2 Definition of child guidance,counselling and ther apy, basic differences and similarities

G. Baradha

1 Introduction

Changes in the family system, challenges of a permissive society, gap between the rich and the poor, poverty and unemployment, unequal opportunities, enhanced women education / employment, corruption in various areas of life, decline in the value system, globalization and advanced science and technology in every sphere of life are the characteristics of 21st century society which leads to adverse effects on the life of the children. Children grow bitter and develop a hardened way of dealing with those who are around them. If guidance is not given at the correct time, they may grow offensive which may harm their own development. During the first few years of the twentieth century, many movements boosted the efforts to develop knowledge and services in order to assist individuals in need of help without which they would have wasted away. In the years that followed, these movements converged pointing to the need for the application of psychological insights for obtaining and providing a meaningful base and sense of direction for the efforts to become faithful and rewarding.

These are shortcomings that demand immediate and comprehensive remedies. Guidance and counseling can reach individuals who need assistance, help to modify conditions that call for improvement, change institutions that are failing in their missions and take steps to reverse destructive trends. As people become increasingly enmeshed in the life style accruing from the scientific age, the psychological consequences and behavior become more complex. As people begin to realize the potential for a fuller life that modern technology can provide, they also become aware of the inadequacies of many existing institution and practices, beliefs and codes of conduct accepted by themselves and their forefathers at an earlier age. As a consequence, while more people hope for a better life, there is simultaneously a feeling of frustration and anxiety that they themselves may not be able to experience this better life which they feel should be available to them. They search for new anchors, new guidelines for plans of action that hold promise for realizing some of their dreams and aspirations, here comes guidance and counseling to the rescue.

Learning objectives

By learning this lesson, the students are:

Enlightened about the meaning, definition of guidance and counseling
Aware of the characteristics and principles of counselling
Understand the similarities and dissimilarities between guidance, counseling and therapy

2 Meaning of guidance

Technological changes have made a major impact upon people’s lives and work. Industrialization has resulted in social and vocational mobility. It has affected child rearing practices also. One of the important ways in which men tried to cope with the rapidly changing world around him was to start the guidance movement. The guidance movement later led to the growth of counseling psychology in the first decade on man’s concern for his fellow men and their well-being, particularly the younger members of society. Definition

According to Crow and Crow, guidance is assistance made available by competent counselors to an individual of any age to help him direct his own life, develop his own point of view, make his own decisions, carry his own burdens. Hawrin and Erickson define guidance as, “that aspect of educational programme which is concerned especially with helping the pupil to become adjusted to his present situation and to plan his future in line with his interests, abilities and social needs”.

From various definitions, it is evident that guidance as a help enables “each individual to understand his abilities and interests, to develop in them positive attitude and to reach a state of complete and mature self-guidance as a desirable member of the social order”. Guidance involves personal help obtained from someone; specially designed to assist a person, to decide where the person wants to go, what he wants to do or how he can best accomplish his purpose, it assists him to solve problems that arise in his life”.

3 Characteristics

i.It is a process: It helps every individual to help himself, to recognize and use his inner resources, to set goals, to make plans, to work out his own problems of development.

ii.It is a continuous process: It is needed right from early childhood, adolescence, adulthood and even in old age.

iii.Choice and problem points are the distinctive concerns of guidance as the individual’s unique world of perceptions interacts with the external order of events in his life context.

iv.It is assistance to the individual in the process of development rather than a direction of that development. The aim is to develop the capacity for self-direction, self-guidance and increased understanding of his problems and resources as well as limitations to solve the problems.

v.Guidance is a service meant for all: It is a regular service which is required at every stage for every student, not only for awkward situations but for abnormal students also. It is a positive programme geared to meet the needs of all students.

vi.It is both generalized and specialized service: It is a generalized service because everyone – parents, family friends, teachers, advisors, friends, classmates, media and religious centers play a part in the programme. It is a specialized service because specially qualified personnel such as counsellors, psychiatrists, psychologists join together to help the individual to get out of his problems.

