❖ Introduction:

Guidance and counseling play an integral role in today's life. An individual come across
various problems from womb to tomb. Advances in industrialization, changes in socio-
economic set up, technological growth has led to pooling up of problems. Nowadays,
education is student-centered and stress level is increasing day by day. Guidance and
counseling is the most important area of education, which has received attention in recent
years. Nurse educator must keep herself up-to-date with specialized knowledge and skills
to help students to manage their life activities, take their decisions and solve their
problems. Guidance helps students to explore their potentials and tackle with various
problems. Counseling on the other hand facilitates crisis intervention with the help of
expert.

❖ Guidance:
‛A sure way for one to lift himself up is by helping lift someone else’.
- Booker T Washington
Guidance means 'to direct, 'to point out, and 'to show the path'. It is the assistance or help
rendered by more experienced person to solve certain major problems of the individual (less
experienced), i.e., educational, vocational, personal, etc., and social environment and to solve
the problems of life.
Guidance covers the whole spectrum of education, which starts from the birth of the child
and continues till his death. This is a wide meaning of the term, which includes all types of
education such as formal, nonformal, informal and vocational, etc. which aims to adjust the
individual to his environment in an effective way.
▪ Definition:
Guidance is an assistance made available by professionally qualified and adequately
trained men or women to an individual of any age to help him to manage his own life
activities, develop his own point, make his own decisions and carry his own burdens.'

- Lester D Crow and Alice

Crow (1962)
Guidance is the process of helping person to develop and accept an integrated and
adequate picture of himself and his role in the world of work, to test this concept against
reality and to convert it into reality with satisfaction to himself and benefits to society.
- National vocational
guidance Association
(NVGA)
Guidance is a systematic professional process of helping the individual through
education and interpretative procedures to gain a better understanding of his own
characteristics and potentialities and to relate him more satisfactorily to social
requirements and opportunities in accord with social and moral values.
- Mathewson (1962)
Guidance is the help given by one person to another in making choices and
adjustments and in solving problems.
- Arthur, J Jones (1963)
Guidance is a process through which an individual is able to solve their problem and
pursue a path suited to their abilities and aspirations.
- JM Brewer
▪ Concept of guidance:
Guidance is both a concept and process. As a concept, guidance is concerned with the
optimal development of the individual, educational, vocational, personal, social,
moral, physical, etc. both for his own satisfaction and for the benefit of the society. As
a process, it includes the gathering of substantial knowledge of the developmental
characteristic of the individual.
▪ Principles of guidance:
• Guidance is holistic: Guidance service helps in overall development of an
individual. It focuses on meeting all the needs of an individual such as
physical, mental social, spiritual, vocational, etc.
• All individuals are unique: Each individual is the combination of
characteristics which provides uniqueness to each person. Understanding of
the uniqueness of each individual is fundamental. Any guidance work that
does not recognize this is useless. Even in group guidance, individual
differences are respected. Individuals differ in their capacities, skills,
personality, aptitude and attitude and so their problems also vary. Guidance is
for all students: According to Crow and Crow, guidance services should not be
limited to the few who gave observable evidence of its need, but should be
extended to all persons of all ages who can benefit there from, either directly
or indirectly.
• Guidance should be regarded as a continuing process of service to an
individual from young childhood through adulthood. According to Lupdag,
human development is a continuous process. It follows then that guidance also
is continuous to assist the individual in coping with development demands. In
very broad sense, according to Crow and Crow, guidance continues from birth
in a family till the last stage of man's life.
• Guidance is counsel and not compulsion: It is not prescriptive, but is designed
to make the individual increasingly, self directive. It is flexible approach.
Guidance is integrative: All aspects of life emotional, mental, social,
economic, physical and religious are looked into for the development of an
integrated personality.
• Guidance involves using skills: Guidance is a skilled process and carried out
by a counsellor and more educated person with special skills of counseling to
communicate love, regard, respect for others.
• Guidance is based on individual needs: Guidance is based on individual needs,
i.e., freedom, respect and dignity. Individual needs vary from one individual to
other and guidance focuses on the needs of each individual.
 • Guidance is based on cooperation: In guidance, each staff member should
contribute according to the abilities, all staff members should concentrate their
efforts. There must be wholehearted cooperation.
• Guidance demand trained personnel: An effective guidance program needs to
have personnel who have had special preparation and adequate training for the
work. Guidance workers need to develop certain competencies, if they are to
perform their guidance activities successfully and effectively.
• Flexibility: An organized guidance program should be flexible according to the
individual and community needs. Individual and community needs are going
on changing and may vary from one condition to another. Being flexible
without compromising the quality of services will be helped in achieving the
purpose.
• Recognition of individual differences and dignity: Each individual is different
from every other individual. Each individual is the combination of
characteristics which provides uniqueness to each person. Similarly human
beings have an immense potential. The dignity of the individual is supreme.
▪ Need for guidance:
Guidance is needed at every stage of development right from the beginning of
life till the end. Everyone needs guidance at one time or the other. If properly
guided, every individual will be satisfied in life. The need and importance of
guidance are as follows:
• Complex nature of society: Changes have taken place in the entire
structure of the economic, social and political system. The process of
consumption, production, distribution, exchange has become very
complex and intricate. It has become very difficult for an individual to
achieve satisfactory results without the aid of guidance.
• Individual differences: No two human beings have ever been found to be
alike. On the whole world, there are probably no two things exactly alike.
They differ physically in size, weight, color, hair, texture and skin, mental
(emotional characteristics), social and spiritual life also: personality
traits-ability, interest, achievement, etc. The requirement of various
occupations also differs; this makes increasingly necessary to have a
definite provision for certain form of guidance.
• Welfare state and the individual: Every individual must be helped in
every way and in every direction. It helps the individual to improve and
express himself as a better person. Through guidance services, the
individual is aided in self-development and self-realization and a wide
use of human resources.
• Change industrial and educational pattern of the country: Attempts are
being made to change the educational system of our country. The
problems of selection of subjects and vocations are formidable problems
and in the absence of the guidance services the scheme is not likely to
make such progress.
• Changed economic pattern of the country: The country is in the era of
economic planning, we require- scientist, industrialist, bankers, etc., to
meet the growing demands of a progressive country.
 • Conservation of human energy: Well-planned guidance is required to
conserve the human energy.
• Self-understanding and self-direction: Guidance helps in understanding
one's strengths, limitations and other resources. Guidance helps
individual to develop ability to solve problems and take decisions.
• Optimum development of individual:
▪ Solving different problem of the individual. Academic growth and
development.
▪ Vocational maturity, vocational choices and vocational
adjustments.
▪ Social and personal adjustments.
▪ Better family life.
▪ Good citizenship.
▪ For conservation and proper utilization of human resources.
▪ For national development.

