a specific system of behavior. This model of counselling is useful in treating patients with whom proper means of communication cannot be established (Blue, Darou and Ruano 2015).
2. Emphasis on exploration and understanding: These models of counselling focuses on the self exploration and self understanding of the client. The models also focus on the capacity of the client to understand the process of counselling and their involvement into the same. Psychoanalysis, client centered therapy, trait and factor counselling, existential therapy, transactional analysis, gestalt theory are some of the models of counselling that comes under the category (Aga Mohd Jaladin 2013).
3. Emphasis on exploration, understanding and action: this type of models of counselling endeavors to focus on the nature of exploration, understanding and on a systematic action of the program flowing from the nature of understanding. This integrated model of counselling was presented by Carkhuff during the 1960s and the 1970s (Goss and Adebowale 2014)

While presenting the model of counselling as proposed by Carkhuff, Aladag (2013) presented the process of counselling in five stages. These stages include attending, responding, personalizing, initiating and evaluating the clients (Clarkson and Cavicchia 2013). The counselling process that is being discussed hereunder includes the stages and processes that have been mentioned here.

This is the most important stage both for the counsellor and the counselee or the client as it is the stage that comes before the start of the actual process of counselling. It is the point at which the client and the professional expert are ready to interact with and help each other. The counsellor is ready to deliver the process and the client is ready to receive the help of the expert. It is at this point that the client comes to know the counsellor in better way and tries to gain comfort and crisis support when it is required (O’Brien and Guckin 2013). At this stage both the counsellor and the client come together to understand and an agreement occurs between them. The counsellor also comes to know his or her client in a better way and decides what methods of counselling to be used in order to help the client. It is at this stage that the counsellor might refer the client to some other expert if he or she requires it.  This stage is also termed as the “attending stage” as both the client and the counsellor pays attention to one another in this particular stage.  

The Importance of Therapeutic Relationship in Counselling

This is the second stage in the process of counselling where the counsellor and the client meet with each other in the room. The first session of the counselling is conducted and the intake process or the admission of the client is done and the formalities of the process are explained. This stage follows the preparatory stage and involves the counsellor to build trust on the client after the rapport has been built and the client has been convinced and prepared for the session in the previous stage. Further the counsellor gathers more facts about the situation of the counselee and assesses about the readiness of the client before they can pass on to the next stage. At this stage, the main information is collected from the client but can also be gathered from the significant others in the life of the client by seeking his or her permission. Firstly, the counsellors gather information regarding the personalities of the clients which include the adjustments done by the client in his or her home and workplace and in the society; the client’s strengths and weaknesses and the work schedule or daily routine of the client (Kaltsatou et al. 2013).

 Besides these, the counsellor gathers information from the other areas which include:

• The problem that the client id facing and its effect on his or her daily routines.
• The factors creating the problems and the way to solve them
• How the client interprets and reacts to the problem.
• How the client dealt with the problem prior to the session.

Prior to the counselling process, it is very essential for the counsellor to have a sound knowledge about the client who is supposed to receive the benefits and treatment from the counsellor.  This is done at this stage by inspiring the client to perform a deeper self exploration. The client shares and clarifies the problems he or she is facing with the counsellor at the initial interviews. It has often been observed that the client comes and seeks help of the counsellor without even knowing and clarifying the problems. In these cases, the counsellor helps the client to clarify the issues by asking the client to state his or her problems and prepares a case file of the client (McGarry et al. 2013)

  The planning stage comes after the exploratory stage and is the third stage in the process of counselling. In this stage an intervention into the problems of the client is planned and is often known as the stage of “personalization of the problem and the goals” (McIlveen 2015). Though this stage is a continuation of the earlier stage, sometimes these two stages overlap. In the exploratory stage the counsellor helps the client to understand where he or she is with respect to where he or she wants to be. Once the client has acknowledged the response of the counsellor, he or she is ready to receive the treatment (Saffi and Howard 2015). It is the responsibility of the counsellor to assess the readiness of the client or else the process might fail and will not be of any help to the client.

Models of Counselling

Even after the initial stages of the process of self exploration of the client, the counsellor continues to examine the psychology and the problem situation of the client. After understanding the problems of the client, the counsellor sets the specific goals of counselling which brings about a change in the emotional and behaviour of the client. At this point, the counsellor uses the skill in personalizing the problem and the goal together, making the client to take up responsibility and accepting their contribution towards the problem. The actual purpose if this is to make the client realise what he or she wants to be. This is the most important and crucial stage in the process of counselling and the whole process of it totally depends on this particular stage.   

