Читать книгу Helping Relationships With Older Adults - Adelle M. Williams - Страница 88

Counseling is a unique profession requiring a particular set of qualities. In order to be successful, all counselors need to have the following qualities: comfort with ambiguity, empathy, good boundaries, and belief in the capacity for change (LoFrisco, 2012). Counselors cannot always clearly see the results of their work and must learn to be comfortable in situations where they won’t have all of the facts. They must also have a particular kind of empathy and balance it with accountability. A good counselor holds clients accountable for their actions. Counseling is a profession that has a higher risk for burnout, therefore counselors with good boundaries understand their limitations, know where their responsibility for the change process ends and where the client’s begins, and establish policies and procedures and apply them consistently. Lastly, good counselors believe that people can and do change and provide optimism and hope when there is none. They are realistic about the change process and are able to help clients set attainable goals (LoFrisco, 2012).