Skills and Qualities Required for Effective Counseling

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SKILLS AND QUALITIES REQUIRED for EFFECTIVE COUNSELING The ideal counselor serves the welfare of their clients Christine Jordan HS-171 Date Due: April 29, 2013 Date Turned In: April 29, 2013 In my opinion, the three most important skills or qualities a counselor must possess in order to be effective are trustworthiness, acceptance and caring, and an ability to maintain healthy boundaries. The counseling relationship is based on trust, so I feel this quality is most important in order to empower the client. A counselor must be able to convey to the client that their sessions are confidential and that this is a “safe” relationship, so that the client can be completely open and honest in their sessions. It takes a counselor time to earn a clients’ trust. The degree to which a client will trust is a measure of their belief in the honesty, fairness and benevolence of the counselor. Trust is achieved when we believe another has our best interests at heart, that they are telling the truth, when we believe they have nothing to hide and we can count on another to do what they say they will do. Trust cannot be earned until it is given – as a gift is given. What the counselor does with that trust will determine the destiny of the relationship. The second most important quality in my opinion is acceptance and caring. Acceptance is the ability to allow for the differences and diversity in other people. Most people who enter the counseling relationship have feelings of not being accepted because of whatever issue they may be dealing with. Acceptance typically contains the concept of approval and infers a non-judgmental mindset. Acceptance can either be for circumstances in a persons’ life or their feelings about the circumstances. Caring is important because the client should feel as if their issues are truly of concern to the counselor.

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