Koojimans et al. (2013), states that once it has been determined the present position of the client with respect to the position where the client wants to see her or he, in the planning stage, the action stage begins. Art this stage the client is helped to move towards his or her preferred position. The client is helped to achieve the goals with the help of different models and techniques of counselling. Some of the models that are commonly used include: Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), Transactional Analysis (TA), gestalt Psychotherapy (GT), Learning Theories (LT) and the like. The therapeutic achievements that are included in the stage are:

• Resolution of the emotional crisis
• Resolution of the behavioural problems
• Improvement in the self confidence and self esteem of the client.
• Improvement in the self control and in tolerating frustration
• Improvement in the reality orientation and in appraising threats
• Improvement in the communication and problem solving skills of the clients
• Improvement of the client in terms of adjustment, judgement and emotional stability.

This can be assumed that the counsellor is aware and trained in various models and techniques of counselling and is proficient to use them. The counsellor uses the skills in order to present the goals that are relevant to the needs of the clients.

An evaluation is the most important part of the process of counselling and this has to be done prior to the termination process of counselling. To evaluate is to review how the client or counselee has interpreted the action in order to achieve the desired goals and to take notice of the progression of the client by adopting the plans as proposed by the expert or the counsellor. This process of evaluation or assessment begins right after the first stage and is an ongoing process. It is done at this stage so that the process of counselling can be successfully terminated. Counselling should never be terminated abruptly, gather it should follow a series of steps. In order to terminate or end the process of counselling, the counsellor ensures the following:

• Evaluate whether the client is ready for the termination of the process or not.
• Telling the client about the termination process
• Discussion with the client and making the client ready for the process of termination
• Revising the course of the action
• Emphasizing the role of the client to bring effective changes
• The counsellor gives instructions to the client about how he or she should  maintain the functions that have been adopted
• Discussing with the client about the follow up sessions
• Assuring that the counsellor would be available to help the client whenever he or she is in need (Geldard, Geldard and Foo 2017).

Stages Involved in the Counselling Process

The counsellor must provide to the client adequate time before terminating the counselling process so that the client can prepare himself. If the counsellor fails to provide adequate time to the client before terminating, else the client might face crisis situations when the termination is announced suddenly.

There are many different techniques that the counsellors use while counselling their clients. Some of them are more effective mad more efficient than the others. These are as follows:

Sphere of Influence: This tool or technique helps an individual to assess which are the systems that provide them strengths and which gives the person a feeling of weakness. 

Clarification: The counsellor should always ask the client to clarify what they are trying to say in order to avoid misconception and misinterpretation with the client.

Client Expectations: When a client is ready to receive the treatment, he or she should clarify about their opinions and beliefs regarding the practice of counselling. Prior to the beginning of the process, the client must talk to the counsellor regarding the outcome of counselling. This would help the counsellor to guide the client in their counselling process.

Confrontation: The confrontation does not take place between the client and the counsellor, but takes place within the client. The client should know more about the self or self exploration in which the clients able to examine themselves during the process of counselling.

Congruence: This part or tool deals with the genuineness about the feedback and beliefs of the counsellor regarding the client.  The more true and authentic the counsellor is the more is the client benefitted from the counselling process (Nweze and Okolie 2014).

Encouragement of the clients: Encouraging the client is an important technique that will help to built trust and respect between both the expert and the client. This technique focuses specially on the strengths and assets of the clients and helps them to see themselves as a positive being.

Engagement: The therapist or counsellor must have a good yet professional relationship with the clients.

Focusing: This technique involves the counsellor to demonstrate about the experiences of the client with the usage of non judgemental attention and using no words.

Immediacy: The technique addresses the counsellor to speak openly about any facts that are occurring at the present so that the client can implement those to their previous situations.

Listening skills: The skill of attentive listening is the most important technique in any relationship. It is the most important in the counselling process because it helps the counsellor to understand, summarise and interpret the information provided by the client.

Paraphrasing: This technique will help the clients to exhibit that the counsellors are actively listening to their words. It is used by the experts in order to correct the misinformation that might have occurred during the process of counselling (Rautalinko 2013). 

Trustworthiness: It is the duty of the client to create a comfortable atmosphere for the client so that the client feels that he or she can trust the counsellor. 

Rasmussen (2013) is of the view that a client who is seeking the help of a counsellor and undergoing the process of counseling has the right to:

• Selecting an expert in psychotherapy or counselor as per the interests and need.
• A client has the right to know about the qualifications and other information regarding the counsellor.
• To obtain a copy of the code of ethics that is followed by the respective counsellor.
• To enquire and receive a written explanation regarding the services that would be offered to the client, the fees scale and other policies before the client receives the services.
• The client has full right to enquire about confidentiality and its limits and application in the services received as well as stated in the ethical code of conduct in the profession.
• Receive the copies of his or her report and to terminate the process of counselling at any point of time as the client deems it to be fit.
• The client has the right to seek help and opinions from other heath officers even when he or she is receiving the services from the counsellor.