Guidance is helpful not only for students and teacher in an educational

institution but also to the parents, administrators, planners and
community members.
❖ Counselling:
The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings by changing the inner
attitudes of their minds can change the outer aspects of the lives!

- William James, US
psychologist (1842-1910)
Counselling is a helping relationship someone seeking help, someone willing to give help,
capable or trained to help in a setting that permit help to be given and received in which
client learns to discuss freely what respects them, to define their goals to acquire essential
social skills and to develop the courage and self-confidence to implement desired new
behavior.
▪ Meaning of counselling:
Counselling is a process of changing one's cognitive, affective, mental and behavioral
orientations that can help an individual from also: abnormal destructive behaviors to
normal constructive behaviors. It is a process of releasing old, individual behaviors,
value, attitudes, thinking, expectations to learning holistic, positive, constructive and
productive behaviors.
▪ Concept of counselling:
Counselling is the relationship between two persons in which one of them attempts to
assist the other in organizing himself to attain a form of happiness, adjustment to a life
situation, i.e. self-actualization. An accepted, trusting and safe relationship will be
formulated in which clients will learn to discuss their problems, acquire the social
skills, courage, confidence to implement desired new behavior.
The relationship between the personnel or the interaction between the counsellor,
i.e. one professionally trained worker and the counselee, i.e. the person who seeks
services or who cannot cope-up alone. Counselling involves helping an individual to
 become aware of himself and the ways in which he is reacting to the behavioral
influence of his environment.

A helping
relationship

Based on
Identify the
their own principle of
resources empowerm
ent
Counselling

Seeks to
Confidential
help people

Fig: Key aspects of counselling

▪ Definition of counselling:
Counselling is a set of techniques, skills and attitudes to help people manage their own
problems using their own resources!
- Micheal Reddy
Counselling is a one-to-one relationship between an individual troubled by problems with
which he cannot cope alone and professional worker whose training and experience have
qualified him to help others reach solutions to various types of personal difficulties .
- Halm and Mcheall
(1955)
Counselling is a process by which a troubled person (client) is helped to tell and behave in a
more personally satisfying manner through interaction with an uninvolved person
(counsellor) who provides information and reactions which stimulate the client to develop
behavior which enables him to deal more effectively with himself and his environment.
- Edwin Lewis
▪ Principles of counselling:
In order to make counselling session effective, the counsellor should follow the
following principles:
 • Face-to-face interaction: It involves a face-to-face relationship between two
persons. One person the counsellor gives advises to the counselee with direct
contact which have a direct influence and effectiveness will be enhanced.
• Emotional perspective than rather intellectual: It is not only concerned with
the intellectual perspective of the individual, but also focus on the emotional
perspective. It is emotional rather than purely intellectual attitude. Listen
attentively to the client in an attempt to understand both the content of their
problem, as they see it, and the emotions they are experiencing related to the
problem. Do not make interpretations of the client's problems or offer any
premature suggestions as to how to deal with, or solve the issues presented.
Listen and try to understand the concerns being presented. Most people want
their needs to be heard and understood, not advised.
• More than just giving advice: It is more than advice giving. The progress
comes through the thinking that a person with a problem does for himself.
• Focus on solution of immediate problem: It involves solution of immediate
problem as well as the future decision of the individual.
• Warmth: The counsellor should communicate personal warmth and make the
client feel welcome valued as individuals. Initial contact and effective
interpersonal relationship are the techniques which promote warmth and
enhance counselling process.
• Acceptance: The counsellor should accept the person and his feelings without
criticizing him. He should also accept the person irrespective of age, race, sex,
etc.
• Genuineness: The counsellor should be very honest with himself and with
client he should be very open and friendly.
• Empathy: Instead of showing sympathy to the person having problem, the
counsellor should show empathy. He should counsel the patient's problem as
his own and provide the effective paths to the patient.
• Respect: Respect is the basic element of all therapies. Without this basic
element, successful therapy is impossible. Counsellors do not have to like the
client, or their values, their behavior, but must put their personal feelings aside
and treat them with respect.
▪ Aims of counselling:
“Counselling is a purposeful, private conversation arising from the intention of one
person to reflect on and resolve a problem in living, and the willingness of another
person to assist in that endeavour.”
Insight: The acquisition of an understanding of the origins and development of
emotional difficulties, leading to an increased capacity to take rational control over
feelings and actions.
 Relating with others: Becoming better able to form and maintain meaningful and
satisfying relationships with other people: for example, within the family or
workplace.
Self-awareness: Becoming more aware of thoughts and feelings that had been blocked
off or denied, or developing a more accurate sense of how self is perceived by others.
Self-acceptance: The development of a positive attitude towards self, marked by an
ability to acknowledge areas of experience that had been the subject of self-criticism
and rejection.
Self-actualization or individuation: Moving in the direction of fulfilling potential or
achieving an integration of previously conflicting parts of self.
Enlightenment: Assisting the client to arrive at a higher state of spiritual awakening.
Problem-solving: Finding a solution to a specific problem that the client had not been
able to resolve alone. Acquiring a general competence in problem solving.
Psychological education: Enabling the client to acquire ideas and techniques with
which to understand and control behavior.
Acquisition of social skills: Learning and mastering social and interpersonal skills
such as maintenance of eye contact, turn-taking in conversations, assertiveness or
anger control.
Cognitive change: The modification or replacement of irrational beliefs or
maladaptive thought patterns associated with self-destructive behavior.
Behavior change: The modification or replacement of maladaptive or self-destructive
patterns of behavior.
Systemic change: Introducing change into the way in that social system (e.g. families)
operate. Empowerment: Working on skills, awareness and knowledge that will enable
the client to take control of his or her own life.
Restitution: Helping the client to make amends for previous destructive behavior.
Generativity and social action: Inspiring in the person a desire and capacity to care
for others and pass on knowledge (generativity) and to contribute to the collective
good through political engagement and community work.
▪ Need of counselling:
‘The biggest block to personal communication is man's inability to listen intelligently,
understandingly and skilfully to another person, this deficiency in the modern world is
widespread and appalling.’
- Carl R Rogers
• Counselling is an integral part of overall program of guidance.
• 'Counselling is a specific process of assistance extended by an expert individual
situation to a needy person. This means a counselling situation arises when a needy
 person is face to face with an expert who makes available his assistance to the needy
individual to fulfil his needs:
o To encourage and develop special abilities and right attitudes.
o To inspire successful endeavour towards attainment.
o To assist the students in planning for educational and vocational choices.
o To help the students to workout and plan for solving their difficulties.
o It helps in proper choice of course according to the interest, aptitude and interest
of the students.
o To help the students to grow, explore, maintain and develop their overall
personality.
o To develop readiness for choices and changes to face new challenges.
o To minimize the incidence of indiscipline that is leading to destructive activity and
social damage.
o To develop readiness in choices and changes to face new challenges.
o To minimize the mismatching between education and employment and help in
efficient use of manpower. To motivate the youth for self-employment.
o To help fresher's develop proper identity and face life situations boldly.
o To identify and motivate the students from weaker sections of society.
o To help the student in their period of turmoil and confusion.
o To help in checking wastage and stagnation.
o To identify and help students in need of special help.
o To bring out the special abilities from the handicapped or physically disabled
persons.

