Counsellor Characteristics and the Counselling Experience
2.6 Counsellor Characteristics
2.6.2 Personal Characteristics
Personal characteristics refer to qualities that the participants attribute to them- selves that help in exploring the inner world of the individual. Personality char- acteristics of the counsellor have an important bearing on therapeutic outcomes (Garfield and Bergin 1986; Barnlund and Araki 1985). Wosket (2002) has sug- gested a natural correlation between the personal characteristics of the counsel- lor and the way their style and approach develops. The participants had ascribed several attributes to themselves during the course of the interview and believed that most of their personal attributes contributed to their effectiveness as a coun- sellor. The participants had delineated certain personal attributes such as being a good listener, being patient and accepting; as contributing to their effectiveness as a counsellor.
Motivation
Sussman (1992) suggested that there are certain common motivations behind the pursuit of the profession. These include desires to be idealized, to provide nurtur- ance, to be in a dominant position and to achieve intimacy. In order to construct a more adept picture about the nature of counsellors, an examination of the motiva- tion that drove counsellors to join and sustain in the profession was vital. Most of the participants had expressed a desire to help people and to work closely with them. Many were drawn towards psychotherapy as a career because of their own personal difficulties, in keeping with past research (Dryden and Spurling 1989).
Prachi and Megha had accounted for their motivation to observing significant oth- ers deal with disability and terminal illness. Wosket (2002) suggests that counsel- lors are willing to deal with clients’ loss, grief and anguish as a way of rehearsing their own losses; thus, the ‘wounded healer’ (Jung 1951) may be attempting to pre- vent further injury.
Additionally, role models served as inspiration to the participants. Rajesh and Raina gave credit to a college teacher for having kindled their interest in counsel- ling. Henry et al. (1973) found that over 60 % of psychologists were primarily influenced in the counselling profession by teachers. Megha believed that super- visor feedback helped her grow and sustain in the field despite the sensitive and
emotionally exhausting nature of her work in paediatric palliative counselling. She also credited a family member (grandfather) as a role model who inspired her to join the field of counselling. Over two-thirds of those surveyed by Henry, Sims and Spray indicated that their initial interest in the field was due to the influence of family members who served as role models, who overtly encouraged the career choice, or enthusiastically supported the future therapist’s personal choice.
It was particularly interesting to discover that Rajesh, a psychiatrist, turned to the counselling profession after he had found himself dissatisfied with the profes- sion of psychiatry. He felt that psychiatry did not consider the social interactions between doctor and patient as a valid concern, having an impact upon the heal- ing process. He then turned to counselling and therapy as a means to bridge this gap. It is significant to note that despite primarily being identified as a psychiatrist, Rajesh goes beyond the biomedical model of mental health to include psychoso- cial elements as well.
There is also an element of circumstantiality and chance in participants’ entry to the profession. Rashmi professed that counselling alone was not sufficiently sat- isfying for her and that she entered the field ‘as a last resort’. Though Manjeet had entered the profession ‘by chance’, she enjoyed working with children and accounted for it to keep her motivated and engaged in the field.
The participants had expressed several needs and their manifestations in the course of their narrative—to help, for achievement, learning, respect, approval and belongingness. Burton and Associates (1972, p. 2) expressed the view that ‘psy- chotherapy succeeds best when the therapist himself participates deeply in the process as a human being. When some of his growth needs are met, the therapy prospers; when they are not met, the therapy languishes’. All participants had expressed the need to help people and Prachi regards altruism as an essential value that counsellors should possess. The need for achievement and for learning has been inferred from the career trajectory of the counsellors. The participants had acquired certification in several therapeutic modalities and two were pursuing their Ph.D. studies.
The participants were very driven individuals and took initiative in their career.
Megha systematically specialized in the field of palliative and paediatric counsel- ling across her academic and professional career. She also ‘pioneered in setting up the first paediatric palliative centre in India’. Manjeet had been negotiating with the school administration to provide students with more time available to access one-on-one counselling sessions. Raina had been undergoing supervised practice and therapy in an effort to better herself as a professional. There is some evidence that personal therapy enhances the subsequent professional effectiveness of coun- sellors by giving a reliable basis for the confident and appropriate ‘use of self’
(Baldwin 2009) in relationships with clients. Personal therapy has also been posi- tively associated with the ability to display empathy, warmth and genuineness, and his or her increased emphasis on the personal relationship in therapy (Wogan and Norcross 1985).
