DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE

APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCE

for SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Mr. Elwin A. Narciso, LPT
DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE
APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCE
UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE
APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCE
AND COUNSELLING
 Chapter 2│Understanding Counseling

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the chapter, the students will be able to:
1. define counseling and discuss its various aspects;
2. identify and discuss the goals and scope of counseling;
and
3. demonstrate comprehension of counseling principles;
4. discuss the stages of the counseling process; and
5. discuss the core values and ethical dimensions of
counseling.
What IS COUNSELING
?
 WHAT IS COUNSELING?
COUNSELING is an interactive process
characterized by a unique relationship
between the counselor and client, which
leads to the client experiencing changes in
his/her Behavior, Beliefs, and the Level of
Emotional Distress.

 Also known as helping profession. It seeks

to improve the client’s mental health and
well-being.
 THE FOCUS OF INTEREST OF
COUNSELING
 BEHAVIOR- This refers to overt changes in
the client’s actions, as well as his or her
coping skills, decision-making skills, and
interaction skills.
 THE FOCUS OF INTEREST OF
COUNSELING
 BELIEFS-These refer to ways of thinking
about oneself, the others, and the world,
or emotional concerns relating to those
perceptions.
 THE FOCUS OF INTEREST OF
COUNSELING
 LEVELS OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS- This
relates to uncomfortable feelings or
reactions to environmental stress
(Patterson and Welfel, 2000).
The OBJECTIVES of
COUNSELING
 OBJECTIVES OF
COUNSELING
 Good mental health means that
people feel comfortable about
themselves. This means that they are
not easily overwhelmed by their own
emotions (fears, anger, love, jealousy,
guilt, and or worries). This also means
that they can take life’s
disappointments in stride and accept
their own shortcomings.
 OBJECTIVES OF
COUNSELING
 Mentally healthy people also feel
right about other people. They have
satisfying and lasting personal
relationships, are able to give love and
consider the interests of others, and
respect their differences with other
people.
 OBJECTIVES OF
COUNSELING
 Good mental health means that
people are able to meet demands of
life. They are able to act on problems
as they arise, accept their
responsibilities, and welcome new
experiences and ideas (Newstrom,
2007)
The COUNSELING
FUNCTION
1. ADVICE
 1. ADVICE
This pertains to telling a client what
should be done. However, counseling
is more than an advice giving activity.
To give useful advice, the counselor
should be able to make judgments
about the client’s problems and lay
out the possible course of action.
2. REASSURANCE
 2. REASSURANCE
This involves giving the client courage
and confidence that he or she is capable
of facing a problem. One problem with
reassurance is that the client does not
always accept it. Even if the client initially
accepts reassurance, his or her
temporary self-confidence may fade
away as soon as he or she faces the
problems again.
3. COMMUNICATION
 3. COMMUNICATION
This entails providing information and
understanding. Counseling is an
exchange of ideas and feelings
between two people-the counselor
and the clients.
 4. RELEASE OF
EMOTIONAL TENSION
 4. RELEASE OF
EMOTIONAL TENSION
This involves helping a client become
free of frustration and stress. This is
sometimes called emotional catharis-
the process of getting rid of worries,
of clearing your emotional baggage
and or the purification of the
body/mind/soul from any negativities
of life.
 4. RELEASE OF
EMOTIONAL TENSION
Counseling provides the client an
opportunity to release his/her
emotional tension by talking about
his/her frustrations and other
problems. The release of tension does
not necessarily solve people’s
problem, but it does remove mental
blocks by finding a solution.
5. CLARIFIED
THINKING
 5. CLARIFIED
Through
THINKING
emotional release , the
counselor encourages the client to
engage in more coherent, rational,
and mature thought. Clarified thinking
enables the client to accept
responsibility for emotional problems
and think of realistic solutions to
them.
6. REORIENTATION
 6. REORIENTATION
This involves a transformation in the
