Chapter 8: Counselling Psychology
In the 1940s, a young American psychologist named Carl Rogers was troubled by a question that sounds simple but is not: what actually helps a person in distress? At the time, the helper was expected to diagnose the problem, decide what was wrong, and tell the person what to do. Rogers had trained that way. Yet in his own work he noticed something surprising. His clients seemed to improve most not when he handed down clever advice, but when he simply listened — closely, warmly, and without judging.
So he began to experiment. Instead of steering the conversation, he let clients set its direction. Instead of correcting them, he tried to understand exactly how the world looked from where they sat. To his own astonishment, people who were given this kind of unhurried, accepting attention often found their own way forward. They reached decisions the counsellor had never once suggested.
From this quiet observation grew one of the most influential ideas in modern counselling: that a person seeking help already carries much of the answer within, and that the counsellor’s real skill lies in building a safe, honest, understanding relationship in which that answer can surface. It reshaped how counselling is taught and practised across the world — including in the schools, clinics and workplaces of India today.
Diagram
Fig. 8.0-1 – a calm, private counselling setting: a counsellor seated and leaning slightly forward in attentive listening while a client speaks; warm, non-clinical room; label the space as “safe, confidential relationship” and the counsellor’s manner as “listens without judging”
As you work through this chapter, you will be able to answer each of these questions for yourself.
8.1 Meaning and Nature of Counselling
You have probably been the person a friend turns to when something goes wrong. You listen, you care, and perhaps you suggest what to do. That everyday helping matters — but it is not the same thing as counselling.
This section explains what counselling actually is, how it works as a process, and why a trained counsellor’s help differs from the support of a well-meaning friend or relative.
8.1.1 What Counselling Means
Counselling psychology is a field of applied psychology that helps reasonably healthy people cope with the ordinary difficulties of living and adjust better to their circumstances. It has grown rapidly over the past few decades as people have come to value structured psychological help.
At the heart of this field lies the activity of counselling itself. Counselling is a planned, professional process in which a trained helper uses psychological skills to help a person understand their difficulties and build better ways of coping with, and adjusting to, their own unique environment.
Notice the word unique. The counsellor’s aim is not to make the person “normal” by some fixed standard, but to help this particular individual function better in their own life, with their own goals and pressures.
The trained helper is the counsellor. A closely related professional is the clinical psychologist, who has more advanced training and works mainly with more severe psychological problems, making an in-depth analysis of their underlying causes. A counsellor usually has a moderate level of training, deals with a more specific and manageable difficulty, and does not attempt that kind of deep analysis.
The person who receives help is called the client, not the “patient”. The word is chosen deliberately: it signals that counselling is a collaboration between two people working together, rather than a doctor treating an illness.
8.1.2 The Nature of Counselling
Counselling is not a casual chat, and it is not the same as a friend offering an opinion. It has a definite character that sets it apart.
First, it is a structured dialogue — a planned, cooperative conversation in which the counsellor and the client work together to identify the sources of a problem and to develop new ways of coping with it. Direction and purpose run underneath the warmth.
Second, it rests on rapport, a relationship of trust and mutual understanding. Without this trust a client will not feel safe enough to speak openly, and little useful work can happen.
Third, counselling is non-judgemental. The counsellor neither judges the client nor scolds them for their choices. Difficult feelings of anger, guilt or fear can be expressed without any fear of disapproval.
Fourth, and often surprising to students, counselling is largely non-directive: it does not consist of handing out advice. The counsellor helps the client explore their situation and options, but the choices and decisions remain the client’s own.
Finally, the counsellor stays professionally engaged without becoming emotionally entangled. A good counsellor does not get personally attached, and does not push the client to behave the way the counsellor once did in a similar situation.
Contrast this with turning to family or friends. They are emotionally involved with you, so they may be biased or quick to judge, and their advice often carries their own hopes for you. A counsellor is trained, neutral, and bound to confidentiality, which is why counselling can go to places friendly conversation usually cannot.
8.1.3 Areas of Counselling
Because adjustment problems arise everywhere in life, counselling is applied across many settings. It helps to see these areas in groups rather than as a long list, as mapped in Fig. 8.1-1.
