Disciplines of Counseling
Discipline and Ideas in the Applied
Social Sciences
Think Tank
This learning material will provide you
with information and activities that will help
the learner will demonstrate a high level of
understanding of the basic concepts of
counseling through a group presentation of
situation in which practitioners of counseling
work together to assist individuals, groups,
or communities involved in difficult
situations.
Learning Competencies
1. Clarify the relationships and differences
between social sciences and applied social
sciences. This time let’s discuss the goals
and scope in counseling.
2. Clarify the relationships and differences
between social sciences and applied social
sciences, and you have identify the goals
and scope of counseling,
Learning Objectives
At the end of this module, you are
expected to:
1.Identify the goals and scope of counseling
(HUMSS_DIASS12-Ia-1)
2. Explain the principles of counseling
(HUMSS_DIASS 12-Ib-5)
Memory Bank
Activity 1: Draw me, Represent ME!
Direction: Inside the rectangle, draw the
object that best describe you. You can be
creative and imaginative on your own object.
Then answer the questions below
the box.
Goals and Scope of Counseling
Counseling is aimed of empowering a client. The general
goal is to lead an individual client or group to self –
emancipation in relation to a felt problem. At some stage in the
process, the client should attain insight and understanding of
oneself, achieve better self – awareness and look at oneself
with increased self – acceptance and appreciation, and be able
to manage oneself positively. Client empowerment means that
they develop skill and abilities that require self - management
and improved motivation toward actions that are good for one’s
self and develop a positive outlook toward the past leading to
some sense of closure and attainment of relative inner and
outer harmony resulting to improvement in relationships with
family, friends, colleagues, and others.
Activity 1. Jot it Down!
Direction: Analyze each situation below and put a check mark (✔) if it is
reasonably within a counselor’s jurisdiction, and put a cross mark (✘) if it
is not. Justify your answers using what you learned in this lesson.
_____1. Mocha feels insecure and an outcast in school because she
thinks her classmates talk negatively.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
________________________
_____2. Ren - Ren needs to raise funds for her college tuition fee next
year.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_______________________
_____3. Allen keeps questioning himself if he is in the right job
because he seems to be getting more unmotivated as time goes. His
spirit for doing his job well has gone down these past few months.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________
_____4. Greg thinks he is addicted to video games and wants to
control it to become more productive with his schoolwork.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
______________________________
_____5. Shane was diagnosed with Obsessive – Compulsive Disorder
(OCD) when she was a teenager. As a young adult now, she wants to
be helped again in controlling her OCD symptoms.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
______________________________
_____6. Benny is overly jealous when it comes to the friends of his
girlfriend. He cannot seem to accept the fact that his girlfriend
enjoys very much the company of others.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_____7. Lesley is overly scared of men because of a traumatic
experience she had as a little girl. She witnessed how three men
robbed and stabbed her father to death.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_____8. Pete, 18 years old, is suffering from a split personality
wherein he exhibits 8 personalities. At night he thinks that he is a
mother, at day he portrays his grandmother and during his lucid
intervals he became Pete itself.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_____9. Keanu is confused on his religion wherein they do not
eat blood –cooked foods like his other classmates. His religion
forbids to eat blood or any uncooked foods with blood.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________
____10. Martha, 16 years old has twin brothers, Leone and
Loonie. Growing up with two brothers, Martha questioned
herself if she is really a girl or a boy since she likes boys’ toys,
clothes for the boys and other things that his twin brothers
have.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________
On Point
Goals of Counseling
Different individuals have different
perceptions of what can be expected of
counseling individuals preparing to become
counselors, and those who seek counseling,
as well as parents, teachers, school
administrators and governmental agencies,
all differ in their expectations of the
counseling experience.
According to Gibson and Mitchell (2003), the following
are the goals of counseling:
1. Development Goals - assist in meeting and advancing
the client’s human growth and development including
social, personal, emotional, cognitive and physical wellness.
2. Preventive Goals - help the client to avoid some
undesired outcomes.
3. Enhancement Goals – develop special skill and abilities.
4. Remedial Goals – assist the client to overcome and treat
an undesirable development.
5. Exploratory Goals – examine the options, test the skills
and try new and different activities.
6. Reinforcement Goals – help the client in
recognizing that what they are doing, thinking, and
feeling is fine.
7. Cognitive Goals – contain acquiring the basic
understanding and habits for good health.
8. Physiological Goals – facilitate behavioral changes
towards the society.