client through a change in his or her
goals, values, and mental models.
Reorientation helps the client
recognize and accept his or her own
limitations as well (Newstrom, 2007).
The COMPONENTS of
COUNSELING
The COUNSELOR
 The COUNSELOR
A COUNSELOR is a trained professional
who serves clients through therapeutic
communication, which entails
encouraging disclosure, listening to the
client, and giving advice, among other
things.
A counselor can be guidance counselor in
school, clinical psychologist, psychiatrist,
a marriage counselor, an organizational
behavior specialist, and even a doctor,
lawyer, or parish priest.
Expected ATTRIBUTES
and VALUES of a
Counselor
 ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
OF A COUNSELOR
1. A genuine desire to help client.
The counselor should have a
genuine desire to help the client.
This genuine desire must be
experienced by the client
throughout the counseling
process. If the client feels
otherwise, counseling would prove
to be unproductive.
 ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
OF A COUNSELOR
2. An acceptance of and respect for
the client. Acceptance of and
respect for the client are essential
in building trust and confidence in a
counseling relationship. The
counselor must demonstrate a
positive attitude toward the client
to maintain the latter’s trust and
ensure the success of counseling.
 ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
OF A COUNSELOR
3. An ability to listen and understand
the client’s psychological pain from
his or her perspective. This includes
creating an environment in which the
client feels safe enough to disclose
personal issues to the counselor. This
is achieved by the counselor’s action
such as keeping quiet while the client
talks, intervening only to encourage
 ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
OF A COUNSELOR
him/her to continue the explanation;
demonstrating a keen interest in what she
is saying; and communicating a non-
judgmental attitude.
 ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES
OF A COUNSELOR
4. Excellent therapeutic communication
skills. Effective communication skills will
help the counselor guide the client in
understanding him/herself and his or
her situation. It is necessary to help the
client understand the connection
between his or her present and past
feelings, thinking, and behavior, and
certain unresolved conflicts in his or her
life.
The CLIENT
 The CLIENT
A CLIENT is a person who experiences
therapeutic problems in his/her life. A
client includes those who are
mentally and physically drained
person, emotionally depressed
individuals and even with those who
looses spiritual concepts’ person.
The CLIENTS’ Situated
Problems
 CLIENTS’ SITUATED
PROBLEMS
1. Personal Pain. This pain may be a
reaction to an adversity like the death of
a loved one, or it may be an enduring
concern like chronic low self-esteem.
However, there are times when a client
seeks counseling not exactly because of
personal pain but for other reasons,
e.g., deciding what course to pursue in
college, choosing a job offer, or learning
how to improve class performance.
 CLIENTS’ SITUATED
PROBLEMS
2. Help-seeking by choice. Counseling is
based on the assumption that a client
has voluntarily decided to seek help. A
client whose marriage is on the rocks
may opt to see a marriage counselor to
seek help on how to save marriage. A
student who is confused as to what
course to pursue may also choose to see
a counselor.
CLIENTS’ SITUATED
PROBLEMS
 CLIENTS’ SITUATED
PROBLEMS
3. Personal Issues. Counselors hold the
view that all client behaviors are a result
of the issues they struggle with. Clients
inevitably bring their problems to the
counseling sessions and these could
affect their behavior during counseling.
 The WORKING
ALLIANCE between
Counselor and Client
(GOALS and
COMPONENT)
 The COUNSELING BOND
Ed Bordin (1979) argued that
counseling and psychotherapy can
be best understood as an alliance
between the counselor and the
client who work together through
the process. This relationship is
described as the counseling bond.
 CORE CONDITIONS
These are the conditions that brings
about constructive personality
change in the client. There are
three core conditions which must
be experienced by the client:
empathy, respect, and genuineness
 The THREE CORE
CONDITIONS
EMPATHY is experienced when the
counselors put themselves in the
place of the client. An empathetic
counselor will be able to better
understand the experiences of his or
