This document outlines some key principles of counseling, including defining counseling as the application of mental health principles through interventions to address wellness, growth, and pathology. It discusses factors that influence the counseling process like structure, setting, and client and counselor qualities. Basic counseling principles are described, such as acceptance, permissiveness, decision making by the client, and confidentiality. The document also covers skills for counselors like empathy, leading, responding styles, self-disclosure, humor, and addressing transference and countertransference. Stages of the counseling process like initial sessions, goal setting, and termination are summarized.