The right setting needs to be picked to have the meetings in. The room should always be private and comfortable so that the person does not feel out of place by the environment. It should be somewhere which you would not get disturbed in and some counsellors have buzzers on their doors to say when they are engaged and busy so as people can’t enter the room when a session is in progress.
Terms need to be set up between the professional and the client so both parties understand how long the sessions are going to go on for and what is going to be gained from the sessions. This protects both parties and also helps in developing boundaries.
It is also very important that the counsellor recognises when they can no longer help the individual effectively and the individual is referred on to someone who is better trained in caring for their individual needs. This keeps the client safe and makes sure that all of their needs are catered for.
Trust is an extremely important part of a counselling relationship as the people who turn to counselling are normal at a critical stage of their lives and are also very vulnerable. Without trust it is extremely unlikely that the client will benefit from counselling sessions and so without their problems will not have a chance of being solved. Clients need warmth and respect in this type of relationship and this could be delivered through speaking and a comforting hand on someone’s shoulder; however, it would not be giving a client a hug as this is crossing the boundaries of a professional relationship. Carl Rogers talked of a person centred approach of giving warmth and putting the client at the heart of the care that is being given. Primarily Rogers states that the client should receive – non judgemental warmth and empathy for therapeutic change to be able to happen. for the client to be able to have changes in their lives Rogers thoughts are critical and should always be used.
A client must have a realistic expectation of what the counsellor can do and must understand that the counsellor cannot solve all their problems in one session and won’t be able to solve them at all if the client does not put enough effort in.
The professional should always give the client unconditional positive regard and should never judge what the client is like. To create unconditional positive regard there needs to be an atmosphere of safety and security. Unconditional positive regard is very important in this type of relationship because without it the client may disengage and become uninterested in the sessions and they may also then suffer from low self esteem. Counselling should promote a persons self esteem.
For counselling to work completely and have long lasting effects the client must not become dependent on the counsellor and the sessions that they are providing. If the client became dependent on the sessions they would not be able to cope with life problems on their own and would always resort to counselling. Whereas if counselling works and the client doesn’t become dependent on it, it is likely that next time they suffer a crisis in their lives they will be far more successful at coping with it on their own and would probably not need counselling.
When counselling sessions are coming to an end it is important to discuss future ways for the client to cope and deal with problems in their life for the future, this is so they are prepared for life without counselling and have the tools to manage their life on their own. If this did not happen the client would be likely to crumble.
To conclude in this essay I have described the process of starting, maintaining, developing and concluding a successful relationship between client and counsellor. I have wrote about what needs to happen for the relationship to be successful and I have described what would happen if the right things did not happen in this type of relationship.
by
abie21 (student)
