Counsellor Characteristics
In as far as the Counsellor Characteristics are concerned, whether in the school setting or non-school setting they possesses a lot of admirable qualities which help him to relate well with clients and people around him or who work with him. These characteristics are those which have been found to increase the effectiveness and overall success of the counsellor when they exist in him in sufficient numbers and at adequate level of intensity. While no counsellor is expected to be endowed with all these qualities at birth, these characteristics are such as could be acquired through training.
The personal qualifications of the counsellor derives from his/her inherent qualities. Although, not part of any official curriculum, there is the need for personal psychological growth of the counsellor. S/He needs to understand themselves psychologically in order to helping others. S/He needs to know how to control his/her biases and defences so that they do not interfere with the progress of any person with whom S/he working.
As a personal quality, the counsellor must have love for persons and interest in helping. Since the focal point of the counsellor is human, it is beholden on the counsellor to not only have the love of his clients but at the same time he should be interested in analysing issues, solving problems and giving help. As a helping professional, the counsellor should de-emphasise monetary reward. In other words, s/he falls within the rank of professionals that consider services to humanity an integral aspect of living and a thing of joy rather than material reward.
The counsellor needs to be socially sensitive and flexible, imaginative, with good control of both his intellectual activity and his emotions. To make success out of the counselling relationship, the counsellor must be socially active. S/He interacts with a number of people, the young and the old alike. In this way, s/he gets to know the needs of people at the different age levels. In addition to this, s/he does not hold a view and stick dogmatically to it.
They remain flexible in the face of change so as to follow in the scheme of things. For example, s/he knows when a particular theory or technique should be applied or is no longer working. A counsellor is one that is imaginative. S/He has an open mind and is continually craving for improvement in his/er relationship with others. S/He is abreast with changes that occur around him/er and so adapts himself to such changes. Being imaginative has the advantage of invoking new knowledge rather than being perpetually “fixed” to outdated knowledge.
In addition to the above, the counsellor must be one who is emotionally balanced and has good control of his intellectual ability. The term emotional balance here implied that the counsellor should not have unusual difficulty in maintaining satisfactory interpersonal relationships. He should be able to express feelings and needs without creating serious difficulties for himself or his clients. Because he needs to carry along the client with him, he cannot “act out” in aggressive ways neither can he retreat from interpersonal contracts.
Can you imagine what the reaction of his client would be if the counsellor who has temper tantrums should slap him because he is talking ‘rot’? of course the slap could ensure both a fight and a termination of the counselling relationship. Added to this factor, is the fact that the counsellor must have good control of his intellectual ability. As a counsellor, one meets with the dullard and the intelligent.
If the counsellor is cognitively weak and allows himself to be “dribbled” by his client, he then becomes a laughing stock and most clients would begin to make caricature of him. Unfortunately, most people who go in to read counselling today in our Zambian Universities are drop-outs from other disciplines who think that counselling is the “easy” way out. This is especially true when one remembers the sandwich programme. This is unfortunate because they took the wrong way.
Empathic understanding is another quality which the counsellor necessarily has to possess. In attempting to understand the client in his work, the counsellor should be able to imaginatively transpose himself to the client’s position. He should be able to understand the client from his internal frame of reference. In short, it is when the counsellor is sensing the feelings and personal meanings which the counsellee is experiencing in each moment, when he can perceive that from “inside”, as they seem to the client, and when he can successfully communicate something of that understanding to the counsellee, would there exist the rapport for meaningful interaction. In fact, Carl Rogers (1959) says:
“Empathy is perceiving the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy, and the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto, as if one were the other person, but without ever losing the “as if’ condition. Thus it means to sense the hurt or pleasure of another as he senses it, and to perceive the causes thereof as he perceives them; but without ever losing the recognition that it is as if, I was hurt or pleased, etc. if this “as if’ quality is lost, then the state is one of identification”.
According to Rogers, the counsellor should not only be able to understand his client but should be able to communicate this understanding to the client so that he senses it. It communicates to him that much value is placed on him as an individual and that the feelings and meanings which he attaches to his experiences are respected, worth attending to, and understood. Thus, when a client senses that he counsellor feels his pains and pleasure, he feels he is with him and therefore, ready to cooperate and explore his problems more.
As a personal quality, the person called the counsellor must have a good sense of humour which helps build up confidence in the counsellee, thus making repertoire of social-emotional skills that enable him to respond spontaneously and effectively to a wide range of human needs. “Ipaye (1983). Thus, humour is an important quality the counsellor must possess.
