EDPY 442: Introduction to Counselling!

Dr. Farah Merali"

Lecture 4: Working in a Counselling Relationship"

I. The Understanding Phase"

•! This phase in counselling involves trying to

develop a deeper understanding of clients

presenting problems or concerns"

•! It is a prerequisite for identifying the most

appropriate strategies for action or problem

resolution in the next phase of counselling"

A. Leads"

•! Leads are a counsellor skill that can be used to get a clearer idea of the factors contributing to a client’s presenting problem"

Example: Child referred for ADHD assessment by " "teacher"

General Leads Interpretation

Leads

B. Immediacy"

•! Immediacy is a counsellor skill that involves both assessing how the counselling relationship is going and using the relationship to have an impact on the client’s view of him/herself"

•! There are two main types of immediacy that are useful in the understanding phase:"

!!Overall relationship immediacy"

!!Self-involving statements"

•! Overall relationship immediacy involves checking in

with the client about how he/she is experiencing

counselling or how a specific event in counselling

went for him/her"

•! It’s particularly useful with reluctant or resistant

clients or after an interpretation is made"

Example 1: Working with clients who have court-orders "

" " "to receive counselling"

Example 2: Making an inaccurate interpretation"

•! Self-involving statements are another type of

immediacy that involve the counsellor sharing

his/her perception of the client with the client"

•! This lets the client know how the counsellor

views him/her and the problem situation"

Example: Relieving the client of believing that "

" " "the problem is his/her fault"

C. Self-Disclosure"

•! Counsellor self-disclosure involves sharing

information with the client about the

counsellor’s life outside of counselling sessions"

•! In the understanding phase of counselling, self-disclosure can serve many purposes including:"

!! Promoting client disclosure via the Dyadic Effect"

!!Building trust due to the counsellor showing vulnerability, especially if clients have encountered people similar to the counsellor who have violated their trust"

!!Normalizing clients’ presenting problems"

!! Establishing credibility with clients, especially in multicultural counselling situations"

Example: Teenager from a conservative culture contemplating "

" " "premarital sex"

D. Multifocused Responding"•! In trying to develop a solid understanding of a client’s presenting

problem, we need to meet the client at his/her own level and in his/her own mode of expression, be it:"

!!Cognitive (thinking oriented)"

!! Emotional (feeling oriented), or"

!!Behavioural (action oriented)"

•! We also need to match the client’s pace of speech to a certain extent and the client’s level of language use, especially when counselling children, people with intellectual disabilities, and people in ESL classes (we can check in with them using relationship based immediacy)"

E. Transference and Countertransference"

•! Problems with transference and countertransference

can interfere with the task of really uncovering what’s

going on for the client"

•! Tranference occurs when the client projects feelings,

attitudes, or desires he/she has in relation to a

significant other in his/her past or present life situation

onto the counsellor"

Example: Back to my mute client who was abused both"

at school and at home"

•! While transference may block progress in

counselling, sometimes it may actually be

beneficial for the client to work through it in

order to understand him/herself better and to

move towards effectively dealing with the

problem"

•! Countertransference is the opposite of transference and

tends to take 2 different forms"

!!Counsellor projecting his/her own feelings and thoughts

onto a client"

!!Reacting to a client in a way similar to how the

counsellor reacts to a significant other in his/her life"

•! Either form of countertransference can result in

overidentification with the client or disidentification "

2. The Action Phase of Counselling"

•! Once the presenting problem or concern has been

thoroughly explored with the client, the counsellor’s

task is then to assist the client with taking action to

facilitate problem resolution"

•! In the action phase of counselling, there are 3 different

options for taking action and the appropriate target of

change depends on the particular case:"

!!Change the Person"

!!Change the Environment or Situation"

!!Change both the Person and the Situation"

A. Change the Person"

•! It is most appropriate to focus on changing aspects of the person in the 4 situations below:"

(i) The client’s view of him/herself or the problem is part of the problem"

Example 1: Gifted underachievers"

Example 2: "Patient dying with cancer (Lisa

Connell) who recently appeared on “The Doctors”

