D2 counselling

Counsellors do not offer advice as such but instead give an insight into a client’s feelings and behaviour and they help the client to change their behaviour accordingly. They do this by actively listening to what the client has to say and comment from a professional perspective. Counsellors are trained to be effective helpers, especially in sensitive and difficult situations. They have to be independent, very neutral and professional as well as respecting the privacy and confidentiality of a client. Counselling can help clients to clarify their problems, identify the changes they wish to make and give them a fresh perspective. Counsellors should help them to seek other options and look at the impact that life events have made on the client’s emotional wellbeing. They also help clients to come to terms with difficult issues and it works best if the client comes to counselling from their own free will.
The most popular humanistic therapy is the work of Carl Rogers and his client centred approach. He suggests that basic assumptions of client centred therapy are that the client is the best equipped person for understand their problems and solving them and that psychological conflicts are a result of a conflict between the individuals self-concept and actual experiences.
The aim of this therapy is to provide the client with a relationship and provide them a therapeutic atmosphere. This then facilitates growth, understanding and self-acceptance. This helps clients to overcome the gap between their self-concept and actual experience. An individual’s self-concept is usually based on their own personal values. If the individual faces an experiences that contradicts their values, stress and anxiety can occur. Therapists that follow the client cantered approach do not aim to modify the client’s behaviour but instead they play the role of ‘facilitator.’ They then provide the client with warmth, empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard. The best way is to ask