Exploring the Scope and Practice of Counselling: A Case Study Approach

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CONTENTS
CONTENTS...................................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.............................................................................................................................................................4
1.1............................................................................................................................................................4
1.2............................................................................................................................................................5
LO 2.............................................................................................................................................................8
2.1............................................................................................................................................................8
2.2............................................................................................................................................................9
2.3..........................................................................................................................................................10
LO 3...........................................................................................................................................................11
3.1..........................................................................................................................................................11
3.2..........................................................................................................................................................12
3.3..........................................................................................................................................................12
LO 4...........................................................................................................................................................14
4.1..........................................................................................................................................................14
4.2..........................................................................................................................................................14
4.3..........................................................................................................................................................15
4.4..........................................................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................18
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INTRODUCTION
This assignment is aimed at understanding the concept of counselling in psychology. It explores various
fields in the perspectives of psychologists which aids in understanding different approaches to
counselling. It also broadens the view of ethical guidelines and explores legal factors. The assignment
also gives an insight to the role of supervisors in health and social care. The assignment aims at
discussing the scope of counselling interactions in health and social care. It also bring to light the factors
influencing the use of counselling and also benefits related to it. It helps in analyzing and improving
one’s counselling skills by taking into account a hypothetical scenario.
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LO 1
1.1
Behavioral Perspective
Behavioral perspective in psychology is one of the earliest perspective in psychology and is based on
stimulus-response relationship. The early theorists that laid the foundation of theory of behaviorism are
Ivan Pavlov, B.F Skinner and John B. Watson. Ivan Pavlov gave the theory of classical conditioning which
he supported by performing a number of experiments involving dogs. Classical conditioning is the
learning of involuntary response to an unrelated stimulus. Ivan Pavlov conducted many experiments
with dogs which strongly supported his theory of classical conditioning (Rescorla, 2014). John B. Watson
was influenced by the ideas of Ivan Pavlov and he formulated the theory of behaviorism which assessed
observable behavior and viewed behavior in a statistical manner. B.F skinner was influenced by the ideas
of John B. Watson and he formulated the theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is
referred to as the learning of voluntary behavior due to the consequences of the result. B.F Skinner also
performed various experiments to support his views. John B. Watson also believed that phobias could
be conditioned and performed experiments on a kid named little Albert. He conditioned a kid named
Albert to fear rats. Behavioral perspective is mostly based on behaviorism (Huitt and Hummel, 2006).
Psychodynamic Perspective
Psychodynamic perspective is fundamentally based on the theory of psychoanalysis by Freud. Sigmund
Freud was a physician based in Austria who was intrigued to know the physical cause of the mental
issues of patients. He concluded with his findings that conscious behavior was rooted from unconscious
mind. He believed that our hidden urges and desires are suppressed in the unconscious mind and
mental issues arise when these urges tend to surface. His viewpoints were circled around the idea of the
unconscious mind controlling behavior (Benjamin Jr, 2007). He also believed that the personality of a
person was formed within the first six years of life and any problems that an individual faced in their
adult life was a reflection of the issues that were faced in the childhood and which were suppressed in
the unconscious mind. Freud’s ideas weren’t so popular because his theory wasn’t supported by a lot of
experimental data and his subjects mostly constituted the Austrian women (King, 2008).
Humanistic Perspective
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Humanistic perspective is also referred to as the third force in psychology as this concept was
introduced in mid 1900s when majority of the psychologists were debating between psychodynamic and
behavioral perspective. Humanism was introduced by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. The idea
behind humanistic perspective is that human beings are entitled to their own free will. It believed that
every human being strives to attain their full potential and thus their behavior is motivated towards
attaining their full potential. This perspective also dwells into the self-actualization of an individual
(Schneider et al, 2014).
Evolutionary Perspective
This perspective was laid down by Charles Darwin. Darwin is famous for his theory of natural selection in
which the physical traits that are more adaptable are passed down from one generation to the other.
Darwin applied the same method in deducing the pattern of behavior in humans. He believed that
behavioral traits could be passed down from one generation to the other. He believed that our primitive
behavioral traits like survival skills or fear from snakes etc. were inherited behavioral traits from the
ancestors (Öhman, 2009). This theory of Darwin couldn’t gather a lot of attention as it lacked any
experimental or statistical data.
1.2
Cognitive Therapy.