❖ Difference between guidance and counselling:

Sl. Features Guidance Counselling
no.
1. Definition Guidance is defined as the act of Counselling is a psychological
guiding, giving leadership, speciality that deals with
supervision or professional research applied to work in
guidance for future actions. supervision training, career
development, prevention of
disease and health.
2. Aim Guidance helps an individual to It focuses on person’s strengths,
discover and develop his assets, environmental
psychological, vocational and interaction, educational
educational potential in order to background, career development
be happier and more. and personality.
3. Process Guidance is broader and Counselling is in-depth
comprehensive process. narrowing down the problem
until the counselee understand
his or her problem
4. Service It is an organized service to It is a specialized service offered
Identity and develop the to help the individual to solve
potentials of the pupils. the problems by them.
5. Focus Focus of the guidance is on Focus is not on solution to the
finding solution to the problem. problem but the understanding of
the problem.
6. Need Guidance is generally education Whereas counselling is mostly
and career related. on personal problems and social
issues
7. Psychological Guidance is a psychological field Counselling is a psychological
field that deals with assisting in their field that deals with research and
need to the right course of action. applied work to provide training
and supervision.
8. Uses Guidance is usually being used in Counselling has a broader reach.
schools to guide the students. It has been used by Individuals,
institutions families,
rehabilitation agencies and
others.
9. Types It’s preventive It’s therapeutic
10. Setting It may be given in any normal It is given in special set-up.
set-up
11. Session It can be given in single meeting It requires several sessions to
grasp the individual's situation in
its totality.
12. Level Decision making operates at It operates at emotional level.
Intellectual level.
13. Beneficiary It may be required by all normal It is required for the Individual
individual with problems.

❖ Current trends in guidance and counselling:

• Professional title: Some professionals in the field prefer to be called guidance
counsellor, while an increasing number prefer the term school counsellor.
• Evaluation: A major trend in education is the demand for accountability and
evaluation.
• Prevention versus remediation: A growing trend in the field of counselling is the
focus on prevention instead of remediation. In the past it was not uncommon for
counsellor to have interaction with students only after some crisis had occurred.
There is now a shift for school counsellors to intercede prior to any incidents and
to become more proactive in developing and enacting school wide prevention
plans. The school, community and families are requesting assistance in preventing
students from being involved in many difficulties, such as Gangs, Dropouts, Teen
pregnancy, Substance abuse, School violence, Diversity, Child abuse, Terrorism.
 • Multiculturalism: It has been defined the fourth force in psychology, one which
complements the psychodynamic, behavioral and humanistic explanations of
human behavior. 'A wide range of multiple groups without grading, comparing or
ranking them as better as or worse than one another and without denying the very
distinct and complementary or even the contradictory perspective that each group
brings with it.
Multicultural counselling requires
o The recognition of the client.
o The importance of and the uniqueness of the individual.
o The presence of and place of values in the counselling process.
o The uniqueness of learning styles, vocational goals, and life purposes of the
client, within the context of principles of democratic social justice.
• Cyber counselling or web counselling: According to National Board of Certified
Counsellors (NBCC), it is defined as the practice of professional counselling and
information delivery that occurs when clients and counsellors are in separate or
remote locations and utilize electronic means to communicate over the internet.

❖ Issues faced by novice counsellors:

• Feelings of inadequacy and anxiety: Most beginners, irrespective of their training
and experience, experience anxiety when they start meetings their clients.
Counselling as a profession is full of ambiguities and uncertainties. The counsellor
must be willing to face and deal with these anxieties. One-way to deal with them
is to openly discuss these with seniors and fellow beings.
• Self-disclosure: Because of uncertainty and anxiety associated with initial
encounters with their clients, the beginner tends to be over concerned what the
books say and with technicalities of how they should proceed. In many instances,
the counsellors are not being themselves. Probably it is the desire to be
superhuman that drives them to be role fixated.
• Tendency toward perfectionism: As beginners counsellors are to be more perfect
in their profession. It is not possible for the person to know everything. Instead to
trying to impress the lack of knowledge, one can always admit the truth and go
about searching for satisfactory answers. It takes courage to admit imperfections,
but there is a value in being open about them.
• Being honest about limitations: No counsellor can realistically expect to succeed
with all clients. It is best to admit that one may not be successful in all the cases.
At the same time the counsellor should try to acquire skills, necessary for all kinds
of clients by working with diverse groups.
• Understanding silence: Several counsellors feel very uncomfortable and even
threatened when the clients do not speak. Silence in counselling can have several
meanings; sometimes silence say much more than words. So, when silence occurs,
 they must be explored to determine what they really mean. Accept silence and
pursue the meaning.
• Demands from the client: Often the client makes multiple demands. Several
novice counsellors, in their enthusiasm to be helpful to the client, burden
themselves with the unrealistic and constant demands. Client may frequently call
the counsellor when they are at home and expect to talk at length. The best way to
unburden the demands is to make it clear in the initial session itself what to expect
and what not to expect from the counselling. This is often referred to as
structuring the counselling relationship.
• Clients who lack commitment: The client may not be committed in the counselling
process and may be uncooperative. So it is necessary to explain the client the
goals of therapy without promising what cannot be achieved. They must be told
what counselling is about, what the joint responsibilities are and how therapy can
help them to get what they want. This helps them to commit and cooperate with
counsellor.
• Losing oneself in client: The trouble with beginners is that they worry too much
about their clients. Sometimes they identify so much with their client that they
lose their own identity. Counsellor must learn how to 'let clients go' and not carry
around their problems until they are seen again. If the counsellors loose
themselves in client's problems and confusion, they will be ineffective as help
agents. This process of getting emotionally entangled with the client issue is
called counter transference.
• Share responsibility with client: One of the crucial tasks for the counsellors is to
find an optimum balance in sharing the responsibility with clients. One mistake
that novice counsellors make is to assume full responsibility for the course and
outcome of therapy. By doing so, the counsellor will be taking away from the
client the rightful responsibility to make their own decisions. Sharing of
responsibility between counsellor and the client must be discussed and sorted out
during the initial stages.
• Giving advice: Many people mistake that giving advice is the same as counselling.
Giving advice will make the counselee dependent on the counsellor. Counsellors
help the client to discover their own solutions to their problems. The job of
counsellor is to help the client help himself.
• Developing a personal counselling style: Ask the beginners should not attempt to
mimic some one's therapeutic style. It may be remembered that there is no one
right way to counselling suitable to all clients under all conditions. Getting stuck
to one model inhibits the growth of the counsellor.

