Page 191 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Unit 17: Counseling Services: Individual Counseling

• Counseling, by whatever name it might be called, has as a major purpose the changing of one’s Notes
view of himself, others and the physical milieu. Counseling in some instances is perceived to
be synonymous with psychotherapy, while to others such a notion is anathema.
• Following situations are more serious, requiring individual counselling by skilled counselor.
• An individuals need for assistance in making decisions, planning courses of action, and making
adjustments to life situations may be centered in any of his present or future areas of experience.
• The physical and the mental health status of the person are important, for example. Anyone
who possesses a healthy physical constitution and who, consequently, does not suffer aches
and pains or is not unduly concerned about the possibility of contracting a disease usually is
able to meet ordinary annoyances or disappointments with a reasonable degree of adjustment.
• Home experiences: It is not unusual for a child occasionally to resent what he considers to be
unjust treatment by his parents, to be jealous of apparent privileges granted a brother or sister
and denied him, or to embarrassed by the fact that his home compares unfavourably with that
of his classmates. If the mother as well as the father is working and is thus away from home,
the child is likely to engage in unsupervised after-school activities that get him into trouble
with the parents of neighbourhood children.
• During his elementary-school years, the child usually can be helped to meet his problems of
adjustment in group situations through the efforts of an alert and guidance-minded teacher.
• A child needs to experience a feeling of oneness with his group. Any procedure that causes his
fellow classmates to feel he is receiving more or different treatment from theirs may be more
harmful than beneficial. However, there are instances of inability to keep up with the class or
of tendencies to engage in behaviour that is deviate from that of the group.
• Another objective toward which the counselor works is assisting the student to examine the
psychological dimensions of what he is thinking and saying. The counselor’s approach in this regard
is quite the opposite of that of a person engaged in social conversation. In social situations we
react to remarks of self-doubt or anxiety by attempting to “close down” the display of emotion.
• There has been and still is considerable discussion about the kind of problems with which the
school counselor should be concerned. Many counselors have been firmly instructed to recognise
that there are some emotional and personal problems that should be avoided; that they should
be ready to refer the individual to a psychiatrist or consulting psychologist.
• The big difference between counselling and psychotherapy appears to be a matter of structure.
It has been indicated that in psychotherapy the approach is general and initially vague while
in counselling, as typically viewed, the relationship involves a specific problem.
• (A) Clinical Procedures: The clinical approach is employed as a guidance teachniqe for those
cases of emotional disturbance which are serious in nature, in which many maladjustive factors
both within and outside the individual appear to be operating. The study and treatment of
these cases may require a relatively long period of time.
• Method of Approach: Clinical procedures involve the following activities :
(i) Recognizing the presence of an apparently serious adjustment difficulty,
(ii) Gathering extensive data on the client and recording them in the form of a case history,
(iii) Interpreting and evaluating the data in relation to observed symptoms,
(iv) Recommending appropriate treatment,
(v) Applying therapies, and
(vi) Following up the case for the purpose of determining the kind and extent of adjustment
effected.

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