TPC-Journal-V5-Issue1

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 1 118 (2011), “To master process, beginning counselors must develop a repertoire of helping skills as well as a theory of counseling that directs their application” (p. 1). Most counseling programs separate acquisition of basic skills from theoretical knowledge. Gaining these skills can be like learning a foreign language—learned patterns of human interaction change as students assume their counselor identity and acquire new counseling skills. Certain critical skills are absent from this formula because, due to prior knowledge and experience, students easily understand them. For example, when given the opportunity to talk about attending skills, most students can easily identify basic posture, facial expressions and space limitations with reasonable accuracy. Minimal encouragers and questioning are both necessary skills that have a useful purpose in the counseling session; nevertheless, students usually have mastered these in normal daily conversation. Therefore, both minimal encouragers and questioning must receive great attention in order to substantially reduce and manage their utilization and avoid hindering or distracting from the effectiveness of a counseling session. A Cognitive Mapping Formula The creation of a cognitive mapping formula for counseling was designed to graphically depict the counseling process utilized in the therapeutic process. The formula and the inclusion of certain basic skills illustrate the concept of client empowerment so that clients can take personal responsibility for their actions and make desired changes. The counseling formula works as follows: Cognition (C) plus feelings (F) equals meaning (M), which leads to awareness (A), which promotes insights (I), which facilitates change (see Figure 1). Cognition + Feelings = Meaning Awareness Insights = Change Figure 1. Counseling formula for client empowerment Through reflections of cognition, feeling and meaning, counselors help clients explore their world and determine what will be effective and ineffective. These reflections encourage exploration on multiple levels. Deeper levels of exploration are achieved through reflection of feeling and meaning so that clients connect what is happening in their heads (cognitions) and what is happening emotionally (feelings), therefore ultimately understanding their experience (meaning). Through counselors’ proper application of the top line of the cognitive mapping equation, clients begin to understand that their situation is solvable if they are willing to take personal responsibility for the change, as reflected in the bottom line of the equation. In other words, change occurs as a result of clients’ personal commitment. The concept of universality and the inclusion of all basic skills are part of all theoretical applications. The didactic application of the cognitive mapping, as seen in Figure 1, tracks how the counselor shapes the session in classroom role plays. The equation shows how the session crosslinks and builds. The counselor influences the session through the choices the counselor makes to reflect feeling, meaning or cognition. Each counseling session looks different, but all sessions need balance in order for sessions to flow.