There are general rules and guidelines for counseling that a psychologist should follow. These principles make the work process of the consultant and client more structured and efficient.
- Each customer is unique. Two identical situations cannot exist in principle. Therefore, in psychological counseling, a personality-oriented approach is important.
- The attitudes, attitudes, and attitudes of the client may change during the consultation. It is necessary to foresee the emergence of new problems.
- The client’s problems must first be recognized by the client himself. People who came to the consultation without motivation, most often cannot accept responsibility for the existence of problems and their subsequent solution.
- Comfort and customer safety are the main components of counseling. If a person experiences moral or physical discomfort while solving his problems, then the psychologist should stop working or transfer it to another channel.
- The psychologist must use all his best qualities, both professional and personal, during counseling. Despite this, he must remember that the main role in solving the problems of the client lies with the client himself. If the problem is not solved, then there is no need to impose existential guilt on this.
- The result of counseling may either not be visible immediately, or delayed in time.
- The consultant must always comply with the rules of professional ethics.
- Counseling should be based on theoretical knowledge. However, the all-consuming trust in the educational literature and the complete exclusion of personal human qualities can give a destructive result of counseling.
- The consultant must differentiate problems from dilemmas and rhetorical questions.
- The counseling process should be bilateral in nature.