NINE SKILLS TO BE A GOOD COUNSELOR.
Counseling is to give help rather than advice. A good counselor looks for what is possible for him to do but without telling their clients or students as well. The primary form of helping in counseling is listening. Every one who uses counseling skill is designated a counselor. As a teacher, there are ways and stages to introduce the school counselor’s role to students. According to different philosophers and educators, many skills may be taken into consideration but there are nine basic skills that every counselor should have.
The nine skills are divided as following: 1.listening, 2.Empathy, 3.genuiness, 4.un-conditional positive regard, 5.concreteness, 6.open questions, 7.counselor self-disclosure, 8.interpretation, 9.information giving and removing obstacles to change.
1.Listening, works basically with body language. It’s divided into two parts attending and observing. Attending means that a good counselor should care about what he says, let the students know that you are aware of him. The important things to be aware off during attending are (eye contact, eliminate distraction, affirming head nods, limit movement, encouraging verbalization{make them free}reflect their posture and language, and lean forward. 80% of communication takes place verbally. Attending is important to be engaged to your student and care about them.. On the other hand, observing includes content, what they actually saying and non -verbal communication. Be aware of all the expressions and words used by the client which may help us in looking deeper, this means that the counselor should understand what the client is saying.
2.Empathy,this skill focuses on body language. It’s divided into two main points: non-verbal and verbal attending, paraphrasing. Considering the first point, a good counselor should communicate with their clients and show them that you are paying attention(share general experiences)to clarify what they have said. Four tools are used to help in paraphrasing(listen and recall{don’t miss any detail}, identify the content, rephrase, perceptive check). Paraphrasing is reflecting on how the patient feels as implied messages by listening in a careful way and focusing on keywords as you should try to really understand what he is talking about. You have to remember what the client is feeling and choice the words correctly.
3.genuineness, is to be honest, be yourself, and be comfortable. The actions done by the counselor should reflect the words he’s saying.
4.Un-conditional positive regard, is to have endless kindness and caring for the clients. A good counselor should not argue because the counselor’s job is not to argue. Skillful counselor should gently encourage the client to complete and be comfortable. Regardless of everything is said, their should be a huge amount of kindness and caring expressions, we are all as humans need to get some encouragements.
5.oncreteness is to stay focused, pursue realistic growth, ask questions, HERE and NOW. These points help the client or the student to clarify fast and talk more as much as he feel comfortable with his counselor.
6.open questions: help your client explain and clarify more by asking them questions. A good counselor don’t need to take private information about the clients just for making fun, but this skill is used in order to take more notes about the case. This skill includes(guide thought, intentional questions, don’t drill and paraphrase).the goal is to guide deep explore by asking intentional questions.
7. Counselor self-disclosure, here the counselor may share some of his personal experiences or reactions to the client. It’s safer to not get in your own private information, the importance of this skill is to communicate with the client.
8. Interpretation, the counselor is able to give new perspective about the client. This skill includes(gives new perspective, provokes thoughts/feelings, explanation for behaviors, don’t overuse). The counselor should offer fresh way of thinking, as a counselor should be sure not to overuse interpretation.
9. Information giving and removing obstacles to change, using this skill help the counselor to know that he should give facts, data, resources and answers. Find helpful alternatives and identify problems.
The purpose of this essay is to describe the main nine skills for a good counselor. Counseling is a vocational process that requires a lot of passion and application of certain skills by a counselor. Being a counselor is not easy at all since a good counselor should take care about each point and action of their clients according to the skills and using these skills will make the session useful and helpful for both the client and the counselor.
Nice!
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