Principles of Counselling

1.         Acceptance – According to Carl Rogers, “By acceptance I mean a warm regard for him as a person, no matter what his condition, his behaviour or his feelings It means a respect and liking for him as a separate person, a willingness for him to possess his own feelings in his own way”. Acceptance is foundation of rapport between counsellor and counselee. The acceptance of an individual in its totality and natural form is necessary for kick start of effective counselling.

2.         Respect for the Individual – Each individual is unique in temperament and response to stimulus. This principle suggests that each person is to be respected and valued as a person of worth (Blum & Balinsky, 1961). The emotional response and personality type of an individual must be given due regard without being judgmental.

3.         Optimism – The optimism has been defined as a positive anticipatory state “an inclination to put the most favourable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome” (“Optimism”, 2011). Optimism is described as a cognitive process (Bruiniks & Malle, 2005) focusing on outcome expectancies determining goal directed behaviour (Snyder et al., 1991). This principle suggests that both counsellor as well as counselee must be optimistic in their approach, relationship, outcome and mutual trust.

4.         Learning – Learning is permanent modification of behaviour. Counselling is an interactive face-to-face process that has its foundation on modification of behaviour. Counselee should be helped to modify his behaviour so that he can adjust and adapt to the demands of the environment and overcome the immediate problem. It helps in circumventing the reoccurrence of the problems. Hence, learning theories form the base of counselling.

5.         Rationalization of thinking with client – The rationalization means reorganization. In the counselling context, the counsellor to be effective has to rationalize the thought process with that of client. The central idea behind this principle is to obtain authentic, pure and original information from client. She/he must feel secure in sharing problem-related personal information with the counsellor. 

References:

1.         Rao, S. N. (2004). Counselling and Guidance. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.

2.         https://www.slideshare.net/reynel89/types-of-guidance.

3.         http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/education/guidance/guidance-types-top-3-types-of-guidance-explained/63673.

4.         https://work.chron.com/objectives-group-guidance-2682.html.

 

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