Counsilling

• Global definition of social work:

  • A practice-based profession and academic discipline
  • Promotes social change, development, social cohesion, empowerment, and liberation of peoples
  • Central principles: social justice, human rights, collective responsibility, respect for diversities
  • Engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance well-being
• Social work definition in the Philippines:

  • Concerned with organized social service activity
  • Aims to facilitate and strengthen basic social relationships and mutual adjustment between individuals and their social environment
  • Utilizes social work methods for the good of the individual and society
• Purpose of social work:

  • Promotes, restores, maintains, and enhances social functioning
  • Plans, formulates, and implements social policies, services, resources, and programs
  • Advocates and initiates social-political action for empowerment and social justice
  • Develops and tests knowledge and skills necessary for the profession
• Social functioning:

  • Focuses on the relation between people's activity and environmental demands
  • Emphasizes the match between individual needs, capacities, and social environment opportunities
  • Includes the ability to meet basic needs and perform major roles in society
• Improved social functioning:

  • Involves accomplishing tasks necessary to meet basic needs and perform major roles
  • Refers to a person's ability to meet needs and perform roles required by their community subculture
• Social care:

  • Provides access to basics of life for those in need
• Social treatment:

  • Involves modifying or correcting dysfunctional patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior
• Social enhancement:

  • Emphasizes growth and development without identifying a specific problem
• Historical development of counseling and social work:

  • Both have complex and interactive histories
  • Share theoretical origins and ways of thinking
  • Have influenced each other in terms of skills, knowledge, and values
• Counseling in social work:

  • Empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish goals
  • Involves helping people make changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving
  • Goal-based collaborative process with a non-judgmental counselor
• Central concept in social work counseling:

  • PIE framework for understanding client situations, problems, and needs
  • Dual focus on working with the individual and their environment
  • Counseling activities utilizing PIE perspective to promote change and adaptation
• Practice reality:

  • Key differences in the use and application of counseling in social work practice
  • Clients seek help voluntarily in counseling, while social work involves societal and legal mandates
• Professional boundary:

  • Counseling and social work have distinct identities and training directions
  • Counseling focuses on individual-centered approaches, while social work encompasses a broader perspective including macro-level interventions
• Getting started in social work counseling:

  • Building rapport with clients
  • Ensuring confidentiality and consent
  • Screening and contracting with clients
  • Clarifying expectations from counseling for both clients and counselors
  • Recognizing multicultural differences and language barriers
• Multi-Cultural Recognition:

  • Be aware of multi-cultural differences such as race, religion, gender, age, and ethnicity
• Language Difference:

  • Counselors should learn the client's language to communicate effectively
• Setting the environment:

  • Ensure the client is comfortable during the counseling session
• Stopping the Counseling Session:

  • Clients should be informed they can take a break anytime they need to
  • Emphasize that the session is meant to be helpful and that the counselor is working for them
• Termination:

  • Discuss termination in the first session so clients know they are expected to get better and move on in life independently
• Activities that May be Disruptive to the Client:

  • Note taking, recording, video taping, and other documentation activities may make clients feel uncomfortable
  • Inform clients about the purpose of such activities and assure confidentiality of shared information
  • Obtain client consent for such activities
• Be Yourself:

  • Be genuine and true to your values, personal ethics, professional ethics, and the law
• Use Humor:

  • Use humor in counseling, ensuring it is never at the client's expense
  • Ensure the client understands your humor
• Always Deal with the Presenting Crisis:

  • Focus on the client's current crisis before moving on to other issues or problems
• Focus on your Communication:

  • Be aware of your non-verbal communication
  • Remember that how you say something is as important as what you say
• Continually Assess the Client's Readiness for Change:

  • Regularly assess if the client is ready to move forward
• Know your Counseling Orientation:

  • Understand at least one theory, therapy model, communication model, counseling techniques, treatment planning, research data sources, and client progress evaluation
  • Have a referral system in place
• Believe in People:

  • Always believe people can change and never give up on them
• Skills needed in a one-to-one counseling session:

  • Attitudinal skills
  • Listening skills
  • Verbal communication skills
  • Giving leads
• Attitudes:

  • Attitudes like respect, guidance, unconditional positive regard, empathy, self-disclosure, and confrontation are crucial in counseling
• Listening:

  • Effective listening involves self-awareness and understanding the client's cues, spoken and unspoken
• Verbal Communication:

  • Verbal communication in counseling requires practice to master
  • Inappropriate vocabulary can hinder rapport and understanding
• Leads:

  • Leads are statements counselors use in communication with clients
  • Categories of leads include restatement of content, questioning, reflection of feeling, reassurance, and interpretation
• The Helping/Problem-Solving Process in Social Work:

  • Consists of five basic steps: Assessment, Planning, Intervention, Evaluation, and Termination
  • Assessment involves collecting and analyzing information to understand the client, the problem, and the social context
• Information/Data Gathering:

  • Sources for data gathering include primary sources, secondary sources, existing data, and the worker's observations
  • Principles in data gathering include focusing on the identified problems and continuous data collection
• Initial Contact(s) with Client/Intake:

  • The initial contact between the client and the worker can occur in various ways
  • The intake process involves the client achieving the status of a client and presenting their problem or need
• In social work, the engagement process may end with either the worker or the client deciding not to proceed, or the client committing to have client status and the worker committing the agency to provide services
• When an initial engagement takes place, it means the client has committed to having client status and the worker has committed the agency to provide services
• Defining the problem:

  • The way the problem is defined will determine what data are collected and what are seen as appropriate answers
  • This step is crucial as it dictates the success of the entire process
• Components of an assessment statement:

  • Opening causal statement: Clearly indicates who has the problem and why it exists
  • Change potential statement: Dependent on problem, person, and environment
  • Judgment about the seriousness or urgency of the problem
  • Characteristics of assessment:
  • Ongoing process
  • Focuses on understanding the client and providing a base for planning and action
  • Involves both client and worker
  • Involves movement within the assessment process
  • Includes both horizontal and vertical explorations
  • Identifies needs, defines problems, and explains their meanings and patterns
  • Is individualized
  • Requires judgment as many decisions have to be made
  • No assessment is ever complete
• Planning:

  • Link between Assessment and Intervention
  • Translates assessment content into a goal statement
  • Involves formulating goals directly related to the client's need or problem
  • Defines specific actions or interventions necessary to achieve the goals