Some counselling is organised around a stage of life or an individual: child counselling (for learning difficulties, behaviour problems, emotional disturbance), adolescent counselling (identity, peer and academic pressures), and geriatric counselling (the losses and adjustments of old age). Other counselling is relational — couple and family counselling work on the bonds between people rather than one person alone.
Still other areas sit inside institutions: academic and school counselling supports students and teachers, while career, vocational and workplace counselling help people choose suitable work and manage job stress. A few specialised forms include group counselling, counselling of young offenders, and sports counselling.
Diagram
Fig. 8.1-1 – a central hub labelled “Areas of Counselling” with branches in four clusters: individual/developmental (child, adolescent, geriatric), relational (couple, family), institutional (academic/school, career/vocational, workplace), and specialised (group, delinquency, sports, mental health)
The common thread across all of them is the same: reducing distress and helping people adjust, decide and grow.
8.1.4 Counselling and Psychotherapy Compared
People often use “counselling” and “psychotherapy” as if they mean the same thing, and the two do overlap a great deal. Both are helping relationships aimed at overcoming personal problems and bringing about positive change. Yet there are real differences worth understanding.
Psychotherapy tends to go deeper. It usually deals with longer-standing or more serious psychological difficulties, and it encourages the client to recollect earlier experiences and see how they shape present problems — sometimes bringing to light material the person was not previously aware of.
Counselling, by comparison, is more of a helping and guidance approach. It focuses mainly on the present difficulty and on building coping skills, without such deep exploration of underlying causes.
It is best to think of the two not as opposites but as lying along a continuum, from lighter support at one end to intensive treatment at the other.
8.2 Elements of Counselling
Every genuine counselling encounter is built from the same small set of ingredients. Take any one of them away and the process stops being counselling. These are the elements of counselling, and it is worth meeting each one in turn.
The Client
The first element is the person who seeks help — the client. Counselling can only begin when someone recognises a difficulty and is at least a little willing to work on it. The client is not a passive receiver of expert advice; their active participation is what makes change possible.
The Counsellor
The second element is the trained counsellor. Beyond knowledge of psychology, the counsellor brings skills of listening and understanding, a non-judgemental attitude, and firm professional boundaries. It is the counsellor’s job to shape a space where difficult material can safely surface.
The Counselling Relationship
Between the two stands the third and, in many ways, most important element: the relationship itself. The bond that a counsellor and client form as they work together is called the working alliance.
Notice that this alliance has two sides — a shared sense of what they are working towards and how, and an emotional bond of trust. Both must be present for the work to hold.
Communication
Counselling takes place almost entirely through communication — the exchange of meaning through words, tone, and non-verbal cues. How well the counsellor attends, speaks, listens and understands decides how much real work gets done. Because communication is so central, its specific skills are examined closely later in this chapter, under the characteristics of a good counsellor.
Confidentiality
The fifth element is confidentiality — the counsellor’s commitment to keep private what the client shares. Confidentiality is not a formality; it is the very thing that lets a client speak about matters they could never raise elsewhere. Knowing that their words will not be repeated makes honest disclosure possible.
Confidentiality is strong, but it is not absolute. In situations where a client gives clear indications of serious harm to themselves or to others, the counsellor may be ethically — and in some places legally — bound to break confidentiality in order to protect the person at risk. This principle is often called the duty to warn, and it was established by a landmark United States court ruling known as the Tarasoff decision. Laws differ from country to country, but the underlying ethic is widely shared.
The Goal of Counselling
The last element is the purpose that gives shape to all the others. The counsellor first allows the client to freely express grievances, conflicts and feelings, as shown in Fig. 8.2-1. From there they help the client explore and understand why they react as they do, weigh their options, and finally reach their own decisions.
Diagram
Fig. 8.2-1 – flow: express feelings freely → explore and understand the problem → consider options → make one’s own decision → adjust, grow and live more fully
The ultimate aim is not to solve the problem for the client, but to enable them to make their own choices, take their own decisions, and lead a more meaningful, better-adjusted life. Seen this way, choosing to seek such help is not a sign of weakness but a practical step towards handling life more effectively.