Philosophy of guidance

According to Chand, “guidance is universal and the basic principles of the philosophy of guidance are common to all countries with a slight modification to suit the locally accepted beliefs and the specific guidance services offered”. The 8 principles of the philosophy of guidance are:

Dignity of the individual is supreme
Each individual is unique
Primary concern of guidance is the individual in his own social setting
Individual acts on the attitudes and personal perceptions
Acts to enhance his perceived self
Innate ability to make choices that leads to self-direction and consistent with the social environment
Continuous guidance process from early childhood through adulthood
Needed information and personalized assistance given by competent professional personnel

Assumption on principles of philosophy

The assumptions on which the principles of philosophy of guidance are based are:

Guidance services are usually designed for three large areas. These areas are conveniently identified as educational, vocational and personal and social. They are not discrete areas. They are intimately related, inseparable and intact. For example, in certain school, where emphasis is placed upon vocational guidance, the vocational counsellor works intimately with all other school personnel on matters of guidance, curriculum evaluation, testing and measuring, supervision and all other phases of a school, which is concerned with the child.

4 Definition of Counselling

Counseling is as old as society itself. In everyday life, counseling goes on at many levels

– in a family set up, parents counsel their children, in society doctors counsel patients, lawyers counsel clients and teachers counsel students. For example, a slow learner in the class for many years will be counseled by the teacher. Separated couple may realize their mistakes and start

living together. Webster’s dictionary defines counseling as “consultation, mutual interchange of options and deliberating together”. For example conflict between parent and child about course to be chosen at her higher secondary level, can be resolved by free talk and exchange of opinions and ideas.

Thus, it is very clear that counseling is a dynamic and purposeful relationship between two people to solve problems who approach to solve problems with mutual consideration of each other at the end the more troubled of the two is aided to a self determined resolution of his own problem.

Counseling is an art, it is a flexible, creative process, whereby the counselor adjusts the approach to the unique and emerging needs of the client. The counselor should be flexible and creative while working with a client. For example; a 5 year old child was abandoned by her parents and placed in a residential home for neglected and abused children. On one occasion, the caretaker of the institution became concerned when the child stayed up all night crying and vomiting. They brought her to a hospital the next morning. A peadiatrician found that nothing physically wrong with the child and referred her to the psychologist for mental health services.

After introducing to the child, the psychologist asked her how she was feeling. She sat down, put her face between her legs, and began to cry. It was the most deep – sorrowful sobbing the psychologist had been ever heard. The psychologist leaned forward and gently touched her head, trying to comfort her, he could feel her pain. She looked up at him and appeared frightened and sat alone. He reached over and held her hand and told her, he wanted to help her feel better. He told that she was a beautiful person and wanted to work with her every day. She nodded in agreement. He worked with her in play therapy for several weeks. During that time, her depression gradually diminished and she started mingling with other children.

Science of counselling/ Views on counselling

The science of counseling provides a balance to the art of counseling by creating an objective dimension to the counseling process. Science provides an important aspect to the identity of counselors in that it can differentiate professional counselors (psychologists / trained counselor) from non professional helpers (warden, care taker, parents).

James Michael Lee and Nathaniel J. Pattan (2007) defined, “counseling is the relationship between two persons in which one of them attempts to assist the other in organizing himself as to attain a particular form of happiness, adjustment to a life situation, or in short-self actualization. Counseling always involves a one-to-one relationship between the client and counsellee.

Pepinsky and Pepinsky (2009) defined that counseling relationship is the interaction which i) occurs between two individuals called ‘counselor’ and ‘client’, ii) takes place within a professional setting and iii) is initiated and maintained as a means of facilitating changes in the behavior of the client. The counseling relationship develops from the interaction between two individuals, one a professionally trained worker and the other a person with problems who seeks counseling service.

Here it is very apt to quote, Hahn and Maclean (2013) definition that the “counseling is a process which takes place in one to one relationship between an individual beset by problems with which he cannot cope alone and a professional worker whose training and experience have qualified him to help others reach solutions to various types of personal difficulties.

Blocker (2004) explains it as, “helping an individual to become aware of himself and the ways in which he is reacting to the behavioral influences of his environment. It further helps him to establish some personal meaning for this behavior and to develop and clarify a set of goals and values of future behavior”.

