This paper provides a broad survey of the counseling profession, examining the therapeutic relationship, the counselor's role, and the ethical obligations that govern practice. It explores the wide range of settings in which counselors work, from schools and corporations to private practice and spiritual contexts, and discusses how technology has transformed counselor education and client intervention. The paper also addresses the importance of healthy communication in group therapy, the stages of group dynamics, and the distinguishing features of specialized counseling fields — including career, school, family, and mental health counseling. Various theoretical approaches, from cognitive-behavioral to eclectic and solution-focused models, are considered alongside their practical applications.
"A naturally therapeutic person is one who, by a natural response to those in pain, empowers them to realize their own healing potential lies within them, and never in the one who is helping or giving advice." — Jaquelyn Small, 1993
The counseling relationship allows the patient to find support when the world seems overwhelming. The counselor attends to the issues that patients bring in whenever anxiety is keeping them from living life with a sense of satisfaction. Counseling helps those who seek it discover their inner strengths and abilities to manage life's challenges. Counseling is a unique relationship in which the counselor's job is to hold up a mirror for the client to see himself or herself clearly — much as we all have experiences in which we cannot see certain things about ourselves without an external reflection.
The counselor has learned ways to hold that mirror at different angles, so that the patient can see themselves from perspectives they have never before observed, doing so in a caring and skillful way developed through years of study. The counselor and patient work as a team to make positive changes in the client's approach to life. This is something a friend cannot do, a medical doctor does not attempt to do, and other helping services cannot replicate, as their emphasis is on healing other aspects of the body.
The relationship between a counselor with a supportive mirror and the patient is valuable in itself. Genuine caring and a sense of closeness develop between the counselor and patient, born of trust. Yet the counselor must maintain objectivity — with no self-disclosure — in order to concentrate on the client's growth and to allow the client to move toward autonomy and independence (What 1).
Counselors must also face issues related to interpersonal style. They must be non-judgmental and must never reveal either the issues faced by the client or the incidents in which the client has been involved. Counselors may hold personal values, beliefs, and behaviors, but in a professional role these are set aside in the counseling setting. One's beliefs may, however, help a counselor choose which area to work in or what approach to take within that area.
Counselors may serve in a wide variety of settings. Advice columns in newspapers or on the internet are not intended to replace direct professional mental health services; rather, they provide insight into various problem situations and possible helpful resources and interventions (Hoy 1). Services assisted by art, crafts, and other activities are utilized by counselors in settings ranging from public community centers to private venues. Large corporations hire professional counseling staff to help employees relate to one another and to prevent personal problems from interfering with productive output. Counselors may also work in inpatient facilities, Employee Assistance Programs, Health Maintenance Organizations, Community Mental Health Centers, consulting companies, schools and Head Start centers, social service agencies, universities and research centers, courts and prisons, and in private practice.
Counseling increasingly uses technology in both practice and the education of counselors and patients, incorporating research in human information processing. Technology attempts to connect information and its application to current counselor education and practice, impacting the counseling relationship and the teaching process by augmenting counselor education, training, and supervision in innovative ways (Jencius 1).
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines counseling as "professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes." Testing, interviews, and collection of case history data are all made easier by contemporary technology. Video cameras and other recording devices help participants and counselors in group therapy integrate objective components into the experience. Wireless internet on laptops, CDs, interactive DVDs, and digital cameras are also utilized in research and counseling sessions. Client intervention may be effectively supported by recording and later reviewing incidents that are better understood on reflection. Ethical concerns include loss of privacy through recording and the possibility that devices may interfere with the atmosphere established between counselor and patient (Condic 10).
In group settings, counseling professionals can help evaluate and improve communication. Participants in group therapy begin learning how to communicate in healthy ways that they can carry outside the group. Communication becomes an unconscious, automatic pattern that is difficult to change; progress involves not only learning new skills but unlearning old familiar ones.
Communication is the healthy way of getting needs met and expressing dislikes. When effective communication is not used or learned, people often resort to unhealthy coping tactics such as passive aggression, isolation, acting out, verbal aggression, passive or placating responses, emotional numbing, and depression. Getting needs met through means other than counseling can carry personal and social consequences (Good 4).
Poor communication and having emotional needs met outside of professional counseling can damage current relationships and prevent new ones from forming, or it can create unhealthy relational patterns — co-dependent, enmeshed, or emotionally distant. These patterns can become part of one's identity — defining a person as depressed, passive, numb, angry, or aggressive — and ultimately prevent healthy growth.
Group counseling may involve groups of various sizes, professional or informally formed. The stages of group dynamics — in addition to pre-planning — are dependency, conflict, cohesion, interdependence, and termination. These stages are often described as "forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning." The responsibilities of group members include agreeing to keep each other's confidentiality, refraining from verbal or physical attacks, actively participating in the group process, and speaking one at a time. These are the ethical standards of the Association for Specialists in Group Work (Gladding 6).
Vocational or career counselors help people with personal problems that affect the workplace, just as educational and school counselors assist with career and educational counseling. Working hand-in-hand with the school vocational counselor, the career counselor provides testing covering education, training, work history, interests, skills, and personality traits. Utilizing statistics as well as face-to-face sessions, the career counselor works to determine the best career path for an individual by assessing aptitude and skills, then helping to outline possible occupations (Counselors 6).
"Career, spiritual, and school counselor roles"
"Therapeutic approaches and family therapy ethics"
Though the role of the counselor is quite wide, once the practitioner determines their own strengths and weaknesses, they will determine which one of the several roads may be taken with regard to where they are led to practice. A counselor's behavior, values, and beliefs will help determine where they are most effective and how they will approach problem-solving with individuals or groups.
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