❖ Three stage counselling model:

Exploration Intervention Empowering
Three aspects Examples Three aspects
1. Establishing • Problem solving 1. Supporting action
therapeutic relationship • Cognitive therapy programs
 2. Exploring concerns • Play therapy 2. Consolidating changes
3. Assessing situation • Solution focused 3. Enabling self-
therapy actualization
• Writing therapy
▪ Exploration: There are three aspects:
1. Therapeutic relationship: Initially, teachers must develop rapport with students to
be willing to open up. This is often referred to as a therapeutic alliance which is
mostly based on the teacher’s ability to communicate empathy, genuineness and
respect to the student.
2. Exploring concerns: Listening skills are important for facilitating the exploration
of students’ concerns. By getting students to talk about their problem or ambitions
and express feelings teachers can help them to clarify their concerns and desires.
3. Assessing the situation: It helps students to clarify their concern also enables
teachers to assess the problem situation as well as the unresolved developmental
tasks and deficit in life skills which have led to the situation. This assessment
helps teachers to decide on the types of intervention which are most appropriate.
▪ Intervention: In the second stage of the model various intervention strategies are
used in order to teach students the life skills they need to deal with their current
problems, situation and ambition. There are three ways in which the intervention
strategies are implemented.
1. First teachers act as a model demonstrating skills e.g. active listening and
assertion skill in their interaction with students.
2. Second, teacher act directly, guiding students through activities or exercises
designed to help students develop the life skills they needed. Example ‘two chair
technique’ and ‘guided fantasy.’
3. Third, teachers provide direct instruction to students to teach them the life skills
they needed. Examples, teaching of relaxation skills to reduce anxiety.
▪ Empowering: There are three aspects:
1. Supporting action programs: Teachers need to support students in carrying out the
action programs they have developed in order to deal with their problems and
make progress towards their ambition. Example, simple praise, encouragement.
2. Consolidating changes: An important aspect of this stage is helping students to
maintain and consolidate the changes they have made. Teachers can help with this
by reminding students of the progress they have made and by encouraging them to
persevere in spite of the difficulties they will face in maintaining the changes.
3. Enabling self-actualization: The major aim of the stage three is to enable students’
self-actualization. That is, to facilitate student growth and fulfilment of their
potential to the fullest possible extent.

❖ Guidance and counselling services:

 The guidance services are used in educational as well as vocational guidance. The
student's ability, aptitude and needs are identified to understand, accept and utilize his
traits, opportunities for learning about areas of education and vocational endeavour;
obtaining experiences assisting him in making of free and appropriate choices. It helps in
developing his potential to the optimum so that he may be a capable individual.
Major types of guidance services:
• Entrance examination services or preadmission services
• Admission services
• Orientation services
• Student Information services
• Remedial services
• Information services
• Self-Inventory services
• Counselling services.
• Placement services
• Follow-up services

• Research services
• Evaluation services.

❖ The Pre admission services:

Students aspiring for higher education join colleges or universities after completing
higher secondary education.
▪ Objective of Preadmission Education:
o To ensure that the occupational aspirations of the students are correlated with their
scholastic achievement.
o To ensure that the occupational aspirations of the students are in consonance with
the economic condition of their families.
o To ensure that their social bearing are also in tune with their job aspirations.
o To create a positive relationship between the subjects of education and their job
aspiration.
o To familiarize the students with the repercussions of choosing a particular course
of study.

❖ The Admission Services:

 Admission services are one of the important links in the chain of guidance services. It is
needed to fulfil the following objective:
o To admit the right persons for the right course for the maximum advantage both to
the individual and the society.
o To select those candidates who are most likely to succeed to keep wastage figures
and dropout rate at the minimum level.

❖ The orientation Services:

Admission to a college or university by a very heterogeneous population students coming
from cities, towns and villages from happy and unhappy homes, from highly educated
well-established parents and totally illiterate parents, from well-established schools and
college and isolated individuals, colleges. Therefore, adequate arrangements must be
made in colleges and universities for raising efficiency of all these students in scholarship
citizenship, social skills, and vocational skills, sense of responsibility, courage and poise.
The objectives are:
o To provide the articulation and continuity from one level of education to another,
from town to village to city and from individual life to college community.
o To provide the freshers with every type of information about college/university
routine, its traditions and rules and regulation, facilities and personnel.
o To help the student to become established in his college/ university environment
so that he may carry-on as smoothly as possible with a minimum of mistakes and
worry and maximum of success and satisfaction.
o To help in social adjustment and citizenship education.
o To communicate to new student that college/university is aself directed
intellectually oriented experiences.

❖ The student information Services:

A proper choice of course and careers can be made only if the student knows the
opportunities available, the requirements of particular courses and careers and also what he
has to bring to any course or career that he may choose.
The objectives are:
o To assist the student to obtain a realistic picture of his abilities, interests, personality
characteristics, college/university achievement, level of aspirations, state of health etc.
o To enable the student to know himself on a socio- comparative basis.
o To provide a record of the student's progress.
o To help guidance workers and others to understand him more adequately.
Example: It is India’s web portal that provides the student with complete spectrum of career
opportunities.
❖ Information Services:
Information regarding various occupations, qualifications for occupation, vacancies for
vocational guidance. Information regarding curricula for educational guidance, educational
opportunities, formal and informal learning provisions, various methodologies are included in
these services if the person or a pupil is acquiring educational guidance. Similarly for
personal guidance, informations related to a person's family and social conditions and his
specializations are required.
Time to time collection of information regarding the changing structure must go on so that
the guidance may be imparted on the basis of new information. Hence, from this point of
view, the place of information service is very basic and important in the guidance process.
Objectives are: Information services are considered as the important part of guidance. Hence,
it is important to pay attention towards the objective of these services. The objectives are as
follow:
o To help the pupils in objective evaluation of various information providing sources.
o The main objective of information services is to help in providing the objective and
scientific shape to the guidance procedure.
o To make available vocational information to the pupils at one place and without
wasting anytime and money through the information services.
o To help the pupils in collecting correct and reliable information by their own efforts,
in understanding them properly and in conducting the training programs properly.
o To help in classifying all the information in accordance with their nature.
o To evaluate continuously with the help of specialists and advisors working in the
information services, the information collected through information services.