her client.
 The THREE CORE
CONDITIONS
RESPECT is the counselor’s positive
regard for client. Roger(1957)
originally called this unconditional
positive regard (UPR), which involves
caring for the client without setting
conditions for doing so.
 The THREE CORE
CONDITIONS
Genuineness means being consistent
in one’s feelings, thoughts, and
behavior in the relationship.
 The GOALS OF
PSYCHOTHERAPY: The
Counseling Process
 The GOALS OF
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Alvin Mahrer in his book “The Goals of
Psychotherapy” (1967) argued that
there are two types of goals:
1. Amelioration of psychological
distress, and
2. Promotion of psychological
growth.
 Additional GOALS OF
COUNSELING
The counselor increases the chances of
helping his or her client when they both
agree to pursue goals that are:
1. Within the client’s direct control to
achieve
2. Realistic and achievable
3. Set by the client himself/herself
4. Positively and clearly stated
 Additional GOALS OF
COUNSELING
5. Uncontaminated by psychological
disturbance
6. Based on the present state of the client
7. Reflective of the amount of effort the
client is willing to devote in achieving
these goals
8. Look into their views about the
problems being addressed and how the
counseling process can address these.
 The SOCRATIC DIALOGUE
A method of assisting clients to determine
how accurate and helpful certain thoughts
may be. Specifically, this is done by
exploring how the client came to have
those thoughts, and evaluating the
evidence regarding those and other
possible thoughts. This process is
undertaken in a spirit of respectful
curiosity.
 The SOCRATIC DIALOGUE
The therapist guides this exploration
using questions, but does not
presume a pre-set outcome and
instead professes an ignorance of the
topic with the client seen as the
expert in his or her own experiences.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
SOCRATIC DIALOGUE
• Clarification of the thought
• Critical examination of the thought
• Exploration of the origin or source of
the statement
• Examination of the implications and
consequences of the statement
• Examination of alternative views
 Process GOALS IN
COUNSELING
(The Outcome and the
Process Goals)
 OUTCOME GOALS
It the intended result of counseling.
They are described in terms of change
in the client after the counseling
sessions and outside the counselor’s
office.
 PROCESS GOALS
These are objectives that must be
achieved during the counseling sessions
and in the counselor’s office.
They are considered instrumental in
bringing about outcome goals.
One process goal is the establishment of
rapport between the counselor and the
client.
Example: The creation of an environment
where the client has trust and confidence
in the counselor.
PROCESS GOALS
OUTCOME GOALS OF
COUNSELING
 OUTCOME GOALS OF
COUNSELING
Counseling leads to change in the
client. This is true for both individual
counseling and group counseling and
whether the expressed intent of
counseling is developmental
(oriented toward personal growth) or
remedial (oriented toward the
resolution of problems).
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS
BEHAVIORAL CHANGES is easy to
recognize because it is overt and
observable.
A behavioral change might be the
manner of solving a problem, as in the
case of the child who learns to get what
he or she wants from others through
verbal requests and negotiation rather
than physical aggression.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS
1. BEHAVIORAL CHANGES
A behavioral change can enhance one’s
potential for personal growth, as in the
case of a middle-aged person who
returns to school or embarks on a new
career.
Changes in thoughts and attributes tend
to precede changes in behavior.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS
2. Improvement in COPING WITH THE
REALITIES OF LIFE
There are certain environmental
conditions that are adverse and are
difficult to change. However, learning
how to manage one’s life in the face of
adversity makes room for
accomplishment and enjoyment despite
such conditions.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS
3. IMPROVE MAKING IMPORTANT LIFE
DECISIONS
The counselor teaches the client self-
assessment techniques and ways to use
information to arrive at personally
satisfying answers.
For example, we know that career
counseling is still a major concern in
colleges and universities.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS

