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OUTLINE
Assoc. Prof. Deniz Albayrak-Kaymak
(Revised, 2023)
ISSUE 2: The Nature of Guidance and Counseling
Counseling requires 2Cs and 1P, a client and a counselor as partners and a process of
interaction.
• Client/counselee. Presence of a helpee, someone in need of help, who is in pain, used
up all other resources but could not resolve the issues, thus feels like a failure.
Someone who is confused, who can tell what the pain (symptom) is, but could not tell
where it comes from (the problem). Someone who wants to get help, willing and
motivated to get better and works toward change. So allocation of resources of the
client is necessary. Responsibility to change is on the client. Change cannot be
imposed.
• Counselor. Presence of a helper, a professional who has been trained in theory and
practice of helping under supervision; someone who is skilled (certification and
licensure are means of assuring such competence), who is neutral, objective and
committed to truth. Counselors are to contain intensity of various feelings that arise
during the process and work towards the well-bein of the clients considering their
social environment.
• Process. Presence of certain conditions including progress in time, establishment of
rapport and relation between the two partners leading to therapeutic dynamics,
interaction through therapeutic techniques, in a safe and private setting. This process
is protected by professional ethics (standards of practice and conduct) including
principles of competence, confidentiality, and dual relations to protect the well-bein
of all involved.
Counseling is not advising, but guidance may include use of advice (given in the form of
suggestion or question), especially when it is actively sought by the client, but it is rarely if
ever useful. What is important is to provide the conditions where clients find their own
solutions.
Not all therapeutic experiences (things that provide catharsis, feelings of relief and
elimination of tension) are therapy. Catharsis can be necessary but is not sufficient for
therapy. Therapy requires change in perception, affective state and behavior of the person.
Counseling is not unscheduled walk-in hours or RAP sessions, although such contacts may
be useful. Counseling requires commitment to healing. Its length, however, changes from
problem to problem, from client to client, and from approach to approach. It not a one time
meeting, it requires a time period sufficient for a change to take place. In brief therapies this
time is shorter than in other therapies.
Counseling requires a unique partnership towards healing, problem and goal identification
together by the partners. Mutual liking and similarity of worldviews may ease the process.
Yet at times counselor and client seem to be in a battle where clients secretly hope that the
counselor would lose legitimizing their feelings of inadequacy. But this is a battle in which
the counselor should refuse to get in since there can only be a win-win (or lose-lose) situation
in counseling.
Counseling problems tend to be relationship problems of some kind or the other. Therefore
counseling goals are to consider the individual as well as the society where the individual is
embedded. Exclusion of either is not acceptable; a balance needs to be established. Examine
the definitions of counseling goals in your readings to see which ones are repudiated (cannot
be accepted) although they may be desirable by the client or others around the client.
Counseling is about change and change in people does not occur easily, does not occur over
night, there are no miracles and the process is not fun especially in the beginning stages, it
contains feelings of pain, anger, fear and despair. Upon completion of the process, however,
the clients are at a better place than how they started with.
Read a senior counselor trainer, Wrenn’s (1990) talk addressed to counselor educators. Then
reflect on what his words of wisdom mean to you. This talk warns the counseling
practitioner on importance of self development and growth, how to take care of oneself
while taking care of others. Burn-out (“tükenmişlik” in Turkish, loss of one’s emotional
resources to care for others, and of sensitivity and energy required to function as a helping
professional) is unavoidable if the counselor fails in self care.
In Rogerian terms, counseling occurs is an atmosphere that is calm and nonthreatening
where people can face confusions courageously, sort them (ideals, values) out and reach a
workable philosophy of life. In Rogerian view, there is ideal self and there is real self. The
larger the difference in between, the more disturbed the client is. Process aims to include
greater or more real self into one’s ideal self, i.e., congruence, acceptance or self
actualization in general humanistic terms.
Acceptance does not require approval. Acceptance is welcoming all that is human,
including the upstream (perpetrators) and downstream (victims) of problems. This is what
separates empathy (the core condition of humanistic counseling) from sympathy (pitying or
feeling sorry for the one who is at difficult condition). Empathy is not simple compassion for
those who are troubled and victimized, but it means sensing and experiencing what it means
to be in client’s particular situation, including those who make troubles and victimize others.
It is experienced both at affective and cognitive levels.
What is done (the issue of how) in counseling is largely determined by the approach (school,
philosophy) followed by the counselor. Some approaches are more directive (behaviorist)
than others (humanist), they may focus on different domains (cognition, affect or behavior),
duration differs from brief to long (psychoanalysis is the longest of all, taking years to
complete), some form distant (dynamic therapies since they are based on use of transference)
some form close (humanistic) relations, and techniques vary (some only verbalization, some
drama or arts). But all is designed to help the individual in finding a direction in life that
leads to rise in quality of life.
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To Kagan (1977) counselors are like primary care physicians, their roles are like general core
practitioners. They are broadly skilled (holistic), and definition of counseling is dynamic, not
static but continuously defining itself, based on a comprehensive approach, life skills
teaching. In this sense, what counselors do is largely determined by the needs of their
clientele. Other than counseling roles, effective counselors do it all; directing, teaching,
coaching, training, instructing, and tutoring.
