Creating a Counselling Skills Professional Framework
Differentiate between a person who uses counselling skills and a qualified and trained counsellor
A qualified counsellor has undertaken a structured training programme and developed and practiced skills needed to become a trained counsellor. They are likely to have trained for several years and specialised to a much higher level than someone who uses counselling skills. They will also have undertaken therapy themselves and addressed any issues or emotional blocks that they may have, whereas a person who uses counselling skills may not.
Someone who uses counselling skills will utilise the same key concepts and principles, such as empathy and unconditional positive regard, but is less likely to belong to, and be bound by, a professional body such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Examples of other professions which often utilise counselling skills are social workers, housing officers, the emergency services and priests. Workers in these professions should not describe themselves as counsellors as some of the key concepts fundamental to the counselling profession are not the main priority of some of these professions. If such people were to introduce themselves as counsellors their clients may be under the impression that such things as confidentiality will be upheld. For example, the dual roles of the police force may cause conflicts in areas such as confidentiality. Using counselling skills may help the police perform their duties more successfully, however their primary responsibility is to uphold the law.
The Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy
The BACPS’s ethical framework allows conformity to ensure that counsellors work to the same standards, provides protection to both the client and the counsellor by providing a mechanism for client’s complaints and ensures that complaints are dealt with under the “Heads of Complaint” of professional misconduct, professional malpractice
A qualified counsellor has undertaken a structured training programme and developed and practiced skills needed to become a trained counsellor. They are likely to have trained for several years and specialised to a much higher level than someone who uses counselling skills. They will also have undertaken therapy themselves and addressed any issues or emotional blocks that they may have, whereas a person who uses counselling skills may not.
Someone who uses counselling skills will utilise the same key concepts and principles, such as empathy and unconditional positive regard, but is less likely to belong to, and be bound by, a professional body such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Examples of other professions which often utilise counselling skills are social workers, housing officers, the emergency services and priests. Workers in these professions should not describe themselves as counsellors as some of the key concepts fundamental to the counselling profession are not the main priority of some of these professions. If such people were to introduce themselves as counsellors their clients may be under the impression that such things as confidentiality will be upheld. For example, the dual roles of the police force may cause conflicts in areas such as confidentiality. Using counselling skills may help the police perform their duties more successfully, however their primary responsibility is to uphold the law.
The Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy
The BACPS’s ethical framework allows conformity to ensure that counsellors work to the same standards, provides protection to both the client and the counsellor by providing a mechanism for client’s complaints and ensures that complaints are dealt with under the “Heads of Complaint” of professional misconduct, professional malpractice
Bibliography: http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335200605.pdf: Angela Hetherington, The use of counselling skills in the emergency services, 2001, Open University Press Mearns D and Thorne B, Person-Centred Counselling in Action, 2007, SAGE Publication Ltd Rogers C, A Way of Being, 1980, Houghton Mifflin Company Rogers C, On Becoming a Person, A therapist’s view of psychotherapy