❖ Self-inventory services:
Self-inventory services means the services providing objective information regarding a
person's inner characteristics and of his external achievements. This service has special
importance from the point of view of developing the capacity of self-realization in the person.
By collecting information through such services, future planning is possible, help can be
sought in making efforts on the basis of this information. On the basis of self-inventory
services, information can be sought regarding a person's abilities. Various tests are also used
to collect information regarding a person in addition to the information collected through this
background. In the absence of self-inventory services, the guidance process cannot function
properly. This service is considered as a lifelong process.
Objectives are:
o To develop the sensitivity about the self.
o To avail an objective basis.
o To develop the efficiency of self-analysis.
❖ Individual Data collection services:
On the basis of limited information, any type of guidance seems to be impossible. In every
type of guidance, various types of information are made base and it should be done so
whether it is educational guidance, vocational guidance or personal guidance. To achieve this
objective, psychological tests, subjective and objective methods of evaluation prove useful in
collecting information regarding a person. It is very essential to collect information and to
arrange them properly for the success of guidance program whether it is vocational or any
other guidance. If the information is properly ordered, only then the objectivity and
effectiveness of guidance will come to light. Whatever we collect information's about a
person, we term them as basic material. This process of collecting basic material is known as
individual data collection services. In these services, the following information's are
collected:
o General data
o Physical data
o Social environment data
o Achievement data
o Data related to educational and vocational plans
o Psychological data.
The collection of all above information means study of an individual.

❖ Preparatory Services:
Preparatory services mean preparation for entry into some vocation in our country. A
vocational preparatory service in a school is that service which prepares before entry into a
vocation and provides in-services training. Vocational preparation can be three types:
1. Preservice training
2. Apprenticeship
3. In services training.
Vocational preparatory services are a special service in the school to provide for pre services
training, apprenticeship or in services service training. Such services can be organized by
three types of institutions:
1. Industrial concerns
2. Training institutes
3. Ordinary school.

❖ The placement services:

The placement is important services in the guidance program.
The three stages of a placement service are:
 1. Stage 1: Assessing abilities, aptitudes and interests of the student.
2. Stage 2: Analysing several occupations, particularly those occupations, in which the
student is interested.
3. Stage 3: Relating the relevant occupations with the students' interests.
Objectives are:
o To stimulate himself in the proper scholastic track in the proper course
o To find out a proper place in the post college or university or post university
environment
o To achieve proper choice of co-curricular activities available in college/university
o To achieve the choice of job-oriented courses
o To get admission in a college or professional institution or university
o To get part-time jobs, during working session and whole- time jobs after getting
education training.

❖ The follow up services:

It is the review or systematic evaluation carried out to find whether guidance services in a
particular educational program satisfy the needs of the students. It has to be observed to their
abilities and aptitudes to what extent curricular and co-curricular choice have been wise, and
how are the students adjusting with the part-time or whole-time job. In order to determine the
nature and extent of their need for assistance the students need to be followed. The follow-up
techniques are interview, post card survey or questionnaires. Each techniques have certain
advantages and disadvantages. For example, while the interview provides the most valid
information it is time consuming and expensive. While the post-card survey is inexpensive
and easy to conduct, its results are extremely limited.

❖ Research services:
For the development of guidance and services, research work related to these services is also
essential.
Objectives:
o To improve guidance programs.
o To meet professional responsibilities.
o To encourages one's professional development.
o To provide for exploration.
o Research services are essential to enhance the effectiveness and utility of individual
services, follow-up services and self-inventory services. The effectiveness of all these
services depends upon their evaluation, in spite of this, research is essential to develop
the interests of exploring new techniques in the new situation.
 o Research work is important to help the instruments which are used in the guidance
work at the various educational levels and in removing problems related to it.

❖ The counselling services:

o To understand what he can do and what he should do.
o To understand the choices, he possesses for the goal which he has chosen.
o To solve his difficulties in a rational way and strengthen his best qualities.
o To make his own decisions and plans on the basis of self- understanding, accept
responsibility for the decisions and take appropriate action on the plan development.
An effective counselling can be done, if the counselling worker has sufficient information
about the individual assets and disabilities and the possible courses of action open to him.
Counselling consists of an interview or a series of interviews between the counselling worker
and the counselee. It may also involve the administration of certain psychological tests and
inventories. Counselling is helpful in analysing the problem and arriving substantially good
solution. The counselling services are one of the most distinctive of all the guidance services.

❖ The evaluation Services:

The evaluation services are used to assess the workability the entire guidance process. It
evaluates the application of information to establish the activities in order to determine their
effectiveness and their efficiency in terms of money, energy and time.
Guidance program in schools and colleges can work effectively if all these above guidance
services are organized well and implemented effectively, to facilitate effective teaching and
efficient learning. Thus, these services prove effectively supportive devices to academic
agreement which is the primary responsibility to educational institution. These services will
solve the problem of wastage and stagnation by improving the student performance. The
student indiscipline and unrest can also be removed by creating conductive environment of
learning.
Moreover, guidance services are also useful for the choice of student's vocation and study
courses according to their interest, needs and abilities. The personal problems of social and
family adjustment can be solved by employing appropriate guidance services, e.g.
counselling services.

❖ Types of Counselling Approaches:

Counselling is a process in which two individuals meet and counsellor who assist in
analysing and understanding the problem and the client (Counselee) who has a problem
and needs assistance in arriving at a solution to the same. The problem of the client
(counselee) may be academic, social, emotional, or psychological. It may range from a
very simple problem to an extremely complex one.
 Directive
counselling

Nondirective Counselling Group

Counselling Approaches Counselling

Electic
Counselling

Directive Counselling or Prescriptive Approach

In directive counselling, the counsellor is the central figure and plays more active role. This
approach of counselling is advocated by EG Williamson. In directive counselling, counsellor
uses a variety of techniques to suggest appropriate solution to the problem of the counselee.
The Counsellor plays a leading role. This approach is also called an authoritarian or
psychoanalytical approach. The counsellor is active and directs the individual in making
decision and finding solutions to the problem. Counsellor believes in the limited capacity of
the client. This approach emphasis on cognitive and intellectual aspect of the problem.
The client makes the decision, but the counsellor does all that he can to get the client make
decision in keeping with his diagnosis. Counsellor tries to direct the thinking of the client by
informing, explaining, interpreting and advising.

Collect relevant information

Analyze the problem

Identification of nature of difficulty

 Prescribe remedial measures

Prognosis

Follow-up

Nondirective Counselling Approach:

In this approach, counsellor's role is passive. It is a counselee centered or client centered
humanistic approach. Carl Rogers advocated this approach. Counselee makes the final
decision. The counsellor has to accept the capacity of the client to make adjustment and
adaptation. The principles of acceptance, tolerance are extremely important.

Establishing rapport

Exploration of problem

Exploration of the cause of the problem

Find the alternative solution

Termination of the session

Follow-up
Eclectic Counselling:
Eclectic approach of counselling is based on the fact that all individual differ from one
another. No Single approach can therefore, be applied, to each and every problem. The
counsellor will use of both directive and non-directive counselling which may be considered
useful for the purpose of modifying the ideas and attitude of the client. The techniques are
eclectic in nature because they have been derived from all sources of counselling, selecting
the best and leaving out what is least required.