5 Elements of counselling

From the analysis of the above viewpoints, counseling emerges as follows:

i.involves two individuals – one seeking help and the other professionally trained person

ii.has mutual respect, trust, friendly and co-operation between the counselor and counselee

iii.aims to help a child / student to make a decision, show a direction, like choosing the subject to study, planning a life career, or a campaign to obtain employment

iv.enables the counselee to acquire independence and develop a sense of responsibility

v.helps to explore and fully utilize the potentialities and actualize himself

vi.is more than advice – giving process and enables the thinking by the counselee himself rather than through solutions suggested by the counselors

vii.Its function is to produce chances in the individual that will enable him to come out of the immediate difficulties

viii.concerns itself with attitudes as well as action

ix.considers emotional attitude rather than purely intellectual attitudes as the raw material for the counseling process.

6 Purpose of child counselling

i.To give the child information on matters important for day to day successful functions

ii.To get information about the child which will be of help in solving his problems

iii.To establish a feeling of mutual understanding between the parents and child, the teacher and the student

iv. To help the children to work out a plan for solving his difficulties such as lying, thumb sucking and masturbation

v.To enable the children to know himself on his interests, abilities, aptitudes, and right attitudes

vi.To encourage and develop special abilities and opportunities

vii.To inspire successful endeavor toward attainment. For example a child with music ability will be encouraged by the parent and the music teacher to enthuse the child to take part in international competition

viii.To assist the student in planning for educational and vocational choices; by enabling the child about the good and unsafe about the subject to be opted by him and related vocational possibility by choosing the said subject

7 Meaning of therapy

At times certain problems require intensive correction procedure that ends up in therapy. Therapy ought to begin with an exploration of the client’s expectations and goals. Clients initially tend to have vague ideas of what they expect from therapy. They may be seeking solutions to problems, they may want to stop hurting, and they may want to change others, so that they can live with less anxiety, or they may seek to be different so that some significant persons in their lives will be accepting them. In some cases client have no goals; they are in the therapist’s office simply because they were sent for counseling by their parents, probation officer or teacher or a family friend.

The therapeutic process includes forming a relationship based on mutual respect; a holistic psychological investigation or life style assessment; and disclosing wrong goals and faulty assumptions within the person’s style of living. This is followed by a reeducation of the client towards the useful side of life. The main aim of therapy is to help the clients develop a sense of belonging and to assist in the adoption of behaviors and processes characterized by community feeling and social interest. This is accomplished by increasing the client’s self-awareness and challenges and modifying his or her fundamental promises, life goals and basic concepts.

For e.g.: The goal of Adlerian therapy is to assist clients to understand their unique lifestyles and help them learn to think about self, others and the world and to act in such a way to meet the tasks of life with courage and social interest. Adlerian is interested not in curing sick individuals or a sick society but in re-educating individuals and in reshaping society.

8 Process of therapy

Fastening social interest
Helping clients overcome feelings of discouragement and inferiority
Modifying client’s views and goals – that is, changing their life style
Changing faulty motivation
Encouraging the individual to reorganize equality among people
Helping people to become contributing members of society

9 Comparison of counselling and psychotherapy

10 Similarities in counselling and guidance

i) Both involve helping an individual in making choices about the different things that might confront and confuse him.

ii) Both can help in the treatment and rehabilitation of a person suffering from a mental illness

Dissimilarities between guidance and counselling

11 Conclusion

To summarize it can be said that individuals at all stages require guidance and counseling at some time or the other and benefitted from it. What is essential in guidance and counseling is a professional who is trained to listen, understand and guide individuals to help themselves. Also guidance and counseling happens at two levels i.e. individual guidance and counseling and group guidance and counseling. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses and the counselor decides on the type of counseling based on the problem he has at hand and the method that would work best to help the individual.

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Bibliography

Chand, S. (2009); Guidance and Counselling; S. Chand & Company Ltd, New Delhi.
Introduction to guidance and counseling, Windows on practice guide (2012) Common misconceptions.
Sauli Punkari, (2005); Multicultural guidance and counseling, Theoretical foundations and Best practices in Europe Mika Launikari, Finland. I SBN: 951-39-2121-2.
HTTP:/www.Differencebetween.Net/Language/DifferencebetweenGuidanceandCounselling/Differences between Gidance and Counselling.
Gibson,R. L., Mitchell, M. H. (2008), Introduction to Counselling and Guidance; Pearson Prentice Hall, South Asia.

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