So you have situation
on your hand and need to counsel an employees huh ?. Often, much
damage at the workplace can be avoided by a simple, genuine talk
with employees. It is here that the role and skill of the HRD
person comes in. However not many HR people have this skill themselves.
They think that the issue can be given to an outside specialist.
But before that happens the situation worsens or the HR person
never gets to do it. It is hence worthwhile to look at what are
the stages involved in counseling. We hope that you have gone
through our article on what is
the objective of counseling. Here are the five steps or stages
for a counseling campaign. One may follow the sequential order
or overlap.
I. Establish and maintain
the relationship with the counselee.
II. Explore and define the problems that counselee needs to
solve.
III. Establish goals and structure in the counseling process
in ways that will accomplish these goals.
IV. Explore and define the problems that counselee needs to
solve.
V. Follow up on the individuals progress after termination
Stage 1:
Establish and maintain the relationship with the counselee .
The objectives of this
stage are :
When the counselle feels
comfortable talking with you they will also feel confident that
you will help establishment of 'therapeutic alliance'. - a positive
alliance between the C and c. To achieve these objectives :
1. You must consistently
express warmth
2. Counselee must trust - to be genuine, congruent and confidential
3. There must exist a sense of mutual respect. The counselee grows
from experiencing the counselor's esteem.
4. The counselee must develop positive expectations.
5. You must listen attentively.
6. The counselee needs to ventilate feelings
7. The counselor must given adequate knowledge about the counselee
and the issue.
II. Explore and define
the problems that counselee needs to solve.
As the Counseling relationship
deepens greater trust develops.
Counselee feels more
freedom to express frightening or bothersome thoughts, feelings,
impulses and behaviours. (Experienced counselors know that the
first problems the individual discloses are often not major or
central ones). They often volunteer safer, less threatening problems
first.
Formulate a provisional
diagnostic impression to identify how to approach the counselee
:
1. What are the events
in this person's life that lead to through development of these
problems?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses within the counselee's
personality, structure?
3. What is the exact nature of the problem? - Character disorder,
adjustment reaction, anxiety disorder, affective disorder, pre-psychotic
condition?
4. What can be an initial treatment plan
Correct diagnosis is very important, because same behaviour or
symptom can indicate more than one kind of problem.
Carefully observe the
following :
How does the person respond
to you?
Is there apparent- nervousness, tension or anxiety.
What about signs of depression - confusion - or delusion?
Does the person seem hyper active.-slow in speech - physical movements?
What does the person talk about?
What does he ignore?
Observe verbal and non-verbal behaviour.
Use feedback from other
people to form the impression. The counselor's approach is now
to be conducted within this impression.
III. Establish goals
and structure in the counseling process in ways that will accomplish
these goals:
Once the counselee has
displayed some sort of symptoms of clear thinking he/ sheis ready
to face the problem with new courage and hope.
What do you need to do? Determine the necessary charges in action-thoughts,feelings.
- Goals must
be realistic
- One
goal leads to another goal. Overly compulsive plan is not advised-
because growth is our unfolding process
- Help
to more in a general direction toward solving problems
- Propose
possible goals and changes.
- Feelings
and attitudes about making these changes are called to the surface
and expressed.
- How
do you feel as you think about during that?
- Do
you think you can accomplish?
- The
person is helped to anticipate and evaluate how others might
respond to the possible changes.
IV. Help Counselee work
toward attaining his/her goals:
This is a critical point
where failure in the counseling process could possibly occur.
It is one thing to decide -what needs to be done and quite another
to do. The counseling process is usually an anxiety-providing
endeavour. Real counseling change either happens or fails. Stimulate
the counselee to act. Activities that can help the counselle gain
clarity in his/her goals are
Written assignments
Discussion at home.
Behavioural assignments
Reading assignments
Listening assignments
Implementation, Evaluation
and Reformulation fo the goals and stages should also be constantly
done.
V. Follow up on the
individuals progress after termination :
Do a periodic check-up
to see how the counsellee is progressing with his issues.
For
in-depth discussion of issues send an email to hrdissues-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Contact us for further consultation.