Since it is a client-centred approach the counselee plays a predominant role. The counsellor is
not supposed to play authoritarian role. The assumption of this nondirective counselling
approach is that every individual is capable of solving his/her own problem. The counsellor
should assist the counselee in seeing the nature of the problem. The goal is the independence
and integration of the client rather than problem oriented. The counsellor creates an
atmosphere in which the client can work out his own understanding; it leads to voluntary
choice of action. This counselling approach rests upon fundamental respect for the individual,
belief in person's ability to solve personal problem with the aid of sympathetic listener.

To facilitate development of self-insight component

Release tension

The child has to be led to a point of self-realization, self -

actualization and self-help

Group Counselling:
Group counselling is a technique where a group of persons are counselled by applying group
interaction method for all purpose of arriving at a solution to the problem of the group. All
the group members are provided with an opportunity to discuss their problem together, in a
free atmosphere. In group counselling group work helps the group members in understanding
and find out a solution to their problem. Some of the component like knowledge of reality,
self- knowledge and self-realization can be achieved through group interaction process.
Selection of participant

Starting the session

Orientation towards discussion

 Checking the unwanted behavior

Assisting in self-disclosure

Assisting in decision making

Closing the session

Follow-up

❖ Organization of guidance and counselling services:

The enormous growth in our population, use of technology in all sectors such as
medicine, business, industry and increased job opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled
professions have necessitated the introduction of guidance and counselling services.
The purposes and need for student's guidance and counselling as discussed above, clearly
place an emphasis on guidance and counselling program to be made as an integral part of
higher education to make it more meaningful and purposeful for students. The kind of
program that may be introduced can be:
o Inherent: Unintentional, and unorganized.
o Informal: Intention but coordinated.
o Professional: Well-organized.
Guidance and counselling personnel:
o Medical Staff
o Parents
o Counselling officer
o Dean
o Liaison officer
o Teacher
o Advisor
o Warden
 o Foster sisters
o Physical education teacher
o Librarian
Organization of group guidance activities:
Planning of group guidance activity may focus the following points:
• Need assessment: The need assessment must be done to find out the common
problems of individuals in the group. This can be done by administering
questionnaire, checklists and interview.
• Determining size of the group and time, venue for group activities: Depending upon
the group activity the size of the group should be fixed. The size should be
approachable and manageable. The venue should be selected taking into account the
group selected for activity.
• Selection of members and role specifications: The participant's selection for group
guidance activity is also very important. The students for example should be
communicated about their roles in group activities.
• Orientation of members: The group goals should be clarified. It should be stated in
clear, objective and measurable terms.
• Monitoring of activities and evaluation of outcomes: If we want to conduct the
activities purposefully, it should be properly monitored taking into account the goal/s.
Feedback about activity needs to be collected from participants.
Some of the common group guidance activities are class talk, career talk, displays and
exhibitions.

❖ Organization of counselling services in nursing education:

In recent years, a number of nursing institutes have mushroomed without proper and adequate
pro- vision for guidance and counselling services to nursing students. These institutions offer
a basic diploma in doctoral nursing programmes such as Diploma in General Nursing &
Midwifery. Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science in Nursing and PhD in
Nursing. There is a strong need for efficient guidance and counselling services in these
institutions because of reasons like rapid social changes, changing roles of nurses, more
demanding patients, changes in the health care system, complexity of modern life and the
global demand for qualified nurses, etc.
Importance of counselling services in nursing education:
An increasing global demand for qualified nurses and the emergence of various specialties in
nursing to meet the challenges of the modern health care system has given a facelift to the
area of guidance in nursing education. A large number of students opt for the nursing
profession without prior knowledge about the profession. Guidance and counselling services
are needed to provide a clear picture of the latest trends and the emerging new specialties.
The main functions of counsel- ling services in nursing education are as follow:
o Help students adjust in the new educational environment: A well-planned guidance
and counselling programme will help the nursing students adjust to the new
educational atmosphere and make them feel more comfortable and reduce home
sickness.
o Protection from ragging: Guidance and counselling services in the institution help
students gain information about the preventive measures of ragging. An anti-ragging
committee can be constituted in the institute in coordination with the counselling
service to help newly admitted students against ragging. There should be active
participation of senior students to report any ragging incident so that disciplinary
action can be taken by the administration.
o Assist students adjust with new learning experiences and overcome learning
difficulties: Personal guidance and counselling is needed to help students adjust with
new learning experiences especially those provided in clinical areas.
o Help students develop emotional maturity: In the clinical area, nursing students have
to face many situations, which may cause emotional distress especially in the newly
admitted students. Helping students develop empathy rather than sympathy, teaching
them to analyse events in the clinical area and to ventilate their emotions through
efficient counselling services may help them develop strong emotional maturity.
o Assist students cope with stress: Sometimes nursing students are utilized to replace
the staff nurses for patient care in situations of acute staff shortage, which create
additional stress in student nurses. Teaching relaxation techniques, ensuring
availability of teachers to help students in crisis situations, constituting peer groups
and assigning senior students to look after juniors are some ways to deal with stress in
nursing students.
o Help students achieve balance between personal and professional life: Students should
be taught from the very beginning about how to maintain balance between personal
and professional life. They should be instructed to concentrate on other
responsibilities after returning from clinical areas instead of being preoccupied with
matters related to patient care.
o Help students develop a healthy interpersonal relationship with other members of the
health care team: Success of any health team is determined by how well the nurses
render their services. Special attention should be given to inculcate a sense of
accountability and responsibility in nursing students along with health care team
cohesiveness which helps in improving the quality of patient care.
o Train students for leadership qualities: Leadership development programmes should
be conducted under a guidance and counselling service to promote leadership
qualities in nursing students.
o Assist students acquire desirable set of values and develop a positive life philosophy:
Value- based nursing education is the need of the time. Through well-planned
guidance and counsel- ling services emphasis must be placed on inculcating basic
 moral values in nursing students so they can be good human beings, citizens and
nurses.
o Motivate students contribute towards bridging the gap between nursing education and
nursing service: In the Indian scenario, there is still a large existing gap between
nursing education and nursing practice, what is taught to nursing students in the
classroom is not practised in organizations. Therefore, nursing students must be
motivated through guidance and counselling services to practice what is taught to
them in the classroom or the simulation laboratory.
o Financial guidance: Financial guidance can be given to help needy students determine
the financial assistance they need in light of expected expenses. They need to be
guided on fee concessions, scholarships and available stipends in the institution or
those offered by other welfare agencies.

