Counselling: Person-Centered and Cognitive Behavioral Techniques

Running head: COUNSELLING
Counselling
Student’s Name
Institutional affiliation

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COUNSELLING
Introduction
Counseling is a collaborative action between a counselor and a client/patient that
encompasses building healthy and interactive relationships (Van and Adams, 2016). These
relationships aim at motivating and empowering them to achieve good mental health, goals and
visions on their careers or education. Professional counseling can be between the counselor and
the individual, the counselor and a married couple, family counseling and group counseling. The
process of counseling can be fun and helpful when the aspect of trust is employed.
The components that are addressed during counseling include opening up, where the
client and the counselor get to know each other. The second component involved in counseling
entails examining and understanding the client in relation to the matter at hand. This is where the
counselor enquires about the past and future elements of concern, and gets to understand the
client even better. The third component is demonstrating understanding using verbal and non-
verbal cues. The counselor can also use paraphrases or reflective technique. This component is
important as it helps in developing a strong relationship with the client. The fourth component
entails choosing an appropriate counseling technique that will encourage growth and
commendable improvement in the client. The fifth component entails examining problems such
as the reason the client sought counseling. The final component encompasses empowering or
motivating the client to find their own solutions using your counseling skills (Scheel, Stabb,
Cohn and Sauer, 2018).
Counseling skills should be used effectively in order to enhance a positive outcome in the
attitude of the client. Counseling skills include listening and observing, asking questions,
reflection and affirmation, empathy, self-disclosure of the counselor and genuineness.

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COUNSELLING
Counseling theories are important as they help to understand the human nature as well as the
most appropriate counseling skills to use during the counseling session. Counseling theories
include but not limited to; person-centered and cognitive behavioral techniques; psychodynamic
theory and gestalt theory. In this essay, I will look at the person-centered theory and the
cognitive behavioral technique.
Person centered therapy
Person centered theory/ therapy, just like its name suggests involves giving freedom and
space to the thought process of the client, for them to discover solutions on their own
(Wubbolding, Casstevens and Fulkerson, 2017). It is an approach that is not authoritative and
one that gives the client a chance to direct the counselling process. The counselor acts as a
facilitator, where he/she listens keenly and shows compassion and understanding. Here, the role
of the counselor is to guide the client without interfering with their thought process or self-
discovery.
In order to understand the problem, three conditions should be met when using the
person-centered therapy. These include positivity that is unconditional when dealing with the
client. This means that the counselor/therapist should be non-judgmental and clearly portray
understanding of the client’s problem, feelings of trust and confidence in the ability of the client
to make their own positive and helpful decisions. The second condition is showing empathy and
acceptance towards the feelings and thoughts of the client. The third condition that should be met
is that the counselor should not be authoritative or act with superiority in the eyes of the client;
rather, he/she should be humble and present an accessible spirit, that portrays simplicity and
transparency (Carruth and Field, 2016).

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COUNSELLING
The expected positive change occurs when the counselor is non-judgmental and does not
interpret what the client expresses. Instead, the counselor paraphrases the words of the client,
with the sole aim of understanding the client’s thoughts. When these words are repeated to the
client, he/she may feel the need to make their meaning clearer and more pronounced, until he
feels that he has fully expressed his exact thoughts and feelings. Moments of silence are allowed,
to enhance absorption of these words in the client’s mind. This leads to acceptance and self-
discovery that is a highway towards healing and growth (Bazzano, 2016).
The reason why the person-centered therapy resonates with me is because it targets
people who would do better after gaining more self-confidence and identity and the unwavering
ability to build healthy relationships with people around them, or the society. This therapy is
very important for people suffering abuse (physical and sexual abuse), depression and stress,
anxiety and other emotional and mental health problems. Person-centered therapy is effective for
both individuals and groups. Clients who are more motivated to achieve change are likely to
achieve notable success, since the client does most of the work in this counseling therapy.
Strengths of personal-centered therapy
It focuses on the client. The needs and concerns of the client matter more than any other
aspect in this model. The client expresses his/her problems and does not have to listen to another
person’s opinions about his problems. Through gaining control, the client becomes confident and
self-driven to solve their problems at any given time without desperate need of a counselor’s
assistance. It makes it easy for clients to identify new ways of communicating and thinking, as
they express themselves. Additionally, the clients become conscious of their thoughts, and they