Counselling

Counselling involves professional assistance in coping with personal problems, including emotional, behavioural, vocational, marital, educational, rehabilitation, and life-stage (e.g., retirement) problems.

The counsellor makes use of techniques of active listening, guidance, advice, discussion, clarification, and the administration of tests.

During the counselling process, the counsellor and client engage in an interpersonal process as they attempt to define, address, and resolve specific problems of the client on a one-to-one basis.

Counselling takes place both in individual and group settings, One of the factors that make it special is the quality of helper listening, which involves attending to what the client means to say, as well as what he or she is actually saying.

Confidentiality is another important component of the counsellor– client relationship that sets it apart from several other helping activities.

Another vital aspect of counselling is the concept of client empowerment.

In simple terms, this refers to a confidence in the innate potential for self-determination which clients are believed to have.

The capacity for self-determination may not always be evident to the client, and in times of stress or emotional upheaval, it may become blocked or temporarily obscured.

Counselling can help by entitling clients to look more closely at their experiences and to clarify them.

When this is achieved, ways of addressing difficulties can be devised by clients themselves, and strategies for change can be implemented.