Authentic Counselling Training
Appropriate Attitudes for the Use of Counselling
Skills
[Under development: 1 July 2005 ]
Answers
The statements on the page Appropriate Attitudes for the Use of Counselling Skills have been adapted from a Counsellor Attitude Scale based on the central idea of the client-centred style of counselling that clients have sufficient capacity to deal with all aspects of their lives. ‘Correct’ responses to the statements are based on absence of counsellor direction (being client-centred), whereas ‘incorrect’ responses imply counsellor direction (being counsellor-centred).
Some practitioners regard the degree of non-interference contained in the scale as being more appropriate for developmental interviews with moderately disturbed clients rather than for more focused problem-management or decision-making interviews. The point, nevertheless, remains that helpers who wish to control their clients' lives are likely to be blocked from really listening to them. Related to this non-directiveness is the development of the client's capacity to accept and respect themselves, through the helper's acceptance and respect for the client.
1. True
At a surface level, best practice involves encouraging a client to own and take responsibility for their own solutions to issues/problems. At a deeper level, there is growth potential for the client if they make the journey for themselves, with help and support, rather than being offered solutions by a helper using counselling skills.
2. False
There is no one best way for a client to examine their issues/problems. Logic rarely has much bearing on how we choose to live our lives. Common sense for one person (e.g. that someone in long-term unemployment should move to a different region where there is work) may well be meaningless to another person (e.g. that it is important to live in close proximity to other members of your immediate family).
3. False
This proposal is a management technique which attempts to hoodwink subordinates into ownership of management decisions. As well as being deceitful (perhaps with the best of intentions), this course of action does not equip a client to generate their own potential solutions on future occasions.
4. True
At a surface level, if conditions are placed on the acceptability of the client to a helper using counselling skills, then the client will be less likely to disclose material which might precipitate expressions of disapproval. At a deeper level, if conditions are placed on acceptance, then limits are being placed on the necessary trust between client and the helper using counselling skills.
5. False
The responsibility of a helper using counselling skills is to their client, not to society. Moreover, the client may know better than the helper what is a realistic solution to their issue/problem, even though their proposed solution might be less than adequate (e.g. switching from smoking marijuana to smoking tobacco), or partly antisocial (e.g. shouting at people in the street, rather than beating them up). Further, a client's own solutions to their issues/problems are more likely to be owned by them.
6. True
Both through childhood, and in
adult life, many people have many of their feelings, especially the less socially-acceptable feelings such as anger and self-pity,
invalidated and denied. The use of counselling skills attempts to affirm a
client's need to accept and experience their feelings.
7. False
The use of counselling skills involves the development of a relationship, not the accumulation of information. Opinions and information from other people may obstruct the development of a relationship.
8. False
All clients have some potential for therapeutic growth, it is part of what it is to be human. If the helper using counselling skills sorts out the client's issues/problems, then the client is unlikely to learn much, if anything, about either themselves, or how to address issues/problems for themselves.
9. False
Few aspects of life are ever black or white; most things are shades of grey, or a matter of balance. It is usual that people hold many conflicting thoughts and ideas in tension. Conflicting thoughts are one way in which we manage tensions (e.g. “I should like more time to myself, to do what I really want to do, yet whenever I have a day off work, I usually fritter it away because I don't feel like being full of busy.”).
10. False
The use of counselling skills does not involve standing back from the client. Instead, the helper attempts to enter the client's frame of reference, and to walk around in the client's world as though in the client's shoes.
11. True
The use of counselling skills does not involve making interpretations of the client's disclosure. Instead the helper attempts to enter the client's frame of reference, and to see the world through the client's eyes.
12. False
The underlying purpose of the use of counselling skills is to help a client to grow more fully into who they are as a person. This growth might involve someone becoming less well adjusted to society. Who is to say that the society in which they live is worth adjusting to. For example, the use of counselling skills might prompt a client to make major life changes (e.g. someone who feels trapped in a professional rat-race choosing to resign their job and becoming a New Age Traveller; or someone in long-term unemployment and living in poor quality accommodation deciding to launch a `sleep out' campaign, and to petition the local council for the construction of low-cost housing).
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