Briefly summarize the guidelines to guide counselors for building a relationship with a client during counselling

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The following are guidelines for building a relationship with a client:
1. Seek to establish a nonthreatening atmosphere in which the counselee feels safe to communicate fully his or her troubles while feeling accepted as a person.

2. In initial contacts with the counselee, a counselor needs to "sell" herself or himself-not arrogantly, but as a knowledgeable, understanding person who may be able to help and who wants to try.

3. A counselor need to stay calm. A counselor should not laugh or express shock when the counselee begins to open up about problems. Emotional outbursts, even if subtle, will lead the counselee to believe that a counselor is not going to understand his or her difficulties, and he or she will usually stop discussing them.

4. Generally a counselor should be nonjudgmental and nonmoralistic. One should show respect for the counselee's values, and not try to sell his or her values. The values that work for one may not be best for someone else in a different situation.

5. A counselor should view the counselee as an equal. Rookie counselors sometimes make the mistake of thinking that, because someone is sharing intimate secrets, the counselor must be very important; they then end up creating a superior/inferior relationship. If counselees feel that they are being treated as inferior, they will be less motivated to reveal and discuss personal difficulties.

6. Use of "shared vocabulary." This does not mean using the same slang words or the same accent as the counselee. If the counselee sees a counselor's speech as artificial, it may seriously offend him or her. One should use words that the counselee understands and that are not offensive.

7. The tone of a counselor's voice should convey the message that he or she empathetically understands and cares about the counselee's feelings.

8. Keeping confidential what the counselee has said. People by nature have urges to share "juicy secrets" with someone else. But, if the counselee discovers that confidentiality has been violated, a working relationship may be quickly destroyed.

9. If one is counseling a relative or a friend, there is a danger that, because one is emotionally involved, he or she may get upset or into an argument with the other person. If that happens, it is almost always best to drop the subject immediately, as tactfully as possible. Perhaps, after tempers cool, the subject can be brought up again. Or it may be best to refer the counselee to someone else. Many professionals refuse to counsel friends or relatives because emotional involvement interferes with the calm, detached perspective that is needed to help clients explore problems and alternative solutions.

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