What are the similarities and differences between guidance and counselling

macfranc007 October 27, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Mary Ikande

Guidance and counselling are two terms almost everyone is familiar with, and to some people they both have the same meaning; but is this really correct? To understand this, it is necessary to know the precise meaning of each term, conduct a comparative analysis and identify their similarity and differences. This article will tell you all you need to know about these two terms and teach you who exactly to contact between a counselor or a guide when you need psychological help.

Similarities between guidance and counselling

Both duties are carried about by professionals who can be contacted for solutions by people who need help in solving personal, professional or emotional issues. Such assistance could help in the formation of a harmonious personality and its maintenance throughout the course of one’s life. People need attentive listeners to express their thoughts and doubts to, and receive useful advice in return.

Meaning of guidance

When it comes to guidance, it can be said to involve a situation where a more experienced and authoritative person offers advice and instructions to a person below him who needs advice. This authoritative figure is expected to help those dependent on him find the right path in specific areas of life.

Such an approach is often used in the educational system. For example, a teacher can help a student to find a vocation after putting into consideration all the advantages, disadvantages, available resources and hidden potentials he possesses.

The different kinds of guide one gets to have in life include teachers, parents and university professors.

For some people leadership becomes a calling; the guidance consultant in educational institutions is usually a person with a professional education, employed to help students determine their life paths by providing personal and professional advice. If you want to help other people make decisions about their lives, you need to understand psychology, be a good listener and know how to properly analyze the words of your clients.

The main goal of the guides is to give a ready answer, help people find their place in the society, suggest the best course of actions and decisions to achieve maximum benefit.

Everyone at some point in life get to find themselves in situations where they need guidance or advice from someone more experienced and educated in areas they are about to get involved in; this could be the choice of university to attend, the direction to take to build a professional career or any other situation you simply cannot handle on your own. These are the kinds of situations where one really needs a guide.

Similarities and difference between guidance and counselling

What is counselling?

The essence of psychological counselling is the provision of direct psychological assistance, based on special professional-scientific knowledge, through the creation of conditions under which the client can realize new opportunities in solving his psychological problems.

When conducting psychological counselling, the psychologist gives advice to the client, but their practical implementation is the client's business. The main work is often done by the client independently in the absence of a psychologist or without direct and constant interaction with him.

The purpose of psychological counselling is to help the client study his personality, understand his relationship with the outside world, assess his problems and find alternative ways to overcome them.

This goal is realized through the following:

Specification (clarification) of the problem that the client has; and by applying special methods of listening, the consultant can come to a conclusion on what the client's problem is.
Informing the client about the nature of his problem and the real degree of its seriousness. The consultant not only explains what the problem is but also why it has come up and how it can be practically solved.
The study of the client's personality. Such a study makes it possible to find out whether a client fully understands his problems and whether he is ready to solve them.
Clearly providing advice and recommendations to the client on how to solve his problems. This takes into account the individual characteristics of the client and the specifics of understanding the problem by the psychologist. Tips and recommendations should be simple, short and understandable to the client, and also suitable for implementation in the real-life conditions of the client and with appropriate control from his side.

There is usually several cases where the client will be unable to promptly and successfully implement the advice and recommendations received; sometimes, due to inexperience and inability, the client makes mistakes and needs prompt help from the psychologist. Therefore, the task of the counselling specialist is to assist the client in the form of additional practical advice offered when he has already started to solve the problem.
If for any reason the client refuses to follow the advice and recommendations provided by the psychologist, the latter is not responsible for the ultimate practical result of psychological counselling, but only for the correctness of these recommendations.
Teaching the client how to avoid such problems in the future. This is one of the tasks of psycho prophylaxis. After solving a client’s problem, the counselor psychologist should make sure that the client can independently prevent the reoccurrence of such a problem.
In the course of psychological counselling, the client also receives psychological and educational information. It consists of the transferring necessary psychological knowledge and skills to the client, and helping him master the correct application this knowledge independently.

The criterion for the effectiveness of psychological counselling is the emergence of new positive experience about the client's problem.

Difference between guidance and counselling

Guidance is usually provided by higher-level authorities and is mandatory in most cases. Counselling has a milder form and helps in personal, psychological problems.
Guidance is involved with prevention, while counselling is a treatment or an act of healing the soul.
Guidance indicates an optimal alternative and counselling expands the perception of the surrounding reality, opens up new perspectives and points of view on the basis of which the client makes his own choice.
Guidance is an external influence, while counselling acts from within, penetrates the essence of the problems, requires detailed analysis to fully understand and overcome obstacles.
Guidance is most often used in professional and educational matters while counselling is used in personal, social and psychological areas of life.
Guidance requires a lower level of confidentiality and can be provided in an open form. When deep psychological problems are involved, clients prefer to keep the sessions a secret.
Guidance can be given to several people at once, but counselling always applies to only one person.

Now you know what guidance and counselling really mean and why they are not the same terms. If you require such support, do not forget that you can contact a professional to help; the Counselling Association of Nigeria is always there for you. We hope this information was useful to you. Good luck!

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