Art of Counseling

(Be prepared before meeting the customer)

A practical guide for career counselors

Counseling Defined

The basic purpose of counseling is to assist individuals to make their own decision from the several choices available to them to enhance their personal and performance effectiveness. Counseling becomes an attractive and necessary option when people find themselves unable to handle the speed and complexity of modern life. Counselors assist people with personal, family, educational, mental health, and career problems.

Academic/Career Counseling

Career counseling is now a days an emerging field in counseling, which gives relevant information regarding different career. Career Guidance helps the students to select the career according to their choice and interest. Career counseling is now being increasingly stressed as an integral part of education. In order to secure the right job, the right career choice is foremost in the minds of every job seeker with /without professional qualifications. The demands of the modern age are very complex. In addition to the right kind of job, and the right approach in this direction.

Academic counselors help students to select their career path and assist them to find out solutions for their career problems.

Career Counseling can be defined as the process of helping and enabling people in their career development. Career counseling and guidance may involve both face-to-face help or may be mediated through telephone, letter, text, or even the internet. However, most important of all remains the one-to-one interview between the career counselor and the client. A career counselor would be facing clients who are making career decisions and choices or coping with life changes, which relate to their working life — career changes, redundancy and unemployment.

Points to remember before the counseling

1) First impressions really are lasting impressions. It is important to be timely and friendly.

2) Greet the client warmly – smile and shake hands.

3) Offer a chair and a drink of water.

NLP – Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Counseling

Combining counseling skills with NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) provides you with a dynamic and empowering way of helping yourself and others to deal with problem situations. NLP explores the relationship between how we think (neuro), how we communicate both verbally and non verbally (linguistic) and our behavior and emotions (programming). It brings about self-development and change.

Counseling Techniques

Counselors use several different techniques—such as closed and open-ended questions, active listening and paraphrasing—to evaluate the situation

First of the effective counseling techniques is the creation of an encouraging and empathetic belief in the counselor’s head for the initial phone call or return call. I think it is important to offer words of encouragement, and choices. A warm, friendly tone of voice is very important.

Then comes the discreet listening and speaking skills that overall indicate to the client that his or her issues are worth “the gift of attention”

1. Active or Reflective Listening

Active listening happens when you “listen for meaning”. The listener says very little but conveys empathy, acceptance and genuineness. At some point in the process, the listener repeat back to the client what he/she has been hearing, and ask if he/she heard them correctly. If the answer is yes, we go on, if the answer is no, he/she ask them to repeat what they said until they hear his/her reflection/repeat and answer ‘yes’ to his/her reflection question. The experience of having an individual pay close attention can be very calming for someone struggling with some strong feelings.

2. Body Language

Before we say anything, our attitudes and feelings are often revealed with non-verbal messages that are transmitted and decoded subconsciously. A high awareness of these subliminal messages improves your ability to communicate with your clients.

Body language takes into account our facial expressions, angle of our body, proximity of our self to another, placement of arms and legs, and so much more. Notice how much can be expressed by raising and lowering your eyebrows!

You need to monitor the tone of your voice – in the same way that you monitor your body language. Remember, the person may not remember what was said, but they will remember how you made them feel!

Body language is a vital component of communication. A counselor must demonstrate to the speaker that they are listening. Communication can be negatively impacted negatively by our body language if we do not work to control it. As a helping professional, you must be attuned to your body language and practice positive body language. Below is a brief discussion of some aspects of body language.

a). Eye Contact-Maintaining good eye contact is a great method of becoming engaged with the speaker. It demonstrates focus and attentiveness to what is being spoken. There are some cultural implications with direct eye contact (and you should always have awareness of these), but for most people looking into the eyes of another person most of the time is essential to making them feel heard.

b). Smiling-In most cultures, a smile is a gesture of welcome and approval. Smiling encourages the speaker to continue speaking (good goal!). Conversely, frowning implies disapproval and should be avoided unless you are using this to accentuate a point. For instance, a counseling patient might provide conflicting information. Displaying a frown while asking about this in-congruence can accentuate the question about clarification.

c). Gestures-A lot of people “speak with their hands”. While this can be habitual, like saying umm, it is worthwhile to try to tone down this particular habit. It can be extremely distracting to the speaker. Not to mention, some gesturing may be perceived as threatening.

d). Proxemics-Everyone has a different comfort level with how close you get to each other. A good rule of thumb is at least 3 feet in distance. You both should be able to reach out and grasp hands for a handshake comfortably. When you sit with a patient, you should be close enough so that their normal voice tone is easily heard. Be mindful that different cultures have different concepts of appropriate proxemics.