When one is confused about what

course to pursue, he or she may
undergo career counseling.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS
4. CHANGE IN BELIEFS
May also occur due to counseling.
This may not be directly observable but
can be assessed from the client’s verbal
responses.
An example of change in beliefs is the
improvement of the self-concept of
clients; they begin to deem themselves
competent and worthy of being loved.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS

Another example of change in beliefs is a

boost in the morale of the client.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS
5. RELIEF/REDUCE EMOTIONAL
DISTRESS
Clients are able to find an avenue
where they can safely vent negative
feeling about themselves. They are
able to feel accepted and understood,
and prevent emotional distress from
fully interfering with their daily
activities.
 SEVERAL CHANGES IN THE
COUNSELING PROCESS

For example, counseling and debriefing

sessions help victims of disasters process
and recover from the trauma of their
experience.
The Stages of the
COUNSELING
PROCESS
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
At the start of counseling, the
counselor and the client do not
know each other well and have no
prior contact.
Relationship building is the first
important step in the counseling
process.
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
One important task of the counselor
in this stage is to allay the client’s
fears and encourage self-disclosure.
Example: A student, for example, may
have been sent to the counselor by his
or her teacher. A counselor might
have been referred to the client by a
friend.
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
To encourage disclosure, the
counselor must set conditions that
promote trust. Rogers (1951)
described these trust-promoting
conditions as the characteristics of
the helping relationship:
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
1. Empathy- understanding another’s
experience as if it were your own.
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
2. Congruence or Genuineness-
having one’s actions consistently
reflect his or her thoughts and
feelings.
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
3. Unconditional Positive Regard-
caring for the client without setting
conditions for doing so.
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
4. Concreteness- using clear language
to described the client’s life
situation (Patterson and Welfel
2000).
 The First Stage: INITIAL
DISCLOSURE
 According to Carkhuff (1973) and
Egan (1998), another important
counselor behavior at the start of
counseling is attending, or paying
careful attention to the client’s
words and actions.
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
In the second stage of counseling, the
client should gain a clearer
understanding of his or her life
concerns and begin to develop a new
sense of hope and direction.
At this stage, a broad outline of the
pattern of desired change is beginning
to emerge.
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
In this stage, the relationship
between the counselor and the client
becomes more secure. The counselor
discusses his or her impressions and
observations of the client’s coping
behavior.
The counselor must help the client
examine these coping behavior and
whether or not they are effective in
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
solving his or her problems.
The counselor not only shows
understanding of the client’s
circumstances, but also the
willingness to further explore better
options of resolving problems.
It should be noted that, when making
responses, the counselor not only
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
exercises empathy, but also
incorporates information from prior
sessions.
For instance, if trust has been built in
the first stage, the relationship
between the counselor and the client
becomes less tenuous and fragile than
the beginning. Tension beyond
tolerable limits is avoided, even when
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
The counselor begins to use more
intervention tools and further explores
personal information about the client.
The client becomes more ready to
disclose more information to the
counselor.
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
 The IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
1. Immediacy- is an important quality that
counselors must exhibit in this stage of
counseling. It can be characterized in three
different ways (Egan; 1998).
a. It can relate to general discussions about
the progress of the counseling relationship
(Is the counseling process progressing in a
way that is satisfactory to you?)
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
b. It can also be manifested in the immediate
reaction to the client’s statement s or I asking
the client to disclose current thoughts about
the counselor (I am wondering about your
reaction to my comments about your
teacher?)
c. Immediacy can be seen in self-involving
statements that express the counselor’s
personal reaction to client’s progress (I am
impressed with what you have accomplished
in just a few counseling sessions.)
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
2. Assessment- is a process of information
gathering that takes into account the
client’s history, life circumstances, and
strengths. It involves the use of
behavioral observations, information
from those connected to the client, and
finding from standardized test (e.g.,
Personality Test and Career Preference
Tests).
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
A Personality
Test.

