Goals, Methods, and History of the Development of Counseling in Psychotherapy - Essay Example

Establishing a professional framework Introduction The term 'counselling' means different to different people. It is not a constant factor to be explored from only one point of view. Counselling takes different meanings based on the profession it is being deployed. For some, it means to them as advice given by a person experienced in one field to a person who is a new entrant in the same field. For some, it is about just sharing a cup of tea and exchanging thoughts. And for many others, it's just a long process trying to find the inner self of human beings. In general counselling is a process by which a person, who helps his compatriot to recover from any kind of emotional stress that he/she, goes through. The former person, called as the counselor helps the stressed out person to relieve themselves and find solutions to their personal as well as societal problems. (Sills 2006) Purpose of counselling To identify the purpose of why counselling was started, we have to go back to the twentieth century. The twentieth century saw much turbulence; two World wars, innumerable depressions, poverty stricken countries and much more. All these had a big demoralizing and psychological effect on all the people living in the World. Hence, a process was required were people can be compassionate to one another, follow moral ideals and have more social concern for others. There was an urgent need to constantly improve the social welfare. This can only be achieved if the human mind is working in a positive way. All these gave birth to one approach, called the counselling approach. With the little insight given into the purpose of counselling, let's evaluate the critical definitions posted on counselling by several renowned persons. (Dryden 1989) Definitions of counselling - critical analysis According to Burks and Stefflre(1974), the process of Counselling can be termed as a professional approach where the counselor and the client get involved in a face-to-face talk. The counselor tries to understand the so called 'lifespace' of the client and helps them to make confident choices on their life changing issues. The counselor identifies in the client what is most needed in him and what is not. The counselor helps the client to set goals and defines a process on how to achieve them. The definition given by the author states the meaning of counselling profession in a generic manner without relating to any particular field or profession. While Burks states it generic by terming it as professional relationship, Fetham and Dryden (1993) try to distinguish the profession of counselling form its other counterparts, which are nursing, friendships and other social activities. They state that the relationship maintained between the counselor and the client is one which applies more theories based on psychology, personal experience and the medium of communication. They clearly state that it needs to be an evolving relationship where both parties share their thoughts with absolute confidentiality and they try to entertain the thoughts of relieving distress and emotions. So, they clearly state that Counselling is entirely different from other helping activities. A professional body known as BAC (1984) stated in the 80's itself that Counselling needs to be more of understanding and commitment to confidence of the client rather than acting on the reflections of the mind. It is about the sharing of problems and letting the client self explore them to understand about them for the betterment of their future. Overall, it can be said that the purpose of counselling has led people to propose different school of thoughts on its definition and it is not possible to contain its meaning in one single statement. Individual philosophical view One has to have his/her own philosophical thought on any kinds of issue. Counselling has propelled innumerous ideas about it. But, according to me, it is about helping people, resolving their problems; identify its cause and helping them avoid it in future. It is about their life, their well being and their ways to enhance the quality of life they live. Counselling leads a person to understand that what matters is their purpose of life and not about how long they live. This statement on counselling comes from the fact that human mind is just a form of energy. Every emotion expressed is just a release of energy and every feeling is a result of energy being released. When people get stressed out, they are not the only person who gets affected. Their surroundings, their companions all get affected. Since counselling is aimed at solving such stress causing problems, it indirectly solves the problems in relationships with others. Hence it leads to the above mentioned interpretation. BACP's ethical framework The BACP's ethical framework guides counselling practitioners to get to know about the counselling skills, their management and handling of the same within an organisation. Given the definitions of who a practitioner is and who the client is, the statement on counselling by BACP identifies the approach required to achieve the ethics in an organization. There are different approaches to ethics based on the values, principles and moral qualities of the practitioner. With the principles being defined, it is important that the practitioners do not depend entirely on the principles