A counsellor should have a patient understanding of his clients, sometimes, clients come with aggressive, at other times they become inarticulate. In either cases or in any way the client comes, the counsellor should not be in a hurry. He should be a patient listener, he should clarify meanings and attempt to assist the client in a very cool and calculating manner.
Sometimes, a client talks continuously without stopping. The counsellor should not be bored. He listens quietly, sometimes nodding and putting in a word or two. In this way, he captures vividly the problems of the client and then be in a better position to offer his assistance. According to Ipaye (1983), “Patient understanding enables the counsellor to respond from the frame of reference of his counsellee’s actual feelings and actual behaviour rather than mere generalities or vague formulations.
A good communication ability has also been recognised as a personal quality of the counsellor. To a very large extent, counselling depends on verbal encounter. The counsellor should therefore, be able to communicate with his clients effectively. He should be audible without necessary shouting, able to communicate his feelings without repression. Apart from verbal communications, the counsellor should be able to interprets and communicate the non-verbal messages of the clients to them.
Unconditional positive regard or non-possessive warmth is also a personal quality valuable to the individual called the counsellor. The quality of unconditional positive regard simply means “prizing the individual as a whole”. The counsellor, irrespective of his values, does not lay down conditions for accepting a client in the counselling situation, sometimes, the client may come in moody, smelly or happy. In whatever situation he comes, the counsellor does not reject him.
At all times therefore the counsellor communicates a feeling of total acceptance and liking for the client. In short, the counsellor has to be non-judgmental in accepting the client. According to Achebe (1988(, “this level of acceptance gradually conditions the client to accept all of his own experiences, making him more of a whole and congruent person able to function effectively”. Thus, the client feels accepted, and, therefore will reduce all defence mechanism that would inhibit effective rapport in the counselling session.
The counsellor must also possess the quality of genuineness or congruence. This implied that at any point in time he is his real self. He does not fake situation, “not phoney and without pretence or façade” If for example, the client came in when the counsellor is tired, instead of pretending to be helping, he should let the client know of his feelings, namely, that he is tired and, therefore, an appointment could be made against another time.
The client is likely to have more trust in a counsellor that he finds to be genuine. Thus, the client must sense that the helper is being genuine and not just faking a professional role or being polite. According to Achebe (1988), “Rogers places such importance on this quality that he affirms that “the unmotivated, poorly educated, resistant, chronically hospitalised individuals respond to those who are first of all real, who react in a genuine human way as persons, who exhibit their genuineness in the relationship.
Wrenn (1962) says “the counsellor must be professionally educated and not merely “trained”. Like the minister or physician or any other educated professional, he must learn specialised procedures and be responsible for their application in the light of a broad knowledge of his field”.
The counsellor profession in Zambia today is still grappling with some of the teething problems expected of a new profession, one of which is legislating on the academic qualification which a counselor should hold. For now, people with the Bachelor’s Degree in Guidance and Counselling, practice in the school. The third set are the stop-gap counselors usually called the Teacher-counsellors. In fact, the counselling profession in Zambia is one in which “dead woods” from other fields infiltrate.
In addition to academic requirement of a Master’s Degree, the counselling profession recognizes that as a social being, and can only be understood from different and varied compartments of life. In recognition of this, counsellor educators insist that the counsellor should be an “Encyclopaedia”. In other words, he should be very knowledgeable in a wide range if disciplines, some of which are:-
(i) Psychology– This will help the counsellor to understand, predict and control human behaviour. Thus, a study of psychology exposes the counsellor to principles of child-development including intellectual as well as socio-emotional development. It will also expose him to the dynamics of personality.
(ii) Appraisal Methods– This helps he counsellor in the construction of tests which he uses in appraising his clients’ interests, abilities and other potentials
(iii) Counselling Theory– This exposes him to various theoretical position so as to be able to adapt them to suit his individual clients.
(iv) Vocational Development Theory – These expose the counsellor to the vocational growth processes of his clients.
(v) Supervised Practicum– This relates all the theories learnt in the classroom setting to the practical realities of students problems.
Others include ethical and professional responsibilities, occupational information, behaviour modification techniques, group process and a host of others.
Another professional quality which the counsellor has to possess is that he should be able to keep information regarding the clients ’ problem confidential. Thus, when clients come to the counselling situation they disclose information especially their social-personal information at times, Willy nilly. As part of the ethical requirements, the counsellor is under obligation not to disclose such information to an unauthorised person unless professional colleagues such as the psychologists, the psychiatrists and the medical doctors who might need the information for the good and growth of the client. The counsellor can also reveal information divulged to them if the client permits them to.
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