This document outlines topics to be covered in a counseling theories course, including expectations for students and an introduction to key concepts. It discusses the importance of counselors' personal characteristics and qualities in building effective therapeutic relationships. Core conditions of helping relationships like empathy, respect and genuineness are introduced. The document also covers managing boundaries, ethical practice from a diversity perspective, and maintaining competence and client confidentiality.

1. SUBJECT: COUNSELING THEORIES
BY: PERLA B. ESTRELLA, PH.D.,RGC,RPSY
1st Trimester
A.Y. 2019-2020

2. FIRST MEETING
 Getting to know one
 Attendance
 Surfacing Expectations: (Program,Subject,
Professor/Student)
 School Vision and Mission
 Program Outcome
 Subject Outcome
 Syllabus/Topics, Academic Requirements

3. INTRODUCTION
Surface expectations (traits & skills)
from a counselor
Survey who among the students are
now practicing as guidance advocate
What made them decide to become
guidance counselor? (Ask them to
write in a piece of paper)

4. TOPIC 1 : COUNSELOR AS A PERSON
AND AS PROFESSIONAL
 How do our personal life as a person affects
our professional life and vice versa?
 How do we manage our personal and
professional boundaries?
 How do we face the stress associated with
being a counselor?

5.  How do our values and beliefs affect our
professidonal life?
 How do we balance our life roles?
 How do we maintain our vitality?
 How about our self-care?

6.  “There is a considerable research literature
that indicates that who the counselor is as a
person is the most critical determinant of
therapeutic outcomes, and that the quality of
the client/counselor relationship is at least as
important as the counselor's theory or
techniques.
 Therefore, the human dimension is what
most counts when it comes to counseling
that produce results.

7. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR
BELOW ARE TRAITS EXCEPT #8 PLEASE RATE YOURSELF
Trait 5 4 3 2 1
1.Being aware of strengths & weaknesses
2. Having a curiosity & openness to learning
3. Interpersonal skills (you can use in counseling)
4. Genuine caring and compassion
5. Showing respect for people who differ from you
6. Taking care of yourself
7. A healthy sense of self-love and pride
8. Think of traits tha you deem most important
TOTAL SCORE DIVIDED BY 8
WA

8. CORE CONDITIONS OF HELPING
RELATIONSHIP
 1. Emphatic Understanding
 2. Respect and Positive Regard
 3. Genuiness and Congruence
 4. Concreteness
 5. Warmth
 6. Immediacy
 7. Cultural Awareness

9. SOME CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES
FACED BY COUNSELORS
Dealing with our own anxieties
Being ourselves and disclosing
ourselves
Avoiding perfectionism
Dealing with clients who lack
commitment

10. MORE CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES…
 Tolerating ambiguity
 Avoiding losing ourselves in our clients
 Establishing personal and professional
boundaries
 Developing a sense of humor
 Sharing responsibility with the client
 Developing collaborative relationships with
clients

11. Declining to give advice
Defining your role as a counselor
Developing your own counseling
style
Staying vital as a person and as a
professional

12.  II. TOPIC 2-A:
 THE COUNSELOR AS AN ETHICAL
PERSON

13. WHAT IS IT TO BE AN ETHICAL
PRACTITIONER?
 Being an ethical practitioner is not
merely a way to avoid a malpractice
suit, but it is a route to counseling that
makes a life-changing difference.
 Ethical practice involves far more than
merely knowing and following a
professional code of ethics.

14. ETHICS AND THE PRACTITIONER
 Code of Ethics provide general standards,
but these are not sufficiently explicit to deal
with every situation.
 It is often difficult to interpret ethics codes,
and opinions differ over how to apply them in
specific cases.
 In other words, we will encounter many
situations that demand the exercise of sound
judgment to further the interests of our
clients.

15. ETHICS AND PRACTITIONER...
 In dealing with ethical dilemmas, we will
rarely find clear-cut answers for complex
problems defy simple solutions.
 Making ethical decisions involves acquiring
tolerance for dealing with gray areas and for
coping with ambiguity.
 The definition and refinement of ethical
concerns is an evolutionary process that
requires an open and self-critical attitude.

16.  It is good for each of us to formulate an
ethical decision making mode that we
can apply when we deal with an ethical
dilemma.
 Being willing to consult is a sign of
professionalism, and regular
consultation with colleagues and
supervisor is essential.

17. II.-B. ETHICAL ISSUES FROM A DIVERSITY
PERSPECTIVE
 Mental health professionals have been urged
to learn about their own culture and to
become aware of how their experiences
affect the way they work with those who are
culturally different.
 By being ignorant of the values and attitudes
of a diverse range of clients, counselor open
themselves to criticism and ineffectiveness.

18. ETHICAL ISSUES AND DIVERSITY
 As practitioner, we need to monitor our
positive and negative biases so that they do
not impede the formation of counseling
relationships. HOW ?
 We can increase our cultural awareness by
direct contact with a variety of groups, by
reading, by consultation and discussion with
colleagues and by in-service professional
workshops.

19.  One of the major challenges of mental health
professionals is understanding the complex
role cultural diversity and similarity play in
their work.
 We need to consider that all counseling
interventions are multicultural.WHY?
 Remember that clients bring a great variety of
attitudes, values, culturally learned assumptions,
biases,beliefs, and behaviors to the therapeutic
relationships.