9. Psychological Goals – aid in developing good
social interaction skills, learning emotional control
and developing positive self – concept. 4
Scope of Counseling
Clients are encouraged to meet with a counselor
even if they are not sure that they need counseling. Any
client facing problems are encouraged to see a counselor.
The scope of counseling covers various aspects of
human life including:
1. Personal – includes motivation, self –esteem, interest,
career choice, etc.
2. Social – pertains to relationship conflicts, socialization,
peer relationships, etc.
3. Cognitive – relates to the study habits, academic
performance, irrational thoughts, etc.
4. Behavioral – contains absenteeism, bullying,
restlessness, misbehavior, etc.
5. Psychological – comprises of personality
development, stress, etc.
6. Emotional –embraces to anger management
issues, phobias, mild anxiety, etc.
7. Spiritual – covers spiritual beliefs, guidance,
confusions, etc.
8. Health - - includes wellness, life and work balance,
leisure, etc.
9. Occupational–indicates work and career decisions,
etc.
However, counseling does not deal with the
clinical cases such as mental illness, requiring
medication and psychotherapy.
There are many approaches to help clients
move towards growth and problem-resolution. Often
counselors will provide them with opportunities to
learn new skills and coping mechanisms while also
increasing their self-understanding and insight.
Counselors may also examine past patterns to help
them assess in a healthier way
their current/ past relationships, decision-
making, and family dynamics. With the help of their
counselors, clients will better understand their
strengths and abilities to manage life challenges
which can be very important in achieving their
therapeutic goals.
Principles of Counseling
The principles of counseling can be found in the
basic process of counseling since they govern each and
every step: developing trust; exploring problem areas;
helping to set goals; empowering into action; helping to
maintain change; and agreeing when to end. (Velleman,
2001)
1. Advice
Counseling may involve advice-giving as one of the several
functions that counselors perform. When this is done, the
requirement is that a counselor makes judgments about a
counselee’s problems and lays out options for a course of
action.
2. Reassurance
Counseling involves providing clients with reassurance,
which is a way of giving them courage to face a problem
or confidence that they are pursuing a suitable course of
action. Reassurance is a valuable principle because it can
bring about a sense of relief that may empower a client to
function normally again.
3. Release of emotional tension
Counseling provides clients the opportunity to get
emotional release from their pent-up frustrations and other
personal issues. Counseling experience shows that as
persons begin to explain their concerns to a sympathetic
listener, their tensions begin to subside. They become
more relaxed and the release of tensions helps remove
mental blocks by providing a solution to the problem.
4. Clarified thinking
It tends to take place while the counselor and
counselee are talking and therefore becomes a
logical emotional release. As this relationship goes
on, other self-empowering results may take place
later as a result of developments during the
counseling relationship. Clarified thinking encourages
a client to accept responsibility for problems and to
be more realistic in solving them.
5. Reorientation
It involves a change in the client’s emotional
self through a change in basic goals and aspirations.
This requires a revision of the client’s level of
aspiration to bring it more in line with actual and
realistic attainment. It enables clients to recognize
and accept their own limitations. The counselor’s job
is to recognize those in need of reorientation and
facilitate appropriate interventions.
6. Listening skills
Listening attentively to clients is the counselor’s
attempt to understand both the content of the clients’
problem as they see it, and the emotions they are
experiencing related to the problem. Good listening helps
counselors to understand the concerns being presented.
7. Respect
In all circumstances, clients must be treated with
respect, no matter how peculiar, strange, disturbed, weird,
or utterly different from the counselor. Without this basic
element, successful counseling is impossible. Counselors
do not have to like the client, or their values, or their
behavior, but they have to put their personal feelings
aside and treat the client with respect.
8. Empathy and positive regard
Carl Rogers combined empathy and positive
regard as two principles that should go along with
respect and effective listening skills. Empathy
requires the counselor to listen and understand the
feelings and perspective of the client and positive
regard is an aspect of respect. For Rogers, clients
have to be given both “unconditional positive regard”
and be treated with respect.
9. Clarification, confrontation, and interpretation
Clarification is an attempt by the counselor to
restate what the client is either saying or feeling, so
the client may learn something or understand the
issue better. Confrontation and interpretation are
other more advanced principles used by counselors
in their interventions.
10. Transference and countertransference
When clients are helped to understand
transference reactions, they are empowered to gain
understanding of important aspects of their emotional
life. Counter transference helps both clients and
counselors to understand the emotional and
perceptional reactions and how to effectively manage
them.
Activity: Test your Knowledge and Reasoning Power
Direction: Answer the following questions. Write your
answer on a separate sheet of paper. (2-3 sentences)