Qualities of a counselor

          Counselor is the center of counselling process. Success or failure of counselling depends on his personal qualities and competencies of counselor. Some of the qualities that a counselor should possess are

Well Adjusted Personality

Counselor should have pleasing and well-adjusted personality. He should possess maturity, emotional stability, sense of worth, confidence, self-reliance, flexibility and adaptability. He should be well aware of his strength and limitations. He should be a person of high social interest, professional aptitude, respect, good judgment etc.

Sincere Interest

Counselor should be interested in helping others. He should possess sincere interest in client, his environment, social life, activities etc.

Knowledge

Counselor should be a knowledgeable person, knowledgeable about range of psychological disorders the individual experiences and knowledgeable about the different techniques in counselling.

Personal Competence

Counselor should know his job well, possess wide knowledge of world, should be well versed with different techniques in counselling. He should keep abreast with the latest trends in his field. He should be a person of self-understanding, sense of mission, loyalty, enthusiasm dedication and professional ethics.

Availability

Counselor should be available to the client at all the time, even at odd hours if needed.

Confidentiality

It means keeping secrecy of the information disclosed. It can be Absolute confidentiality (under no circumstance the information is disclosed) or Relative confidentiality (in exceptional circumstance the information is disclosed). Confidentiality facilitates client to disclose, safeguards him from harmful effects, prevents others from misusing etc.

Empathy

Empathy means ‘feeling into’ and has a significant role in the counselling situation. Empathy is referred to as the apprehension rather than the mere comprehension of the emotions of another person without feeling completely what he feels. It is “the ability to feel and describe the thought and feelings of others” (Dymond, 1949). She further describes empathy as “the imaginative transposing of oneself into the thinking, feeling and acting of another and so structuring the world as he does”. It is recognizing and acknowledging feelings of client without experiencing those emotions.