From Stress to Success

Effective Counselling Checklist

You may like to use the following checklist (prepared by the ethical committee of the European Therapy Studies Institute, ETSI) to protect yourself, or someone you know, from ineffective or even harmful types of counselling and psychotherapy.

An effective psychotherapist or counsellor:

-- knows how to build rapport quickly with distressed people

-- understands depression and how to lift it

-- helps immediately with anxiety problems including trauma or fear related symptoms

-- is prepared to give advice if needed or asked for

-- will not use jargon or 'psychobabble' or tell you that counselling or psychotherapy has to be 'painful'

-- will not dwell unduly on the past

-- will be supportive when difficult feelings emerge, but will not encourage people to get emotional beyond the normal need to 'let go' of any bottled up feelings

-- may assist you to develop your social skills so that your needs for affection, friendship, pleasure, intimacy, connection to the wider community etc. can be better fulfilled

-- will help you to draw and build on your own resources (which may prove greater than you thought)

-- will be considerate of the effects of counselling on the people close to you

-- may teach you to relax deeply

-- may help you think about your problems in new and more empowering ways

-- uses a wide range of techniques as appropriate

-- may ask you to do things between sessions

-- will take as few sessions as possible

-- will increase your self confidence and independence and make sure you feel better after every consultation.

Choosing Someone to Help You

There are hundreds of different counselling and psychotherapy models that people use and this is confusing, especially for vulnerable people seeking help. And it is no less confusing for GPs wishing to refer patients to an expert in dealing with emotional problems.

It has only recently been realised that effective counselling always depends on how attuned the counsellor is to the givens of human nature so, although most counsellors and psychotherapists are accredited by their various professional bodies, this is no guarantee of their effectiveness. By contrast human givens practitioners have been rigorously assessed for their effectiveness.

Human givens practitioners do not waste time just endlessly listening to you or attempting to dredge up real or imagined miserable memories from the past, since research shows this tends to confuse and upset vulnerable people.

Nor do they deal in time-wasting, prolonged voyages of 'self-discovery'. Instead they offer practical help that deals with mental and emotional distress in the here and now.
They are trained by MindFields College, whose training programme is approved by the European Therapies Studies Institute (ETSI) and accredited by Nottingham Trent University (NTU).

This ensures that all qualified HG practitioners have a sound body of knowledge and the skills necessary to help people quickly with a wide variety of emotional and behavioural difficulties.

HG practitioners on the official HGI professional register are also fully accredited members of the Human Givens Institute, which means the Institute monitors their professional conduct and continuing personal development, that they have agreed to abide by its ethics policy, its complaints procedure and that they have full public liability insurance.

Therapy, Psychotherapy or Counselling?

There is no meaningful difference between a counsellor, therapist and psychotherapist.

They attempt to do the same job and, whichever they call themselves, they should only be judged on how effective they are at relieving emotional disorders.

Some HG practitioners may prefer to call themselves a therapist/psychotherapist or a counsellor, and I have used these terms interchangeably on this site.