#first :)

1. Phases of
Counseling
Joanne L. Verola
BEED- Special Education

2. What is a Counseling
Process?

3. – A Counseling Process is a planned, structured dialogue
between a counselor and a client.
– It is a cooperative process in which a trained professional
helps a person called the client to identify sources of
difficulties or concerns that he or she is experiencing.
– Together they develop ways to deal with and overcome
these problems so that person has new skills and increased
understanding of themselves and others.

4. For example students in a college or university may be
anxious about how to study in university, lack of clarity
on educational or career direction, have difficulty living
with a room-mate of another race or religion, have
concerns with self-esteem, feelings with being
“stressed out”, difficulties in romantic relationships and
so forth.

6. Stage 1:
Establishing
Relationship

7. The first step involves building a relationship and
focuses on engaging clients to explore issues that
directly affect them. It is where the client is reading the
verbal and nonverbal messages and make inferences
about the counselor and the counseling situation.
Research efforts on counseling relationships can be
grouped into two general categories: counselor-offered
conditions and counselor- and client-offered
conditions.

8. Counselor-offered conditions
The way the counselor influences the counseling process
- Rogers (1957) identified what he believed were core
conditions for success in counseling: empathy,
unconditional positive regard, congruence, respect,
immediacy, confrontation, concreteness, self-disclosure.

9. Counselor and client offered conditions
Working alliance: another way to describe the counseling
relationship.
According to Bordin (1979) a working alliance is composed of
three parts
 agreement between the counselor and client in terms of the
goals of counseling,
 agreement between the counselor and client in terms of the
tasks of counseling, and
 the emotional bond between the counselor and client

10. Steps for Relationship Building
Introduce yourself
Invite client to sit down
Ensure client is comfortable
Address the client by name
 Invite social conversation to reduce anxiety
Watch for nonverbal behavior as signs of client’s emotional state
Invite client to describe his or her reason for coming to talk
Allow client time to respond
Indicate that you are interested in the person

11. Stage 2:
Assessment
and Diagnosis

12. Assessment: helps counselors develop an in-
depth understanding of a client and mental
disorders that require attention
Diagnosis: medical term that means
"identification of the disease-causing
pathogens responsible for a physical illness"

13. Assessment Division
 Standardized measures include psychological
tests that have a standardized norm group.
 Nonstandardized measures do not have a
standardized norm group and include strategies
such as the clinical interview and assessment of
life history.

14. Diagnosis: DSM-IV TR based
Axis I Clinical Disorders and Other Conditions That
May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention
Axis II Personality Disorders Mental Retardation
Axis III General Medical Conditions
Axis IV Psychosocial and Environmental Problems
Axis V Global Assessment of Functioning

15. Four reasons for making a diagnosis
1. Facilitating communication shorthand
2. Indicating possible treatment strategies
3. Communicating etiology
4. Aiding in scientific investigation

16. Stage 3:
Setting Goals

17. Goals serve three functions in the counseling
process (Cormier & Hackney, 1993):
motivational
educational
evaluative
Counseling goals also conceptualizes as either
process or outcome goals.

18. Process goals
Establish the conditions necessary to make
the counseling process work
Are primarily the counselor's responsibility
Outcome goals
Specify what the client hopes to accomplish in
counseling.

19. Stage 4:
Intervention
and Problem
Solving

20. Once goals between counselor and client are
created, they can determine the intervention
strategy (include group counseling, family,
couple and mostly individual)
One way to conceptualize intervention is
practicing problem solving.

21. Problem-solving strategies
Kanfer and Busemeyer's six-stage model:
problem detection, problem definition,
identification of alternative solutions,
decision making, execution, and verification

22. Stage 5:
Evaluation,
Termination, Follow
up or Referral

23.  The ultimate goals in counseling is for counselors to
be unnecessary or obsolete to the client (at this point
counseling can be terminated).
 Once the termination has occurred, counselors can
set up a brief follow up counseling session.

24.  For the beginning counselor, it is difficult to think of
terminating the counseling process, as they are more
concerned with beginning the counseling process.
 However, all counseling aims toward successful
termination.
 Terminating the counseling process will have to be
conducted with sensitivity with the client knowing
that it will have to end.

25. • Counselor always mindful of avoiding fostering
dependency and is aware of own needs.
• Preparation for termination begins long before
counseling begins.
• Termination considered not just at end of successful
relationship, but also is considered when it seems
counseling is not being helpful.
• Think of this as a means of empowering client.

26. For you, what is the
most important
phase/stage in a
counseling process?

27. Do you think
implementing school
counseling program is
important?

28. Students trained by counselors to be peer facilitators are effective in
helping sixth grade problem-behavior students adjust to middle school. In
one study, counselors worked with eighth grade peer facilitators once a
week for six weeks, focusing on how to (a) establish a helping
relationship, (b) use high facilitative responses, (c) lead a small group
discussion, and (d) use a four-step problem-solving model. The facilitators
demonstrated that they could help students who are having problems
adjusting to school, especially in terms of their school attendance, school
grades, and attitude towards school. Discipline referrals were also
reduced.
Tobias and Myrick, 1999
Professional School Counseling, 3:1, 27-33.

29. One study found that high school counselors influenced
their students' future plans by encouraging them to have
high expectations. A high proportion of 10th and 12th
grade students who were surveyed perceived that their
counselor expected them to attend college, regardless of
their racial background. High school students’ own
educational expectations for themselves increased over
time.
Mau and Hitchcock, 1998
Professional School Counseling, 2:2, 161-166.

30. A study done in Gwinnett County, Georgia shows that school
counselors impact students’ academic performance and can
increase the on-task, productive behavior of students and
reduce disruptive behaviors. The Behavior Rating Checklist
indicated statistically significant decreases in disruptive
behaviors and significant increases in productive, on-task
behaviors for both the third grade and the fifth grade students
tested. Language arts progress was statistically significant for
both grade levels as well.
Mullis and Otwell, 1997
Georgia School Counselors Association Journal, 1:4, 1-3.

31. Counseling decreases classroom disturbances. Counseling
services support teachers in the classroom and enable teachers
to provide quality instruction designed to assist students in
achieving high standards. Students in schools that provide
counseling services indicated that their classes were less likely
to be interrupted by other students and that their peers
behaved better in school.
Lapan and Gysbers, 1997
Journal of Counseling & Development, 75, 292-302.

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