Professional Counseling - Essay Example

Counseling involves the process of learning that occurs within an interactive relationship for the assistance of a person to understand him/herself better for augmented effectiveness in the community (Curry and Amy, 74).   

Professional counselors use different assessment techniques including:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

This assessment type involves the use of a questionnaire that analyzes the personality type of a client by using their responses for their use and a better understanding of themselves. These include interests, values, reactions, motivations, and skills and generating a preference for the person.   

Strong Interest Inventory (SII)

This assessment aids in identifying and developing the ability of individuals to make informed decisions in regard to their choice of careers.  This assessment comprises 317 items measuring the person’s interests within a range of occupations, activities, and subjects (Mallya, October 26, 2010).

Skills Scan Card Sort is a counseling assessment technique that aids in identifying natural strengths and categories of transferable skills of a person for development in their careers.

Values Card Sort involves a simple, colorful, and fun process for the identification and prioritization of life values and work relation in a few minutes. Utilizes card sorts with 41 variables for the determination of job satisfaction including freedom, precision, work, and time to be answered by the client being counseled. 

Formal assessments are assessments that have been developed from a scientific rigorous process and have a high reliance on consistency through instructions on administration, scoring, and interpretation (Seligman, 166).  

Informal assessments are assessments that have a specific format, have not been developed based on a scientific process, and depend on the counselor.  

There are three stages involved in the counseling process as explained below:

Stage 1: Exploration

This stage involves listening to the client as they take the counselor through their problem requiring the use of a lot of questions and counter questions to aid in ensuring the client opens up the suppressed feelings for effective counseling. The counselor aims at getting to know the factors inherent in the problem and know the resources necessary for action.  

Stage 2: Insight

This is where the counselor requires more knowledge of the feelings and personal orientation through asking personal incisive questions for deeper analysis. Use of inconsistencies in answers and hidden meanings aids in knowing the client better and ensuring free communication flow is essential at this stage.  This leads to the counselor having a perspective on the client, generating a preferred scenario for the client preparing the way for the third stage.

Stage 3: Action

This entails initiating change to achieve a desired objective by helping the client formulate strategies for the achievement of the result, getting the best strategy to achieve the goal, and formulation of plans for the achievement of the objective.