30 qualities of a good counselor

The current blogspot will be based on the question “what are the 30 qualities of a good counselor?”. We will enlist the 30 qualities of a good counselor and elaborate on each quality in detail.

What are the 30 qualities of a good counselor?

Following are the 30 qualities of a good counselor  :

• Openness
• Acceptance
• Empathy
• Unconditional positive regard
• Genuineness
• Ethical consideration
• Confidentiality
• Persuasive
• Skilled
• Trained
• Knowledge of techniques
• Dissemination of information
• Attending skills
• Intrapersonal skills
• Listening skills
• Communication skills
• Decisiveness
• Problem solving skills
• Keen observer
• Patience
• Compassion
• Encouragement
• Flexibility
• Self awareness
• Pleasant attitude
• Unbiased
• Non judgemental
• Professional competence
• Leadership
• Trust

• Openness

The counselor’s openness refers to the quality of focusing all his attention and energies towards the client in the counseling session and not coming to session with any pre assumed and preconceived notions about the client. 

This trait enables the counselors to be more receptive towards their clients.

• Acceptance

The quality of acceptance in a counselor is related to accepting the client regardless of his or her emotional anxieties and behavioral issues. A good counselor accepts both a rapist and a sexualy traumatized child with equal concern for psychological well being of both. 

• Empathy

The quality of empathy in a counselor enables the counselor to relate to the emotional anxieties of the client during the counseling session and connect with them emotionally without sympathizing with whatever has happened in their life. 

Empathy enables a counselor to walk in the shoes of the client and understand his feelings and formulate the case for further counseling sessions.

• Unconditional positive regard

The quality of unconditional positive regard in a counselor enables the counselor to show regard and concern for the clients without any judgements or social taboos associated. The core concern of the counselor in counseling is to provide unconditional positive regard to the clients despite their race, ethnicity, cultural groups or sexual orientations.

• Genuineness

The quality of genuineness in a counselor is related to the authenticity and validity of a counselor. This characteristic of a counselor is related to the utilization of his learned knowledge to perform counseling. Genuineness calls for a counselor to do what he is intended to do in a counseling session. 

• Ethical consideration

A good counselor needs to have a sound knowledge of the ethical considerations and the professional boundaries that he needs to practice during the counseling session. He needs to be aware of what quality of relationship he needs to have with his client in the counseling session and where in the counseling session he needs to breach the ethical considerations.

• Confidentiality

Confidentiality is the core skill of a good counselor. A counselor needs to keep all the information of a client highly confidential and let no other person interfere in the counseling process unless there is a threat to the client’s life or to someone else’s life because of the client, then the counselor has the right to breach the confidentiality of the client’s information to the extent that is necessary.

• Persuasive

A good counselor needs to have a persuasive personality. Without being pushy while dealing with a client, a counselor needs to carry a persona that sounds energetic and dynamic. A counselor needs to bring to a session positive energy that instills a good experience for the client and the client feels appreciated and accepted by the counselor with warmth.

• Skilled

A good counselor needs to be equipped with skills that are necessary for counseling sessions. The skills of a counselor should not only be known but he also needs to have a sound knowledge of what skills to use at what time in a session. 

A counselor needs to have therapeutic skills and counseling skills. A good counselor knows what strategies to use in the various phases of a counseling session.

Trained

A good counselor needs to be well trained for carrying out therapy, counseling and psycho assessment. He needs to know the tactics of rapport building, transference, countertransference, referring to the client and termination of client.  

Being skillful is having a sound knowledge of techniques whereas a trained counselor is an effective and efficient user of those techniques for overcoming any barriers to counseling sessions.

• Knowledge of techniques

A good counselor needs to have a sound knowledge of various counseling techniques and therapy interventions. He needs to know which type of therapy intervention goes with which client. He needs to stay updated with various projective and subjective techniques that can be used in counseling sessions to overcome defensive clients.

• Dissemination of information

A good counselor needs to have a sound knowledge of skills to communicate about various terminologies related to psychological well being. He needs to know the various ways that  he can use to educate clients for various phenomena as per the client’’s intellectual abilities and understanding capacity.

• Attending skills

The quality of attending skills in a counselor calls for the counselor to present mindedly focus all his physical and mental attention on to the client. The counselor needs to use the verbal and non verbal cues to attend the client well and understand his introvert and extrovert behavior that helps the counselor in case formulation.

• Intrapersonal skills

A good counselor needs to have good intrapersonal skills. He should be well aware of his own skills, strengths, mental health and physical health. Ideally a good counselor never brings his own mental strains from his life to a counseling session. If a counselor feels that he is in any way getting affected from the client’s counseling sessions, he needs to get supervision or peer review for what can be of help to the counselor. 

• Listening skills

A good counselor needs to have good listening skills. He should know when to interrupt the client and when to just be there for the client. He needs to have a sound knowledge of skills necessary for probing, clarification and relaxing the client.

