Counselling

Evoking Change in a Client

There are several therapeutic approaches which are useful to improve clients’ readiness to change. It is important, however, to realise that all these strategies are based on the same suggestion: motivation to change is elicited from the client and not imposed from without. Using coercion, persuasion or constructive confrontation will achieve little if the client […]

Solution-focused Techniques

Solution focused therapies are founded on the rationale that there are exceptions to every problem and through examining these exceptions and having a clear vision of a preferred future, client and counsellor, together, can generate ides for solutions.?Solution focused therapists are competency and future focused. They highlight and utilise client strengths to enable a more […]

Child Abuse and Neglect: Intervention

There is not a clear cut off line from where the assessment ends and the intervention begins in child and family work. Following is a number of approaches to intervention that have been selected because they are consistent with values of self-determination, respect, dignity empowerment and social justice: values commonly drawn upon in child and […]

Recognising When a Child is at Risk

There are behavioural cues that alert the counsellor to the possibilities of a child being abused; different indicators are associated with the different abuses. Remembering that the indicators mentioned here are not absolute and that one behaviour that the child displays may not mean they are abused or neglected. There are four recognised forms of […]

Book Review: Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions

Barsky, A. E. (2007). Conflict resolution for the helping professions (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole. 364 pages. ISBN: 0-495-09225-8 Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions offers a comprehensive coverage of the fundamental principles associated with conflict resolution. Specifically the author focuses on the areas of negotiation, mediation, group facilitation and advocacy across a broad […]

Relationships: Love Is All You Need

Love is a particular kind of need and expectation in a relationship. For many people approaching marriage, love will be the foundation of their entire future together. Committed and passionate love is an important predictor of a relationships success and satisfaction (Hecht et al., 1994). The relationship between passionate and erotic love and satisfaction, along […]

Relationships: Myths and Expectations

Separate to the issue of needs and wants, a counsellor may find that clients are expressing unrealistic notions about married life. Strong correlations have been found between certain unrealistic notions that are believed or maintained by married people and their levels of marital dissatisfaction (Tysoe, 1994). It is worth looking at some of these areas […]

Relationships: Needs and Wants

In 1972 Carl Rogers surveyed the changing marriage scene of his day and said “It is becoming increasingly clear that a man-woman relationship will have permanence only to the degree to which it satisfies the emotional, psychological, intellectual and physical needs of the partners”. He went on to quote the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard , saying […]