Example of
Assessment in
the Counseling
Process
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
3. Diagnosis- the actual identification
of the problem that shall be
addressed. Once a diagnosis is
established, the counselor and the
client can now identify the goals and
plans that must be achieved to
address the diagnosed problem.
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
3. Diagnosis
 The Second Stage: IN-DEPTH
EXPLORATION
At this stage, clients must realize that
their habitual behavior may be
detrimental to their well-being. The
clients are challenged to stop engaging in
the “familiar” yet harmful behavior, and
instead engage in “unfamiliar” yet
beneficial behavior. Counselors,
meanwhile, must maintain a caring
relationship and avoid insulting the client
for his or her past behavior.
 The Third Stage:
COMMITMENT TO ACTION
The client must decide on how to
accomplish the goals defined during the
second stage.
He or she must identify or choose from
possible courses or action and aim for the
best possible outcome.
Ideally, the client comes up with or
chooses a course of action with help and
encouragement from the counselor.
 The Third Stage:
COMMITMENT TO ACTION
Once a decision is made, the client must
commit to his plan and to his or her
behavior while keeping in touch with the
counselor. Both the counselor and the
client then monitor the client’s ultimate
progress in solving his or her problem/s.
In case no action is planned, the last stage
of counseling can focus on making sure
that the client has done everything
possible to deal with his/her situation.
The TYPES OF
COUNSELING
 DIRECTIVE COUNSELING
Involves learning about, planning to solve,
and motivating a client to act on his or her
problems.
Mostly accomplishes the counseling
function of advice, but it may also
reassure, communicate, give emotional
release, and to a minor extent clarify
thinking.
In direct counseling, it is the counselor
who does most of the talking.
 DIRECTIVE COUNSELING
The counselor is implicitly superior to
the client. He or she is the “boss” or
the “supervisor” of the client who is
the “employee”.
The client is psychologically
dependent on the counselor whose
role as a problem solver may limit the
client’s personal growth.
 NONDIRECTIVE COUNSELING
or
CLIENT-CENTERED
COUNSELING
Opposite end of the continuum.
Involves skillfully listening to and
encouraging a client to explain his or
her issues, understand them, and
determine appropriate solutions.
Focuses on the client rather than the
counselor; thus, the client does all the
talking in this type of counseling.
 NONDIRECTIVE COUNSELING
or
CLIENT-CENTERED
The client is COUNSELING
psychologically
independent as a person, choosing a
solution and making a better choices
for his or her future.
The counselor, meanwhile, listens to
the client in a caring and supportive
manner, and helps him or her discover
better courses of actions.
 NONDIRECTIVE COUNSELING
or
CLIENT-CENTERED
COUNSELING
Counselors follow the iceberg model of
counseling, which recognizes that there
may be certain feelings not revealed
despite communication with the client.
This is why nondirective counselors
encourage their clients to open up
more and reveal deeper feelings which
may be necessary in solvong their
problems.
NONDIRECTIVE COUNSELING
or
CLIENT-CENTERED
COUNSELING
 PARTICIPATIVE COUNSELING
or
COOPERATIVE COUNSELING
A mutual counselor-client relationship
that establishes a cooperative exchange
of ideas to help solve a client’s
problem/s.
The counselor and the client both
mutually apply their different knowledge,
perspectives, and values to problems.
Considered as a balanced compromise
that combines the good features of both
directive and nondirective counseling.
 PARTICIPATIVE COUNSELING
or
COOPERATIVE COUNSELING
 It starts by using the listening techniques of
nondirective counseling.
 However, as the counseling session progresses,
participative counselors may apply a more
active role than that of nondirective counselor.
 Participative counselors can help client develop
a different view of the problem.
 In general, participative counseling achieves
the four counseling functions of reassurance,
communication, emotional release, and
clarified thinking,
 The ETHICAL
DIMENSIONS OF
COUNSELING
 1. INFORMED CONSENT
This means that the counselor has
informed the client of what to expect
in the counseling process and that the
client has given his or her consent to
participate in the process.
 2. CONFIDENTIALITY
This means that the counselor should
not disclose confidential information
trusted to him or her by his or her
client. However, it should be made
clear that there are limits to absolute
confidentiality and these need to be
clarified with the client before
counseling.
 2. CONFIDENTIALITY
For instance, the counselor must
inform a relevant third party if the
client poses a significant risk to his or
her own life. If the client’s counseling
is being paid for by a private
insurance company, it is likely that the
counselor will have to provide
periodic reports to the company.
2. CONFIDENTIALITY
 3. PROTECTION AND
DEVELOPMENT
The counselor is expected to
protect the welfare of his/her client
as well as his or her life. It is a
professional requirement for
counselors to have their work
supervised. Supervision of
counseling work enables the
counselor to offer his or her client a
more effective and safer service.
 3. PROTECTION AND
DEVELOPMENT
In addition, continuing professional
development of counselors is
encouraged for their accreditation
to be renewed (Dryden, 2006).
CHAPTER

SUMMA
RY
 SUMMARY:
 Counseling is the interactive
process characterized by a unique
relationship between the
counselor and client which leads
to changes in the client’s
behavior, beliefs, and levels of
emotional distress.
 SUMMARY:
 Counseling aims to help clients
improve their mental health and
well-being. This is achieved
through the counseling functions
such as advice, reassurance,
communication, release of
emotional tension, clarified
thinking, and reorientation.
 SUMMARY:
 The important components in counseling are
the counselor, the client, and the working
alliance between the two.
 The outcome goals of counseling are changes
that occur at the end of the counseling
sessions. These include behavioral change,
improvement in decision-making and coping
skills, changes in beliefs or values, and relief
from emotional distress. Process goals, on
the other hand, refer to actions done during
counseling session.
 SUMMARY:
 The counseling process has three stages:
initial disclosure, in-depth exploration,
and commitment to action.
 The different types of counseling include:
directive counseling, nondirective
counseling, and participative counseling.
 Counseling has an ethical dimension
which focuses on the following
considerations: informed consent,
confidentiality, and protection and
development.
Thank You for
Listening.
“God Bless to
Everyone.”