Page 179 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Unit 16: Interview Process in Counseling

Notes

What does acceptance provides in counseling interviews ?

Self Assessment

2. State whether the following statements are ‘true’ or ‘false’.
(i) Silence is the easiest technique to master for most counselors.
(ii) Rogers stress the importance of relationship techniques in 1980
(iii) Stereotype is a type of mannerism.
(iv) The relationship between the counselor and the client is central to the therapeutic process.
16.7 Summary

• An interview is a face-to-face technique of obtaining information for a variety of purposes. It
is well known as a hiring (selection) technique. It is also employed as a technique of research
(market research, consumer research, etc.). The counseling interview differs from the above in
that its goals are significantly different and information getting is not its major interest.
• It is a common practice with counselors to review the counseling session and such a review
reveals several interesting features of the counseling interview.
• Opening and Closing Remarks: These remarks of the client may apparently mean nothing.
However, the counselor may obtain a significant insight when reviewing these opening or
closing remarks. For instance, they may suggest reluctance on the part of the client or they
may indicate his sincerity.
• Recurrent Reference: When a client refers to a particular idea or experience in the course of
the counseling interview several times, it may be of special significance.
• Inconsistencies and Gaps: Some of them may appear self-contradictory but inconsistencies
and gaps could suggest resistance or traumatic experience which the client unwittingly discloses
in the conversation. During the interview the counselor may not realize the significance of
such material.
• Review: In review, however, the counselor is more likely to appreciate the concealed meaning
of the client’s statements or inconsistencies or gaps in his conversation.
• The success of the counseling interview largely depends on the nature of the relationship
between the counselor and the counselee, the latter’s readiness to communicate and his real
desire to improve. The essence of the counseling interview lies in securing an effective
relationship which reflects permissiveness (tolerance and indulgence), kindliness and warmth.
• The counseling relationship differs from other kinds of relationships like those existing between
parents and children, between friends, between teachers and students, and so on.
• 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.
• The counselee arrives with several feelings, attitudes and expectations. He is often nervous
and wonders what is going to happen. It is essential that the counselor makes it very clear to
the counselee regarding what may take place in the counseling situation. This is called
‘structuring’.
• Structuring has other important goals. Most clients have faulty notions about counseling. Some
clients ask the counselor to psychoanalyse them. Others may want the counselor to give a few

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