8.3 Characteristics of a Good Counsellor
Having a lot of life experience does not make someone a good counsellor. No two people or situations are quite the same, so what worked for the counsellor may not fit the client at all. Beyond training and knowledge of psychology, certain personal qualities make counselling effective — and, as you saw at the start of this chapter, Carl Rogers argued that a few core attitudes in the counsellor matter even more than technique.
Three of these qualities — authenticity, positive regard and empathy — form the foundation of a good counselling relationship, as shown in Fig. 8.3-1. A fourth, communication skill, is how that foundation is actually put to work.
Diagram
Fig. 8.3-1 – three overlapping circles labelled “authenticity”, “positive regard” and “empathy” sitting under a heading “the counselling relationship”, with “communication skills” shown as the bridge from counsellor to client
8.3.1 Authenticity
Authenticity means being genuine — the counsellor’s outward behaviour matches what they actually think, feel and value. There is no false front, no acting out a role. Rogers called this quality congruence or genuineness.
Why does it matter so much? An authentic counsellor is consistent and therefore trustworthy. That trustworthiness lets the client show their vulnerabilities and look into difficult, sensitive issues without fear. The counsellor also becomes a model, showing the client that it is safe to be honest about oneself.
In practice, an authentic counsellor is honest, transparent, present and responsive, and can share a little of themselves — appropriate, balanced self-disclosure — while keeping full professionalism.
8.3.2 Positive Regard
Positive regard is the non-judgemental acceptance of the client as a person, valuing them and treating their feelings as important. When this acceptance is offered without conditions — regardless of what the client has done or felt — Rogers called it unconditional positive regard, and made it a core part of person-centred work.
Its effect is powerful. When clients feel accepted rather than judged, they feel safe to share their thoughts openly, and that safety helps them heal, accept themselves, and move towards growth.
A counsellor shows positive regard by letting the client speak freely and without interruption, and by responding in a way that conveys understanding rather than instruction. Importantly, the counsellor avoids labelling — never pinning a fixed tag such as “prone to depression” on the client, or indeed on themselves.
8.3.3 Empathy
Empathy is the ability to stand in another person’s shoes — to understand the client’s experience from the client’s own point of view, rather than from the counsellor’s. The counsellor grasps how the situation feels to the client, and does not merely feel sorry for them from the outside.
This is a critical skill. Empathy helps create a trusting, safe zone in which the client feels free to explore and validate their own feelings, understand them better, and think more deeply about their experiences.
Students often confuse empathy with sympathy, so it is worth pinning down the difference.
8.3.4 Communication Skills
All three qualities above reach the client through communication. We communicate whenever we express our ideas or feelings, consciously or unconsciously, through verbal or non-verbal messages — and communication only succeeds when the message sent is actually received and understood.
Communication takes several forms: interpersonal communication between two or more people, public communication between a speaker and an audience, and even intrapersonal communication, the silent conversation we hold with ourselves while thinking and deciding. Effective communication is a genuine life skill, and for a counsellor it is indispensable. It has several components.
Attention
Paying attention is the most basic requirement. For communication to work, the counsellor must be fully present and attentive, so that the message is received clearly and doubts can be cleared. When attention is divided between many things at once — what one is hearing, what is happening around, what one is privately thinking — communication quickly breaks down.
Speaking
Speaking well means using language with care. A skilled counsellor chooses precise words suited to the situation, checks whether the client is understanding, and adjusts if not, so that the intended meaning actually comes across. Mastery over language and the ability to speak clearly are therefore part of the job.
Listening
Hearing and listening are not the same thing. Hearing is a biological process — sound reaching the ear. Active listening means attending closely to what is heard and working to understand it. Only active listening turns a message into shared meaning; poor listening leads to responses that are inadequate or inappropriate, and to costly miscommunication.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is restating, in one’s own words, the idea the other person has just expressed. The counsellor need not repeat the exact words; by restating the main message, they let the client know whether they have been understood correctly, and give a chance to clear up any gap or misunderstanding.
Body Language
Alongside words, non-verbal cues carry a great deal of meaning. Gestures, posture, movement, eye contact — even clothing — together make up body language, a vital part of communication. You have probably understood a parent’s meaning from a single look across a crowded room, even when nothing was said aloud.
