COUNSELING HAS BEEN DEFINED IN DIFFERENT WAYS BY DIFFERENT AUTHORS.

INTRODUCTION

According to Ipaye (1983); Guidance as a generic label, an umbrella term that covers all the means whereby an instruction identifies and responds to the needs of pupils or students no matter the nature of the need and no matter its sources thereby helping the child to develop to his/her maximum potential

According to Rao (1988); Guidance as the assistance given to individual in making intelligent choices and adjustments

According to Okon (1984); Guidance as total programmers of a number of highly specialized activities implemented by all staff members to help individuals make wise, intelligent choices and decisions

Generally definition after looking several definitions according to various scholars above Guidance is a total school programmers provided for pupils by teachers, administrators, guidance specialist and other school personnel on a continuous basis. It is aimed at assisting the individual to understand and accept himself and his world thereby becoming a more effective, more productive and happier human being.

COUNSELING HAS BEEN DEFINED IN DIFFERENT WAYS BY DIFFERENT AUTHORS.

According to Shertzer Stone (1976); Counseling as a learning process in which individuals learn about themselves, their interpersonal relationships and behaviors that advance their personal development

According to Dustin and George (1973); Counselling as a learning process designed to increase adaptive behaviour and to decrease maladaptive behaviour.

According to Perez (1965); Counselling as an interactive process conjoining the counselee who needs assistance and the counsellor who is trained and educated to give this assistance. Through his communication of feelings of respect, tolerance, spontaneity and warmth, the counselor initiates, facilities and maintains the interactive process.

According to Thompson and Poppen (1972); Counselling as a person to person relationship in which one person helps another to resolve an area of conflict that has not been hitherto resolved

According to Carl Rogers (1942); Founder of client-centred psychotherapy, views counselling as the process by which the stricture of the self is relaxed in the safety of the client’s relationship with the therapist, and previously denied experiences are perceived and then integrated into an altered self.

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNSELLING ACCORDING TO IPAYE (1983).

A. GROUP COUNSELLING

It is a technique where a group of persons is counselled by applying group interaction method with the purpose of arriving at a solution to the problem common to the group. All the group members were provided with an opportunity to discuss their problem together, in a free   atmosphere. Knowledge of reality, self-knowledge and self realization can be achieved through group interaction process.

TECHNIQUES OF GROUP COUNSELLING

There are various techniques used for group counselling.

Informal discussions

Discussions done under a skilful leader with desirable objectives result in conclusions helpful to the whole group

Group reports

Students with similar specific problems are divided into groups, the solution arrived at is discussed in the larger group.

Lectures

Lectures delivered by experts on specific problems are used to impart group guidance.

B. INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING OR INTERVIEW

Interview is one of the main techniques employed in assisting the individual to understand him. It is the fundamental operation in the counselling process. According to Bingham and Moore Interview is 'Conversation with purpose'. Irrespective of the nature of the interview, facts about the involved individual are gathered, inferred and sometimes judged and verified during the counselling process. In addition to the obvious picture of the students' traits as obtained through structured tools in the form of data blanks, questionnaire, rating scales, a proficient counsellor can enrich the data collected by having casual conversations with teachers concerned and parents

TYPES OF INTERVIEWS OR INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING

Introductory Interview

The first interview with the counselee for getting mutually acquainted and building rapport is introductory interview. It makes the follow up procedure easy. The counsellor introduces himself and states the purpose of the interview to the counselee. It also develops confidence in the counselee about the counsellor's competence, interest, knowledge, skill and feeling of freedom. This type of introductory interview does not provide all the data needed to understand the counselee. To get details about the counselee, the introductory interview is to be followed by fact- finding interview.

Fact-finding Interview

This helps the counsellor to identify the intensity of counselee attitudes towards family, friends, school, subjects and situations which are not revealed by the counsel lee in writing. Counsellor knows about the strengths and weaknesses of the counselee by this follow-up interview.

 Informative Interview

A counselee may be interviewed by the counsellor with the purpose of informing him about the data collected from various sources. The students who seek educational and vocational choices require this type of interviews by expert counsellors

THE FOLLOWING ARE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING ACCORDING TO IPAYE (1983)

According to this book known as“the roles of the home, the community and the School in Guidance and Counsellingˮ was wrote by Ipaye T in (1983)

THE STARTING WITH STRENGTH OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING ACCORDING TO IPAYE (1983)

Guidance services are for all people. A programme of guidance services is potentially intended for all people and not only those who have problems. Students, staff, the community and other agencies may benefit directly from a programme of guidance services. Even if an individual is not experiencing educational, vocational or personal-social problems, such a person may need some help or to be motivated to plan his life more meaningfully. In a real life situation, each individual often experiences one type of problem or the other although he may not be aware of or even admit he needs help. For example, students who perform creditably in academic subjects may need motivation to be achievement-oriented. A clever boy or girl may become an under-achiever if he or she is not working to his/her full potentiality. Every student is welcome to seek guidance although some students may need it more than others.