According to Bond (2015), the clients should ensure that certain responsibilities are followed by them so that the counsellors are able deliver high quality of services to them. Some of the responsibilities of the client include:

• It is necessary for the clients to comply with the schedules of counseling. In case if the clients miss an appointment with the counsellor, he or she should inform the counsellor as soon as possible.
• The client must take the responsibility of the payment of the bill as agreed with the counsellor.
• The client must follow to the goals and procedures as stated to him or her at the beginning of the sessions.
• It is the duty of the client to report to his or her counsellor the progress and the challenges faced by the client in order to achieve the goals.
• The client should inform the counsellor about the services he or she is receiving or used to receive during or prior to the sessions.
• The client should not involve or force the counsellor to involve in any kind of ethical dilemmas.

The rights and responsibilities of a counsellor are stated below. These are:

• The counsellors have an expectation that the clients will be punctual, attend the sessions regularly and pay for the services rendered to them unless some arrangements are made before hand.
• The counsellors have the right to expect that the clients would be following and completing the assignments that they are required to do at home and as discussed and explained by the counsellor (Arthur and Collins 2014).
• The counsellor must act in the best possible way and try to solve the problems of the clients.
• The counsellor must maintain the process of anonymity and confidentiality (Adefunke 2015).

The person-centered therapy was first proposed by Carl Rogers during the 1940s. This therapy is a non-authoritative approach. This therapy allows the clients to lead the discussions so that it is easy for the clients to discover their own solutions. The therapist or counsellor acts as a benevolent coordinator 2who would be listening to the words of the clients without judging them as well as would acknowledge the experience of the clients without distracting the flow of the conversation to some other direction (Mearns, Thorne and McLeod 2013). The main role of the therapist is to encourage the client and guide the process of counseling without interfering and interacting in b between when the client undergoes the process of self exploration.

This method of therapy is mainly applicable when the client is experiencing more self confidence or a stronger sense of identity or is able to build a healthy personal relationship and trusts that his decisions would be beneficial for him (Nelson et al. 2014).  This approach is used separately or in combination with other approaches of counselling to great the persons suffering from grief, anxiety, depression, stress, abuse and other psychological conditions. The therapist follows this approach in the treatment of clients both individually and in groups.

According to Rowan (2016), the psychoanalysis theory of counselling is a type of treatment that is based upon the theories proposed by Sigmund Freud. This therapy seeks to find out how the unconscious mind controls the thoughts and behaviors of the people and aims to offer judgment and decision regarding the person who is seeking the therapy.  The therapy tends to look into the facts and experiences of a person from his or her childhood in order to find out whether the events that are causing problems in the .life of the person have affected his or her past life or are the matter of concern of the present.

The Adlerian theory of counselling and psychotherapy is humanistic as well as goal oriented. The theory endeavors on the individuals who strive for success, to interact well with others and contributes towards the society as an indication of having good psychological health. The birth order is considered as the most important aspect in order to understand the personality that is possessed by a person. Even after this, the theory is considered to be “future minded” rather than being retrospective in nature (Corey 2015).

With the application of this approach of counselling, the therapist is able to identify and understand the two most important acts in the life of the client- a pattern of behavior that is learnt in the early phases of life of a person and the continuation of the same behavior in the present life and situation of the person.  There are four stages or step in this approach of counselling. These are as follows:

• Engagement: It is the phase when the therapist and the client meet and agree to solve the issues that are arising in the life of the client.
• Assessment: The therapist gathers information of the client which includes the history of the client, early recollections of the client and his or her birth order.
• Insight: The therapist or the counsellor helps the client to look at his or her role from a different angle.
• Reorientation: The therapist asks the client to do different activities which are not associated with the therapy process. This helps the client to boost up the insight or to create more such insights.

This theory is integrative in the sense that the therapist can call on the approaches for any number of times along with the general Adlerian approach. The main aim of this theory is to be the best therapy that `the client requires in order to solve his or her problems (Clarkson 2013).

The process of counselling is helpful for those people who are struggling in their life regarding their personal issues such as losing a job or have faced some kind of psychological trauma. These causes stress in the life of persons and to get the person back to the track of his or life, a counsellor encourages and helps them to become stronger and more efficient to control the stress. The counselling helps a person to forget about the past and start his or her work without having any sort of guilt feeling (Wokset and Page 2013).

According to The counsellor helps a person who is addicted to any kind of substance to give up those and lead a normal life, thus helping them to transform themselves from an addicted person to a well functioned person in the society. The counsellors focus on both the individual and group therapy in order to help all the people facing similar situations. This field and the process of counselling offer a lot of opportunities to help others to lead a healthy, normal and a happy life (Verwey 2016).     

Conclusion

The process of counselling has originated from the industrial societies of the West. The process is helpful for the people who are suffering from any trauma either in the past or at the present. Counselling helps to reduce stress and correct the behaviour of the people. The counselling process requires a systematic and professional help provided by the experts in counselling or the counsellor. It is the most important for the people who are struggling in their life because of certain factors such as losing a job, or getting divorced or have been brutally tortured. The process of counselling or psychotherapy helps the people to gain a lot of opportunities in order to lead a happy, healthy and normal life.

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