Recommended reading for students

What is counselling?

Sometimes people need to speak to other people and listen to what we say or think or express some difficulties we may be having. Some people may feel angry or are just sad because something has happened during the course of life. This is when people need to be listened to and open up to a person which can help a lot. When you speak to a counsellor or psychotherapist, you are dealing with someone who is trained to listen to you. A counsellor will listen to you and offer suggestions and avenues for you to explore your problems in greater depth. This document about Counselling gives a good overview of what it is and some of the different approaches employed by a counsellor or psychotherapist.

A more elaborate definition of what is counselling is as follows:

"Counselling is an established profession in which a trained counsellor seeks to enable a client to understand and learn to deal with a wide variety of issues in their life. These could be current problems, immediate crisis, or long-term difficulties. It is different from teaching, caring and advice giving, and requires a particular kind of training. Counselling takes place in a confidential setting and is a contracted, professional relationship, which is based on ethical principles such as respect, and which can take place face-to-face, by telephone, or online. It varies from short or long-term, i.e., 6-12 sessions, to a year or more. Counselling can be with an individual, a couple, or in a group (family and non-related groups). The frequency of counselling may vary, but generally, it is offered once a week."

Counselling training in Further Education, the complete guide

According to Wikipedia, the counsellor commonly does the following:

• Listens effectively to what you are saying
• Works with you to define your goals with respect to your values and culture
• Facilitates your untangling of thoughts, feelings and worries about a situation
• Helps you gain your own insight into how you act, think and feel
• Teaches, shows and helps you express your emotions in your own way
• Teaches, shows and helps you work out your own solutions to problems
• Teaches, shows and helps you accept what cannot be changed
• Teaches, shows, helps and supports you and your relationship while you do all this
• Helps you become empowered to act in ways that are in your best interest
• Uses a variety of different techniques to help you explore what is important to you

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What is counselling not about?

Counselling is not about giving advice to clients or telling clients what to do or what not to do in their private lives. They do not prescribe pills to treat your symptoms. If someone is receiving counselling therapy, it does not mean that the client is crazy or dangerous, it only means that the person needs help in a time of great need. Another point to emphasize is that counselling is not a session where the therapist interrogates the client, that is, when the therapist leads the client into topics of conversation that the client feels uncomfortable talking about. In a real counselling setting, the client is free to talk about anything he wants and leads the counsellor to areas where it can be further explored. If you ever had any experience where the therapist has told you, "Now lets talk about... [a particular subject that the therapist wants to talk about]", then this is not counselling and it is seen as a form of interrogation.

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Gibraltar is too small, what about privacy and confidentiality?

A counsellor through years of training, ensures that information about your case to other third parties is not disclosed, in exception in cases that the counsellor sees fit to refer you, always with the consent of the client, to other specially trained counselling therapists, psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists or other health care professional. The counsellor would only do this in circumstances where another health care professional may help you more than the therapist you are seeing can help you.

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When does confidentiality go out the window?

Confidentiality is broken within the client and the counsellor in circumstances where:

• The client is expressing that he/she will commit suicide
• The client is expressing ideation in killing or harming another person
• In a circumstance where the counsellor is put in a situation where he or she must disclose client confidential information when the counsellor is instructed by legal courts to disclose required information about a client

In each of these cases, the counselling therapist or any other healthcare professional has the duty to report these cases to the relevant authorities.

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Dangers of unqualified practitioners

The title of "counsellor" is not protected under UK law

At present we live in a society where as yet the title of counsellor is not protected by law and as such anyone could practice as a counsellor if they wished. The danger that this raises is that potential clients may have counsellors that have undertaken non standardised courses which sums to course tutors not being periodically inspected by their awarding body to ensure that standards of teaching and assessment are maintained.

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Working in a safe environment

These counsellors therefore may not have a comprehensive understanding of counselling psychology and counselling skills practice to be able to work safely with clients. It is also very possible that someone claiming to be a counsellor has only completed a short counselling course that teaches students a basic understanding of counselling.

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Graduate psychologists

A graduate who holds only a university BA or BSc degree in Psychology is not a clinical psychologist but a psychology graduate, hence they do not possess the necessary knowledge to practice safely with clients. Please see the following PDF document under page 16. The source of this document is from the British Psychological Society or (BPS). If you are interested in studying psychology or counselling it is advisable to speak to your training provider to meet the standards required before you set out to study.

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Check for qualifications

For these reasons, the client has the responsibility to ensure that the person offering counselling is appropriately trained to ensure your own safety. Ask your practitioner for the qualifications he/she claims to have.

