Successful Counseling Relationship

A counseling relationship consists of two people; the counselor and the client. While the client can speak and act as they wish, the counselor has to follow an appropriate way of behaving and possess certain qualities in order to form a successful counseling relationship. Thus, the question arises. In what ways are the counselor’s qualities important in forming a successful relationship?

While a counselor should have both useful qualities and techniques, the latter only has a 12-15% success rate in counseling (Lambert, 1992). This proves that techniques alone are not sufficient and the counselor must also possess counselor qualities to form a successful relationship with the client and to make counseling successful. Frank and Frank (1991) claim

However, he believes the third important quality is unconditional positive regard which is to accept the client without any judgement no matter what they reveal in the sessions. He calls these the three “core conditions”. A grasp on these core conditions leads to a successful therapeutic alliance between the counselor and client. Genuineness leads to the client disclosing information and thus, the counselor gains a deeper insight into the client’s troubles. Unconditional positive regard makes the client feel as if despite all their troubles, they are still understood rather than judged and therefore, they can be honest about their vices and mistakes without having the fear of being judged. A counselor displaying empathy will make the client feel understood and accepted which will make the client reveal their sources of emotional trouble (Angus & Hardtke, 2006) which may take much longer or not happen at all if they feel misunderstood. This forms a relationship of safety and trust which makes the client feel as if they will not be rejected even after all that they have said or will say which results in the therapy being successful as the counselor can identify the issue after hearing about the problem in full disclosure and then, the counselor and client can set a goal to achieve through the therapy (Goldfried, 2003). This shared goal will not only set a motive for the client to work towards but also

The clients form a new perception of their self-identity which is more positive (Goldfried, 2003; Kagan, 2007). Also, the empathetic nature of the counselor is soothing and calming for the client. This can be source of relief in their life (Elliott et al.