PSY390 Final: PSY390 Counselling Finals Notes
PSY390 (COUNSELLING) READINGS
Chapter 2
• Person of the therapist and the therapeutic relationship contribute to
therapy outcomes at least as much as the particular treatment method
used
THE COUNSELOR AS A THERAPEUTIC PERSON
• Counselling demands practitioner that is willing to be authentic
• Inauthentic → difficulty establishing working alliance with clients (clients
less honest or open)
• Centrality of the person of the therapist as a primary factor in successful
therapy
• Person of the psychotherapist is inextricably intertwined with the
outcome of psychotherapy → clients place more value on the personality
of the therapist than on the techniques used
• Wampold (2001) → personal and interpersonal components are
essential to effective psychotherapy → techniques have little effect on
therapeutic outcome
• Contextual factors (alliance, relationship, personal and interpersonal
skills of therapist, client agency and extra-therapeutic factors) are
primary determinants of therapeutic outcome → human dimension of
therapy that heals the suffering
• Therapy relationship and therapy methods influence outcomes of
treatment but it is essential that the methods used support therapeutic
relationship
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE COUNSELORS
• Norcoross (2011), Skovhold and Jennings (2004), Speery and
Carlson (2011)
• Characteristics on a continuum
Effective therapists:
• Have an identity – know who they are, what they can become, what they
want from life and what is essential
• Respect and appreciate themselves – can give and receive help and
love out of their own sense of self-worth and strength → allow
themselves to feel powerful with others
• Open to change → willingness and courage to leave security of the
known → work towards person they want to be
• Make choices that are life orientated – aware of early decisions they
make, not victims of their early decisions and are willing to revise
decisions
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• Authentic, sincere and honest – do not hide behind rigid roles →
personal life and professional work identities are congruent
• Have a sense of humour
• Make mistakes and are willing to admit them
• Generally live in the present
• Appreciate the influence of culture
• Have a sincere interest in the welfare of others
• Possess effective interpersonal skills
• Become deeply involved in their work and derive meaning from it
• Are passionate
• Maintain healthy boundaries – know how to say no
PERSONAL THERAPY FOR THE COUNSELOR
• Majority of mental health professionals have experienced personal
therapy
• More than 90% of mental health professionals report satisfaction and
positive outcomes from their own counselling experiences
Orlinsky, Norcross, Ronnestad and Wiseman (2005) → personal therapy
contributes to therapists professional work in ways:
1. Part of the therapists training learns what is helpful and not helpful
2. Enhance a therapists interpersonal skills that are essential to skilfully
practise therapy
3. Contribute to therapists ability to deal with ongoing stresses associated
with clinical work
Norcross (2005) → lasting lessons practitioners learn from their personal
therapy experiences pertain to interpersonal relationships
Some of these lessons include:
• Centrality of warmth
• Empathy
• Having a sense of what it is like to be a therapy client
• Patience and tolerance
• Appreciating importance of learning how to deal with transference and
countertransference
By becoming clients ourselves – we gain an experiential frame of reference with
which to view ourselves → basis for understanding and compassion
Gold and Hilsenroth (2009) → graduate clinicians who had personal therapy
felt more confident and were more in agreement with their clients on the goals
and tasks of treatment
• Reduce attitude of arrogance and stance of superiority
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T(E COUNSELLORS VALUES AND THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS → THE
ROLES OF VALUES IN COUNSELLING
• Values are core beliefs that influence how we act
• Personal values → influence how we view counselling and manner in
which we interact with clients
• Counsellors role is to create a climate in which clients can examine their
thoughts, feelings and actions and to empower them to arrive at their
own solutions
• Assist individuals in finding answers that are congruent with their own
values
• Individuals seeking counselling need to clarify their own values and goals,
make informed decisions, choose a course of action and assume
responsibility and accountability for the decisions they make
• Bracketing – managing your personal values so that they do not
contaminate the counselling process
• Value imposition – counsellors directly attempting to define a clients
values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
• Value exploration is at the heart of why many counsellor education
programs encourage or require personal therapy for counsellors in
training
• Counselling is about working with clients within the framework of their
value systems
THE ROLE OF VALUES IN DEVELOPING THERAPEUTIC GOALS
• Majority of theories agree that it is largely the clients responsibility to
decide upon goals
• Counsellors have general goals → must be congruent with the personal
goals of the client
• Setting goals is inextricably related to values
• )nitial interview can be used to focus on clients goals or lack of them
• Therapist might ask what do you expect from counselling, why are you
here, what do you hope to leave with…
• When a person seeks a counselling relationship → important to
cooperatively discover what this person is expecting from the
relationship to avoid depriving client of opportunity to become active in
their therapy
BECOMING AN EFFECTIVE MULTICULTURAL COUNSELOR
• Process of becoming effective counsellor is recognising diversity issues
and shaping ones practise to fit clients worldview
• Ethical obligation for counsellors to develop sensitivity to cultural
differences if they hope to make interventions that are consistent with the
values of their clients
• Diversity in the therapeutic relationship is a two-way street
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 2: person of the therapist and the therapeutic relationship contribute to therapy outcomes at least as much as the particular treatment method used. The counselor as a therapeutic person: counselling demands practitioner that is willing to be authentic. Personal characteristics of effective counselors: norcoross (2011), skovhold and jennings (2004), speery and. Personal therapy for the counselor: majority of mental health professionals have experienced personal therapy, more than 90% of mental health professionals report satisfaction and positive outcomes from their own counselling experiences. Norcross (2005) lasting lessons practitioners learn from their personal therapy experiences pertain to interpersonal relationships. Some of these lessons include: centrality of warmth, empathy, having a sense of what it is like to be a therapy client, patience and tolerance, appreciating importance of learning how to deal with transference and countertransference. By becoming clients ourselves we gain an experiential frame of reference with which to view ourselves basis for understanding and compassion.
