Question

1.What do you feel the role of a counselor should be?

2. How can the counselor be beneficial to the client?

3. What skills are needed to be a good counselor?

4. What is your favorite modality (individual, couples, family, group) and why?

5. What is your theoretical orientation (CBT, humanistic, psychodynamic, etc.) and how did you choose it?

6. What specialties do you have? How did you choose them?

7. Do you enjoy your career? Is there anything you wished you would have known?

8. What advice do you have for me if I were to pursue this line of work?

Answer 1

1) A counselor performs the role of a support when one needs the most. A counselor is not someone who would give you a list of do's and dont's for you to follow in your life. A counselor is someone who would listen to your issues actively, and then provide suggestions that you may follow. Many counselors believe in empowering their clients to find their own solutions so that they are ready to face the world in case a similar issue strikes them in future.

2) A counselor is beneficial to the client because the counselor would follow a non judgemental approach while actively listening to the client. The counselor would be able to empathise with the client and not sympathise. Most importantly, the counselor would follow a scientific approach to deal with the client's issues and conflicts in the form of therapies and interactions.

3) The skills which are needed to be a good counsellor are communication skills, empathy, active listening skills, flexibility, rapport building skills, self awareness and multicultural competency.

4) Individual modalities are interesting because it helps empower a person mentally, at the end of the counselling journey. As a counsellor, one is able to dive deep into the person's life, help the client face the unsolved conflicts since childhood (or before) and then come out as a new more aware person. Successful counselling sessions give immense satisfaction to the counsellor. This deep rooted exploration is possible only in case of individual counselling and thereby it is the most interesting one.

5) The thoretical orientation that works with many people and is accepted positively by many clients is the Humanistic orientation. It encourages self awareness and self realisation by focusing on the individual's uniqueness and potentiality. It is an extremely optimistic method and could be used for a wide array of purposes.