Page 171 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Unit 16: Interview Process in Counseling

(iii) Interview is ................... technique of therapy. Notes
(iv) The Counsellor efforts to make very clear to the Counsellor regarding what may take place
in the counseling situation is called ................... .
(v) The goal of the counselor is to bring about the desirable change in the ................. behaviour.
(vi) In counseling ................... is of paramount importance.
(vii) ................... provides necessary psychological elimate for the counseling interview.

16.4 Interviewing Techniques in Counseling

Counseling techniques concern the specific procedures and skills employed by the counselor in
securing his counseling goals or objectives. There could be variations in the techniques employed by
different counselors, which could be either owing to subjective factors, such as responsibility, leading
and planning statements of the counselor or to the specific nature of the counselee’s problem, or to
both. However, there is always a danger of becoming too technique-conscious in one’s approach.
This kind of rigid technique-oriented approach sometimes makes the counselor’s position look
ridiculous in his blind adherence to thumb-rules or fixed formulae. Similar techniques cannot be
applied to all clients. There is a subjective element involved in the choice of a specific technique by
the counselor. Usually counselors develop varying styles based on their appreciation of the counselee’s
needs. The different techniques, at any time, are in the constant process of empirical validation. We
will discuss some of the well known techniques which have been experimentally validated.
The foremost issue concerns the basic nature of the approach, namely, the client-centered approach
or the non-directive approach, the directive approach, the authoritarian approach and the eclectic
approach. The nature of direction in a specific approach is concerned with the amount of lead taken
by the counselor, the involvement of the client and other such basic matters. For instance, the
authoritarian approach assumes that the client is ignorant and helpless in the matter confronting
him as it is determined by unconscious forces and that it is for the counselor to take the responsibility
of helping to solve the client’s problem. The non-directive approach, on the other hand, assumes a
more or less diametrically opposite position. It holds that the counselor is ignorant about the
counselee’s personality and therefore, does not know anything about the client’s problem. It is for
the client, therefore, to solve or resolve his problems by his active participation. The counselor helps
the client by providing a conducive atmosphere exuding warmth and friendliness devoid of tension
and stress. The directive approach assumes that individuals have different degrees of knowledge
about themselves as well as their environment. They fail to solve their problems or make necessary
choices leading to the resolution of their problems as a result of lack of sufficient information or
ignorance about certain critical issues. The counselor, therefore, has to give objective and dependable
information to the client regarding his assets and liabilities as well as information about the situation
in all its aspects. The eclectic approach would not like to identify itself with any particular theoretical
point of view. The eclectic counselor believes that he should have freedom to choose the approach
that suits his client. Thus, the importance the different approaches assume depends on the manner
in which a counselor has to deal with his client.
While it could be said that a technique without a proper theory and philosophy would be blind, we
could with equal force and conviction say that mere theory and philosophy without application
would be sterile; therefore, we cannot divorce a technique from its theoretical moorings. Counseling
techniques may be seen as the individual innovations of the counselors to suit each counseling
situation. Some of the innovations have stood the test of time and have come to be accepted as
dependable techniques.
Speaking of techniques, we could identify the individual character of each of them from the time the
counselee makes his first contact. This is a crucial stage and the importance of the ‘opening technique’
cannot be overemphasized. How does the counselor make his first move ? In other words, how does
he establish a feeling of trust ? There could be different techniques of securing the trust of the client
but it would be fruitless to try to explain or describe them as they grow out of the counselor’s

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