Counseling is the activity whereby a counselor counsels people on a broad range of problems and difficulties. Counseling is a process of interaction between the counselor and the person or persons who seek his/her assistance. This process approaches social, emotional, cultural and socio-economic issues. The general goal of Counseling is to furnish people with the opportunities to work on issues that concern them so as to be able to lead a more fulfilling life.
Counseling may be used to handle and resolve specific problems, such as the improvement of intra-personal and inter-personal relationships, conflict resolution, crisis intervention and internal conflicts.
Different theories of counseling inform practitioners about how to work with their clients so as to facilitate positive change and outcomes.
The models are clustered according to the four major forces in Psychology:
- Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytic, Adlerian);
- Behavioural and Cognitive-Behavioural (Behavioural, Cognitive-Behavioural, Reality);
- Humanistic (Existential, Person-Centred, Gestalt);
- Contextual/Systemic (Feminist, Family Systems, Multicultural).