❖ Counselling Process:
The counselling process takes place through a series of phases, which are interrelated,
interconnected and overlap such as the nursing process. The process is not a rigid entity, it is
flexible and can be modified based on the nature of problems and person to be counselled.
The basic phases of a counselling process are as discussed below:

Phase I: Establishing relationship

Phase II: Assessment

Phase III: Setting goals

Phase IV: Intervention

Phase V: Termination and follow-up

Tools and techniques of guidance and counselling:

Counselling services impose a special need to use specific tools for collecting primary
information from students. The tools for collection of information for counselling are divided
into two broad categories:
▪ Non-testing tools
▪ Psychological tests
Non-testing tools:
These types of tools are usually used for individual assessment without any intention of
testing the individual. These tools are generally developed by the counsellor and/or teachers
themselves. Some non-testing tools are as follows:
o Interview: It is the heart of the counselling process in which counsellor and counselee
meet face to face and conduct a formal talk with a definite purpose. It serves the
purpose of obtaining and giving information from and to the students as well as some
time, it may be useful tool for need assessment of the guidance and counselling
services in a particular educational institute. It provides opportunity to the counselee
to explore his conflicts, problems, learning difficulties so that the counsellor can
determine a plan of guidance for him. Counsellor can exploit this opportunity to
gather background personal information about the student. Interview should be well
planned in advance to achieve desired outcomes.
o Observation: It is the careful watching or monitoring of the counselee by the
counsellor with a specific objective in mind. Observation could be participative or
nonparticipative based on the specific purpose of counselling. Further, observation
could be overt (where counselee knows he is being observed) or covert (counselee
does not know he is being observed and the counsellor is concealed). Observation is a
very useful tool of counselling in situations where gathering information from the
counselee is not possible through an interview or other methods such as the behaviour
of students in a specific situation or circumstances.
o Cumulative Records: It is a method of recording and providing meaningful,
significant and comprehensive information about an individual, over the years. It is
useful in organizing and integrating information collected through the use of different
tools. Besides recording attendance and achievement, it also registers students' social
adjustment in school, their behaviour with other pupils and their attitude towards the
school and teachers. It also records the estimate of qualities like hard work, tolerance,
sociability, etc. Cumulative records can be maintained in folders, files or in a card
form.
o Anecdotal records: It consists of recording an important incident that happened and is
a carefully recorded snapshot of the incident. Anecdotal recording must be recorded
with specific care so that the incident is recorded as it happened. Further, the
counsellor must involve the people who directly observed the incident such as
teachers, faculty, peer group, etc.
o Personal diary or autobiography: Provides information about the student's daily
routine, his likes and dislikes, behaviour towards others, and personal views towards
certain things. Students can be asked to write daily diary of important events in their
day-to-day social life.
o Sociometry: It is a useful tool to explore the kind of relationship a student has with
others, his level of social acceptability among colleagues, and social distance among
the group of students in a class. Data obtained by sociometry can be useful to identify
difficulties in social adjustment and a plan can be made for social guidance and
counselling of the particular student.
 o Checklist: It is basically used to identify the expressed problem or interest. Generally,
a checklist is used to identify the presence or absence of specific attributes or skills of
a particular expected behaviour in students. A checklist is a very commonly used tool
to assess the skills of communication or nursing tasks in nursing students.
o Rating scale: It is used to rate certain qualities or characteristics in a student, e.g.
punctuality, honesty, responsibility, attitude, cooperation, etc. Rating scales are better
tools to assess the degree or extent of the performance of a particular task or the
possession of a trait (truthfulness, honesty, initiative, responsibility and altitude of
cooperation, etc.).
o Health records: Provide information about the health status of a student.
Psychological test:
Psychological tests provide information about an individual's psychological characteristics
such as intelligence, aptitude, interests, abilities and personality. Before the selection and use
of these tests, their reliability, validity and practicability must be clearly assessed.
Psychological tests are generally classified as follows:
o Personality tests: There are several personality tests available to assess the personality
types of people. For instance, The Rorschach and The Minnesota are examples of
personality measurement tests.
o Aptitude tests: These tests are used to estimate the extent to which an individual
would profit from a specific course or training to predict the quality of his
achievement in a given situation. Two types of aptitude tests usually employed are
specialized aptitude test and general aptitude test.
o Achievement tests: These are used to assess academic performance devices rather
than being used as selection instruments. Some achievement tests are cooperative test,
College Board series, test of educational development, English reading test, etc.
o Interest inventory tests: These tests are used to assess the interests of an individual in
specific disciplines such as specific vocational or occupational interests, etc. Blank
and Kuder preference inventory is one of the most commonly used tests for this
purpose.
o Study habit inventory tests: These tests are used to assess study habits in students. The
Brown- Holtzman survey of study habits is the most commonly used study habit test.
Skills or techniques used for counselling:
o Listening
o Observation of non-verbal behaviour
o Reflecting back
o Paraphrasing
o Summarizing
o Asking appropriate questions
 o Managing silence
o Challenging
o Immediacy
o Counsellor self-disclosure
o Identifying patterns and themes Giving information to clients

Characteristics of a counsellor:
G – Good technical knowledge
O – Obtaining appropriate information from the patient
O – Objectively answering question
D – Demonstrating professionalism
C – Confidentiality maintenance
O – Observant
U – Unbiased
N – Nonjudgemental
S – Sensitive to the needs of the patient
E – Empathetic
L – Listens carefully
L – Lets the patient make decisions
O – Open minded
R – Respects the rights of the patients
❖ Problems in counselling:
o Counsellor burnout: Listen to a problem carefully and identifying right choices to
solve problems consumes energy, perhaps, when a counsellor does not plan for
appointments or time schedules it would results in burnouts.
o Counselling individuals of different cultures: Institutions is an area where there is a
pooling of a section of society from various cultures. Each culture has their own
values, beliefs, rituals, expectations and practice. When these are not understood in
the way they are, then it would result in chaos. Because counsellor may interpret in
accord with his/her belief and impose his/her values on counselee leading to
confusion and resulting in another problem.
 o Resistance to counselling: Mostly individuals facing problems fails to approach
counsellor due to fear of change such resistance can be dealt by involving significant
others and help the individuals to fix their problems and execute the solutions. Some
colleges have the counsellor cells but the faculty or administration do not initiate
regular program. The responsibility of the committee members is to establish
guidance and counselling program and sustain the same to bring about achievement
among students.
o Counselling individuals with strong emotions: Emotions especially when they are
strong such as depression, high levels of anxiety and so on may hinder counselling
process. These emotions prevent in accurate diagnosis of the problems, in such
situations usually counsellor will let the counselee to undergo a strategy to reach near
equilibrium state such as not interrupting while counselee is over ventilating their
problems displaying aggression, hostility and anger and crying aloud.
o Noncompliance to therapy: The counselling process cannot be completed in a single
session; it will vary with the problem and personality of the counselee. Few
counselees may feel that there is no change following a single session of counselling
and terminate themselves. This happens with the clients who have not understood the
objectives stated by the counsellor at the beginning.
o Unawareness of counselling: Many individuals consider consultation with a
counsellor is done only for psychiatric patients. They lack awareness regarding the
clients who seek assistance with psychologists that is when individuals' mental
defence mechanism or resources are not sufficient to meet with crisis situation they
can take help from professional counsellors to strengthen themselves in all
dimensions as long as individuals become fully aware, the issue of counselling will
remain.

