Page 336 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Guidance and Counseling

Notes seen throughout the social order. The groups cultivate mutual distrust and misunderstanding of
one another, resulting in ill-will among themselves. Notwithstanding all professions of national
and social integration, the differences create serious prejudices and rifts among different communities.
The socio-economically weaker sections, or Scheduled Castes comprise several groups that have
serious differences among themselves. The only common factor is the socio-economic backwardness
forced upon them from generations and reeling under its oppressive tyranny, thus developing
serious feelings of inferiority. The differences are reflected in deficiencies of language, values,
education, income, housing and general cultural lifestyles. Consequently, the members of these
groups have been socially discriminated and, until me late 1930s, were treated as untouchables.
Counseling the weaker sections needs special attention and care. Counseling is a dynamic, purposeful,
psychological interaction and its goal is to assist the counsellee(s) adjust more effectively and
qualitatively better to environmental demanads. In order to be successful, the counselor should be
able to relate himself to the client(s) optimally. He must be able to reasonably assess the client’s state
of adjustment and must know what ought to be done to help the client improve his/her current
adjustment. It should be recognized that cultural differences affect the ability of the counselor to
relate himself to his client and to discuss the problems he may encounter in making a diagnosis of
the socially and economically weak client. The difficulties inherent in arriving at a warm and
purposeful relationship are outlined below.

Relationship
Counseling is a dynamic process and the success or otherwise squarely depends on the nature of the
relationship. Counseling, ipso facto implies rapport. It is a friendly relationship of mutual trust and
confidence which underlies the establishment of a bond between the counselor and the counsellee.
Rapport enables the counsellee(s) to react spontaneously, warmly and sympathetically. This emotional
bridge between the counselor and counsellee(s) is basic to and pervades all therapeutic relations.
Rapport should not be misinterpreted as initial small talk designed to put the client(s) at ease. It is
a dynamic, emotional bond established at the beginning of the counseling session and should be
maintained throughout the counseling period.
The relationship between them should be mutually responsive. Communication, spoken and
unspoken, plays a vital role. The counsellee must experience a sense of belonging and feel that the
counselor is one of them and not an alien.

The minorities and weaker sections differ in a variety of ways. There is always a suspicion in their
minds regarding the dominant cultural groups. Therefore, the counselor should not give rise to
feelings that he belongs to a higher social or privileged section. He should not appear over-
sympathetic, for there is a danger of his attitude being interpreted as condescension. It is always
desirable to pursue the middle-of-the-road approach rather than take extreme positions—either
very critical or very sympathetic.
Structuring

The counsellees have, by and large, limited experiences in dealing with professions. They are usually
not able to understand the role they need to play. In such contexts the counselor should structure or
define the role of the clients (counsellees) and help them understand what is required of them. The
counselor should indicate what, how and why he intends what he will do. It is also necessary to
communicate to the client what is expected of him and their relationship. Failure to adequately
structure the counseling situation could result in misunderstanding simply because the counselor’s
concern is unclear to the client. In counseling clients from backward sections, the counselor should
realize that he is working with persons who, owing to culturally impoverished backgrounds, are
unable or unwilling to participate in the counseling exploration. Therefore, techniques such as
prolonged silence should be avoided. Until positive rapport has been established, the counselor
should pay more than usual attention to structuring the counseling situation.

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