3. Asking Questions

Asking questions – open and closed – is an important tool in the counseling kit. Open ended questions, which encourage an ongoing story line, are preferable. Closed questions can be answered with one word, and stop the communication.

4. Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you restate what the speaker said. Often different works are used and the listener may be using this to draw attention to a particular concern or aspect. Sometimes paraphrasing is used to clarify. This is very similar to what I called reflective listening above.

5. Summary

A summary, in counseling, is when you focus on the main points of a presentation or session in order to highlight them. Both you and the client may have forgotten something and this gives you both a quick review. At the same time you are giving the “gist”, you are checking to see if you are accurate.

6. Note Taking

Note taking is the practice of writing down pieces of information, often in a shorthand and messy manner. The listener needs to be discreet and not disturb the flow of thought, speech or body language of the speaker.

COUNSELING TIPS FOR IT COURSES

PRE-COUNSELING TIPS

For the successful counseling we need to know four major factors, please find the factors below

1. Organization Profile

2. Products & Services

3. Courseware and offers

4. Exit Profile

A counselor has to be aware of the company/institution where she is working then only she can convince the students with benefits and specialty of the study center.

In addition to that counselor must be aware of all the products and services of the company. Courses and details like fee, duration, down payment, eligibility, syllabus etc… Counselor has to be up to date every time with company’s new schemes and its benefits to counsel the students effectively.

A student won’t be attracted and satisfied with the course details and courseware with offers because he/she doesn’t know what are the benefits of doing the course which is suggested by you. The importance of “EXIT PROFILE” comes in this scenario. Exit Profile is nothing but the areas and the jobs which he/she can try after the successful completion of the course. Please find the exit profiles of some IT courses.

EXIT PROFILE MANUAL

SOFTWARE COURSES

MSE [Master in Software Engineering]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. Web Designer

3. IT Trainer

4. SEO Specialist

5. Graphic Designer

6. HTML Programmer

7. Computer Operator

PGDIT [Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. Web Designer

3. IT Trainer

4. SEO Specialist

5. Graphic Designer

6. HTML Programmer

7. Computer Operator

PGDCA [Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Application]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. IT Trainer

3. SEO Specialist

4. Computer Operator

CTTP [Computer Teachers Training Program]

EXIT PROFILE

1. IT Trainer

2. SEO Specialist

3. Computer Operator

4. IT Counselor

DCA [Diploma in Computer Application]

EXIT PROFILE

1. Assistant IT Trainer

2. SEO Specialist

3. Lab Instructor

4. Computer Operator

DWT [Diploma in Web Technology]

EXIT PROFILE

1. Web Programmer

2. Web Designer

3. IT Trainer

4. SEO Specialist

5. Computer Operator

DOST [Diploma in Open Source Technology]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. IT Trainer

3. IT Trainer

4. SEO Specialist

5. Computer Operator

DWD [Diploma in Web Designing]

EXIT PROFILE

1. Web Designer

2. Template Designer

3. IT Trainer

4. SEO Specialist

5. Computer Operator

CJP [Certified Java 2 Programmer]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. Web Programmer

3. Web Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. SEO Specialist

6. Java/J2EE/JSP Programmer

7. Computer Operator

CDP [Certified Dot Net Programmer]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. Web Programmer

3. Web Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. SEO Specialist

6. VB/C#/ASP.Net Programmer

7. Computer Operator

CCSA [Certified Client Server Architect]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. Web Programmer

3. Web Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. SEO Specialist

6. VB/C#/ASP.Net Programmer

7. Computer Operator

COOP [Certified Object Oriented Programmer]