20.  It is essential therefore, that our
practices be ACCURATE,
APPROPRIATE, AND MEANINGFUL
for the clients with whom we work with.
 This entails rethinking our theories
and modifying our techniques to
meet clients' unique needs and not
rigidly applying interventions in the
same manner to all clients. This is a
good ethical practice. There is no
sanctuary for cultural biases.

21. TOPIC III:
Managing Personal
and Profesional Boundaries

22. PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
BOUNDARIES
 Professional boundaries are involved in terms of
dealing effectively with multiple relationships.
 Non-sexual dual and multiple relationships
sometimes referred to as nonprofessional
relationships came under increased scrutiny in
the 1990s but little consensus has been reached
with regard to a determination of ethical practice.

23. E.G. OF NON-SEXUAL MULTIPLE
RELATIONSHIPS:
 Accepting clients who are family members or
friends;
 Combining the roles of supervisor and
therapist;
 Forming business arrangements with therapy
clients;
 Combining personal counseling with
consultation or supervision

24. LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
 What is Life without boundaries
 What are laws for?
 What about ethics?
 In counseling, how do we protect our clients?
 What do you mean by the following:
 acceptable standards of performance
 accepted code of personal conduct with clients
and public

25. Commitment to contribute to public
well-being;
commitment which transcends
monetary rewards for the counselors
What is ethical counseling?
What are the ethical standards in
Counseling, its source

26. WHAT IS THE PRINCIPAL RULE
SUPPORTING ETHICAL OBLIGATION ?
 The counselor must act with full recognition of
the importance of client rights, ethics of
profession and the relationship of moral
standards and value.
Therefore, the practitioner
 should ensure that the client has given their
informed consent when counseling problems
arise, e.g. in the case of young children or people
who suffer from mental illness.

27.  Be sure that they have the client's interests at
heart and that they do not exceed their
competence or fail to maintain that competence.
 Consider issues of fairness e.g. in seeing some
kinds of clients before others.
 Make sure that they do not resort to deception
and that they abide by contracts.
 ACA & APA are codes that stress adherence to
rigorous professional standards basic

28. AMERICAN COUNSELING ASSOCIATION (ACA) AND
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APA)
 ACA & APA are codes that stress
adherence to rigorous professional
standards basically concerned with
couselor responsibilities, competence,
client relationship and confidentiality.

29. ETHICAL ISSUES NO. 1- COMPETENCE
 The counselor must determine, along with his
potential employer, whether or not she or he is
qualified by virtue of training and where
appropriate, experience for the position as
described.
 Qualification for licensure or certification
displayed in the clinic/office
 Degrees, licenses, and certificates -update
competence through professional educational
opportunities, and reading the professional
literature.

30. ETHICAL ISSUES NO. 2 CONFIDENTIALITY
 Confidentiality. This is a form of
secrecy and is derived from ethics and it
is commonly recognized in law.
 It protects the clients from unauthorized
disclosures of any sort by the
professional without the informed
consent of the client.

31. WHEN DOES A COUNSELOR MAY CHOOSE NOT TO
PRESERVE CONFIDENTIALITY?
 1. If the clients threatens to harm him/herself
or others.
 2. If the counselor has split loyalties between
the client and the client's employer.

32. PRINCIPLES OF CONFIDENTIALITY
(SCHNEIDERS)
 1. The obligation of confidentiality is relative
rather than absolute since there are
conditions which can alter it.
 2. Confidentiality depends on the nature of
the material which is already public or can
easily become so is not bound by
confidentiality in the same way as is the
entrusted secret.

33.  3. Material that is harmless does not bind the
counselor to confidentiality.
 4. Material that is necessary for a counselor
or an agency to function effectively is
released from the bonds of confidentiality.
 5. Acts of aggression or threats of it are not
bound by confidentiality.
 6. The rights of the counselor to preserve his
own reputation and integrity, to resist harm or
aggression

34.  and to preserve privileged communication do
n o t l i m i t c o n f i d e n t i a l i t y a l s o .
 7. Confidentiality is determined and limited
by the rights of an innocent third party and by
t h e r i g h t s o f t h e c o m m u n i t y .

35. LEVELS OF CONFIDENTIALITY
 1. Professinal use of information.
 2. Information that arises out of a counseling
relationship.
 -Clients expect that information will only be used
for their welfare.
3. The threat of violence raised during a
counseling session.
- Counselors can intervene in extreme cases.

36. ETHICAL ISSUES NO. 3 PRIVILEGED
COMMUNICATION
 Privileged communication. It is a right
granted by law and is usually specified in
American state rules of evidence and in the
relevant professional licensure.
 It is a legal concept and refers to the right of
clients not to have their privileged
communications used in court without their
consent.

37. ETHICAL ISSUES NO. 4 PERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS WITH CLIENTS
 In their relationships with clients, the
counselor must at all times avoid exploiting
the trust of the client. This exploitation might
be for financial gain, social status, research
data, as well as sexual favors.
 Avoid counseling relationships with relatives,
close friends, and employers among others.

38.  Finally, the counselor must at al times be
aware of the human rights of clients.
 Even the severely mentally ill have legal and
ethical rights that the counselor must respect
in practice.
 - rights to participate in decision making process
regarding their treatment
 - the use of psychological tests
 - participation in research studies

39. LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR
COUNSELORS
The law intervenes and overrides
professional codes of ethics only
when it becomes necessary to
protect the public health safety and
welfare.