To read body language well, one must know the person’s usual patterns. When a person’s words and their non-verbal signals match, we say there is congruency between the verbal and non-verbal message; when they clash, the listener is left confused about what is really meant.
Role of Culture in Listening
The culture we grow up in shapes our thought patterns and expectations, and so it shapes how we listen, interpret and respond. A counsellor who ignores this will misread clients from other backgrounds.
A useful distinction, introduced by the anthropologist Edward Hall, is between high-context and low-context cultures. In a high-context culture — as in many East Asian and Latin American societies — much meaning is carried by non-verbal cues and shared understanding of the situation. In a low-context culture — common in many Western societies — people rely more on the literal, explicit meaning of words.
Even silence is read differently across cultures. In some it is a mark of respect or thoughtfulness; in others it feels awkward, or reads as disagreement. A counsellor must therefore understand the cultural norms of the person they are listening to before drawing conclusions.
8.4 Counsellor’s Psychological Testing Skills
Talking and listening are not a counsellor’s only tools. To understand a person more objectively — beyond what comes out in conversation — a counsellor also draws on psychological tests. Knowing how to choose, administer and interpret these tests is a distinct skill in its own right.
A psychometric test is a standardised measuring instrument used to assess psychological qualities such as ability, aptitude, attitude, interest, intelligence (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ) and personality. Used properly, such tests help a counsellor understand and predict aspects of a person’s behaviour, and judge how suited they might be to a particular kind of work.
What Makes a Test Sound
A test is only as useful as it is trustworthy, and a good one rests on four supports, shown in Fig. 8.4-1.
Diagram
Fig. 8.4-1 – four pillars labelled “standardisation”, “reliability”, “validity” and “norms” supporting a slab labelled “a sound psychological test”, with “objectivity” shown as the ground they all stand on
Objectivity means the scoring and interpretation do not depend on the examiner’s personal opinion or bias. Standardisation means the test is always given and scored by the same fixed procedures, so results can be fairly compared. Norms are the typical scores of a clearly defined reference group, against which an individual’s score is interpreted.
The remaining two qualities are the ones students most often confuse. Reliability is the consistency of a test — it gives much the same result when repeated under similar conditions. Validity is whether the test actually measures what it claims to measure.
Before Administering a Test
Because a test can affect real decisions about a person, it should be given only by a trained, qualified psychologist, and only when certain facts are clearly established first.
- The purpose of the test — exactly what it is to be used for.
- The target population — for whom the test is meant.
- The construction sample — the group the test was built on, including their nationality, age group, literacy level and socio-economic background.
- The norms — the reference groups whose scores are used to interpret results.
- The validity — evidence that the test measures what it claims to.
- The reliability — how consistent, and how free of error, the scores are.
- Other relevant details — the time needed to administer it, the scoring pattern, extraneous influences such as room temperature or noise, and the test’s known limitations.
The Skills the Counsellor Needs
From all this it is clear that testing calls for real expertise. The counsellor must be able to select the right test from many available, in a way that is proper and respectful of the client’s culture, family and group. They must collect data systematically and objectively, drawing on more than one source before reaching a decision. They need a working knowledge of psychometric tests — their strengths and limitations — so they can integrate different pieces of data into a comprehensive picture. And they must keep these skills sharp through ongoing training and supervision.
8.5 Summary
Counselling psychology is a field of applied psychology that helps reasonably healthy people cope with everyday difficulties and adjust better to their environment. Counselling itself is a planned, professional, confidential process in which a trained counsellor helps a person understand a problem and reach their own decisions.
A counsellor has moderate training and works on specific difficulties without deep analysis; a clinical psychologist has advanced training and analyses the underlying causes of more severe disorders. The person helped is called the client, not the patient, signalling a collaboration rather than a medical treatment.
By its nature, counselling is a structured, cooperative dialogue built on rapport (trust). It is non-judgemental and largely non-directive — it does not consist of handing out advice — and the counsellor stays professionally engaged without becoming emotionally entangled. This is why it differs from the help of emotionally involved family or friends.