itself. This may lead them to neglect their personal traits which are very important in this profession. Hence an appropriate understanding of the principles is needed with the values and personal qualities being followed. (BACP 2009) Values The important values of Counselling as mentioned in BACP's ethical framework include the respect to human rights, ensuring integrity, relieving from distress, developing self respect, showing their presence through effective approach, understanding the culture of human beings and striving for providing quality counselling services. Following the above values of counselling ensures the code of ethics is followed and ethical diversity is maintained. Also it ensures that the practitioners are committed to the principles of counselling. The values define the general commitment required from a practitioner for executing the counselling approach in an action oriented way. (BACP 2009) Principles The principles of ethics related to counselling as stated by BACP includes Fidelity Autonomy Beneficence Non-maleficence Justice Self-respect The above mentioned principles are important for every practitioner to follow in order to keep up with their responsibilities and in taking ethical decisions. Though it is impractical to follow all the principles at all points of time, it is important to maintain the integrity while taking decisions. It is up to the practitioner to understand the needs of the client at any point of time; to understand the circumstances and to make decisions suitably. The counselor has to decide when to make decisions and should take the mantle for taking that particular decision. The principles with their applied examples are discussed below. (BACP 2009) Fidelity The counselors need to be confidential while dealing with the client's personal information. They have to keep up the trust the client places on them and do not use it as a bait to get further information from the client. Exposing the trust in the relationship is the worst thing that could be done by any counselor. (BACP 2009) Autonomy Making clients to work against their will is the main thing that this principle opposes. The practitioner should not maneuver the client to do things which they normally won't do, though it is for their well being. The counselors should conduct themselves in a professional manner and ask for prior appointments before proceeding with the session. They should not publicize services that are out of reality and should be able to reveal any conflicts of interest between them and the client before any process begins. A good practice for counselors while applying this principle is to give the power of autonomy to the client. They have to let the client take their own decision and should not push them unnecessarily into any sort of ethical dilemmas. (BACP 2009) Beneficence Working towards the needs of the client when they are in real need of it is the supreme quality that is expected in a counselor. They have to apply this principle mandatorily in order to ensure well being of the client. Due to their distress and loss of confidence, they don't use their autonomous power to proceed with their life. This is where the counselor plays the role of importance. A good practice is to ensure that they push the client towards their limit to understand their needs and make decisions of their own. (BACP 2009) Non-maleficence Exploiting clients based on their gender and wealth for sexual or financial purposes leads to maleficence. It is up to the counselor to follow the principle in order to avoid illegal activities. It is a crime to do such a thing and it may lead them to imprisonment. The counselors have to try their level best to avoid any kind of behavior that could cause harm to their clients in any kind of way. (BACP 2009) Justice The counselor has to give precedence to the rights of the client and respect human rights. They have to treat all clients equally and provide meaningful and rational justice to all. They have to avoid any sort of racial discrimination, such as avoiding a particular group of people or an individual is totally unwanted. A good practice to follow this principle is to show equal interest in all clients. (BACP 2009) Self-Respect The implementation of this principle ensures that the counselor continuously improves on his profession and maintains applying all the above principles in his/her work. Therein, they find their self respect and hence enhance their life skill and independency. It is a good practice for every counselor to follow the principles in their profession in order to maintain the effectiveness of helping other people. (BACP 2009) Personal Qualities Personal qualities of the counselor determine their success in this profession. They are the critical factors that every client looks for. The personal qualities that are considered important for a counselor includes sincerity towards solving the problems of the client, showing empathy when they tell their problems, maintain integrity and confidence with client, respecting their rights, being humble to them, being fair to all in treatment and displaying wisdom and courage when faced with ethical dilemmas or tough situations. (BACP 2009) Counselors tend to shy away from tough ethical scenarios, trying to find some kind of solution to the problems. The values and principles suggested by BACP help them as a guidance to take such decisions. The American