The Counselor As A Therapeutic Person

Because counseling is an intimate form of learning it demand a practioner who is willing to shed stereotyped roles and be real person in a relationship. it is precisly within the context of such a person - to-person relationship that the client experience growth. if as counselors we hide behind the safety of our profesional role, our client will keep themselves hidden from us. if webe come merely technical experts and leave our own reaction, values and self out of out works, the results is a likely to be sterile counseling. It is trough our own genuineness and our aliveness that we can significantly touch our clients. if we make live oriented choices, radiate a zest for live and are real in our relationships with our clients, we can inspire them to develop these internal resources. This does not mean that we are self actualized persons who have "made it" or that we are without our problems. rather, it implies that we are willing to look at our lives and make the change we want. because we affirm that changging is worth the risk and the effort, we hold out hope to our clients that they can be come their own person and can like the person they are becoming. In short, as therapist we serve as models for our clients. if we model incongruent behaviour. low risk activity and remain hidden, we can expect our clients to imitate this behaviour if we model realness by engaging in appropriate self disclosure, our clients will tend to be honest with us in theraupeutic relationship. to be sure counseling can be better or for worse. clients can become more pf what tthey are capable pf becpming. or they can become less than they might be. in my judgement the degree of aliveness and psyhchological health pf the counselor are crucial variable determine the outcame