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Unqualified counsellor horror stories

Therapists who have not undergone rigorous training may inadvertently place clients in danger. The purpose of the rigorous training counsellors undergo is to ensure that they are able to apply the skills appropriate to the three counselling approaches in their client work in a manner where the counsellor works exclusively in the interest of the client allowing him or her to work through his or her issues in a therapeutic relationship where the counsellor only works with the clients experiencing. The awareness the counsellor gains of his or her own issues and beliefs during training ensures that the therapeutic relationship is not contaminated. Counsellors that have not completed the full training may not work exclusively for the clients benefit, contaminating the relationship in the process. Examples of unsafe practice are included below to illustrate these dangers.

A client with matrimonial problems seeks help from a counsellor. This counsellor did not enable the client to explore different options and find strategies to accomplish his or her goals, instead the counsellor told the client to seek a lawyer and get a divorce.

A client with matrimonial problems seeks counselling in order to improve his relationship with his wife. After briefly exploring the client’s problem the counsellor advises the client that to improve his relationship he should do more around the home. After this session the client stopped attending any further counselling as he felt that he was being judged and not understood by the counsellor.

A client with a moderate depression attends counselling in order to overcome his fear of the outdoors. The counsellor challenges the client again and again to make him aware of his irrational thoughts. However the counsellor does not make sure before making these challenges whether the client is able to handle them safely. From the client’s view point, he perceived these challenges as being in an intimidating interrogation, to this experience he breaks down and leaves the clinic.

A client with marital problems seeks counselling help in order to improve the relationship with her husband. After some sessions, the supposed "counsellor" tries to break the client's relationship with her husband so that the counsellor can date her instead.

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Problems dealt in counselling and what counsellors do

Some of the problems dealt by counsellors and psychotherapists are summarised below:

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Bullying at Work
• Bullying in School
• Anxieties in exams
• General stress and anxiety
• Depression
• Relationship difficulties
• Eating problems
• Bereavements and parental separations
• Loneliness and homesickness
• Lack of self confidence or low self esteem
• Managing transitions
• Making difficult decisions
• Traumatic experiences including rape, assault and abuse
• Difficulties with alcohol or drugs
• Issues around sex and sexuality
• self-injury
• Suicidal thoughts
• Anger management
• Worries about appearance
• Marriage Counselling

More common problems and information about mental conditions is available at the InfraPsych website.

"A counsellor usually meets with a client or patient either within the context of an agency (e.g. addiction counselling, bereavement counselling), the NHS (e.g. in a surgery), in a corporate environment (e.g. Employee Assistance Programme), in education, prisons or privately. The client usually brings a problem such as stress, depression, anxiety, addiction, relationship difficulties, a general sense of unhappiness and many more reasons. Through listening, establishing a good relationship, and asking particular questions, the counsellor will aim to help the client understand and resolve or better deal with their difficulties, by encouraging the client to explore these difficulties and possible resolutions. A counsellor usually abides by ethical guidelines and encourages the clients autonomy. There is a whole range of theoretical approaches to counselling, and each form the basis of a particular focus in terms of training and techniques used by the counsellor. For example, a cognitive-behavioural counsellor works in a more directive way (giving the client homework) than a Rogerian counsellor. Although there are differences between the approaches, essentially it is the therapeutic relationship that is most important to the process. Also many more therapists now work in an integrative way, and the delineation between the approaches is not always clear-cut."

Counselling training in Further Education, the complete guide

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What is the difference between a qualified counsellor and a trainee counsellor?

Qualified counsellors are individuals who have completed successfully a set of courses and have completed the mandatory 100 hours of counselling sessions. These individuals may or may not be a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapists

Trainee counsellors are individuals who have passed a set of courses, but need to complete at least 100 hours of counselling sessions with clients in order to be fully qualified. While trainee counsellors complete the 100 hours mandatory therapy, the sessions given are free of charge. Trainee counsellors also need to be under supervision while counselling a client during a number of hours by a qualified counsellor. They also need to refer to them all cases that they have in order to know if they are proceeding correctly with the therapy.

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Supervision

Supervision is a means of ensuring that the relationship between counsellor and client is maintained as healthy as possible so that it may facilitate therapeutic change. A supervisor is a qualified counsellor that has completed study in supervision or is a counsellor with many years of experience in client work. It must be stressed that the work done during supervision is not personal therapy. For a qualified counsellor, supervision represents attending a supervisor once every 15-20 sessions of client work. During these sessions the counsellor may explore with the supervisor thoughts and or feelings that the counsellor may have of a particular client which could potentially adversely affect the counsellor-client relationship. Exploring where these thoughts, feelings and concerns originate from and working through these ensures as mentioned above that the relationship maintains itself objective and healthy. At no point during supervision will the confidentiality between counsellor and his clients be broken, though a counsellor might talk about the relationship he or she may have with clients, the identity of a client would remain confidential.

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How much would a counsellor or trainee counsellor charge?

A fully trained counsellor would charge anything in the region of £25 to £60 per hourly session, the average charge being £45 per hour. Trainee counsellors who have to complete the mandatory 100 hours offer this service for free.

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