EXIT PROFILE

1. S/w Programmer

2. IT Trainer

3. C/C++/VB Programmer

4. Computer Operator

HARDWARE & NETWROK COURSES

HDCHN [Honors Diploma in Computer H/W and N/w]

EXIT PROFILE

1. System Admin

2. N/w Admin

3. Server Admin

4. Computer Operator

5. IT Trainer

6. H/w Specialist

7. N/w Specialist

HNE [Certified H/w and N/w Engineer]

EXIT PROFILE

1. System Admin

2. N/w Admin

3. Server Admin

4. Computer Operator

5. IT Trainer

6. H/w Specialist

7. N/w Specialist

CCHN [Certificate Course in Computer H/w and N/w]

EXIT PROFILE

1. System Admin

2. N/w Admin

3. Server Admin

4. Computer Operator

5. IT Trainer

6. H/w Specialist

7. N/w Specialist

CCH [Certificate Course in Computer H/w]

EXIT PROFILE

1. System Admin

2. Server Admin

3. Computer Operator

4. IT Trainer

5. H/w Specialist

MULTIMEDIA COURSES

MDDA [Master Diploma in Digital Animation]

EXIT PROFILE

1. 2D/3D Animator

2. Print Media Professional

3. Graphic Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. Audio/Video Editors

6. Compositor

7. Flash Designer

8. Flash Developer

9. Game Designer

10. 3D Modeler

11. Product Designer

12. Logo/Portfolio/Brand Designer

MDMA [Master Diploma in Multimedia & Animation]

EXIT PROFILE

MADFM [Master in Animation Digital Film Making]

EXIT PROFILE

MWMA [Master in Web Technology & Multimedia Authoring]

EXIT PROFILE

1. 2D Animator

2. Print Media Professional

3. Graphic Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. Flash Designer

6. Flash Developer

7. Game Designer

8. Product Designer

9. Web Designer

10. HTML /DHTML Programmer

11. AJAX Programmer

12. Web Programmer

DDI [Diploma in Digital Imaging]

EXIT PROFILE

1. Print Media Professional

2. Graphic Designer

3. IT Trainer

4. Product Designer

5. Logo/Portfolio/Brand Designer

DA [Diploma in Animation]

EXIT PROFILE

1. 2D/3D Animator

2. Print Media Professional

3. Graphic Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. Flash Designer

6. Flash Developer.

7. Game Designer

8. 3D Modeler

9. Product Designer

10. Logo/Portfolio/Brand Designer

11. Character Animator

Diploma in Audio Video Editing & Post Production

EXIT PROFILE

1. Print Media Professional

2. Graphic Designer

3. IT Trainer

4. Audio/Video Editors

5. Compositor

6. Product Designer

7. Logo/Portfolio/Brand Designer

DMA [Diploma in Multimedia & Animation]

EXIT PROFILE

DWA [Diploma in Web Design & Animation]

EXIT PROFILE

MAE [Modeling & Animation Expert]

EXIT PROFILE

1. 2D/3D Animator

2. Print Media Professional

3. Graphic Designer

4. IT Trainer

5. Game Designer

6. 3D Modeler

7. Product Designer

8. Logo/Portfolio/Brand Designer

9. Character Animator

AVE [Architectural Visualization Expert]

EXIT PROFILE

1. 2D Visualizer

2. 3D Visualizer

3. 2D/3D Animator

4. Print Media Professional

5. Graphic Designer

6. IT Trainer

7. 3D Modeler

8. Product Designer

9. Character Animator

10. Walk through Expert

11. 2D/3D Rendering Expert

SOME SPECIALIZED COURSES

DGIT [Diploma in Graphics & Information Technology]

EXIT PROFILE

1. IT Trainer

2. Graphic Designer

3. Office Assistant

4. Print Media Professional

5. Web Designer

6. DTP Professional

7. H/w Technician

8. Logo/Brand Developer

9. Computer Operator

DDE [Diploma in Data Entry]

EXIT PROFILE

1. Office Assistant

2. Data Entry Operator

3. Data Conversion Professional

4. Computer Operator

5. BPO Professional

6. Easy to get Jobs in Medical Transcription, Medical Coding and Billing etc…

ALL THE BEST