INTRODUCTION_TO_COUNSELING_3rd_Feb_2024.pdf

Counselling and guidance

1. INTRODUCTION T O COUNSELLING
SESSION PRESENTED TO 2ND YR. NURSING STUDENTS
@UPPER NILE UNIVERSITY –3
rd
Feb 2024
BY: ADAHA A. SEVERINO
BSN, RN.

2. Learning Objectives
•By the end of this lecture, students are
expected to:-
1.Define counselling
2.List the core values of counseling
3.Describe types of counselling
4.Explain the qualities of an effective
counsellor

3. Introduction
•Counselling is a profession and a
specialty.
•All health workers must provide some
sort of counselling to their clients.

4. Introduction….
•Counselling is one of the most important tasks of
a nurse. In fact, you are always counselling
without necessarily being aware of the process.
You counsel your clients/patients, children,
relatives, and even colleagues.
•By the time you complete this course unit, you
should be a better counsellor who will offer help,
information, support and hope to your
patients/clients as you deal with them.

5. 1 Definition of Counselling
•Counselling is a professional helping relationship
of trust that aims at helping the patient/client to
make an informed choices.
•Counselling is the act of working with a
patient/client to help them clarify personal goals
and find ways of overcoming their problems with
the aim of assisting the individual change
behaviors that are interfering with attainment of
basic needs.

6. Definition of Counselling….
•Counselling is a helping interaction which occurs
between a counsellor (healthcare provider) and a
client/patient, families, and/or couples, which is
initiated and maintained as a means of facilitating
change in the behavior of the client/patient or in
order to access treatment, care and support
services.
•Counseling is a mental health professions that
helps and institutions to cope with increased
stresses of the world.

7. Definition of Counselling….
•Its a means by which one person helps
another to clarify, his or her life situation and
to decide further lines of action.
•Its a one to one or one to more (group)
relationship in which the counsellor provides
accurate information to an individual or a
group so that s/he or the group accepts and
uses that information to solve or cope with
the present problem(s).

8. Relationship between communication and
counselling
•Effective communication skills are necessary
to:-
•Build a relationship of respect with the
patient.
•Successfully counsel the patient.
•Help the patient to make informed decisions.
•Make sure the patient uses treatment
correctly and returns to the clinic in future.

9. 2. The core values of counseling
•Empathy
•Genuineness
•Integrity
•Professionalism
•Warmth
•Unconditional positive regard
•Openness

10. 3. Types of counselling
•Different patients/clients come for counselling
with various problems. The type of
counselling is, therefore, determined by the
nature of problems presented by the
patients/clients.
•Types of counselling includes:
1.Individual counselling
2.Group counselling

11. Individual counselling
•Individual counselling is a one-to-one helping
relationship in which the counsellor helps the
client to accept, own, solve or cope with the
problem. Note: individual counselling occurs
when a counsellor is working with only one
person at any given time, i.e. When a nurse is
dealing with a single patient.

12. Individual counselling….
•Duration of individual counseling may be
one, a few or many sessions and the number
of sessions depends on the: nature of the
relationship.
•Nature of the problem whether it is a short
/long-term, how easily is defined, clarified,
and accepted, whether it is a crisis,
preventive or developmental.
•Setting in which the relationship occurs
whether it is a counseling centre, VCT
centre/hospital.

13. Individual counselling….
•Therefore, the nature and duration of
individual counselling cannot be determined
until the nature of the problem is clarified but
in most initial sessions begin in a similar way
of staying with a client for 45 minutes to 60
minutes per session.

14. 2.Group counselling
•Group counselling is a one-to-group helping
relationship in which the counsellor works with a
group of people in seeking a solution to their
common problem at any given session. For
example: alcoholics i.e. Alcoholic Anonymous
(AA), couples etc.
•Note: in group counselling, individuals need each
other’s support and encouragement to change
their behavior.

15. Group counselling…..
•Group counselling is designed to help clients
in a group to achieve increased mutuality,
integration, and acceptance of reality,
socialization, realistic goals, adaptability and
responsibility for self.
•The general aim is to help members appraise
themselves so that they may gain
understanding, and broad perceptive of
themselves in relation to others.

16. Features of group counselling
•A group of clients must have the following
features; clients in the group must have a common
problem.
•There must be dynamic integration among
members.
•Members must be reasonably mature and
mentally sound to be able to talk about and tackle
their common problem.
•Members must have capacity for self-direction.
•Members should be as compatible as possible.

17. Group counselling…..
Special group counselling
•The special group is composed of any group
of people who require counselling to enable
them to adjust better in their life.
•Drug and substance abusers
•Rape victims and rapists
•HIV/AIDS infected and affected people
•Terminally ill people of all categories

18. Group counselling…..
•Families/individuals with handicapped
persons
•Marital or family disputes.
•Those who need abortion or have procured
abortion.
•People requiring reproductive health/family
planning assistance.
•Those experiencing sex
difficulties/impotence.