Guidance services are voluntary and not by force or coercion. The students may be persuaded but not forced to participate in a counselling encounter. Shy and reluctant clients may be referred to the counsellor by their parents, teachers, friends or other significant persons, but the counsellor has no right to force a client to come for counselling

Guidance services are for all school levels. Appropriate types of counselling techniques should be fashioned to suit the needs of counselling at primary school, junior secondary school and post secondary institutions of our educational system. Counsellors should realize that the type of problems and concerns of the clients differ from one age to the other. But each stage of life cycle needs guidance and counselling. For example, young pupils need developmental guidance designed for healthy academics, vocational, moral and social adjustment. The adolescent students have their peculiar developmental guidance needs for preparation to adult roles in the work, sex and marriage. Adults too need counselling to cope with adult life problems

Guidance services are aimed primarily at preventing problems than solving them. The popular saying “prevention is better than cure” is a good slogan for counsellors. The primary goal of a counsellor is to prevent major problems from occurring. In life situations, however, problems still occur which the school should deal with to assist his clients.

Guidance services do not provide solution to all human problems. Unresolved problems can be referred to more competent agencies for possible solution; guidance is not a cure for all problems. The counsellor should recognise his limitations and promptly refer clients to other agencies whose services will better meet the needs of the clients which the counsellor has identified.

Guidance services must ensure the security and confidentiality of a personal information revealed either directly by the client during the counselling interview or through data collection process. Confidential information should only be shared with others with the consent of the client or if to do so will serve the interest of the client and the law of the land. If a client confides in the counsellor that he or she committed one type of crime, the counsellor should strongly persuade him/her to stop such a criminal act he should not report the confidential information to the police or even to the principal. A counsellor should not betray trust and confidentiality which the counselee has in him.

Guidance services should recognise the worth and dignity of an individual client. Counsellors should accept their clients with empathy, understanding, congruence and unconditional positive regard as postulated by Carl Rogers. Other school personnel, such as members of the school disciplinary committee, may be inclined to summarily dismiss a student due to his short comings or violation of schools regulations, guidance services focus on the reformation of the offender and the need to plan for alternative behaviour for the client to adopt. Thus, the counsellor holds a positive and patient view that most individuals with maladaptive behaviours could changed through adequate learning process.

Guidance services are based on the total development of mental vocational, emotional and personal social aspect of an individual intellectual development alone is limiting. The cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of the individuals are all important and should emphasize.

Guidance services may manipulate the environment to help the client consideration for employment opportunities. The counsellor may intervene on behalf of his client, to seek for scholarship or prevent other persons from frustrating him.

THE FOLLOWING ARE WEAKNESSES OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING ACCORDING TO IPAYE (1983)

Doubt about the efficacy of guidance and counselling. Some people such as uninitiated colleagues, teachers, principals or administrators doubt the efficacy of counseling. Psychology has really not attained the degree of precision found in the physical sciences. People, especially adults are therefore skeptical about reliance about reliance on its use. Such people think it is more applicable to children who are not yet ripe enough to make vital decisions for them. They believe adults do not need it. One may wonder who needs Marital, Rehabilitative, Parent Child counseling if not the grown-ups.

Blurred Role of the Guidance Counsellor. Several people in the society do not know the specific roles of the counsellor. Even in the school settings, where awareness is expected to be high, school personnel such as teacher and principals do not understand or they misconstrue the functions of the counsellors.

Feeling of suspicion of the role/integrity of counsellors. Some school personnel still see the counsellors as having a ‘hidden agenda’ or something to hide when a client goes into the counselling room (where this is available). Some give counsellors negative or derogatory labels. This is more so where the other workers doubt the moral integrity of counsellors who give individual counselling to young ones. This feeling becomes more serious when a male counsellor treats female students and gives the interaction high confidentiality, yet, counselling demand reasonable privacy.

Confidentiality. The issue of confidentiality is pertinent in counselling. Clients expect their secrets or privileged information to be kept secret or confidential and not exposed to others. However, referral agents such as teachers, peers, parents, and principals expect counsellors to divulge such information to them. Failure of the counsellor to reveal the ‘secret’ may raise the degree of suspicion of his activities. Revealing the secrets lead to loss of faith in counselling and counsellors on one part will lose clients and friends of such clients and counselling will be the big loser on the long run. Yet, all these are happening

Lack of commitment of Government Officers. Although, the Federal Government entrenched the guidance and counselling programme there is still much to do when it comes to practical support and its implementation. More committed action will help the growth of the profession. For instance, there should be adequate planning that would map out both short and long term goals as well as strategies of evaluating the progress being made

Lack of Counseling Office or Room. Because of several factors such as explosion of students’ population and inadequate number of classrooms, problem of space or office accommodation is common in the typical secondary school. This is particularly so in the urban centers (where counselors may be found). This results into a situation in which there is hardly any spare room that can be released for counseling as ‘counselor’s office’. Guidance may be given anywhere but counseling needs privacy if it is to be effective. One may see a counselor interacting with a client in one corner of the staff room, under a tree or a place seemingly away from people but such areas are never distraction- free. The best that occurs in schools without a counseling office is guidance or educational / vocational counseling, not socio- personal counseling.

CONCLUSION

Generally this book discuss how Guidance and Counseling are very potential in society and help people who are facing various problems that face but also guidance and counseling contribute to shape behavior of people who are lose hope concerning to several issues that face them without any disturbance to other people that surround themselves.

REFERENCES

Ipaye, T. (1983). The roles of the home, the community and the School in Guidance and    Counselling. In A. Uba (ed) Introduction to Counselling. Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press.

Okon, S. E. (1988) Guidance for 6-3-3-4 System of Education, Zaria, Ahmadu Bello University,                          Institute of Education.

Shertzer, B. and Stone, S.C. (1976), Fundamentals of guidance, Boston: Houston Mifflin                                                 Company

Rogers, C. R. (1942) Counselling and Psychotherapy. Boston Houston Misslin