It is a problem solving orientated treatment usual focused on the present. Therapist believe that
thoughts, feelings and behaviors are interconnected. By identifying and changing the thoughts which are
causing problems, or emotional feelings which causes distress one can work towards overcoming their
difficulties (Segal, Williams and Teasdale, 2018). Therapist work together with the client to work
towards identifying these thoughts and feelings and behaviors and then further working on them so that
the problem can be resolved. Cognitive Therapy helps client’s identity the problem causing thoughts
which they fail to identify sometimes which just creates more problems. Cognitive Therapy also helps
with the skill building approach. The clients can practice and develop the skills from the therapy long
after the sessions and can benefit themselves. Today, it is more commonly known as cognitive
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behavioral therapy (CBT), as it is almost exclusively practiced in tandem with behavioral principles. Still
some therapist offer Cognitive Therapy by itself (Beck et al, 2015).
Humanistic Therapy.
Humanistic Therapy focusses on every individual and solving their issues rather than grouping them
according to their characteristics and saying they all have similar issues. This therapy looks at a person as
a whole and works towards self-improvement by emphasizing on a person's positive traits and
behaviors, self-growth, healing and using their own wisdom for the betterment. People with low self-
esteem, who have difficulty finding a purpose in life, those who feel alone can be treated with
Humanistic Therapy (Castonguay, and Hill, 2012). It is also used to treat depression, anxiety, panic
attacks, relationship issues including relations with family, etc. In this Therapy, the therapist does not act
as a higher figure or one with authority. The relationship between client and therapist is equal.
Humanistic Therapist should be a warm, understanding, non-judgmental and an empathetic person.
Clients should always look for a licensed professional who has humanistic values and has a Humanistic
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approach towards his/her practice. The professional should be very experienced as well. Clients should
always look for a therapist who makes them feel comfortable because without comfort the therapy will
not work (Schneider, and Krug, 2010).
Psychodynamic Therapy.
Psychodynamic Therapy helps individuals unravel the deep rooted sub conscious feelings in order to
resolve them. Many people don't let these feelings come to the surface by lying and denying. The
therapy suggests this hiding and lying will do more harm than good. Psychodynamic Therapy helps
people deal with a lot of problems but specifically it helps those who have eating disorders, anxiety or
those who have trouble forming personal relations. Therapist maintain a welcoming and calm behavior
with the client in order to uproot the deepest feelings. They also have to treat the clients as their equals
and build an accepting environment where the client can express the deep rooted feeling without any
fear. After these deep rooted feelings are discovered and the issue related feeling is identified, the
therapist then takes the correct course of action towards the resolving the problem (Shedler, 2010).
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LO 2
2.1
Every medical practitioner is supposed to follow a set of ethical guidelines which helps in maintaining
the standard of medicine. Counsellors and supervisors are also supposed to follow ethical guidelines.
These ethical guidelines are given necessary importance as it helps in maintaining a code of conduct
within the medical field. Ethical guidelines are to be followed by every counsellor and supervisors. These
counsellors and supervisors face various scenarios in which they have to conform to these ethical
guidelines. Given below are the ethical guidelines that should be followed by all the counsellors and
supervisors in health and social care sector.
Respect for Autonomy
Counsellors and supervisors are supposed to respect the free will of the patient or client. Every patient
has the right to be completely informed about the treatment sessions. The patient must be asked for
consent before any procedure. Medical ethics lays emphasis on the autonomy of the patients as it is
very necessary to consider the patients as free willed individuals who have the ability to decide for
themselves. Informed consent is one of the most important aspect in health and social care. There are
scenarios in which the patient is unable to make decisions for themselves and in such cases the doctors
are supposed to involve close relatives in the case. The counsellors and supervisors should also explain
and inform the patients of every detail of the sessions (Ryan et al, 2011).
Fidelity
The counsellors and supervisors are also supposed to honor and maintain the trust that is put into them
by the patients. The counsellors are supposed to respect the people and maintain the trust they have on
their counsellors and supervisors. Failure to do so would affect the relationship of the patient and
counsellor and would also disrupt the treatment plan (Herlihy and Watson, 2007).
Self-respect
The practitioner is supposed to respect the patient and should not discriminate on any basis. The self-
respect of the practitioner is also necessary. The practitioner is supposed to perform the duties while
honoring respect for themselves and the patients (Welfel, 2015).