Counselling is applied across many areas, including child, adolescent and geriatric counselling; couple and family counselling; academic, career, vocational and workplace counselling; and specialised forms such as group counselling.
Counselling and psychotherapy overlap, but psychotherapy tends to go deeper into past and unconscious material and to address more severe difficulties, while counselling focuses more on the present problem and on building coping skills. The two lie along a continuum rather than being sharply separate.
The elements of counselling are the client, the trained counsellor, the counselling relationship, communication, confidentiality, and the goal. The relationship is captured by the working alliance — agreement on goals and tasks plus a bond of trust — which strongly predicts a good outcome.
Confidentiality makes honest disclosure possible, but it is not absolute: when there is a credible risk of serious harm to the client or an identifiable other, the counsellor may have a duty to warn or protect. The ultimate goal of counselling is to enable the client to make their own choices and lead a more meaningful, better-adjusted life.
Three core qualities make a counsellor effective: authenticity (being genuine and congruent), positive regard (non-judgemental, unconditional acceptance of the client), and empathy (understanding the client from their own point of view, which differs from mere sympathy).
Communication skill is how these qualities reach the client. Its components are attention, speaking clearly, active listening (which differs from mere hearing), paraphrasing to confirm understanding, body language (with congruency between verbal and non-verbal messages), and sensitivity to the role of culture in listening.
Culture shapes how people communicate and listen. High-context cultures rely on shared context and non-verbal cues; low-context cultures rely on explicit words. Even silence carries different meanings across cultures, so a counsellor interprets it through the client’s culture, not their own.
A counsellor also needs psychological testing skills. Psychometric tests are standardised measures of ability, aptitude, interest, intelligence, emotional intelligence and personality, used to understand and predict behaviour more objectively than conversation alone.
A sound test rests on objectivity, standardisation, reliability (consistency) and validity (measuring what it claims), interpreted against proper norms. Before administering a test, the counsellor must establish its purpose, target population, construction sample, norms, validity, reliability and other details, and must use tests responsibly, fairly and only as one source of evidence — never as a permanent label.
8.6 Key Terms
Active listening — attending closely to what is said in order to understand it, as against merely hearing sound.
Authenticity — the counsellor’s quality of being genuine, so that behaviour matches true thoughts, feelings and values.
Body language — the non-verbal cues of gesture, posture, movement and eye contact that carry meaning alongside words.
Client — the person who receives counselling; the term signals collaboration rather than medical treatment.
Clinical psychologist — a professional with advanced training who analyses the underlying causes of more severe psychological problems.
Confidentiality — the counsellor’s duty to keep private what the client discloses, subject to limited exceptions.
Congruency — agreement between a person’s verbal message and their non-verbal signals.
Counselling — a planned, confidential process in which a trained counsellor helps a person understand a difficulty and reach their own decisions.
Counselling psychology — the field of applied psychology concerned with helping people cope with difficulties and adjust to their environment.
Counsellor — a moderately trained professional who helps clients with specific difficulties, without deep analysis of their roots.
Duty to warn — the counsellor’s obligation to break confidentiality when there is a credible risk of serious harm to the client or another person.
Empathy — understanding another person’s experience from their own point of view, as distinct from feeling sorry for them.
High-context culture — a culture in which much of a message’s meaning is carried by shared context and non-verbal cues.
Interpersonal communication — the exchange of messages between two or more people.
Intrapersonal communication — the internal communication a person carries on with themselves through thought and decision-making.
Low-context culture — a culture in which meaning rests mainly on the explicit, literal words spoken.
Non-directive — an approach in which the counsellor guides exploration rather than issuing advice or decisions.
Non-judgemental — accepting the client’s disclosures without criticism or moral evaluation.
Norms — the typical scores of a defined reference group, used to interpret an individual’s test score.
Objectivity — scoring and interpretation that do not depend on the examiner’s personal opinion or bias.
Paraphrasing — restating a speaker’s message in one’s own words to confirm accurate understanding.
Positive regard — non-judgemental acceptance of the client, valuing them and treating their feelings as important.
Psychometric test — a standardised instrument for measuring a psychological attribute such as ability, aptitude, interest or personality.
Psychotherapy — a deeper helping process that explores earlier experiences and longer-standing or more severe psychological difficulties.
