a counsellor’ was considered as an ideal state, and many counsellors actualized their selves to reach that state. This corroborates with humanist theorists such as Rogers and Maslow who believe that humans have an innate tendency to self-actu- alize, evolve and strive towards achieving an ideal (McLeod 2003).
Apart from the inner willingness to change and to be consistent in all spheres of life, some counsellors went through a process of constant change and evolution because it was imposed by others such as their immediate family and friends. Such counsellors perceived the change as negative, where they became very analyti- cal or aloof from the world. Thus, counsellors either integrated their personal and professional roles (which has been found to make therapy and counselling more effective (Ronnestad and Starkey 2003) as they continued working on themselves, or they chose to keep the two lives disconnected and expected significant others to accept them for who they were. In this study, it was found that those who were in the process of achieving such integration (a majority of the respondents) appeared to feel more positive about being in the profession compared to the one counsel- lor who did not achieve the same level of assimilation of the personal with the professional.
Second, there appeared to be a positive relation between the number of clients encountered in a day and the counsellor’s physical and mental health. Although several studies warn mental health professionals and counsellors about adverse health effects (Oretlepp and Friedman 2002; Latha 2004), the findings in this study indicated that the counsellors who reported seeing six or more clients in a day had more severe health effects as compared to those who saw fewer clients. All coun- sellors saw the importance of taking care of themselves and engaged actively to either prevent ill health or proactively did something as soon as they saw symp- toms of ill health (Hunter and Schofield 2006). Therefore, it is definitely a prereq- uisite for a counsellor to be aware and keep a look out for any signs of ill health (Etherington 2001; McLeod 2003; Dryden and Reeves 2008; Corey 2009).
Third, the effect of interpersonal experiences in the personal life on the pro- fessional development of the counsellor has been evidenced by Ronnestad and Starkey (2003). The finding from this study indicates that counsellors’ self-growth (due to counselling process) usually had a positive impact on the counsellor’s fam- ily members. Married women counsellors faced personal and professional role confusions as compared to married men counsellors.
Moving onto professional practice, it was found that counsellors learned on the job and hence develop mastery and expertise through experience (finding also supported by Skovholt and Starkey 2010). It was found that counsellors tried new techniques and approaches that they believe in, and had learnt through experi- ence to contextualize various counselling approaches to work with their specific clients, which contributed to their professional development as counsellors. For instance, they had learnt not to depend solely on objective and physical tests and instruments but to make a more holistic assessment of the client and so on. Almost all counsellors were found to have a ‘learning’ tendency where they not only perceived their mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow in their practice but also to learn from their usual practice of what works and what does not (intense
willingness and commitment to grow and learn was also reported in Ronnestad and Skovholt 2003). Over the years, counsellors were found to become more self-reflective, had improved their skills, had corrected their mistakes and estab- lished their own ‘practice’ of counselling by trial and error (Skovholt et al. 1997;
Ronnestad and Skovholt 2003; Skovholt et al. 2004). This result strongly fits in with Kolb’s experiential learning model and hence aligns itself with Fortin and Chevrier (2003) study on the process of counselling and experiential learning.
Finally, counsellors became more confident, earning credibility and recognition over time from their clients and other professionals. Their professional journey became so much a part of them that they began to define their own self in terms of their profession (Ronnestad and Skovholt 2003; Skovholt et al. 2004). Despite the many challenges that counsellors faced, unanimously all of them expressed a sense of purpose, a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfilment by being in this pro- fession (Ronnestad and Skovholt 2003). Apart from their own progress and profes- sional development, counsellors were found to be committed to the counselling profession growing at a macro level (for example, create awareness, initiate multi- speciality setups, etc.) and hence had many expectations from society and from themselves to accentuate its development.
Counsellors seemed to be in a constant dynamic from being attached and asso- ciated with the client (for providing a conducive environment where the client can be comfortable, being empathetic) to being detached and dissociated (to maintain objectivity, to deduce from the client’s narrative and to take care of own self) and again to be associated with the self (to reflect and introspect on self and practice).
This shift from association to dissociation to association again seemed to exem- plify the entire counselling process.
It can be further added that the counselling process was not only a process with the client(s) in terms of sessions, but a process even with the self; it did not end when the client left the session, but continued thereafter. The counsellor’s con- tinuous review of self (consciously or unconsciously) extended the counselling process to mean more than a series of stages where a counsellor facilitates and empowers the client to resolve a problem, to a constant evolution of the self.
It is difficult for a counsellor to bifurcate their personal and professional lives.
When change and growth is bound to happen, it is recommended that counsellors voluntarily accept the positive change and consciously work towards an ‘inte- grated self’ rather than struggle to keep the personal and professional selves sepa- rate. However, it is important for counsellors to be aware of themselves and what they are going through in order to quickly recognize ill health, changing attitudes and perceptions. This would reflect in ‘physical and psychological vitality’ of the counsellor and hence better efficiency in work (Corey 2009, p. 35). Although many of the participants spoke of reflecting on their practice and improving their skills and techniques, not all did. This indicates that reflection and introspection into one’s own practice must be incorporated as a crucial module during the train- ing of counsellors. Since supervision is not very common, or easily available for practitioners in India, this appears to be the only other way in which reflective and evolutionary counselling can take precedence in India.
A general willingness and openness to learn and a strong inclination to work with people could be possible prerequisites for anyone wanting to become a counsellor. Since burnout and physical illnesses were quite common amongst the sample of counsellors, it is recommended that counsellors keep track of their own mental and physical capacity and schedule sessions accordingly for the day.
Sequencing sessions such that they are not back-to-back can take care of the coun- sellor’s health.
Multi-speciality centres which incorporate counsellors, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and remedial teachers need to come up so that clients can have a one-stop access to mental health professionals rather than go through the long pro- cess of going to other professionals. Finally, an authoritative body that issues a license of some kind, which has a check on practising counsellors and schedules regular reviews and license renewals, would enable the growth of counselling as a profession in India in the long run. A code of ethics that binds all practising counsellors to a common set of standards will also ensure equal and high-quality service to clients. The most efficient counselling practice that is culturally rooted needs to be identified, recorded, researched and tested. While counselling with its complex set of dynamics is an emerging and fast developing profession in India, it is still in its infancy and needs to be extensively explored.
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