Non-maleficence
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The counsellor and the supervisor practitioner is not supposed to exploit the patients on sexual, financial
or emotional grounds. The practitioner should mitigate any harm or unnecessary risks for the patients.
The counsellor and the supervisor are also supposed to perform their duties cordially without any
unnecessary disruption (Gamino and Ritter Jr, 2009).
Beneficence
This ethical principle requires the practitioner to take actions which benefit the patients. The
practitioner isn’t supposed to take any actions that might put the patient at risk (Levitt et al, 2015).
Justice
The counsellor and supervisor should carry out their duties without any discrimination or prejudice. The
practitioners are supposed to give equal treatment to their patients and are supposed to adopt practices
of non-discrimination. The practitioners should avoid imposing any stereotypes or any other kind of bias
to the patients as it may affect their treatment and their mental health (Braswell et al, 2017).
2.2
Legal factors in counselling are Confidentiality, Neutrality, Reporting Child Abuse, etc. The counsellor is
not supposed to reveal confidential inform of any client to a third party. Even when using some client as
a reference to another, the counsellor should not use the name of the client and only explain the
scenario. Clients come to counsellors in good faith looking for comfort and therefore counsellors should
not break the trust.
Secondly, the counsellor should not judge any client and be biased with any of them. The sessions and
advice given by the counsellor should be neutral irrespective of who the client is. Even if the client is
someone the counsellor knows, the advice that the counsellor gives should be professional and the
analysis should only be based on the session and not on any past information the counsellor has about
the client. The counsellor should also not hold anything bad against any client. This will restrict the
professional to give correct advice. The client should not be judged on their past as well (Sheperis et al,
2009).
It is also the counsellor's duty to report any kind of child abuse or for that matter any domestic abuse
their client is going through. If the counsellor feels that their client is abusing anyone in the family then
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that should also be reported by the counsellor even if that violates the confidentiality clause. Here, the
counsellor should weigh the legal factors and take a decision because somebody's life is at stake here.
2.3
Supervision is perhaps the most important aspect in development of a competent counsellor. There
should be a person to look over the activities of the practitioner as a professional. It under supervision of
a professional the trainees begin to develop a professional identity and understand their own beliefs
with respect to client therapy. All professional counsellors need a supervisor who can help resolve their
own issues and help them avoid an emotional breakdown from this emotionally draining job. Usually in
an organization, there are supervisors looking over the counsellors but those who practice privately
should also hire one. What these counseling feel is that somebody is always judging their work and
giving them tips in what they are expert in. Because of this counsellors avoid supervisors ( Pearson,
2006). This is not true of course because if it is not for the supervisor then the counsellor might not even
grow in the field as there is nobody to point out where the counsellor is going wrong and that they need
to develop themselves in a particular area. A counselor needs to update his/her knowledge and skills all
the time. If they fail to do so they will only lose clients. Sometimes the counsellors get too involved with
the client and they fail to give a professional advice. Supervisor makes sure that the boundaries between
the supervisor and the client is maintained and the performance does not get hampered. It is also the
supervisor's job to make sure that the relation between the counsellor and the client stays professor.
There will also be times when the counsellor will get in a social dilemma and so will fail to give correct
advice. In this case, the supervisor will make sure the counsellor takes the right course of action.
Because of sessions with difficult clients, it is natural for the counsellor to go through a burnout. Here,
the supervisor plays a very important role. By recording sessions and analyzing them the supervisor can
understand the counsellor’s behavior towards clients and check if there is any variation. He can then
take corrective actions so that the burnout can be avoided. In case the counsellor is good through a
burnout then the supervisor can guide the professional on how to get out of it (Borders and Brown,
2006).
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LO 3
3.1
Psychology is a complex topic and difficult to understand. Every human being is psychologically different
and thinks differently. Every person goes through situations and phases in life, some easily cope with
situation while others face difficulty and confusion and in such cases counselling can be helpful.
Counselling revers to therapy conversation with psychologist where the person explains about their life
experiences and feelings about a certain situation, psychologist analyses the situation and suggests
solution. Counselling is of importance to every individual because a person needs to talk and have
conversations with people about situations to be in a stable state. In health social care, service users
have difficulty in adjusting in the new environment, besides for some service users it is difficult to cope
with their illness and the environment and to be away from family. It is important for service users to
attend counselling session to ease their pain and relieve their mind. But this facility is not present
everywhere and the scope for it is low. Many people failed to have access to it because of Availability.
