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The art of effective counseling: Effective counseling is an art that may lead to the kind of job you'd love to have. 

Counseling directives for beginners are essential, but they may appear idealistic, rather than realistic. It is not possible for one person to counsel every person, who is in need of counseling, but if you are able to help even one, then your counseling efforts will not have been in vain.

If you wish to be a counselor, it is important to look seriously at what you are attempting to do and why you want to do it. It is never a good idea to insist on counseling someone who does not want to be counseled or refuses counseling. It is normally not a good idea to attempt to counsel family members, either.

Counseling is the most effective, when the counseling is requested by the person who needs help, in the form of counseling from a counselor.

Here are guidelines for people who want to counsel others and are seeking training or education, as professional counselors.

The counselor and counselee relationship:

The counseling profession is a helping relationship. The counselor takes on the role of a helper. He or she tries to help one or more people, by providing counseling with respect to problems, issues or concerns. The counselee is the person helped by the counselor or whoever is being counseled.

Different kinds of counseling:

There are many different kinds of counseling. For instance, one-to-one counseling is different from group counseling. In one-to-one counseling, one counselor works with one person, on a one-to-one basis. In group counseling, one counselor works with a group of people. Sometimes, there may be more than one counselor, who works with a group of counselees. For example, in one-to-one counseling, a counselor might work with one teenager. Group counseling could involve one or several counselors, working together with a group of teenagers.

More specific kinds of counseling.

Legal counseling involves a lawyer or a paralegal, who works with people having legal problems.

Family counseling involves a counselor working with a family member, family members or an entire family, with regard to areas of concern to them.

Marital counseling focuses on a counselor working with a married person or a couple, on their marital problems.

Pre-marital counselors work with an individual or two people, who plan on getting married, at some time in the future.

Divorce counselors work with an individual or a couple, who may be contemplating a divorce.

Financial counseling has to do with helping a person or a group of people to resolve financial or money concerns.

A debt counselor will counsel those who are in a debt crisis, towards effective resolution of their debts.

In credit card counseling, a counselor works with a person or a family, to resolve credit card issues.

Addiction counseling involves a counselor working with a person or family, where there are issues of concern with regard to alcohol, drugs and gambling addiction.

Smoking addiction counselors work with people, who desire to stop smoking.

Career counselors work with those who are seeking advice re prospective careers.

Academic counselors help those who are looking for academic directives.

A teen counselor would work specifically with teenagers in order to resolve their problems.

A child and family counselor works with parents and children, to resolve childcare issues or concerns.

A grief counselor will counsel or help those who are going through different stages of bereavement.

Counseling as such, may be informal or formal. 

Informal counseling:

Many people do informal counseling in one way or another, with others or many others, on a regular basis. For example, a father may counsel his son and his son's friends about teen drug abuse. A mother may counsel her daughter and others about teen pregnancy issues.

While the parents may not have formal training as counselors, they can help their children and others. At times, they can be highly effective as counselors, depending upon how well they relate to and interact with their counselees, as well as the response that they get from the counselee, in return for their efforts.

Often the older children in a family are able to counsel the younger children informally, because counseling is a lot like teaching. Many of the informal helping or counseling skills are much the same.

Formal counseling:

"Is formal training in counseling necessary, in order for someone to become a counselor?"

While it is not essential to have formal training to counsel someone else, it is advisable, particularly if a person's expectation is that of being  hired, as a professional counselor. A highly effective counselor will have learned counseling skills and have more advanced training in counseling. For example, a minister, doctor or a lawyer will have learned professional counseling skills. Other professions like teaching and nursing include training in professional counseling skills.

Different kinds of counseling require different kinds of formal training. For instance, a family counselor may need to know different things than a financial counselor, in order to be effective in counseling. Often, many of the areas of counseling are inter-related.

Effective counseling might require both family counseling skills and financial counseling expertise or a teen counselor might need to have child counseling skills.

Counseling courses:

Many universities and colleges offer specialized or general counseling courses of different kinds, for those who are seeking to become professional counselors. Begin by taking general counseling courses, first. This will help you to decide if counseling is the right occupation for you.

If you decide counseling is the direction that you are going to pursue, make serious inquiries about counseling courses available at your local university or college. Consider all of your options. Remember to use your pre-existing training or skills to help you to make a wise career decision.

Consider all of the other possibilities too, with respect to obtaining more advanced formal education and training, in another profession that teaches you how to be an effective counselor. You may decide to choose a profession that includes counseling skills or seek training in counseling itself. Either way, you will learn how to be a helper.

Effective counseling involves learning the art of counseling first. This may turn out to be a job you would love to have.