Chapter 2: The counselor as a Person and as a Professional

Question 1

Burnout

Answer 1

A state of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual characterized by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness

Question 2

Countertransference

Answer 2

Projections by therapists that distort the way they perceive and react to a client. It is the therapist’s unconscious emotional response to a client that may interfere with objectively

Question 3

Empathy Balance

Answer 3

Involves the therapist being able to enter the client’s world without getting lost in that world

Question 4

Empathy Fatigue

Answer 4

Shares similarities with other fatigue syndromes such as compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious traumatization, and burnout. Common to professionals who treat survivors of stressful and traumatic events; who treat people with mood, anxiety, and stress-related disorders; and who work in vocational settings with people with mental and physical disabilities.

Question 5

Experiential Learning

Answer 5

Focuses on giving students opportunities to share their values, life experiences, and personal concerns in a group setting

Question 6

Impairment

Answer 6

The presence of a chronic illness or severe psychological depletion that is likely to prevent a professional from being able to deliver effective services and results in consistently functioning below acceptable practice standards

Question 7

Self-care

Answer 7

Paying attention to nurturing the body, mind, and spirit. Taking steps to promote one’s wellness on all levels

Question 8

Self-compassion

Answer 8

Involves developing attitudes of caring, being nonjudgmental, being accepting, and being kind to ourselves. Self-compassion can enhance counselor well-being, counselor effectiveness in the workplace, and therapeutic relationships with clients.

Question 9

Stress

Answer 9

An event or a series of events leading strain, which often results in physical and psychological health problems.

Question 10

Therapeutic Lifestyle Change

Answer 10

Self-care strategies to promote wellness, such as exercise, nutrition and diet, time in nature, relationships, recreation, relaxation, stress management, religious or spiritual involvement, and service to others.

Question 11

Transference

Answer 11

Client’s unconscious shifting to the therapists of feelings, attitudes, and fantasies, both positive and negative, that they have had toward significant people in their life.

Question 12

Examples of personal needs of counselors based on unresolved personal conflicts:

Answer 12

1. Need to tell people what to do
2. Strong desire to relieve all pain from clients
3. Need to have all answers and be perfect

Question 13

Personal Therapy for Counselors (reasons)

Answer 13

1. To explore your values and motivations for becoming a helper
2. How your needs influence your actions and how you use power in your life
3. To identify and explore your blind spots and potential areas of countertransference
4. For remediation purposes

Question 14

Transference (patient to counselor)

Answer 14

The process whereby clients project onto their therapists past feelings or attitudes they had towards significant people in their lives

Question 15

Countertransference (Counselor to Patient)

Answer 15

The therapist’s emotional response to a client including feelings, associations, fantasies, and fleeting images

Question 16

Examples of countertransference (8)

Answer 16

1. Being overprotective with a client
2. Treating clients in benign ways
3. Rejecting a client
4. Needing constant reinforcement and approval
5. Seeing yourself in your client
6. Developing sexual or romantic feelings for a client
7. Giving advice compulsively
8. Desiring a social relationship with clients

Question 17

Client Dependence

Answer 17

a client’s reliance on the therapist for emotional support, guidance, and validation, potentially hindering their own growth and independence

Question 18

Sources of Stress in the Counseling Profession (4)

Answer 18

1. Feelings they are not helping their clients
2. Accept full responsibility for client’s progress
3. Feeling pressure to quickly solve client’s problems
4. Extremely high personal goals and perfectionistic strivings

Question 19

Maintaining Vitality as a Counselor (4)

Answer 19

1. Sustaining the personal self is an ethical obligation
2. Personal vitality is a prerequisite to functioning in a professional role
3. Ongoing self-care is an essential part of professional competence and personal wellness
4. Clients can benefit from counselor’s mindfulness practices even if clients are not practicing mindfulness themselves