19. Advantages and Disadvantages of Group Counseling
Advantages
1.More efficient: more clients can
be seen in a shorter amount of
time.
2.Economical: group work almost
always costs less than individual
counseling.
3.Sense of belonging: groups offer
contact with other people on a
deeply personal level.
4.General support: groups can
offer foundational support for
many clients.
5.Microcosm of society: groups
mimic society and offer a “lab”
of how others might react to the
individual.
Disadvantages
1.Less focused time: as compared to
individual counseling, each group member
has less focused time with the counselor.
2.Less intensity with leader: groups do not
offer the same amount of intense one-on-
one time with the group leader as in
individual counseling.
3.More intimidation: some individuals are
intimidated by the group setting.
4.Fear of disclosure: some clients will not
reveal deeply personal matters in a group
setting.
5.Therapeutic effectiveness: some problems
may be more effectively dealt with in a
family or individual setting.

20. Advantages and Disadvantages of Group Counseling….
6.Support for commitment to change:
groups provide atmosphere where
members will support one another as
they define goals and follow through on
new behaviors.
7.Vicarious learning: through modeling,
group members can learn from one
another and from the leader.
8.Feedback: groups offer an increased
number of people to gain feedback from.
9.Practice: groups provide a place to
practice newly learned behaviors within a
trusting environment.
10.Systemic understanding: groups provide
information to members about how they
react in systems, information that can
often be related to family of origin issues.
6.Increased time commitment: generally,
clients have to commit more time to
group counseling than other forms of
counseling—time they may not have.
7.Lack of flexibility: one can generally
change the meeting times of individual
sessions more easily than group sessions.
8.Inability to assure confidentiality:
leaders cannot assure group members
that everyone will keep information
confidential.
9.Diversion of focus: one member could
sometimes take up much of group time.
10.Psychological harm: if a leader cannot
control one or more destructive
members, a member could be harmed
psychologically.

21. Family counselling
•This occurs when a counsellor is working
with more than two members of a family
at any given session.
•Family counselling focuses on family issues
and is conducted when all the family
members concerned are present.
•Effective counselling cannot occur if some
family members are excluded from
counselling sessions.

22. 4. Qualities of effective counsellor
•Professional counselors are licensed mental
health therapists who provide assessment,
diagnosis and psychotherapy to people facing
a variety of life stresses and psychological
problems.
•Such problems includes: relationship issues,
family problems, job stress, mental health
disorders such as depression and anxiety.

23. Qualities of effective counsellor….
1.Communication skills
•Effective counselors should have excellent
communication skills. Although some of these
skills can be honed during graduate school and are
developed and refined over the course of your
career, you should already possess certain
communication skills before embarking on a
counseling career. Counselors need to have a
natural ability to listen and be able clearly explain
their ideas and thoughts to the client.

24. Qualities of effective counsellor….
2.Acceptance
•Being nonjudgmental and accepting are
important attributes in any of the
counselling/helping professions. But professional
counselors must be able to “start where the client
is at.”
•This phrase is often used in counseling to describe
the ability to relate to clients with an open,
nonjudgmental attitude –accepting the client for
who s/he is and in his/er current situation.
•Counselors need to be able to convey acceptance
to their clients with warmth and understanding

25. Qualities of effective counsellor….
3.Empathy
•Counselors help people through some of the most
difficult and stressful times of their lives.
•They must be able to display empathy –the ability
to feel what another person is feeling.
•Empathy means that you are truly able to imagine
what it's like to stand in someone else's shoes.
•Compassion and empathy help your clients feel
understood and heard.

26. Qualities of effective counsellor….
4.Problem-solving skills
•Counselors must have excellent problem-
solving skills to be able to help their clients
identify and make changes to negative
thought patterns and other harmful
behaviors that might be contributing to their
issues.

27. Qualities of effective counsellor….
5.Rapport-building skills
•Counselors must possess a strong set of
interpersonal skills to help establish rapport
quickly with clients and develop strong
relationships.
•They must give their undivided attention to clients
and be able to cultivate trust.
•Counselors need to focus on what their clients are
saying and avoid being distracted by their own
personal problems or concerns when they are in a
session.

28. Qualities of effective counsellor….
6.Flexibility
•Flexibility in counseling is defined as the
ability to adapt and change the way you
respond to meet your clients' needs.
•You don't stay rigid and stick to a
predetermined treatment path when your
clients require a different approach.
•Being flexible is one of the most important
attributes of a professional counselor.

29. Qualities of effective counsellor….
7.Self-awareness
•Self-awareness is the ability to look within and
identify your own unmet psychological needs and
desires, such as a need for intimacy or the desire
to be professionally competent.
•This ability prevents your issues from affecting or
conflicting with those of your clients.
•Self-awareness has a major impact on a counselor's
effectiveness

30. Qualities of effective counsellor….
8.Multicultural competency
•Counselor must display multicultural
competency and adopt a multicultural
worldview.
•Multicultural competency means that you try
to relate to and understand your clients
regardless of their race, ethnicity, religious or
political beliefs or socioeconomic
background.

