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Section 1: Introduction
By the end of this section, you will be able to

 Understand what counseling truly means

 Appreciate the need for counselors
 Clarify myths and misconceptions related to counseling

Lecture 0: Introducing the course

Hi dear student! This is Ruchika Garg, and I am your tutor for this course. First of all, I
would like to thank you for taking this course, I truly appreciate your concern and passion for
being in a helping profession.

As per the WHO reports, One in four people in the world is affected by mental disorders at
some point in their lives. Around 450 million people currently suffer from mental health
problems, and this makes it the leading cause of ill-health and disability worldwide. So you
must feel proud to have dedicated yourself to a profession that can be of a huge help to
people all over the world! So gear up!!

Now let me introduce the course structure. This course contains all essential skills you need
to be able to counsel people. I can assure you that it will be fun. The lectures are rich in
content so that you can learn a lot. However, I must tell you that you will have to put in a lot
of hard work to master those skills, and only sincere practice will help you benefit from the
course. You will notice that there is more emphasis on skills than on theoretical learning. But
not to worry, I have introduced theoretical concepts wherever required. So you will not miss
out on anything.

This course will enable you to develop skills that are essential in counseling. You will be
introduced to skills required to counsel individuals of different ages in separate sections. You
will be oriented to problems that require counseling and ways to deal with those problems. In
short, you will be ready to see clients provided you practice your skills and follow the course
sincerely. However, I would want you to practice under supervision until you feel confident
enough to start practicing independently if that is what you’re looking for.

In order to get the most out of this course, I would strongly recommend you to follow the
sequence of lectures, reading material and activities. If you follow them sincerely, you are
sure to have a winning end by the time you complete the course. Follow the course at your
own pace, and make sure you absorb all content and skills bit by bit, practicing them
whenever and wherever the situation permits you to. This will keep you focused and you will
be able to relate to the concepts well in everyday life. I would also urge you to take notes
during my lectures, and maintain a journal for the activities. Keeping a note of the skills will
keep you motivated, and you will not miss out on practicing any of them.

Finally, it is essential to understand that this course is a tool to build counseling skills, but it
does not qualify you to become a counseling psychologist. You may not take it as a shortcut
or a replacement for a formal degree.
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Now let’s get started with the course. I am sure this will definitely build your skills as a
counseling psychologist, and enhance your own communications in day to day life as a
bonus!

Lecture 1: The true meaning of counseling

The term "counseling" has many confusing meanings and there are many wide applications to
it as well. To go by the dictionary meaning, the term counseling means "the provision of
professional assistance in resolving personal or psychological problems." Many of us might
have found ourselves in the role of a counseling psychologist at times and also many of us
might have used counseling of others in our life. But the actual meaning of counseling, the
role of a counseling psychologist and its importance are quite unclear concepts to many.

Many people today are apprehensive about sharing their deep feelings with someone and do
not find someone to confide their secrets in, here the role of a counseling psychologist fulfills
such demands. A counseling psychologist hears all the problems, thoughts, feelings of his/her
subject, helps them to find out a solution and do not judge them on any account. This is what
makes one feel more comfortable and establishes a relationship with the counseling
psychologist.
A counseling psychologist is not entangled to his/her client and thus counseling is not biased
or judgmental. He/she observes and listens patiently to the person’s situation and work in a
direction to bring that person out of the problematic phase of life. Students who face lack of
concentration and confidence, mentally affected by family or academic stress or bullying of
some kind must see a counseling psychologist who can shape their potential minds in a better
way so that they does not grow up as shy and afraid people. The same goes for people of any
age who are facing problems and are not able to come out of those problems themselves.

According to the WHO statistics, 20% of Indians need counseling at some point in their lives.
One percent of the population suffers from serious mental health disorders, while 5-10% of
Indians suffer from moderate disorders. In India, the awareness about need and importance of
counseling is quite low as compared to foreign countries. But here as well, people now
understand the need to communicate their deepest feelings to a counseling psychologist
inside of bottling them inside.
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Lecture 2: Myths and misconceptions

1. ‘Only mentally ill people go for counseling’. Most people who go for counseling are
ordinary everyday people, not violent, dangerous and crazy. Counseling helps you cope
with everyday stress, improve relationships, broaden your perspective and give you more
clarity of thought.

2. People Who Go To Counseling Are Broken And Emotionally Damaged: Everything

may not be perfectly fine in your life, but that doesn’t mean you’re broken or emotionally
damaged. Remember that it’s not the end of the world and that you can seek help for the
same and heal. Counseling is a tool for people to explore themselves and learn to lead a
better life.

3. It’s Too Expensive: Counseling may often be expensive but it’s an investment that you
make for your physical and emotional well-being. There are many counseling
psychologists who offer services at very reasonable rates, some even offer free
counseling. Many also consider the socio-economic status of clients before fixing price
for services.
4. Counseling Is Common Sense: You would often hear that counseling is a pointless
process as counseling psychologists would just rework common knowledge. But common
sense is wisdom that applies to everyone. Whereas counseling gives an insight that is
specific to you and your needs. Counselling psychologists utilize techniques, modalities,
and theories that have been rigorously studied and researched. With the support of a
professional, counseling focuses only on you and works to understand and guide you to
achieve your goals.

5. Counselling is the same as psychotherapy: Ways of distinguishing counseling from

psychotherapy have never been wholly satisfactory. Nevertheless, psychotherapy focuses
on personality change of some sort while counseling focuses on helping people use
existing resources for coping with life better; psychotherapy deals with more severe
disturbance. In addition, psychotherapists are more likely to work very intensively with
more deeply disturbed individuals who are frequently seen over a long period of time.
Counselling psychologists are more likely to work in specific areas where specialized
knowledge and method are needed: for instance marital and family counseling and school
counseling.

Psychotherapy will allow you to examine feelings, actions, and thoughts and to learn how to
evaluate and adjust where appropriate. Counselling, however, will enable you to explore the
personal development and to create adjustments to your life.

While psychotherapists usually work in hospital setup or private practice, you will see
counseling psychologists in more fields such as private practice, NGOs, or educational
institutions.
A wide range of settings/ issues for counseling psychologists are self-awareness, relationship
difficulties, abuse, anxiety, selfharming, vocational problems, lack of assertiveness, career transition,
and so forth. Some practitioners of counseling may be trained at the doctoral level with a supervised
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internship, as psychotherapists are. But many counseling psychologists have less training, with
relatively little psychology and little or no formal supervised internship.
More objective observers distinguish between counseling and psychotherapy on the basis of the
extent of training in personality theory, research methods, and formal internship.

At the end, it's important to know that counseling is not:

 Giving advice.
 Judgemental.
 Attempting to sort out the problems of the client.
 Expecting or encouraging a client to behave in a way in which the counseling
psychologist may have behaved when confronted with a similar problem in their own life.
 Getting emotionally involved with the client.
 Looking at a client's problems from your own perspective, based on your own value
system.
Therefore counseling is:

 Exploring the life of the client along with the client

 Enabling the client to develop strategies for self-help
 Empowering the client with better skills to deal with problems.

Activity
To get started well, you must know your strengths and weaknesses.

 Make a list of your counseling skills which have helped people when they needed you in
problematic situations. For example, enlist the skills you used in these four dimensions:
listening, understanding, responding, and problem-solving.
 Think of situations where you have felt stuck in conversations with friends or other
people, or where you could not come across as understanding, and write about what you
think was lacking in you. Use the same 4 dimensions mentioned above.
 At the end of the course, review this list to evaluate what you have successfully worked
on.