Counselling Association (ACA) has set ethical standards similar to that of BCP. Their codes address all important criterions such as competence, confidentiality and justice. Though they address the same issues, it is done to a different extent in both. The briefing of confidentiality is done on a large scale in ACA whereas it is done very little in BACP. The ACA has provided several decision making models which needs to be applied soon in BACP too. Despite these differences, both the codes condense to the same point of applying ethics in counselling very precisely. (BACP 2009) Ethical Dilemmas - Examples In a counselling environment there are several situations that a counselor could face with. Most of the issues deal with decision making situations where the practitioner along with the client has to make a decision for an ethical dilemma. There are several cases of examples illustrating such scenarios. Some of them are discussed below. As a first example, consider the issue relating to the moral value of confidentiality. A person confirmed with HIV comes to counselor revealing the information based on their trust agreement. The client also mentions about not yet revealing it to their spouse. This is a scenario where the counselor is faced with a serious ethical dilemma. There are two ways of looking at it. The counselor may request the client to reveal it to their spouse or e/she may do it without the consent of the client's nod. Though the latter is illegal by terms of law, the counselor's act can be proved justified if shown with evidence. But then, it would destroy their reputation as a counselor and they may not be able to continue their profession. So, here comes the case where they have to identify whom to tell and the medium they use to tell. So this is a tough ethical dilemma to solve with. (Bond 2000) Another example that is similar to such situation is the case where a murderer comes to a counselor and reveals his crime. The flow of action of the counselor then comes into the question. Here also, the reasons or crime does come into the decision making. If the client has done it as mercy killing, will that come as a savior for the client Or, if revealing those details will personally put the counselor in danger These are some of the questions that arise out of this scenario while decision making. There are several such scenarios that explain the problems involved in decision making for a counselor. (Bond 2000) Solutions There are some basic guidelines that can be followed while making decisions in such scenarios. They include Put the problem first and detail it. Identify whose head will drop down if the problem is solved. Follow the ethical guidelines given in the ethical framework What are the steps of action that needs to be followed Identify the outcome for each course of action and determine the outcome. The decision taken may not be ethically correct but if it is taken for the betterment of all, then it can be considered as the best decision. It is necessary for the counselor to be able to protect himself from not getting too close or too involved in the clients decision making and finally ending up as the owner of the ethical dilemma. The practitioner has to make sure it is actually the client who has to make the decision and the practitioner is only supporting it. (Bond 2000) Use of organizational frameworks in multi professional settings Organizational frameworks such as nursing or teaching in a multi professional setting would be really useful in taking decisions in a dilemma situation. With people from different professions all gathering together to solve a single issue, the flow of ideas will increase and there will increased number of views posed to the same problem, which were unexplored before. Hence, a more appropriate suggestion can be given and it would help the client in taking the decision. (Copeland 2005) Multi Professional working Multi professional working is the next best thing to happen to social workers. People from different professions gather together and work on a common goal setting. But, multi professional settings have both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages and disadvantages The advantages of multi professional settings include pooling of knowledge leading to get to know the client's mindset easily. Various talents of each person present in the setting leads to several problems being solved. A common methodology can be identified and it can be garnered to form new processes for solving client's problems. The client's identity can be better revealed with different professions working together. This is further strengthened with competitiveness present between individuals leading to greater realization of expected results.