(P4) As a counsellor, you are sometimes required to refer a client or even be referred yourself.
A referral is when you hand over the client to another professional as the problem goes beyond
your expertise. Sometimes clients must be referred due to certain issues like emotional
attachment which breaches the counsellor-client professional relationship or even
psychological issues which will need to be diagnosed by a therapist. For example, if your client
is an alcohol addict, you will have to refer them to AA meetings where it will help them
recover properly as your role as a counsellor is to listen and help the client from a less
adaptive state to a more adaptive state.
You are required to refer a client when you can no longer help them with their problems which
means your qualification doesn’t allow you to take things further. You are also required to
refer a client if there is a conflict of interest as this can affect the relationship between the
client and the counsellor. This is shown in scenario 2, where client is romantically involved
with the counsellor's sister, which means you will have to terminate the sessions and the
relationship as well as refer the client to another office or another counsellor. If this is not
done, the relationship between the client and counsellor will become more intense as it will
be a conflict of interest towards the counsellor which will make the situation between them
about personal matters instead of the client's actual problem.
You must refer a client for many reasons such as personal relationships, out of your
expertise/field or dangerous/unstable client. It is important you refer a client as its your
responsibility as a counsellor to ensure the client receives the appropriate treatment and the
right type of help. This means if they require a therapist, you must refer them, to a therapist
so they can help the client as treating mentally unstable clients isn't the job role of a
counsellor. for example, in scenario 5, Jake needs to see a therapist as he wants to kill
himself. In the contract it clearly states that the confidentiality between you and the client
must be breached as they are disclosing information that shows they will hurt themselves,
therefore you must inform local authorities and refer him to a therapist.
(P5) In a counselling relationship, there are many things that occur in a helping relationship.
One thing that could affect the helping relationship is confidentiality. confidentiality is
something that should be discussed at the beginning of the session and this includes how far
the relationship can go, what they can say and who it can be shared it with. This is because
the client might become attached to the counsellor as they have built a relationship
throughout the sessions which can make the client feel a certain type of way. This can be
caused by how much they opened up to the counsellor and how the let the counsellor in. It is
very important that you as a counsellor make it clear that this helping relationship is strictly
professional and how certain information could be disclosed if they are referred to any other
institutions or transferred to another counsellor/therapist.
Limiting your skills can affect the relationship as if you limit your skills it could affect how the
client behaves and reacts. It could also affect how the open up and how much the tell you
which will prolong the whole counselling session. If you use too many skills, it could turn the
relationship into a more personal relationship, and it can go off track. This can cause
attachment issues as the client will start to believe that there is more than a helping
relationship present. It is very important that you only use certain skills at certain times to
improve the helping relationship in a professional manner. You must also make it clear that
the relationship is nothing more than a professional relationship to help them.
Client resistance can also affect the helping relationship as it would make it harder for the
counsellor to sort the problem out. This is because if they refuse to talk to the counsellor, the
counsellor won't know how to help or what to do to help. This means the counsellor will
struggle to get the client to open up and let them in. This could because the client has
personal issues and might have difficulties opening up. This will make the relationship between
the client and counsellor very awkward and weak as there is nothing they are working on. As a
counsellor you must respect the privacy of the client so you cannot force anything out of them
as you must respect the boundaries between you and the client.
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