• Communication skills

The communication skills of a counselor needs to be highly effective and efficient. The counselor needs to be trained for the language that the client speaks. The counselor needs to know the usage of words and the various ways of framing a sentence inorder to talk to a client in a way that sounds non judgemental and non threatening to a client.

The counselor also needs to know when to modulate the tone of voice and the way to communicate to a client that does not sound imposing.

• Decisiveness

A good counselor has decision making abilities that are related to the wellbeing of the client. A good counselor decides through a wise mind and frames a need based session plan that is in favour of the client’s emotional, social and psychological well being.

• Problem solving skills

A good counselor has analytical skills.the quality of being logical and analytically solving various issues that arise during the course of counselling is necessary as otherwise it may make the client suffer at the hands of the counselor.

• Keen observer

A good counselor needs to be a keen observer of the client’s verbal and non verbal behavior. He needs to be aware of the things that please the client and the things that the client usually restrains from talking about in a session. Being a keen observer of the client’s behavior and verbatim, the counselor is in a better position to build a strong rapport with the client.

• Patience

A good counselor needs to have the quality of patience. He needs to understand that the pace of the counseling session is determined by the client and not by the counselor. The client might often not come to the session with the completed assigned tasks or might often not feel like talking about a certain topic due to any reason.

At times the counselor might have to listen to various beliefs and opinions of the client that are against the counselor’s. In such a scenario the counselor needs to be patient and distant his beliefs from the clients without feeling unpleasant about them.

• Compassion

The quality of compassion in a good counselor refers to the counselor’s connection with the client’s suffering and his concern for promoting change within the client through various counseling interventions.

• Encouragement

The quality of encouragement in a good counselor refers to the fact that a counselor needs to encourage and be appreciative of the little steps that the client takes towards the desired outcome from the counseling session.

• Flexibility

The quality of flexibility in a good counselor asks for a counselor to be flexible about the session goals. The counselor needs to understand that the counseling session goals may often be hindered with the client’s low mood or excitement about something else in life that is important for the client. As a result of such a scenario the counselor needs to show regard to the client’s emotional needs and avoid being overly concerned about the counseling sessions goals.

• Self awareness

The quality of self awareness in a counselor asks for a counselor being aware of one’s own triggers, physical or mental challenges that might come in the way of providing counseling to the clients.self awareness is related to being fully aware of one’s own emotional needs and emotional anxieties so that there is less potential harm to a client in counseling.

• Pleasant attitude

A good counselor needs to have a quality of pleasant attitude towards the clients. He should not be rigid and stubborn. He should follow both counseling skills and interpersonal skills for maintaining a positive persona that enables the client to pay attention towards the counselor.

• Unbiased

A good counselor needs to be unbiased.the quality of being unbiased as a counselor asks for the counselor to provide equal services to every client regardless of the social, demographic and emotional aspects of the client’s life.

• Non judgemental

The quality of a good counselor of being  non judgemental asks for not labeling the clients due to their problems or emotional anxieties. The counselors usually restrain from being judgemental about the views of the clients or otherwise the counselors would sound the same as other people in the client’s life who are always ready to judge the client’s choices and life decisions.  

• Professional competence

The professional competence of a good counselor refers to the skills, values and attributes of a counselor that are necessary for him to carry out counseling sessions. A good counselor builds a strong rapport with the client while maintaining strong boundaries with the client and trying his best not to collude with the professional boundaries while trying to help the client overcome his anxieties.

• Leadership

A good counselor has leadership skills.he is able to instill the motivation to change within the client and work towards the change that is beneficial for the client’s life. Counselor’s tend to advocate the importance of change in client’s life through techniques such as motivational interviewing.

• Trust

The counseling sessions ask a counselor to build an environment that fosters mutual trust. The client and the counselor trust each other and respect each other’s being. The counselor intentionally tries to build a strong working alliance with the client to gain the client’s trust for better getting into the depth of the client’s world.

BetterHelp: A Better Alternative

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Conclusion

The current blogspot focused on the 30 qualities of a good counselor. We discussed the 30 qualities of a good counselor in detail and learned how each quality is necessary for someone to be a good counselor.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs): 30 qualities of a good counselor

What are the qualities of a good Counsellor?

Following are the qualities of a good counselor :

• Empathy
• Compassion
• Genuineness
• Unconditional positive regard
• trust

What are the 9 core Counselling skills?

Following are the 9 core counseling skills :

• Empathy
• Trust
• Skilled
• Trained
• Compassionate
• Unconditional positive regard
• Ethical 
• Genuinness
• Attention skills

What are the skills of a Counsellor?

Following are the skills of a counselor :

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Counseling skills
• Intrapersonal skills
• Listening skills
• Responding skills

Citations

https://www.oerafrica.org/FTPFolder/Website%20Materials/Health/KCN-Health-OER/Unit3/002.html

https://work.chron.com/top-eight-attributes-effective-counselor-22250.html

https://positivepsychology.com/characteristics-effective-counselors/