(Houston 1990) Beside these advantages, there are other disadvantages that counter act with advantages. These include, the experience mismatch between different individuals, conflicts of interest, status designations, complexities, diversion of control and topic and failure to achieve the ultimate goal. Irrespective of all these issues, the advantages certainly overweigh the disadvantages of a multiprofessional work. (Page 2006) Key issues There are certain issues that need to be taken care of in a multi professional environment. The professional conduct has to be maintained. Individuals should stick to their profession and should not indulge in others unnecessarily. The responsibility has to be equally shred between the individuals. Since it involves lot of people, there are chances that the confidentiality of information can be compromised. Hence, measures should be taken as such to pose some rules that protect the confidentiality. When dealing with scenarios where a dilemma is present in decision making, the self protection, both physical and emotional of the counselor has to be given first preference. They have to be made safe by not involving emotionally in solving a problem of the client. It is always mandatory to keep in mind that it is the client's problem and not theirs. (Dryden 1989) Importance of note keeping of client's records The information that is placed in the client's note should be confidential and should be up to date. It is an important part of a counselling process as it helps the counselor to be able to recap and relate with the previous sessions with the client. Vis--vis, the client has the right to know the information present in the note and have the right to request the counselor to explain it in detail. (Sills 2006) The client also has the right to notify on what to write in the record note and what not to write. Also, the client can request information about the future part of the process and doubts in any previous steps of the process. Some of the essential information that needs to be placed in a record note includes client's background information, their real problem, their ultimate goal to be achieved, their past history, their likings and disliking, their preferences, etc. These are very important for a complete success in the counselling process. (Hawkins & Shohet 2006) Importance of Casework supervision Case management is similar to counselling and often goes hand in hand with counselling. It is a set of prerequisite activities that help the clients achieve their goal. They both are focused on the individual needs of the client. Casework supervision is the major way through which the counselors ensure that they are working at clients in a better way. It occupies the integral place in a counselor's development. The need for casework supervision arises because it affects the way of functioning in the most influential way than any lecture or study could do. The BACA code of ethics suggests that the counselors should be supervised for at least one hour in every five hours of their client work. This helps them understand their mistakes and work on them so that they wouldn't repeat it again. (Inskipp, Proctor 1995) The distinctive components in a client-centered model include the counselor's attitude, which needs to positive to achieve a change in the client. Next, the counselor needs to be available to the client whenever the client needs. This helps the client to clarify doubts anytime. Continuous focus should be placed on the client's psychological World of thoughts. The progress of the process can be rated only by how fully the client is enjoying every moment of his life. The counselor and the counselling process should focus entirely on the change in the personality of the client and the counselor should try to avoid trying to change the structure of the client's personality. (Carrol 1996) Effective supervision leads the client to achieve their goal with a greater sense of satisfaction. The counselors will be able to understand their mistakes and progress in improving their skills. Whereas ineffective supervision leads clients to go more desperate for results leading to loss of self confidence. On the other side, the counselors fail to understand the mistakes they commit and keep on committing the same mistakes, finally failing to help any clients. (Dryden, Thorne 1991) Conclusion The details of professional framework were discussed. A brief explanation of counselling and its purpose were detailed in comparison with other helping activities. This was followed with detailed analysis of BACP's ethical framework and comparison with its similar associations. The issues leading to ethical dilemma were discussed with proposed solutions to solve it. This was followed with description about multi professional setting and its advantages and disadvantages. The importance of note keeping about client's information was described. Finally counselling supervision as discussed. Thus, the settings of a professional framework were discussed. Works cited Bond Tim. Standards and Ethics for Counselling in Action. UK: Sage. 2000. Print Carroll Michael. Counselling Supervision: Theory, Skills and Practice. 1996. UK: Cassell. Print Copeland Sue. Counselling Supervision in Organisations. UK: Routledge. 2005. Print Dryden Windy & Thorne B (Eds) Training and Supervision for Counselling. UK: Sage. 1991. Print Dryden Windy. (Ed) Key Issues for Counselling in Action. UK: Sage. 1989. Print Hawkins Peter & Shohet Robin. Supervision in the Helping Professions. London: Open University Press. 2006. Print Houston .Supervision and Counselling. UK: Rochester Foundation. 1990. Print Inskipp F and Proctor B Making the Most of Supervision. UK: Cascade Publications. 1995. Print Page Steve. Supervising the Counsellor London: Routledge 2006. Print. Sills Charlotte (Ed) Contracts in Counselling and Psychotherapy UK: Sage. 2006. Print. BACP. Ethical framework for counselling and psychotherapy. 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. http://www.bacp.co.uk/admin/structure/files/pdf/566_ethical%20framework%20revised%202009.pdf Read More