TV show"

•! In such cases, one of the primary strategies for

counselling in the action phase is changing

perceptions through a process called reframing"

•! Reframing involves offering the client another

probable and positive viewpoint on the problem

and having them try it out and test it out"

•! The impact of changing perceptions was shown

in older studies of teacher expectancy on

children’s school performance"

(ii) The client lacks the skills to deal with the problem but has the ability or aptitude to acquire the skills"

Example 1: Challenges in the transition from high "

" " "school to university"

Example 2: Dealing with extremely demanding "

" " "job or work situations "

•! In these cases, the action phase of counselling involves teaching clients the needed skills, and helping them to apply these skills in their lives (e.g., time management, stress management, behaviour management, anxiety reduction/coping strategies, etc.)"

(iii) The client already has the skills to deal with the presenting concern but is afraid to use them or to tackle the situation"

•! Example: Fear of rejection"

•! In working with clients in these situations, the following strategies are really useful"

!!Role plays"

!!Overt and Covert Rehearsal"

!!Homework Assignments"

(iv) The client can’t change the situation he/she is in, so

the client needs to be emotionally or behaviourally

prepared to respond to or handle the situation"

"Example: Elementary school child with a stuttering

problem and children with disabilities mainstreamed in

the education system"

•! In working with clients in this situation, the action

phase of counselling may also involve role plays and

rehearsals of best and worst case problem scenarios"

B. Change the Situation"

•! It is most appropriate to work with the client towards changing his/her life situation in the circumstances below:"

(i) The situation is the main trigger for the client’s presenting problem, the situation is changeable, and it is appropriate and desirable for the person to remain in the situation"

There are 2 subtypes of these cases:"

!!Certain types of Relational Problems (between partners, boss & employee, teacher & student, etc.)"

!!Problems involving Environmental Control"

Example of a Relational problem: "

Conflict among newlyweds or in pre-marital counselling"

•! In these situations, the action phase may

involve working with the parties in the

situation to renegotiate aspects of their

behaviours, expectations, or relationships,

and to apply the negotiated changes through

homework assignments"

Example of a Problem with Environmental Control: !

Family eating patterns and childhood obesity"

•! In these situations, the action phase of counselling often involves encouraging the client to engage in restructuring of the environment by removing triggers or cues related to the problem behaviour"

•! People who represent cues for the problem may also be considered for avoidance and people who support problem resolution may be identified as preferred contacts or resource persons"

Example: Drinking buddies of alcoholics"

(ii) The situation is the main trigger for the presenting problem and the situation is unchangeable, or poses a significant threat to a person’s safety or emotional stability"

"Example: Cycle of domestic violence"

•! In these situations, the counselling tends to focus on helping the clients with decision-making about staying versus exiting the situation"

•! Among clients in abusive situations, this may also involve rehearsal of exit plans, safety and backup plans, contact with external resources like women’s shelters, etc."

•! A key counselling skill that is often used with clients in these situations is confrontation"

•! Confrontation involves challenging a client to examine, modify, or control a part of his/her behaviour that is inconsistent with what the client wants to get out of life"

•! Confrontations are often stated in the form of “You said….but look”"

Example: Application to domestic violence"

•! When making confrontations, it’s more useful to emphasize clients’ strengths and resources rather than their weaknesses"

•! Some counsellors are very hesitant to use confrontation because they believe in exclusively “supportive” counselling"

•! However, to be effective in helping people to resolve their problems and presenting concerns, counsellors need to strike a balance between support and challenge"

Example: "Research on pure forms of supportive "

" " "counselling groups for divorced people"

•! When counsellors do not confront clients in

circumstances where confrontation is clearly

needed, this is referred to as the MUM effect"

C. Change the Person & the Situation"

•! It is appropriate to change both the person and the situation when aspects from within and outside of the person are affecting the presenting problem, and the situation is changeable"

Example: Client who had a traumatic work-"

" " "related physical & emotional injury "

•! Counselling strategies used in changing the person or situation can be used in these cases"