Phases of

Counseling

Joanne L. VerolaBEED- Special Education

What is a Counseling

Process?

– A Counseling Process is a planned, structured dialogue

between a counselor and a client.

– It is a cooperative process in which a trained professional

helps a person called the client to identify sources of

difficulties or concerns that he or she is experiencing.

– Together they develop ways to deal with and overcome

these problems so that person has new skills and increased

understanding of themselves and others.

For example students in a college or university may be

anxious about how to study in university, lack of clarity

on educational or career direction, have difficulty living

with a room-mate of another race or religion, have

concerns with self-esteem, feelings with being

“stressed out”, difficulties in romantic relationships and

so forth.

Stage 1:

Establishing

Relationship

The first step involves building a relationship and

focuses on engaging clients to explore issues that

directly affect them. It is where the client is reading the

verbal and nonverbal messages and make inferences

about the counselor and the counseling situation.

Research efforts on counseling relationships can be

grouped into two general categories: counselor-offered

conditions and counselor- and client-offered

conditions.

Counselor-offered conditions

The way the counselor influences the counseling process

- Rogers (1957) identified what he believed were core

conditions for success in counseling: empathy,

unconditional positive regard, congruence, respect,

immediacy, confrontation, concreteness, self-disclosure.

Counselor and client offered conditions

Working alliance: another way to describe the counseling

relationship.

According to Bordin (1979) a working alliance is composed of

three parts

agreement between the counselor and client in terms of the

goals of counseling,

agreement between the counselor and client in terms of the

tasks of counseling, and

the emotional bond between the counselor and client

Steps for Relationship Building

Introduce yourself

Invite client to sit down

Ensure client is comfortable

Address the client by name

Invite social conversation to reduce anxiety

Watch for nonverbal behavior as signs of client’s emotional state

Invite client to describe his or her reason for coming to talk

Allow client time to respond

Indicate that you are interested in the person

Stage 2:

Assessment

and Diagnosis

Assessment: helps counselors develop an in-

depth understanding of a client and mental

disorders that require attention

Diagnosis: medical term that means

"identification of the disease-causing

pathogens responsible for a physical illness"

Assessment Division

Standardized measures include psychological

tests that have a standardized norm group.

Nonstandardized measures do not have a

standardized norm group and include strategies

such as the clinical interview and assessment of

life history.

Diagnosis: DSM-IV TR based

Axis I Clinical Disorders and Other Conditions That

May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention

Axis II Personality Disorders Mental Retardation

Axis III General Medical Conditions

Axis IV Psychosocial and Environmental Problems

Axis V Global Assessment of Functioning

Four reasons for making a diagnosis

1. Facilitating communication shorthand

2. Indicating possible treatment strategies

3. Communicating etiology

4. Aiding in scientific investigation

Stage 3:

Setting Goals

Goals serve three functions in the counseling

process (Cormier & Hackney, 1993):

motivational

educational

evaluative

Counseling goals also conceptualizes as either

process or outcome goals.

Process goals

Establish the conditions necessary to make

the counseling process work

Are primarily the counselor's responsibility

Outcome goals

Specify what the client hopes to accomplish in

counseling.

Stage 4:

Intervention

and Problem

Solving

Once goals between counselor and client are

created, they can determine the intervention

strategy (include group counseling, family,

couple and mostly individual)

One way to conceptualize intervention is

practicing problem solving.

Problem-solving strategies

Kanfer and Busemeyer's six-stage model:

problem detection, problem definition,

identification of alternative solutions,

decision making, execution, and verification

Stage 5:

Evaluation,

Termination, Follow

up or Referral

The ultimate goals in counseling is for counselors to

be unnecessary or obsolete to the client (at this point

counseling can be terminated).

Once the termination has occurred, counselors can

set up a brief follow up counseling session.

For the beginning counselor, it is difficult to think of

terminating the counseling process, as they are more

concerned with beginning the counseling process.

However, all counseling aims toward successful

termination.

Terminating the counseling process will have to be

conducted with sensitivity with the client knowing

that it will have to end.

• Counselor always mindful of avoiding fostering

dependency and is aware of own needs.

• Preparation for termination begins long before

counseling begins.

• Termination considered not just at end of successful

relationship, but also is considered when it seems

counseling is not being helpful.

• Think of this as a means of empowering client.

For you, what is the

most important

phase/stage in a

counseling process?

Do you think

implementing school

counseling program is

important?

Students trained by counselors to be peer facilitators are effective in

helping sixth grade problem-behavior students adjust to middle school. In

one study, counselors worked with eighth grade peer facilitators once a

week for six weeks, focusing on how to (a) establish a helping

relationship, (b) use high facilitative responses, (c) lead a small group

discussion, and (d) use a four-step problem-solving model. The facilitators

demonstrated that they could help students who are having problems

adjusting to school, especially in terms of their school attendance, school

grades, and attitude towards school. Discipline referrals were also

reduced.

Tobias and Myrick, 1999

Professional School Counseling, 3:1, 27-33.

One study found that high school counselors influenced

their students' future plans by encouraging them to have

high expectations. A high proportion of 10th and 12th

grade students who were surveyed perceived that their

counselor expected them to attend college, regardless of

their racial background. High school students’ own

educational expectations for themselves increased over

time.

Mau and Hitchcock, 1998

Professional School Counseling, 2:2, 161-166.

A study done in Gwinnett County, Georgia shows that school

counselors impact students’ academic performance and can

increase the on-task, productive behavior of students and

reduce disruptive behaviors. The Behavior Rating Checklist

indicated statistically significant decreases in disruptive

behaviors and significant increases in productive, on-task

behaviors for both the third grade and the fifth grade students

tested. Language arts progress was statistically significant for

both grade levels as well.

Mullis and Otwell, 1997

Georgia School Counselors Association Journal, 1:4, 1-3.

Counseling decreases classroom disturbances. Counseling

services support teachers in the classroom and enable teachers

to provide quality instruction designed to assist students in

achieving high standards. Students in schools that provide

counseling services indicated that their classes were less likely

to be interrupted by other students and that their peers

behaved better in school.

Lapan and Gysbers, 1997

Journal of Counseling & Development, 75, 292-302.