Counseling involves manipulation of the human brain ideologies in order to bring out a clear conviction from an individual. It involves finding solutions to issues that are conflicting in a human’s brain. It sometimes necessitates the counselor to convince the client to change his/her behavior and lifestyle through advice offered.
It necessitates the counselor to feel his/her client’s emotions through deep concentration on the facts derived from the client. He then derives the problem and its possible solutions, which he instills in his client through advice. Counseling involves advice on diverse sectors that assist human beings to cope with personal problems depicting from abuse, self-esteem, career development or depression (Makinde, 1984). It necessitates the building of policies to govern the counselors.
The most prominent policy that has to be input in the counseling institution is privacy to customer information. The entity has to ensure that each customer is a remarkable person and entitles to secrecy on his/her case. The counselors should take an oath of privacy before embarking on employment as a counselor.
This ensures that the customer builds trust between the counselor and himself. Counselors should avoid giving details about what his client came to seek advice about to anyone, even close relatives such as spouses or parents without the customer permission. The information should be confidential to the counseling professional and his counterparts. For access to client information, a grant has to be permitted through written and signed evidence to enable filing.
Privacy should have exceptions such as an order from the law courts to release information that could display the client’s cause of behavior, or when his/her actions may cause a threat to society, which requires that he should be placed in a protection institution. Information recorded by trainees and students for purposes of learning through tape recordings has to be destroyed. It should not be posted on the SIUE counseling site for master’s and doctorate training.
Attendance policies should be put in place for counselors and clients to follow. The client should communicate with the counselor on the preferred date of appointment as well as the counselor’s availability. This ensures that there are no run-on incidences as well as bouncing appointments, which may make the client de-motivated to continue with the counseling sessions.
Clients may shy from attending counseling sessions. The counselor should try to make contact with clients who do not show up and encourage them to set up another appointment. However, they should not use coercion to make the client attend the counseling session.
Clients may show the need of treatment through medication in severe cases. This should be assessed through thorough interaction between the client and the counselor. The counselors should then direct them to psychiatric attention from a professional.
Psychiatric attention should be provided to clients who go through continuous counseling sessions. This increases the client’s chances of recovering and at faster rates. The institution should communicate with the psychiatrists in order to inform them of their client’s progress during medication.
In order to attach a client to a professional psychiatrist, the client should bind the agreement by signing. This ensures that information released to the psychiatrist has authority from the client. The counselor’s notes made from counseling sessions have to be recorded in softcopies so as to ensure safety and backup.
The psychiatrist and counselor should create a trustworthy relationship with the client. This requires them to ensure confidentiality at all levels in their line of duty. This can also be emphasized by ensuring that the client deals with a counselor or psychiatrist. This will enable the institution to have a tracking system that is consistent to prevent repeated treatment.
The counseling institution should instill a policy that handles client complaints and grievances. Customer complaints are crucial since they assist the counselors to provide quality services to customers. There should be suggestion boxes placed at places where clients can access them at ease (Milne, 2003).
The institution can also open a website in which clients drop their complaints through e-mails. They should provide information on those incidences that led to complains within a given period since the incidence occurred. This may regard to lack of satisfaction from services provided by the attendant.
The complaints should be directed to the management of the institution and collected from the suggestion boxes every day. The management should then consult with the affected parties so as to provide a satisfactory solution. Significant grievances should be used to address and monitor the professional in question. In extreme situations, counselors should be charged in a court of law for their unethical behavior. This improves service delivery as well as sharpening their skills and expertise.
The councilors should ensure that they follow ethical standards under laws governing councilors nationwide. They should ensure that mandated counseling only happens when a rightful governing body allows it. These are such as school judicial boards or court orders, which deem it crucial for specified students to undergo counseling.
The institution should instill an audit system which ensures laws and policies use by counselors during counseling sessions. The counselors employed should be from diverse backgrounds and training. This ensures that they can understand the client problem at ease and offer appropriate solutions.
References
Makinde, O. (1984). Fundamentals of guidance and counselling. London: Macmillan.
Milne, A. (2003). Counselling ([New ed.). London: Teach Yourself.