Values
Packard believes that all individuals behave in accordance with a set of values, whether these have been thought out and made explicit or not. Therefore, it is impossible for a counsellor to maintain a position of neutrality (Packard 2009).
Values have been defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action that counsellors should take. Participants had been asked about values that a counsellor brings to the process and about the values that they believe guide the profession such as rights of a client. The resulting responses have, thus, been cat- egorized into two types—personal/cultural and professional values.
Personal/Cultural Values
In order to be able to relate to clients who hold different values and cultures from their own, counsellors need to develop sensitivity to value differences, a very important issue in the counselling process (Kelly and Strupp 1992). Participants had considered altruism and respect for individuality as overarching values that defined their practice.
Participants had demonstrated sensitivity to value differences and attempted to resist imposing their own value system on the client. For example, Megha did not believe in gender discrimination but deliberately refrained from expressing this to a client who held a different view to avoid alienating the client and affecting the counselling process. Kunal experienced a conflict of values with certain clients who he defined as ‘typical masculine husbands who think women are beggars or their servants who are here to serve them’. He found it difficult to work objec- tively with such clients, and noted himself experiencing anger during the counsel- ling process. According to Propst (1996), counsellors’ sensitivity to clients’ values can be decisive to the success of the therapy, since the counsellors’ competence in communicating within the clients’ value framework influences the outcome for the clients. This opinion has been supported by Bell (1996) and Wosket (2002).
Professional Values
The participants were asked about the values they believed were an essential part of the process of counselling. All agreed that confidentiality and being non- judgmental were the most important professional values. Nondirective behaviour, empathy and respecting the client were other popular responses. Client auton- omy was regarded as the central goal of counselling by all participants. Equality between the client and counsellor had also been emphasized. Raina deliberately made use of the term ‘client’ to establish equality. Most participants viewed their role as service providers and believed values such as providing maximum bene- fit to clients and not over-charging clients should govern the counselling process.
Kunal emphatically stated that as counsellors—‘you need to give the client value
for money… Not give the client s***’. The participants advocated collaboration and taking client feedback regarding the process and outcome of counselling.
Updating one’s skills had been explicitly advocated by Raina who had trained in a different therapeutic modality every year since she had begun practicing. The importance of competence is echoed by Sommers-Flanagan (2012) when they state that the practitioner must have the knowledge to perform whatever service the profession offers. Other participants also shared this value as demonstrated by their pursuit of further training and updating their skills. Closely related to com- petence is an important ethical concept—informed consent—that refers to clients’
rights to know about and consent to the ways the counsellor intends to work with them. Raina explicitly discussed the value of informed consent and the client’s right to refuse to participate in the process of counselling.
Biases
Counsellors are not without their ‘shadow’ side, which reflect their vulnerabili- ties and blind spots. The narratives revealed biases that participants held against certain types of clients and issues. Rashmi indicated a bias against clients of high SES, and claimed that they tended to be ‘suspicious’ and preoccupied with confi- dentiality. She had opinions regarding sharing information pertaining to therapeu- tic modality: ‘We usually don’t discuss such details with the clients. They don’t understand all these therapies and all.’ This bias seems to be stemming from the traditional hierarchical doctor–patient relationship in which doctors are seen to wield expert power (French and Raven 1959); and by behaving like doctors, coun- sellors may be attempting to gain respect and public recognition for their work.
Allying themselves with a more powerful group may also be an attempt at defining professional identity.
Rashmi shared an anecdote about a gay client who came for counselling with problems at work. The anecdote revealed how a counsellor’s unacknowledged bias could impact the counselling process.
It was a very difficult case for me. It was transgender. Gay. It was a little away from my regular normal cases. That was challenging. I worked with him and I heard that he is doing well now. But his original problem has not been solved. He just wanted one session.
