'Counselling'

It's been a full year of immersion in the Counselling Training Course at Parivarthan. Through the year, as friends asked 'What is it it about', 'What kind of counselling are you going to do', 'Which theory is it based on' 'How would you go about it' , I found I had a different answer each time. 

Well, why?

'Counselling' is a fairly wide, and relatively new concept, and there is no one phrase or definition to explain it. Counselling as a profession came of age only in the 1950s, and is closely linked to many earlier theories and approaches. 

On the what it is.... maybe in simple terms, it's a process that facilitates the client  to explore, discover and clarify ways of living more satisfactorily, meaningfully and resourcefully.  Life is dynamic and it could throw those curved balls at you. Change happens, and it can put you off gear. Many of us live with stress or restlessness at varying levels...arising from situations, relationships, work, health, death, finding meaning.......reasons are many. 

We mostly cope.....at times 'help' helps.

The question to also ask is..Is life about coping, or is it about living authentically and joyfully.

Awareness is empowering. Counselling enables deeper awareness. It enables an understanding of the 'issue' and or 'yourself' in a new light. It's like, by seeking therapy, you are choosing to take responsibility for your own life, to recognize and acknowledge your humanness, and to seek to find new strengths within yourself. 

Guess I could go on with the what of it. But let's also look at the historical perspective, to understand it a little better.

Think psychology and Freud's there. His biggest contribution...to know that a lot of 'how we think' and 'what we do', and 'what we are' comes from the unconscious space.

While he founded and mastered psychoanalysis, considering he was from an acutely male dominated and class ridden time, plus being a jew during the anti semitic movement, there were themes in his writing which did not sit well with many of the psychology thinkers, especially of the US. Foremost amongst these were Carl Rogers, Eric Berne, Albert Erickson and Abraham Maslow who reinterpreted Freud. Some well known theories are Existentialism, Transactional Analysis, Hierarchy of Needs, Stages of Psycho Social Development, Family Systems Theory and Gestalt. (Gestalt is a personal favorite)

It is believed there are more than 400 distinct models of counselling and psychotherapy. The fact that this whole field of study is of relatively recent origin, mostly between 1950 to 1970, seems to be the reason why there has not yet been time for the explosion of ideas to have been integrated into a unified approach.

Despite the movement in favor of theoretical unification and integration, it is widely accepted that there are three core approaches to viewing the 'human being and their emotional and behavioral issues':

a) Psychodynamic, b) Cognitive Behavior and c) Humanistic 

And while there is an overlap at many levels. on the whole, Psychodynamic counsellors focus primarily on 'insight', Humanistic on 'Self Acceptance' and 'Personal Freedom' and Cognitive Behavior Therapists on 'Management and Control of Behavior'.

Any valid counselling approach should be flexible enough to use the therapeutic relationship, along with the theory most relevant to the well being of the client, at that point of time. An integrated approach so to say.

And that is what I think the course has equipped.....in terms of Awareness, Skills, Theory and Being.

If you're interested in knowing more, I'd be happy to do a chat offline. Email id  is smithadevara@gmail.com