31. Qualities of effective counsellor….
9. Good Psychological Health
•Counsellors are models of behaviour. Every counselling session is
a period of tutoring in positive behaviour. When a counsellor
lacks good psychological health, his/her attitude will not be
helpful, and cause harm to the patient.
•If a counsellor is feeling angry, depressed, or not secure this will
come across to the patient.
•Good counsellors should not be part of the problem, but rather
part of the solution.
•Counsellors do not necessarily need to be in excellent physical
health to be effective. Some of the best counsellors are people
living with an illness, because they can empathize with others
living with the same illness. For example, some of the best
HIV/AIDS counsellors and educators are people living with
HIV/AIDS.

32. Qualities of effective counsellor….
10.Avoiding Embarrassment
•Embarrassment is a situation where one feels
uncomfortable in a social setting.
•You can avoid embarrassing your patient by
holding the counselling session in a private room.
•You can also avoid embarrassing the patient by
understanding the cultural background of their
community.

33. Qualities of effective counsellor….
•Try to avoid sensitive probing questions which
make the patient develop feelings of guilt.
Probing questions are statements which focus on
the experiences, feelings and thoughts of the
patient.
•As a counsellor, you should observe and
interpret nonverbal communication after asking
a sensitive probing question. You can restate the
same question in a different fashion if you note
your patient is uncomfortable.

34. Qualities of effective counsellor….
11.Respect of opinion
•(e.g. feelings, attitudes and behaviours). The
counsellor recognizes respects the basic rights
of the patient, whether they are good or
bad.
•When the patient feels that they are accepted
& respected as a person with their own
rights, they are encouraged to disclose
information.

35. Qualities of effective counsellor….
•As a counsellor you should:
➢Avoid criticizing the patient even if you feel they
are wrong.
➢Listen carefully when the patient is talking to
understand the message they are conveying
➢You can only give suggestions and not criticism.

36. Qualities of effective counsellor….
12.Observance
•A good counsellor must be very observant. As you
listen to your patient talking, observe their facial
expressions and try to interpret the meaning of
any non-verbal communication.
•Facial expressions may reveal painful memories
expressed in the form of anger, sadness and
frustrations.

37. Qualities of effective counsellor….
•Listen very carefully to the patient, observing if
their facial expressions correspond with their
speech. Observe carefully any mood swings and
their relevance to the conversation.
•The observations are made to detect any
inappropriate behavior expressed by the patient.
•Close observation also makes the patient feel the
counsellor is interested in the conversation.

38. Qualities of effective counsellor….
13.Honesty
•Honesty refers to the act of telling the truth to the patient. As a
good counsellor you should always tell your patient the truth.
You should never tell a lie to your patient. If, for example, you
are not sure of something, tell them simply that you will go to
look for information.
•Honesty is exercised by both patient and counsellor. You should
encourage your patient to be very honest on the information
they are giving you. Similarly, you should not hide any
information of concern to your patient.
•Being honest makes the patient regard you as a dependable and
trustworthy counsellor.

39. Qualities of effective counsellor….
14.Trustworthiness
•Trustworthiness means that the trait of deserving trust
and confidence. Counsellors who are trustworthy are
honest, reliable and dependable and they always keep
interactions with the patient confidential.
•Counsellors do not promise more than that they can
do, and must be sure to do exactly as they have said.
Trustworthiness is essential to establishing rapport with
patients and encouraging open communication.

40. Qualities of effective counsellor….
15.Confidentiality
•Confidentiality means treating all the
information given by the patient with
secrecy. As a counsellor, you should not
let anyone to know what your patient has
discussed with you.

41. Qualities of effective counsellor….
16.Warmth and Sensitivity
•Counsellors should show warmth without being
possessive during counselling. The counsellor should
smile and show a lot of concern and warmth welcome
to the patient. Through both verbal and non-verbal
communication, that they are open to communication,
that they care about the patient and value the patient’s
concerns.
•Sensitivity enables counsellors to perceive patient’s
verbal and nonverbal messages and treats each patient
as a unique individual.

42. Qualities of effective counsellor….
17.Competence
•Competence entails the possession of necessary
information, knowledge and skills for counselling. Good
counselors have a combination of training, personal
qualities and counseling skills. Also they demonstrate
competence through their behavior by:
➢Talking at a patient’s level, using language the patient
can understand.
➢Appearing relaxed and showing attentive behavior
➢Listening carefully to the patient
➢Providing direction to the session through counseling
skills

43. Qualities of effective counsellor….
18.Patience
•A good counsellor should be very patient
with their patients, no matter how many
times the patient repeats themselves.
•You should not hurry the patient at all or
show impatience nor should you show you
are bored or tired of holding long
discussions.

44. QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU