Characteristics Of Professional Counseling Specialists

By Virginia Collins


To become a proficient therapist, an individual must possess the right attributes as well as skills. Unlike other fields, school training is not sufficient to bring out effective counselors. One must go further to develop interpersonal skills and attributes necessary to handle people. Remember, the goal of a psycho-social expert is to help mentally distressed individuals recover normal lives. Without applying certain traits in a professional counseling session, your goals might not be realized. It is important to note that some of these attributes are acquired gradually with practice. A few of these are discussed in the following sections.

Notably, counselors who are familiar with personal fears, as well as, anxieties are better placed in handling therapeutic cases. Self-awareness helps experts keep personal feelings away during a session with patients. Similarly, they are capable of solving their own problems and use personal experience in helping patients to recover. Additionally, clients are more confident with therapists who are in control of their personal problems and do expose their weakness easily.

Next, practice tolerance. It is challenging to handle clients with mental problems. First, because mental illnesses take a while to heal completely. Secondly, mentally affected people may act very irrationally sometimes. For this reason, a psychologist should possess tolerance and the ability to control anger. Acknowledge changes are slow and keep recurring. At no time must you feel and show that you are fed up with a client.

Accept patients as they are. Markedly, most come to you because of problems, which only you can handle. Probably, some have been judged by close people in their lives. Others could have been rejected by relatives due to their behaviors. Precisely, most have lived as outcasts for the better part of life. Therefore, a psychologist needs to create a different environment where a client feels loved. Avoid being judgmental or criticizing.

Next, work on developing lasting relationships with your clients. Psychoanalysis is a process that may take months or years before a client heals completely. During this time, an expert must develop a lasting friendship. This will cultivate trust among patients and speed up the healing process. One way to develop interpersonal relationships is through listening as well as celebrating small achievements in your patients.

Since mental cases vary, it is ineffective to use a similar approach to solve all of them. Therapists must acquire and adopt new methods to fit in countless needs for different patients. They must keep abreast of evolving therapeutic procedures as well as go for refresher courses regularly to gain more skills.

By putting themselves in the shoes of victims, counselors are able to treat mental cases easily. This is referred to as empathy. Empathetic counselors understand the perspective of their clients and suggest solutions based on that. Specialists do not enforce own arguments without trying to comprehend why victims behave in a given manner.

Mental healing starts by first assuring victims that they can lead normal lives. Notably, most of them are struggling with a myriad of other issues while others have given up. As an effective counselor, give them hope of a better life, note every positive change and celebrate with them.




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