Professional Guidance and Counselling
Senior 6 · Psychology
Professional Guidance and Counselling
Lesson 4 of 4
25 min
Keza, whom you met in the last lesson, agrees to meet the school counsellor once a week. In the first session they agree on times and on what will stay confidential. In the next two, Keza tells her story: the failed tests, her friends moving to another class, and her worry that her parents are disappointed. Then they agree on goals: pass chemistry this term and feel less alone. Over the following weeks Keza joins a study group, meets her chemistry teacher, and practises talking to her parents. In the sixth session they review what changed, and agree that Keza can return any time. (An illustrative case.)
Keza's journey followed a pattern that most counselling relationships share: they have a beginning, a middle and an end, each with its own tasks.
Definition
Rapport: a relationship of trust and understanding between counsellor and client.
Contracting: agreeing at the start on practical arrangements, confidentiality and its limits, and what counselling can and cannot offer.
Termination: the planned ending of a counselling relationship. Follow-up: later contact to check that progress has lasted.
Supervision: regular, confidential discussion of a counsellor's work with a more experienced professional, to protect clients and support the counsellor.
Burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism and a sense of ineffectiveness from prolonged work stress. Vicarious trauma: distress in helpers from repeatedly hearing about others' traumatic experiences.
Figure 1. The phases of a counselling relationship, with Gerard Egan's three stages of the skilled helper model above them. Real counselling moves back and forth between phases.
| Phase | Main tasks | Key skills |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Rapport and contracting | Welcome; explain confidentiality and its limits; agree on time, place and number of sessions; obtain consent | Attending, warmth, clear explanation |
| 2. Exploration and assessment | Understand the client's story, feelings, strengths and resources; check for any risk of harm | Open questions, paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, summarising |
| 3. Goal setting | Agree on clear, realistic goals that belong to the client (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound: SMART) | Focusing, clarifying, challenging gently |
| 4. Action and support | Explore options, choose strategies, practise skills, try tasks between sessions, deal with setbacks | Problem-solving, information giving, encouragement |
| 5. Evaluation, termination and follow-up | Review progress against goals; prepare for the ending; plan how to keep gains; refer if needed; follow up later | Summarising, reinforcing progress, referral |
Gerard Egan's skilled helper model organises the same journey around three questions the client answers: What is going on? (the current picture), What do I want instead? (the preferred picture) and How do I get there? (the way forward). Its strength is a practical, problem-solving structure; its weakness is that some clients, such as those grieving, need more time to be heard than a step-by-step model suggests.
| Challenge | Example | A possible response |
|---|---|---|
| Stigma | Students fear being seen going to the counsellor ("people will think I'm mad") | Normalise counselling through talks and group sessions; discreet times and places |
| Low use of services | In the 2018 Rwanda Mental Health Survey, 61.7% of people knew mental health services existed but only 5.3% had used them | Bring services closer: schools, community health workers, telephone lines such as 114 |
| Confidentiality in close communities | Everyone knows everyone; information can spread | Strict record-keeping; explaining limits; never discussing clients casually |
| Dual roles | A teacher who is also the counsellor, and marks the client's work or disciplines her | Separate roles where possible; refer; discuss with a supervisor |
| Few trained counsellors, heavy workloads | One counsellor for a whole school | Group guidance, trained peer supporters, clear referral routes |
| Culture and language | Most counselling theories were developed in individualist Western societies; many clients make decisions with their families | Cultural humility; counselling in the client's language; involving family when the client wishes |
| Involuntary or resistant clients | A student "sent" to the counsellor as punishment | Respect autonomy; start from the client's own concerns; never use counselling as punishment |
| Counsellor burnout and vicarious trauma | Hearing many painful stories, especially of violence and abuse | Supervision, peer support, limits on caseload, self-care |
Carl Rogers (1957) proposed three core conditions that a counsellor must offer:
Rogers claimed these conditions were both necessary and sufficient for change. Later research supports their importance: meta-analyses in 2018 found that empathy, positive regard and genuineness each correlate moderately with good outcomes (correlations of roughly 0.2 to 0.3). But "sufficient" goes too far: for problems such as phobias or OCD, specific techniques add a great deal.
Other qualities follow from the principles in Lesson 2: self-awareness (knowing one's own values and prejudices), trustworthiness and respect for confidentiality, patience, cultural humility, emotional stability, integrity, the humility to refer when a problem is beyond one's competence, and commitment to training, supervision and self-care.
Important
Where to get help in Rwanda. If you, or someone you know, is struggling, talk to a trusted adult (a parent, teacher or school counsellor) and visit your local health centre. The Rwanda Biomedical Centre asks people to call its toll-free number 114 with questions about its services or in an emergency. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Warning
A good counsellor knows his or her limits. A teacher with basic counselling skills can listen and support, but should refer anyone with signs of a mental disorder, risk of suicide or self-harm, or abuse to qualified professionals and the right services. Trying to handle everything alone puts clients at risk.
Tip
Phases: "Real Exams Get Aced Eventually": Rapport, Exploration, Goals, Action, Evaluation. Rogers' core conditions: G-U-E: Genuineness, Unconditional positive regard, Empathy.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the text, the diagram (Figure 1), the tables and the exercises.