He knows about it for a long time…about his problem but he also doesn’t want to come out. He doesn’t want to talk about it or about any other option. He wanted to live within his own limitations. Then better for him. See I am very realistic. If he wants to be like this, let him be like this. When there are no options for them, I tell them straight away. If at one needs to be radical then one has to be. (Rashmi)
The manner and tone of voice in which the client was refereed to—‘a gay’—
was seen as pejorative. The participant’s stance reflected that the client’s homosex- uality was inherently abnormal. Further, she conceptualized it as problematic and as a ‘limitation’. Besides, she did not refer the client to another counsellor who may have been better equipped to help him. Neither did the counsellor explore her role in influencing the outcome of this particular encounter.
Surprisingly, a bias against the ‘wounded healer’ was also seen in the narra- tive of a participant. According to Guggenbühl-Craig (1971), in the therapeutic encounter, there is the healer-physician and the wounded patient. In order to pro- mote healing, the physician tries to activate the patient’s own healing powers. And yet, the healer-physician has wounds too and this experience of being wounded is what makes them equals. Kunal expressed a bias against counsellors who admit- ted to having personal problems and found solace in the process of counselling.
Kunal felt that such individuals jeopardized the profession. Acknowledging a fel- low counsellor’s vulnerability may be seen as threatening, as it may necessitate the confrontation of personal vulnerability, which goes against the image of the coun- sellor as healer, expert and problem-solver.
Stressors and Coping Style
Participants also shared experiences of stress with the researcher. ‘Stress’ was con- ceptualized as an impact of certain aspects of the job, as a result for example in burn out, and as an experienced state which could be understood by reflection. The participants reported encountering problems related to time, workplace politics, excessive workload, emotional depletion and excessive paperwork. Megha, Raina and Prachi had confessed to burn out due to personal losses and tiredness, depres- sion and reluctance to go to work. They had taken time off from work and turned to their support system of family and friends to help them cope.
Participants were asked how they coped with stress and emotional distress that the counselling process can sometimes bring up. ‘Switch on/switch off’ mechanism was a particular favourite of all participants. They used this term to describe a mechanism that they have developed with experience, which allowed them to dis- tinguish between their personal and professional lives. Participants shelved feel- ings and thoughts in the counselling room that ‘contained’ them until they were ready to revisit them. Containment refers to a space where the individual’s feel- ings can be borne and thought about; it can be used to understand the role that the physical setting of the counsellor’s room serves (Bion 1970). Within the counsel- ling situation, participants used humour and detachment to maintain objectivity.
Participants also deliberately cultivated an optimistic perspective regarding cli- ent drop-out by attributing them to clients’ feeling better and ceasing to require counselling. Rashmi credited her training with making it easier to deal with the emotional problems that clients shared by responding with empathy rather than sympathy.
Participants also turned to distractions such as television, watching movies and cooking as ways of relaxing. Exercise, meditation and prayer were used as means of coping. Physical exercise is a major self-care strategy for many counsel- lors, not only for its physical benefits and its contrast with the sedentary nature of their work but also for its psychological benefits (Hays 2002) as cited in (Pope and Vasquez 2007).
In terms of coping it has been noted that psychologists find a variety of coping methods useful namely, talking, socializing and connecting with family. It seems that social support is of great importance (Worden 2009; Doka 2002). The partici- pants in the study also turned to their social network for support in helping them to cope with work stress. Discussions with one’s colleagues, supervisor, mentor and spouse also helped them to cope. For example, Megha’s work with terminally ill clients, especially children, generated stress, as it was a high-affect situation that made large demands upon her but denied her a chance to affect the outcome. She narrated an incident in which she had been called into work at the request of a dying child.
I just opened the door, he looked at me and he said, ‘aunty’ and he died…after that at least eight days I couldn’t sleep. I used to remember his face and those eyes. After that I cried and cried in front of Madam. She never said that don’t cry. And she said that ‘you should look at this from another perspective; that while dying that child thought of you so you really became that important for him and so you could give him a peaceful death. And secondly you could give him smiles for three months, so it’s ok.’ So you know that was a good help for me to deal with my own emotional and psychological issues. That day I came home and I actually told my husband that that was my last visit to hospital and after that I cannot go. He was really very supportive. And after a while I started going back.
(Megha)
The tremendous loss that one sometimes experiences as a counsellor and the strength it takes to sustain in the profession are aptly demonstrated in Megha’s account.