Not many psychologists are available in the organization or in private sectors for counselling because
people are not aware of the benefits of counselling. Thus it is required for the organizations to hire good
psychologist and spread awareness about importance of attending counselling sessions among the
service users (Lennie, 2007).
Service users can seek help through counselling either from the organization itself or through private
sectors external to the organization. Every patient looks for easy access to such services, if the
psychologists are available external to the organization, service users find it difficult and may not attend
session whereas if the counselling sessions are available in organization itself, it is very helpful to the
service users. It is responsibility of the health professionals to guide and refer patients who require
counselling to the psychologist because patients are not aware of counselling programs and its
importance and thus it is responsibility of the organization to establish programs to promote counselling
in health and social care. The importance of counselling needs to be explained to them and such services
should be provided to the service users by the organization. Funding for counselling is not a pressure to
the organization as it doesn’t require extensive tolls and resources. Counselling room requires healthy
and positive environment and organizations need to pay to psychologist other than this it doesn’t
require much funding and thus the scope of counselling in organization for service users increases
(Aluede Imonikhe and Afen-Akpaida, 2007).
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When the person is mentally sound, his physical health can be improved rapidly and thus for every
human being counselling sessions are important to share life experiences and situation for seeking
guidance and suggestion. Even though counselling is important and required less funding, its
accessibility and scope is low because people are not aware of its importance and to reverse this
organization should work to promote counselling by guiding service users towards psychologist.
3.2
Psychologist and counselling is essential for every human being as it helps a person in many ways.
Sometimes individuals don’t realize that they require help of a psychologist and require counselling that
is probably because importance and benefits of counselling are never discussed much but it is observed
that people receiving counselling sessions are much more stable mentally.
It is important for service users to seek help from psychologist to enhance their health and be mentally
sound. Service users undergoing treatment and care are usually disturbed with the treatment and the
diseases, they find it difficult to cope in such environment and many find it suffocation and
uncomfortable. Psychologist helps service users to talk about their feeling and experiences and suggest
those ways to feel comfortable and positive towards a situation. Counselling helps in uplifting a person
from negative state towards positive zone (Badger et al, 2013).
In the organization not just service users but service providers are also benefited with counselling. It
helps them to take appropriate measures and helps them with their confusions. Professionals mostly
have situations regarding work pressure and patients which create stress. Counselling helps those in
relieving stress, and talking to a person about the situations and conflicts at work ease their problems
and they see the situation with much clarity. It helps them resolve issues at work and be mentally sound
in professional as well as personal life (Hunter and Schofield, 2006).
Counselling not just helps organizations but it helps people at community level. Those under pressure
and confusion with negative environment often find it helpful as they are more positive and at ease
when talking to the psychologist. Talking about the situation and circumstances eases pain and suffering
and provides clarity with which individuals can easily cope with the situation and this this helps the
community to take positive and effective decisions (Coates et al, 2014).
3.3
There are many factors that influence counselling interactions among patient and psychologist.
Interactions depend majorly on accessibility, many people do not have access to counselling or they
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don’t understand it and thus interactions with such people can be difficult. It is important for
psychologist to analyze a person effectively to make them comfortable in that environment (Murphy et
al, 2009). When accessibility to psychologist reduces, people find it difficult to attend counselling
sessions and thus it has negative impact on the interaction. For any psychologist to have a proper
conversation with the person, it is important to make the person comfortable and instill trust which can
be achieved by assuring the person of his details kept confidential (Bond et al, 2015). This helps
psychologist in achieving person’s trust and thus they are more comfortable in speaking about their life.
Counselling interactions are also influenced by organizational environment, if the environment is
positive and healthy, people find it easy to converse their issues to the psychologist but if the
organization is tight on schedule with work pressure and negative environment, it is likely that it will
have negative impact on counselling interaction as well. Professionals seeking counselling within the
organization itself will find it difficult to discuss about work and work pressure as the professional
boundaries restricts them to talk effectively. This possesses negative impact on the counselling
interactions as professionals find it difficult to converse about their work issues. Counselling can be
influenced by cultural background of a person as well. Interactions need to be done keeping in mind
about cultural background because something might not be acceptable in certain cultural and
suggesting things against a culture of person can affect (Collins and Arthur et al, 2010).
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