Introduction to Counseling

Definitions Webster: “advice, especially that given as a result of consultation Jackson: “anytime someone helps someone else with a problem Rogers: “good communication within and between people Ohlsen: “a therapeutic experience for reasonably healthy persons”

Types of Counseling Informational: “counseling in which a counselor shares a body of special information with a counselee” Situational: “related to specific situations in life that may create crises and produce human pain and suffering” Psychotherapy: “intervention with people whose needs are so specific that usually they can only be met by specially trained physicians or psychologists”

Styles of Counseling Directive: “counselor takes a live speaking role, asking questions, suggesting courses of action etc. Non-directive/Client Centered/Person Centered: “one comes actively and voluntarily to gain help on a problem………stresses the inherent worth of the client and natural capacity for growth and health” Phenomenological approach

Grief Counseling “helping people facilitate uncomplicated grief to a healthy completion of the tasks of grieving within a reasonable time frame”

Grief Therapy (Worden): “specialized techniques which are used to help people with complicated grief reactions” Complicated (Unresolved, Chronic) Grief: “grief extending over a long period of time without resolution”

William Worden 4 tasks of mourning: Task One: to accept the reality of the loss Task Two: to experience the pain of grief and to express the emotions associated with it Task Three: to adjust to an environment in which the deceased is missing Task Four: to emotionally relocate the deceased or other changed condition and move on with life

Worden’s Goals of Grief Counseling 1) to increase the reality of the loss 2) to help the counselee deal with both expressed and latent affect 3) to help the counselee overcome various impediments to readjust after loss 4) to encourage the counselee to make a healthy emotional withdrawal from the deceased and to feel comfortable re-investing that emotion in other relationships

Worden’s Counseling Principles and Procedures 1) help the survivor actualize the loss 2) help the survivor to identify and express feelings retroflected feelings reality testing 3) assist living without the deceased 4) facilitate emotional withdrawal 5) provide time to grieve

Principles and Procedures (cont’d) 6) recognize “normal” behavior 7) allow for individual differences 8) provide continuing support 9) examine defense mechanisms and coping styles 10) identify pathology and refer “gatekeeper” role

Guidelines for Care Providers 1) Offer yourself. 2) Be respectful. 3) Become comfortable with silence. 4) Be a skilled listener. 5) Normalize practically everything. 6) Avoid judgment. 7) Take action.

Guidelines (cont’d) 8) Don’t do everything by yourself. 9) Keep your promises. 10) Teach the “side by side” or intermittent approach to grieving. 11) Be sensitive to cultural, ethnic, and family traditions. 12) “Bracket” your “Cowbells” when they surface. 13) Be aware of and respond to your own compassion fatigue.

Ways that FDs Facilitate Grief (Worden) 1) fulfilling their responsibility in counseling during the entire service 2) following up with post funeral counseling 3) providing contacts for the family with other support groups 4) providing a service in teaching people about grief and healthy grieving by sponsoring and presenting educational programs in the community