Rapport — the relationship of trust and mutual understanding between counsellor and client.
Reliability — the consistency of a test, giving similar results when repeated under similar conditions.
Standardisation — administering and scoring a test by the same fixed procedures for everyone, so results are comparable.
Structured dialogue — the planned, purposeful, cooperative conversation that forms the core of counselling.
Unconditional positive regard — acceptance of the client as a person without judgement and without conditions attached.
Validity — the extent to which a test actually measures what it claims to measure.
Working alliance — the collaborative bond between counsellor and client, made of agreement on goals and tasks plus mutual trust.
8.7 Points to Ponder
If a counsellor deliberately withholds advice, is the client really being helped — or simply being left to work things out alone? Where does guidance end and advice begin?
Confidentiality makes honest disclosure possible, yet it can be broken to prevent serious harm. Who should decide when that threshold has been crossed, and what does a client lose if the line is drawn too readily?
Can empathy be taught, or is it a quality a person either brings to the work or does not? If it can be trained, what would such training actually look like?
A counsellor is asked to be authentic and also to remain professionally detached. Are these two demands in tension, and if so, how might a skilled counsellor hold both at once?
A psychometric test is standardised on a particular group. What happens to its fairness when it is used on a client from a very different cultural, linguistic or economic background — and can any test be truly culture-free?
In cultures where personal difficulties are traditionally settled within the family, does professional counselling strengthen a person’s support system or quietly replace it?
8.8 Objective Questions
Counselling is best described as a process that is primarily — [1 mark]
- directive, in which the counsellor prescribes the solution
- non-directive, in which the client is helped to reach their own decisions
- medical, in which the client is treated for an illness
- informal, in which a friend offers sympathy
The person who receives counselling is referred to as the ______. [1 mark]
The collaborative bond between counsellor and client, made up of agreement on goals and tasks together with mutual trust, is called the — [1 mark]
- working alliance
- congruency
- duty to warn
- norm group
Restating a client’s message in the counsellor’s own words to confirm understanding is known as ______. [1 mark]
State whether True or False: Hearing and listening mean the same thing in the counselling process. [1 mark]
A test that gives similar results when repeated under similar conditions is said to have — [1 mark]
- validity
- reliability
- objectivity
- norms
State whether True or False: Confidentiality in counselling is absolute and can never be broken under any circumstance. [1 mark]
In a high-context culture, the meaning of a message is carried mainly by — [1 mark]
- the literal, explicit words spoken
- written records of the conversation
- shared context and non-verbal cues
- the speaker’s professional status
Accepting and valuing a client as a person without judgement and without conditions is called ______. [1 mark]
Match the following: [1 mark]
| Column A | Column B |
|---|---|
| a. Validity | i. consistency of a test on repetition |
| b. Reliability | ii. typical scores of a defined reference group |
| c. Norms | iii. fixed, uniform conditions of administration and scoring |
| d. Standardisation | iv. the test measures what it claims to measure |
- Match the following: [1 mark]
| Column A | Column B |
|---|---|
| a. Authenticity | i. understanding the client’s experience from their own point of view |
| b. Empathy | ii. restating the client’s message in one’s own words |
| c. Positive regard | iii. behaving in a way consistent with one’s true thoughts and feelings |
| d. Paraphrasing | iv. non-judgemental acceptance of the client |
For questions 12 to 15, choose from the following options: a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, and R is the correct explanation of A. b. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A. c. Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false. d. Assertion (A) is false, but Reason (R) is true.
Assertion (A): A counsellor generally avoids telling the client exactly what to do. [1 mark] Reason (R): The aim of counselling is to strengthen the client’s own capacity to decide rather than to create dependence on the counsellor.
Assertion (A): Support from an emotionally involved friend is not the same as professional counselling. [1 mark] Reason (R): Friends are usually bound by professional codes of confidentiality.
Assertion (A): A test may be reliable and yet still be unsatisfactory. [1 mark] Reason (R): A test can measure something consistently without measuring what it claims to measure.
Assertion (A): A counsellor should learn the cultural norms of the client before interpreting long pauses in conversation. [1 mark] Reason (R): Silence is understood as a mark of respect in some cultures and as awkwardness or disagreement in others.
