DIASS 3

• Counseling


  A profession that allows to help others manage their responses to life's challenges
• Counseling


  A career that provides you an opportunity to assists others in developing their potentials and to encourage personal growth and learning
• Professional counselors and informal helpers

  • Professional counselors
  • Informal helpers
• Professional counselors


  • Expected to maintain a high degree of objectivity in doing their job.
• Informal helpers


  • They may provide assistance to people who are personally related to them
  • They may avoid confrontation or contradicting statements of the counselee—during the the counseling process to preserve their friendship or personal relationship with the counselee
• Professional counselors


  • They are guided by rules and regulations (Code of Ethics)
  • They perform their duties and responsibilities according to the standards set by the law
• Informal helpers


  • May help people as encouraged by their personal rules
• Professional counselors


  • Counselors use strategies & techniques to promote the client's personal growth and development
• Informal helpers


  • They are not formally equipped with standardized strategies or approaches. Usually, they rely on providing advice or tips they feel suitable
• Characteristics of professional counselors

  • They have acquired body of knowledge, skills, or competencies through formal and specialized training
  • They are guided by standards of professional practice and laws
  • They are formally identified as members of the helping profession, competent in promoting growth and personal change in their clients
• Roles and functions of professional counselors


  • Providers of individual and group counseling services
  • Developmental classroom guidance specialists
  • Leaders and advocates of academic success
  • Career developmental specialists
  • Agents of diversity and multiculturalism
  • Advocates of students with special needs and students-at-risk
  • Advocates of a safe school environment
  • School and community collaboration specialists
• Allied mental health professionals


  • Psychologist
  • Psychiatrist
  • Neurologist
  • Social Worker
• Characteristics of a professional counselor


  • Empathy
  • Acceptance
  • Genuineness
  • Self-awareness
  • Cultural competence
  • Open-mindedness
  • Integrity
  • Competence
  • Problem solving-skills & creativity
  • Embracing a perspective of wellness
• Competencies of a transformative counselor


  • Establishing rapport
  • Basic attending skills
  • Observational skills
  • Basic responding/listening skills
• Areas of specialization


  • School Counseling
  • Mental Health or Clinical Counseling
  • Rehabilitation Counseling
  • Industrial Counseling
  • Marriage & Family Counseling
  • Private practice
  • Community Counseling
• Career opportunities for professional counselors

  • Elementary and High School Counselor
  • College counselors
  • Teaching in the Academe
  • Workshop Facilitator
  • Career Counselors
  • Community Counselors
  • Marriage & Family Counselors
  • Substance Abuse Counselors
  • Rehabilitation Counselors
  • Researcher
• Professional ethical principles in guidance & counseling


  • Confidentiality
  • Client welfare
  • Informed consent
  • Relationship with clients
  • Professionalism
• Valuing rights of individuals, professional responsibilities & accountability of counselors

  • Respecting the rights & dignity of every human person
  • Respecting the client's rights as self-governing individual
  • Being committed to the client's well-being
  • Being fair to all clients by providing equal opportunity to all who availed the counseling service
  • Enhancing the quality of their professional knowledge and application
  • Being responsive to the society
• The counseling relationships


  • Client welfare
  • Respecting diversity
  • Client rights
  • Clients served by others
  • Personal needs and values
  • Dual relationships
  • Sexual intimacies with clients
  • Multiple clients
  • Group work
  • Fees
• Confidentiality


  • Right to privacy
  • Group & families
  • Minor/incompetent clients
  • Records
  • Research & training
  • Consultation
• Professional responsibility


  • Standards of knowledge
  • Professional competence