1. Counseling

2. Introduction
There are times that the challenges in our lives may lead to isolation, anxiety, depression, and other health problems. Through counseling, you can explore your alternatives, build on your strengths, and develop new skills.
Your feelings and concerns about family, friends, health, and work deserve attention. Counseling gives you the opportunity, in a quiet, supportive environment, to take the time to stop, think, and plan. With sensitive and caring feedback, you can gain new awareness and learn to deal with your challenges in new, productive ways.

3. Objectives: By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Identify counseling
Identify the benefits of counseling
Determine in what areas counseling can be beneficial
Identify the important counseling technique tools
Identity inappropriate responses in counseling

4. What is counseling?
Counseling falls under the umbrella term ‘talking therapies’ and allows people to discuss their problems and any difficult feelings they encounter in a safe, confidential environment.
The term can mean different things to different people, but in general it is a process people seek when they want to change something in their lives or simply explore their thoughts and feelings in more depth.

5. Benefits of Counseling
Improved communication
Enhanced relationships
A happier family
Peace of mind
Improved self-esteem
More satisfaction out of life
Personal growth
Improved job performance

6. Counseling may be helpful in any of the following areas:
Adult relationships
Career change
Dealing with loss of a loved one
Anxiety
Depression
Adjustment to family changes
Parent-child relationships
Sibling relationships
Divorce
Cooperative parenting between divorced parents
Abusive relationships
Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit Disorder
Trauma

7. Some Qualities of a Good Counselor
Empathy (the ability to understand the view of
another person)
Respectful
Warm
Confidential/discreet
Honest
Attentive/listening
Unbiased
Understandable/clear
Unhurried

8. Inappropriate Responses in Counseling
Judging: For example, “You wouldn’t have these problems if you had acted differently!”
Attacking: For example, “How could you be that irresponsible?
Denial: For example, “Don’t worry. I’m sure that it’s nothing important.”
Pity: For example, “Poor thing! How terrible that happened!”

9. Counseling Technique Tools
There are several important tools in the counseling kit that will enable you to effectively communicate and counsel others:
Asking questions
Active Listening
Encouraging Body Language
Paraphrasing

10. Counseling Technique Tools
Asking questions open and closed - is an important tool in the counseling kit. They can help a person open up or close them down. An open ended question (OEQ) is one that is used in order to gather lots of information – you ask it with the intent of getting a long answer. OEQ’s are great for: Starting the information gathering part of the session Keeping the client talking

11. Counseling Technique Tools – Asking Questions, continued
Open-Ended Questions (OEQs) have no correct answer and require an explanation of sorts. Here are some good ones: What brought you in here today? Do you have an idea about why this keeps happening? How does that make you feel? You’ll notice that I didn’t use “why?” directly. This is because some people find it threatening and overwhelming. It implies judgment and it can be asking an unanswerable question.

12. Counseling Technique Tools – Asking Questions, continued
A closed ended question (CEQ) is one used to gather specific information - it can normally be answered with either a single word or a short phrase. Good basic counsel skills to know!
Closed Ended Questions (CEQ’s) are those that can easily be answered with a “yes” or a “no” or brief information.
For example:
What is your name and date of birth?
Where do you work? Occupation?
They sound a little harsh, but are needed for:
1. Getting necessary information
2. To get bring a chatty client back on track or interrupt her/him

13. Counseling Technique Tools
Active listening Based on what you have learned in this course, can you describe how to be an active listener in a successful counseling session?

14. Counseling Technique Tools – Active Listening, continued
So… 1. Before the session, make sure your physical needs are taken care of (thirst, hunger, bathroom, stretching). 2. Look at the speaker. Taking a few notes can keep you on task; mentally put masking tape across your mouth. 3. Watch your body language! 4. Encourage the speaker to continue with short, gentle comments like “uh-huh”, “really!?”, “tell me more”, etc. If the person is not normally talkative, you may have to refer to your brief one or two word notes and ask an open question.

15. Counseling Technique Tools
Encouraging Body Language Remember that communication is 55% body language, 38% tone and 7% words.

16. Counseling Technique Tools –
By the way, this is a good time to take interest in the tone of your voice. Be watchful of whether it is…
High / low
Loud / soft
Fast / slow
Accommodating / demanding
Moderation in all things including voice.
Remember, the person may not remember what was said, but they will remember how you made them feel.

17. Counseling Technique Tools
Paraphrasing When you, the listener, restate succinctly and tentatively what the speaker said - conveying empathy, acceptance and genuineness. Since we cannot read our client’s mind and we’ve been given a lot of extraneous material, it’s good to learn how to rephrase briefly and acknowledge that this is what we think the client has said.