Counselling offers an opportunity to explore
and understand issues that may be preventing one from living a full and
satisfying life.
Counselling is generally
short term in nature, often with a specific
focus, perhaps solution based; examples are;
Career Counselling
Bereavement Counselling
Addiction Counselling
However counselling can also
be long term and cover a whole range of
issues. For instance, Person centred
Counselling tends to be longer term.
Within the
UK the boundaries between Counselling and
Psychotherapy are unclear because of the cross
over between disciplines, but as said above
the general "rule of thumb" is the tendency
of Counselling to be solution based with
specific goals and with a fixed period of time
generally set at the outset.
Person Centred Counselling
is very closely related to Psychotherapy
and is an approach developed by the American Carl Rogers, in the late 1940's
and early 50's as an alternative to the prevalent analytical therapeutic approaches
initially developed by Freud and others.
It is a non-intrusive approach which places emphasis on the need for acceptance rather than "expert" control or intervention. Allowing the client to trust there own process and building there own potential to understand themselves, to resolve their problems; that they are capable of self-directed growth if the nurturing therapeutic relationship is built within sessions. Therefore
Person Centred Counselling relies on the personal qualities as well as the
professional understanding of the Counsellor, and the quality of the counsellor/
client relationship.
A "good" counsellor will have an Empathic understanding as well as an
understanding of the client's experiences,
being with the clients experience and guiding then to change unhelpful
behaviours. This is coupled with the counsellor maintaining a genuine
care for the client.
By focusing on the client's responsibility and capacity to discover ways of discovering more of their own reality, leading to a greater self awareness.
See also Psychotherapy
