Relationship Building Research and Evaluation Assessment and Diagnosis Therapeutic Process Formulation of Counseling Goals Termination and FollowUp Intervention and Problem Solving Relationship Building The first step in the therapeutic process may be the most important. Building rapport with the client seems to be based both on what the therapist brings to the relationship as well as what the client gives back in that relationship. The competencies that a therapist might bring to the relationship include empathy, unconditional positive regard, congruence, respect, immediacy, confrontation, concreteness, and self-disclosure. Empathy, where the therapist attempts to see a client’s concerns from the client’s perspective, unconditional positive regard, where the therapist passes no judgment on the client’s thoughts and behaviors, and congruence, where the therapist is wholly present in the counseling session and relationship were proposed by Carl Rogers (1957) as the core basis for the therapeutic alliance. Carkhuff (1969) discussed the importance of additional aspects of the counseling relationship including respect, immediacy, confrontation, concreteness and self-disclosure. Respect is shown for the client by focusing on the client’s strengths and providing supportive commentary and assurances and immediacy refers to counselor-client communication that is focused on the present, being in the moment. Confrontation is another core aspect of the counseling relationship. Obviously, different confrontation techniques might be used dependent upon the relationship and situation. The concept of concreteness refers to helping a client to operationalize their concerns by making succinct detailed statements in order to create a focus for the counseling sessions and self-disclosure on the part of the counselor within appropriate context and boundaries can help the client to feel closer to the counselor within the therapeutic relationship. Assessment and Diagnosis While counseling psychologists traditionally focus less on diagnostic criteria than clinical psychologists, there is still some reliance on assessment and diagnostic tools and techniques. Assessment tools include everything from the intake interview to objective or projective measures. The goals of this stage include gathering information to obtain an understanding of the clients view point of situation. All of the input from the assessment interviews and measures help the counselor to come up with an accurate diagnosis. Once a diagnosis is made, it can help to direct the path of the therapy. Formulation of Counseling Goals According to Cormier and Hackney (1993) goals serve motivational, educational, and evaluative purposes within the counseling relationship and process. The counselor’s role at this stage is empowering the client to set the pace and direction of the therapy sessions. Goals within a counseling relationship serve a myriad of purposes including facilitating behavioral change, enhancing coping skills, promoting decision making, improving relationships, and facilitating the client’s potential (George and Cristiani, 1995). Possible Counseling Goals Types of Outcomes Goals Purpose Facilitating Behavioral Change Changing one or more of the client’s behaviors is a common goal of counseling Enhancing Coping Skills Many clients require assistance in acquiring tools to cope with life’s situations and circumstances Promoting Decision Making The counselor’s role is to support, reassure and help the client develop decision making skills Improving Relationships Social-skill training, Assertiveness training and focus on interpersonal relationships Facilitating the Client’s Potential While these goals may be more abstract, there is often a need for client’s to realize their full potential and act to express or achieve that potential Intervention and Problem Solving After selecting the goals for counseling, the therapist and client can work toward designing interventions to address the goals and concerns identified by the client. It is at this point in the counseling process that different tools, techniques, and theories of counseling might come into play. For instance, whether the therapist focuses on creative arts therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, a person-centered approach, or any number of angles will direct how the intervention stage plays out. In addition, to general intervention strategies, counseling sessions may often focus on psychoeducational goals, such as assertiveness training or teaching the skills involved in problem solving. All this is in preparation for sending the client out of the therapy session being able to address their own issues. Termination and Follow-Up In some ways the successful termination of the counseling relationship is just as meaningful as the initial formation of the rapport between the client and the therapist. The ultimate goal of counseling, after all, is that the counselor will no longer be necessary for the client. Quintana & Holahan (1992) identified four concepts associated with positive results of termination in the counseling relationship. These include, a discussion of the end of counseling in which it is helpful for the client and counselor to agree in advance on the date of termination, a review of the course of counseling in which it is often helpful for the client to reflect upon their progress within the counseling sessions, closure of the counselor client relationship in which final supporting and validating statements come into play, and discussion of the client’s future post counseling plans. Research and Evaluation An important component of counseling psychology is that it is an applied psychology discipline that operates in accordance with the scientistpractitioner model. In the scientist-practitioner model, therapists use data gathered from counseling psychology research to inform the way they participate in the practice of their discipline on a day to day basis. References Carkhuff, R. R. (1969). Helping and Human Relations; A Primer for Lay and Professional Leaders. Volume I. Selection and Training. Cormier, L. S., & Hackney, H. (1993). The professional counselor: A process guide to helping (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. George, R. L., & Cristiani, T. S. (1995). Counseling: Theory and practice (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Quintana, S. M., & Holahan, W. (1992). Termination in short-term counseling: Comparison of successful and unsuccessful cases. Journal Of Counseling Psychology, 39(3), 299-305. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.39.3.299 Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal Of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95-103. doi:10.1037/h0045357
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