Social Awarness in Coucelling.

Social awarness in councelling.

What is councelling?

The British Association of Counselling (Newsome: 1980, 8) gives as its definition: “People become engaged in counselling when a person occupying regularly or temporarily the role of counsellor offers or agrees explicitly to offer time, attention, and respect to another person or persons temporarily in the role of client. The task of counselling is to give the client an opportunity to explore, discover and clarify ways of living more resourcefully and toward greater well-being.”

Councelling with Social awarness.

Social awarness in councelling is a critique of mainstream counselling from three alternative therapeutic orientations: feminist counselling, cross-cultural counselling and liberation psychology.

Social Awareness in Counselling explores the many areas in which mainstream counselling focuses exclusively on the individual while failing to explore wider social issues that often greatly influence our values, behaviours and experiences. Issues such as gender, class, sexual orientation, culture and ethnicity are rarely considered. The social and personal oppression that cultural stereotypes engender remain largely unacknowledged in mainstream counselling.

Social Awareness in Counselling unearths counselling research in both mainstream and alternative counselling orientations. The feminist counselling model addresses such issues as gender, race and class, and also emphasises the need for awareness of power issues within the counselling relationship. Cross-cultural Counselling models state that counselling is largely based on western beliefs and values that are alien to culturally-different clients. The theories of liberation psychology stress the importance of facing the political, social and economic roots of oppression that limit personal freedom and choice.

Social Awareness in Counselling is an invaluable guide for counsellors, course directors, and prospective clients. It clearly highlights the pitfalls of counselling while pointing the way forward towards a more egalitarian and socially aware therapeutic relationship.