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Guidance and Counseling

Notes be a serious handicap to the client’s transference in the counseling process. The counselee by his
behaviour may remind the counselor of some past experience and he (counselor) may react to the
counselee affectively which may be either positive or negative. The counselor may view the counselee
as an impulsive, head-strong and selfish individual. This is an instance of counter-transference.
Compulsive advice-giving is a surreptitious and subtle form of counter-transference. Counsellors
tend to easily take an “if I were you” approach even in the counseling relationships. A common
counter : transference feeling is the idea that the counselee must somehow like the counselor and be
pleased with him.
What are the sources of counter-transference ?
1. The counselor’s unresolved personal problems may be one source and they indicate the need
for counseling the counselor.
2. Situational pressures coinciding with the counselor’s problems may aggravate his latent feelings.
3. Counter-transference may emanate while the client is communicating his feelings to the
counselor.
If the counselor tends to be overly sympathetic it could be because of the underlying need for
sympathy and attention on his part. The counselor’s value-structure could be a veritable source of
counter-transference. The very nature of the counseling relationship puts the counselor in a position
to influence the client. This happens notwithstanding the counselor’s objective, non-judgemental
and permissive (indulgent) attitude. It is often difficult for the counselor to avoid conveying the
feeling that he regards emotional maturity, for example, as an important goal of counseling. Usually
the counselor conveys his values to the client. Professionally speaking, there is no question of
conveying personal values in the counseling process, even if they are to facilitate counseling.

Resolving Counter-transference Feelings
After an awareness of the feelings of counter-transference the first step consists of the counselor
asking himself,. “Why is it so ? The counselor must accept the fact that he has varied feelings about
the client and that he will change somewhat by the counseling experience. The counselor must be
aware that his anxieties could arise from insecurity in the counseling role.
Every counselor who feels uneasy about his responses to a client should admit the possibility that
his comments are a form of his own projections. All that may be necessary is to admit this possibility
frankly and attempt to change. Though there is no objective evidence to indicate that it is useful to
discuss counter-transference feelings with the client it is found to be a mild, reassuring and
interpretative reference, helpful in allaying anxiety. The counselor can use his own awareness of
himself as reflected through the therapeutic process to enhance his own growth and resolve his
difficulties. Counter-transference can sometimes be handled easily by asking the client to discuss
the problems in group therapy situations.
Resistance

The term ‘resistance’ was used by Freud (1903) to indicate the unconscious opposition in bringing
material from the domain of the id into the ego. Resistance is explained as one of the protective
functions of the ego. According to Bordin (1968), “Resistance is the reflection of the patient’s inability
to deal directly, realistically and constructively with his impulses as they appear during the process
of therapy.”
In the counseling situation one of the principal realities of building and maintaning effective
counseling relationship must concern itself with the phenomenon of resistance. Resistance could be
understood as a special defensive form of transference. It could be a product of the outer defence
system protecting the client from situational threats or of the inner defense system guarding the
client from his unconscious impulses. The existentialists view resistance as a tendency of the client
to renounce his unique and original potentiality which is inalienable. According to existentialists,
resistance is exhibited as social conformity.

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