Core Counseling Skills and Psychotherapy

This assignment delves into the concept of core counseling, exploring its key skills, functions, and distinctions from psychotherapy. It defines core counseling as a short-term intervention focused on present issues, emphasizing active listening, paraphrasing, and clarifying. In contrast, psychotherapy is presented as a long-term process addressing deep-seated attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors. The assignment also highlights the assumptions underpinning counseling, where professional help is sought when natural human tendencies are obstructed by environmental factors.

Running head: COUNSELING OVERVIEW A28568
Core Counseling Overview
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Institution
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COUNSELING OVERVIEW
Counseling Overview
Counseling is a psychological aspect that entails research and applied for work in various broad
categories such as counseling process and outcome, supervision and training, prevention and
health and career development and counseling. Counseling is described as the provision of
guidance in decision making, especially in emotionally significant issues. There are various
counseling theories such as behavioral theory, cognitive theory, humanistic approach, and
holistic or integrative therapy (Barb 2013).
Definition of core counseling skills
Core counseling skills involve non-verbal communication in which body language, facial
expression as well as gestures could be the key factors to understand the feelings and thoughts of
the counselors such as stress, empathy or confidence. Core skills also involve active listening as
well paraphrasing in which counselor should demonstrate the understandings acquired from the
clients. Counselor paraphrases the same sentences said by the client or rather repeats the same
thing in his own words, which makes the client feel valued and understood. For paraphrasing
efficiently, it is very important for the counselor to listen to what the client has said very
actively. Clarifying is considered as a tool that the counselor uses for checking the
understandings of the client.
Explain the difference between core counseling and psychotherapy
Core counseling is usually a short-term consultation while psychotherapy is a long term
treatment. Core counseling deals with present issues, which can be easily resolved on the
conscious level. Psychotherapy is considered intensive and extensive in the examinations of an
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individual's psychotherapy past. It can be said that counseling is concerned with more practical
or immediate situations, but psychotherapy focuses on assisting a client in finding their life in a
deeper manner. Core counseling usually helps the client in processing some powerful emotions
such as grief or anger. Also helps in dealing with causes of anxiety and stress, management of
stressful relationships and development of better interpersonal and communications skills
(Meyers 2014).
Psychotherapy, unlike core counseling, is considered an evolutionary process that assists a client
in dealing with long-standing attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors that have led to the current
issues. It tries to understand the primary causes of problems and lead to more noticeable changes
on how one perceives oneself and the environment.
What are the key assumptions underpinning counseling?
When all these processes function smoothly, they represent a critical dimension of healthy
functioning. Problems may be realized when the natural human tendencies are obstructed or
blocked by use of cumulative environmental scenarios. It is assumed that there comes a time
when one must get professional help when these resources do not work (Meyers 2014).
Results are usually associated with the utilization of traditional and innovative counseling
practices which research on organizational dynamics (University of Washington 2016)..
Functions of core counseling
Counselors do not fix people's problem but help avail an opportunity to explain their feelings and
problems and try to reach decisions and actions based on choices which are well informed. In
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counseling sessions, the counselor tries to understand the feelings of client by communicating
with him in his language. This makes the client feel that he has been valued and understood,
which makes him more confident in sharing his feelings with the counselor. This way the
counselor is able to communicate with the client and motivate him in solving his problems. This
way core counseling skills help in counseling sessions.
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COUNSELING OVERVIEW
References
Barb. (2013). Six Reasons Counseling Theory Is Important. Retrieved on 31st October 2016
from https://www.mastersincounseling.org/six-reasons-counseling-theory-is-important.html
University of Washington, (2016). The Counseling Process. Retrieved on 31st October 2016
from https://www.washington.edu/counseling/about/process/
Meyers, L. (2014).Counseling today. Retrieved on 31st October 2016 from
http://ct.counseling.org/2014/08/connecting-with-clients/
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