8.9 Check Your Concepts
Define counselling. [2 marks] (about 30 words)
State any two characteristics of the nature of counselling. [2 marks] (about 30 words)
What is meant by a working alliance? [2 marks] (about 30 words)
Define a psychometric test and give one example of an attribute it may measure. [2 marks] (about 30 words)
List any four components of effective communication in counselling. [2 marks] (about 30 words)
Differentiate between empathy and sympathy. [3 marks] (about 60 words)
Differentiate between hearing and listening, and state why the distinction matters in counselling. [3 marks] (about 60 words)
Distinguish between the role of a counsellor and that of a clinical psychologist. [3 marks] (about 60 words)
Give reasons why counselling is described as a non-judgemental process. [3 marks] (about 60 words)
Explain the meaning of paraphrasing with an example of how a counsellor might use it. [4 marks] (about 100 words)
Explain, with an example, how body language contributes to effective communication in counselling. What is meant by congruency between verbal and non-verbal messages? [4 marks] (about 100 words)
Why is confidentiality considered essential in counselling, and under what circumstance may it have to be set aside? [4 marks] (about 100 words)
What would happen if a counsellor became emotionally attached to a client? Explain your answer. [4 marks] (about 100 words)
Evaluate the claim that “anyone with plenty of life experience can be a good counsellor”. [4 marks] (about 100 words)
Describe the characteristics of a good counsellor, explaining the importance of each for the counselling relationship. [6 marks] (about 150 words)
Describe the components of communication that a counsellor must master, and explain how each one strengthens the counselling process. [6 marks] (about 150 words)
Compare counselling with psychotherapy, bringing out both their similarities and their differences. [6 marks] (about 150 words)
State the information a counsellor must clearly establish before administering a psychological test, and discuss the skills required to use such tests responsibly. [6 marks] (about 150 words)
Discuss the role of culture in listening, and explain why a counsellor working in a diverse country such as India must be sensitive to it. [6 marks] (about 150 words)
8.10 Case-Based Questions
- Meera, a Class XII student in Pune, is torn between taking up design and continuing with commerce, which her parents prefer. Her friend tells her firmly to “just do commerce, it’s safer”. The school counsellor instead asks Meera which subjects hold her attention for hours, what work she can picture doing for years, and what she fears most about disappointing her family. At the end of two sessions, Meera announces a decision the counsellor never once suggested. [6 marks]
- Identify the feature of counselling shown by the counsellor’s approach, and explain it.
- State two ways in which the counsellor’s help differs from the friend’s advice.
- What does this case suggest about the ultimate goal of counselling?
- Arun, a young man from a small town, has come for counselling in a large city. He speaks slowly, leaves long silences between sentences, rarely disagrees openly, and avoids direct eye contact with the counsellor. The counsellor, trained abroad, begins to note this as reluctance to engage. A senior colleague suggests that the counsellor look again at these signals. [6 marks]
- Explain why the counsellor’s first interpretation may be mistaken.
- Using the idea of high-context and low-context cultures, explain how meaning is carried differently across cultures.
- State one thing the counsellor should do differently in the next session.
- Farhan works long hours at a call centre in Gurugram and has begun to feel constantly tense and low. In his first session he hesitates, asking whether anything he says will reach his employer or his family. The counsellor explains clearly what will be kept private and the one situation in which this might not hold. Reassured, Farhan speaks openly for the first time in months. [6 marks]
- Name the element of counselling at work here and explain its importance.
- Explain the limit the counsellor described, and why such a limit exists.
- Why is it good practice to explain this limit at the very beginning rather than later?
- A school in Jaipur appoints a counsellor to help Class XI students choose subject streams. She administers standardised aptitude and interest tests to the whole batch. One student’s scores are low on the tests, and a teacher asks her to simply inform the family that the student “is not suited to science”. The counsellor declines and asks for a longer conversation with the student instead. [6 marks]
- Identify two qualities of a sound psychological test that the counsellor would have checked before using it.
- Give two reasons why the counsellor was right to refuse the teacher’s request.
- Explain how test results should properly be used in guiding a student.