I RECENTLY attended a webinar about counseling. Even if I have the same advocacy of the brilliant speaker Marie Curie Ordonia-De Pona, she still taught me something new and reminded me of essential strategies in counseling. It is always an advantage not to overrate one's knowledge and remain humble and open to the idea that there are so many essentials that we could learn and adapt from others for the best of our clients.
Let me share with you my top four takeaways from the two-day webinar. I assume that this is not new to counselors, but then again, it is good to return to the basics in counseling to help the clients. Aside from the effective building of rapport, active listening, etc., the below counseling essentials presented can also best help.
Maintain a therapeutic milieu. The counseling room should appear light, clean, and comfortable, nourishing the client and the counselor. It should be welcoming and non-threatening, which encourages openness. I find it more helpful if the room is free from intrusion, where other people cannot see or hear private conversations. Having a few plants inside can add positivity as nature is linked to better mental health.
Do not use toxic positivity. It is not right that when a client says, "I am so ugly," then the counselor immediately will say to please the client, "no, you are not, you are so beautiful." The response may be sugar-coating the client's feelings as the counselor may not be presenting real thoughts. I feel that counselors should be realistic and should not allow clients to invalidate authentic human emotional experiences.
Use refined tough love. Some misunderstood it as a cruel way of helping others and may not be the best approach but sometimes when clients hear the real consequences of their behavior, it can help them listen, cause them to make the right choices, and face the consequences. Tough love is essential, especially to exceedingly spoiled clients. I think if counselors do not stand firm, then that may lead to the death of both the counselor's goal to help and the client's goal to achieve.
Walk your talk. If a counselor, for instance, tells a client that exercising can maintain physical and overall health, then it would be best that the counselor does physical exercise too as a good example. So, it is practicing things consistent with what the counselor claims. In other words, counselors should not talk in vain, but they should speak in action.
Responding to clients' needs will need counselors to be ready and open to listen to stories than what they expect or want to hear, even if that is contrary to what they believe is true and correct. What is essential is both to listen and help the client repair the wound, where previous coping may not be helping. Most importantly, I still believe that absolute comfort can be provided when the client knows that the best help among all available is God -- the only one who can remove all the suffocating weight of miseries in life. So, I hope counselors work with their clients and with God that makes all miracles in the world.