Questions to think about.
• Can a counselor solve a client’s problem?
• What are the problem behaviors in our classrooms that most teachers complain or ask
the help the school counselor?
• In many cases teachers want the counselor take the child from the classroom, fix
him/her and send back. How do you react to that?
Counseling is based on influence (towards change). Regardless of how neutral the counselor
remains there is no value-free counseling. Therefore, the counselor needs to be aware of the
influence of direction and pay conscious effort not to impose his/her own values on the
client.
Ener’s (1978) analogy of a blind man’s perception of elephant indicates how various
counseling roles and functions are. In understanding what counseling is and how important
values are, Ener suggested use of Shaw’s (1973) major components in counseling:
Objectives
Values
Functions
• Values precede and contribute to structuring of services, indicate what is important.
• Objectives define what to do to serve the values; have behavioral referents (actions).
• Functions indicate roles of the service providers (specialist/direct and generalist/
indirect levels), they are actions themselves.
Ener also suggested that counselors use certain basic questions in understanding the place of
values in approaching human behavior.
Basic human questions and answers (Kluckhohn, 1955, 1967)
1. Innate predisposition evil neither evil good
(basic human nature) (Freudian) nor good (humanistic)
(behaviorist)
2. Relation to nature subjugated to in over
(human to nature) (destiny) harmony (typical
(classical Chinese) western)
3. Time orientation past present future
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4. Valued personality type being becoming doing
(leisure) (self development) (success)
5. Modality of relationships lineal collateral individualistic
(human to human) (society) (group goals) (self)
Questions, Where do you think counselors tend to stand on these? Where do you stand on
these? Where do you think our culture in general stand?
Responses will indicate underlying values and the influence that you want (objectives) to
achieve (functions) in your life and in serving others. They have a direct impact on your life
as a person and on your practice as a professional.
Practicing a profession that is based on influencing others (as a teacher or counselor) gives
you a tremendous responsibility over your own behaviors. This is the essence of
professional ethics. You can no longer justify having stereotypes or holding racist behaviors
or attitudes which will inevitably result in discriminatory behaviors. We as educators are to
be agents of support for the maximum growth of every student of ours. This process starts
with self-examination and development.
Holding prejudices is not something that you can hide, people can tell how genuine you are
in your behavior and test you through time and contexts. If you have lower expectations, for
example, that might negatively influence the students you are to support. Hence Pygmalion
Effect; i.e., people behave in ways to fit expectations, expectations come true. Therefore,
what is asked is to strive towards more congruence in our acceptance of people.
Mastery Questions
1. What criteria are set for determining counseling goals?
2. Describe the basic elements in humanistic (Rogerian) counseling.
3. What can be said about the self care of counselors?
4. Why counselors’ position on Kluckhohn’s basic human questions is important?
5. What is the relevance of developmental psychology for counselors?
6. Compare and contrast generalist and specialist functions of school counselors.
7. Discuss the complementary roles of school team for psychological support.
8. What do schools in general tend to find problematic in student behavior?
Developmental counselor’s source of information is largely based on developmental
psychology literature that studies what is normal and expected life issue in a given age and
domain. Content of guidance hours in developmental guidance model or in teachers as
student advisors (TAP) program is based on accumulation of knowledge about development.
Please examine the principles and examples of guidance programs given in your textbook.
Despite changing times and generations, human nature largely stays the same. Development
is predictable, sequential, moves positively toward self-enhancement, from simple to
complex, organized, orderly, patterned, cumulative and directional.
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There are different domains to development which provides the rationale for complementary
roles of different professionals in a school team. Everyone’s contribution is needed. For
example, physical growth is better promoted with contributions from a health practitioner
(school nurse or doctor) or physical education teacher compared to other professionals.
Developmentalists tend to be structuralist, and identify sequential stages in development.
Development covers a wide area, several domains. Theorists tend to contribute to a single
domain rather than covering all (but Havighurst, for example, identified stages in overall
development). Instead, most developmentalists focus on certain domains (for example,
Piaget on cognitive development, Freud on psychosexual development, Erikson on
psychosocial development, Kohlberg on moral development and Super on career
development).
Reflection. Examine different theories to identify where you fall in that theory in terms of
level of development and issues or characteristics, typical for that stage. See whether the
information you collect on your stage helps you understand your own issues at your current
growth better.
Among the various critiques that were made at classical developmental theories, some are
listed below
• A person’s stance on stages tends to be at more than one level, i.e., stages are not
mutually exclusive.
• Although temporal regressions happen, people do not regress to previous stages for
good, but tend to grow slowly towards the next or remain at the same stage. Not all
stages, especially advanced ones, are reached by everyone.
• Separate domains of development exist but they are not independent. Overall
development is largely dependent on one’s general intellectual level.
• Young children’s (prelanguage) level of development is heavily underestimated due
to limitations of the methods that were made for adult understanding.
• Development at very early and late stages of life is largely understudied. There is an
exclusive emphasis on school age.
• Impact of environment on the individual starts even before conception through
bodies of both parents, but not enough credit is given for its influence on
development. …