❖ Professional preparation and training for counselling:

Definition: Counselling is a helping process where one person, explicitly and
purposefully gives his/her time, attention and skill to assist a client to explore the
situation, identify solutions within the limitations of their given environment.
Attributes and skills required of a counsellor:
For effective counselling the counsellor needs to demonstrate certain attitude, skills and
knowledge. There are two types of counsellor attributes:
Pre-training attributes:
Self-awareness and understanding: A person who has awareness of her needs
motivation for helping, feeling, personal strength and weakness acts as a good counsellor.
Good psychological health: Although no persons is totally problem free but a person
with less problems or good psychological health can be trained to be counseled.
Sensitivity: A person who is aware of resources, limitations and vulnerability of other
person's feelings and need are considered to have sensitivity.
 Open-minded: A person who is free from fixed or preoccupied ideas. They are aware of
their own values and beliefs and are able to distinguish them from the beliefs and values
of others.
Trustworthiness: A person who is reliable, honest and does not hurt other persons.
He/she keeps the information to herself.
Approachability: The counsellor who is friendly has positive attitudes about others and
can be approached without a feeling of apprehension.
Inter-training Attributes
A counsellor needs to have skills in interviewing. In fact with- out these skills a
counsellor cannot counsel. Stewart (1978) has identified six components of interviewing
skills. They are:
o Greeting
o Problem focus
o Identifying an important theme
o Focussing on a theme
o Directing the theme towards the goals
o Managing interaction with the individuals.
Interview Setting and Greeting Started
o Physical arrangement: The chairs should face each other with a learning facility for
both. The closeness of counsellor helps in indicating the attentiveness and
willingness.
o Greeting: A warm and friendly greeting facilitate the helping process. For example,
shaking hands with the individual or greeting with a smile.
o Inviting the individual participation: Counsellor should not waste time on rituals like
today's climate is very good, etc. but should start the interview by asking the
individuals why they come to counselling, simple statements such as so may I help
you? Or what should you like to discuss. Maintaining eye contact: Eye contact helps
in building personal relationship and permits the counsellor to observe nonverbal
behaviour.
o Demonstrating proper body posture: An attentive and relaxed counsellor helps in
building intimate atmosphere. A mobile posture allows freedom to movement and
ability to use the body to assist in communications.

Qualifications of a professional counsellor:

Personality traits: According to Walter B. Jones the counsellor should have the following
five personality traits:
1. Breath of interest: The counsellor should be interested in various types of people, jobs
and organization.
 2. Cooperation: The counsellor should cooperate with all the staff in a cheerful manner.
3. Refinement: The counsellor should not be overconfident but on the other hand, he
should be humble towards the people.
4. Mannerism: The counsellor would in spite confidence in others and put others at case.
5. Considerations: The counsellor should appreciable the difficulties of teachers, exhibit
human understanding a possess real love for fellow men.
Training and preparation:
Meyers says that the counsellor must have the following traits: good liberal education
including knowledge of humanities such as sociology, psychology, economic, history etc.
o Knowledge of objectives, curriculum and methods of secondary schools
o Knowledge of principles of guidance.
o Knowledge of psychological test in guidance services.
o Knowledge of organization of guidance services.
Academic qualifications:
A seminar of headmasters held in Delhi recommended the following qualifications for
counsellor.
o MA in Psychology in BA, B.Ed. or BA, M.Ed.
o Diploma course in guidance.
o Counsellor must have knowledge about personality problems testing, mental hygiene,
and counselling techniques.
Experience:
According to Smith requires the following six types:
o Competence as a leader in guidance program.
o Competence as a counsellor. It includes:
▪ Understanding the problem of the child.
▪ Establishing the rapport with the child.
▪ Helping the child to solve the problem.
o Competence in interpreting and using information.
o Competence in placement and follow-up service.
o Competence in evaluating the counselling service itself.
Training for counsellor:
The training and education programs for the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes
in the counsellors are most advanced and rich. The following components to be included in
the 2 years training program for counsellor.
Key elements of counsellor training:
o Skills practice
o Theory
o Continuing personal development
o Self-awareness
o Supervised practice with clients
o Personal therapy
o Written work, including assignments
o Group discussion
o Ongoing self-assessment
o Assessment by tutors and peers
o Research and reading

❖ Role and functions of a counsellor:

‘Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.’
- Tao Tzu
Counsellor is specialist in education, counsellor responsibilities can be classified into:
diagnostic, therapeutics, evaluation and research with specialized services and skills. A
counsellor is selected by virtues of interest, training, experiences and competence. The
functions are:
o Advice: One of the important functions of counselling is offering advice to counselee.
The counsellor has to understand and the problem of the counselling.
o Reassurance: In order to give courage to race a problem confidently counselling
provides clients with reassurance, normally reassurance is not acceptable to the
counselee.
o Communication: Counselling will improve both upwards and downward
communications abilities of the counselees.
o Release of emotional tension: Releasing emotional tension is an important function of
counselling. People feel emotional release from the frustration after counselling.
o Clarified thinking: Release of tension and thereby removal of mental of mental blocks
to the solution through counselling allows the counselee to think freely and
objectively. Thus, clarified thinking tends to be the result of emotional release.
 o Reorientation: Reorientation is not just emotional release or clear thinking. But it
involves a change in the counselee psychic self-through a change in the basic goals
and values.
The specific functions of a counsellor are:
▪ Orientation of students
▪ Student appraisal
▪ Educational and occupational information services.
▪ Holding counselling interviews
▪ Placement
▪ Research and evaluation

❖ Conclusion:
Guidance and counselling are twin concepts and have emerged as essential elements of
every educational activity. The much-emphasized focus on a child's holistic development
demands the education system be made comprehensive enough to foster all-round
development. Professional guidance personnel can help students develop skills and
competencies to facilitate their personal, social and career development. For a
harmonious and integrated personality development of students in an institution, a healthy
climate that fosters cognitive, behavioural, developmental and emotional growth is
needed. Guidance and counselling play an important role in education in this context.
❖ Bibliography:
1. Sodhi Jaspreet Kaur, Comprehensive Textbook of Nursing Education, 2 nd edition,
2022, New Delhi, India, Published by Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd;
page no.- 375-402
2. Neerja KP, Textbook of Nursing Education, 1 st edition, 2003, Kundi, Haryana, India,
Published by Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd; page no.- 126-140
3. Sharma Chandra Mukesh, Textbook of Nursing Education- Communication and
educational technology, 1st, 2013, Kundi, Haryana, India, Published by Jaypee
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