Page 130 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Guidance and Counseling

Notes feelings run strong that the counseling function becomes a highly delicate and specialized function.
In addition to the concern for the feelings of the clients, counseling has a cognitive dimension
through which a behavioural change (conation) is sought to be achieved. The client is received
without any reservations and he is helped to state his problems and explore the possible solutions.
The counselor does not try to solve the client’s problems or make choices that could reduce his
emotional conflicts. Instead, through counseling, the client is helped to discover for himself his
strengths and weaknesses. The self-understanding that is sought to be reached is often through
the use of objective psychological instruments. It is generally recognized that an individual has
the ability to resolve one’s own problems. What is supposed to prevent the individual from
making suitable choices is a lack of proper or adequate self-understanding and understanding of
the environment. The counselor aims at making the client act independently in a mature and
responsible manner and with full understanding of the consequences. This is what is meant by
personality development. A child or an adolescent is not able to act independently. He is not
prepared to face the consequences of his actions. Hence, he is considered immature. A nature
person, on the other hand, is expected to function efficiently, make desirable adjustments when
he has the necessary understanding of his capacities and liabilities as well as the environmental
conditions—physical, social and cultural— in terms of which he has to act. Counseling aims at
helping individuals reach a stage or state of self-autonomy through self-understanding, self-
direction and self-motivation. Such an individual suffers from the minimum of inhibitions, conflicts
and anxieties. He is a ‘fully-functioning person’.

11.2.1 Counseling as a Helping Relationship
Counseling is in its essence a ‘helping relationship’. All of us seek to satisfy our personal needs.
More often than not, in trying to gratify our needs, we find ourselves in conflicting situations in
which our interests clash with those of others. But through the process of socialization in childhood,
and later through education, we learn to moderate our desires such that there is no open clash.
We may learn to suppress a few desires and inhibit other needs so long as our happiness is not
endangered. In addition to human suffering caused by physical handicaps and clash of interests,
a major source of suffering is to be found in one’s own personality. Often a sense of personal
inadequacy and inferiority leads to lack of self-confidence, withdrawal and lack of desire for
achievement. Even if the individual has the desire or motivation, he is hindered by subjective
and environmental factors. The psychological conflicts, namely those of goals, values, interests
and the like, cause an ebbing of human enthusiasm and zest for life. The counseling psychologist
alleviates this suffering by establishing a helping relationship. In the words of Rogers, a helping
relationship is one “in which one of the participants intends that there should come about, in one
or both parties, more appreciation of, more expression of, more functional use of the latent inner
resources of the individual”. The commonly observed relationships such as those between the
teacher and pupil, husband and wife, mother and child, counselor and counsellee, could all be
considered helping relationships.
A helping relationship is characterized by certain essential features the helping relationship:
1. Is meaningful because it is personal and intimate.
2. Is affective in nature involving mild to strong emotional relationships.

3. Involves the integrity of the helper and the helped and is sustained voluntarily.
4. Involves the mutual consent of the counselor and the counsellee either explicitly stated or
implicitly to be inferred.
5. Takes place because the individual in need of help is aware of his own limitations and
inadequacies.
6. Involves confidence reposed in the helper.

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