Effective Counseling Skills You Should Know

If you are passionate about helping people and seeking a career that empowers you to make a difference, then working as a counselor may be your calling. There exist numerous different types of counselors, ranging from family and marriage counselors to career and substance abuse counselors — giving you the chance to hone in on the population you wish to serve.

Many of the skills needed to become an effective counselor can be learned in a dedicated degree program, yet not every skill can be acquired from a textbook or lecture. With a better understanding of the key traits and skills counselors need to make a difference, you may be able to better prepare for your future in this rewarding field.

What Are the Foundations of Counseling Skills?

Both empathy and active listening rest at the core of what effective counselors need to practice each time they interact with a patient.

The Importance of Empathy in Counseling

Empathy, or the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes, is a must as a counselor. By being able to envision other people’s situations and circumstances, it is possible to be more compassionate and better serve them as they overcome obstacles in their lives.

The Art of Active Listening

Another crucial counseling skill is active listening, a technique that involves very deliberately tuning into not just what a person is verbally telling you but also other “hints” (such as body language and social cues). Not only can active listening help you learn more about your patients, but demonstrating this skill also shows your patients that they have your full and undivided attention, which can build trust.

“The single most important trait of an effective professional counselor is the ability to allow the client to matter to you.“

Teah Moore

Director of Graduate Counseling Programs

Core Counseling Techniques Every Counselor Should Master

In addition to the core counselor skills of maintaining empathy and engaging in active listening, there are some other counseling techniques every professional in the field should work on throughout their careers.

Building Rapport With Clients

Counselors are in a unique position in that they are asking their patients to share the details of some of the biggest struggles and most traumatic experiences of their lives. In order to get clients to open up, however, there must be a strong sense of trust and rapport. Counselors, then, are tasked with building strong professional relationships with their patients from the beginning by being good listeners, keeping them comfortable, and showing empathy at all times.

Effective Questioning Techniques

Counselors sometimes need to gather information a bit more proactively to help their patients, which is where questioning techniques can come into play. Knowing how to gather information through the use of open-ended questions and non-judgmental questions can be extremely effective in better understanding patient perspectives.

Techniques for Expressing Empathy

Demonstrating empathy as a counselor is essential to establishing trust and rapport with patients. Counselors can draw on some industry best practices to express empathy to patients, such as:

Repeating what a patient has said in your own words to indicate understanding (or clarify any misunderstandings).
Validating a patient’s feelings whenever possible.
Allowing patients the time they need to open up and share information.

Advanced Counseling Skills for a Deeper Impact

As you begin to master some of the most foundational counselor skills in your work, you may want to explore some more advanced techniques.

Utilizing Silence as a Tool

While many people may find silence in conversation uncomfortable, the most effective counselors know that they can use silence as a powerful tool with clients. Specifically, counselors are encouraged to know when to let patients “own their silences.” Oftentimes, silence from a patient may signify that they are preparing to open up further about something or reflecting on their feelings. When counselors know how to use silence as a tool for these purposes, they can better serve their patients.

Advanced Reflective Listening Techniques

Counselors should work on their reflective listening techniques, too, which can help counselors and clients work through challenging situations and better understand each other. Some reflective listening techniques commonly used in counseling include:

Asking clarifying questions.
Paraphrasing or summarizing a patient’s version of events in another way.
Asking open-ended questions to get more information about something specific.

Handling Resistance and Reluctance

Some patients enter into a counseling appointment with apprehension, especially if they do not have any prior experience with counseling. Knowledgeable and successful counselors should be prepared to handle these patients with understanding and grace, maintaining a sense of respect and empathy. Oftentimes, pinpointing the reasoning behind the resistance and then using a collaborative approach to counteract reluctance can be particularly effective here — but of course, it all boils down to knowing your client.

Specialized Counseling Skills for Diverse Situations

No two counseling sessions will be exactly alike, and some may prove more challenging than others. This unpredictability in the field is exactly why counselors must be prepared to handle diverse situations with grace and confidence.

Counselor Skills for Crisis Intervention

Dealing with patients in crisis can be distinctly challenging because you have a responsibility to make efforts to keep them safe from self-harm. This is where applying cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques (including relation and coping techniques) can make all the difference in handling a patient who is in “crisis mode.” Likewise, a solid understanding of safety planning and de-escalation techniques (and when to use them) is critical for counselors.

Addressing Cultural and Ethical Considerations

Additionally, counselors have a responsibility to provide the same level of care to all patients, regardless of their cultural or ethical background. This requires a strong sense of cultural competence or seeking to understand the cultural backgrounds of different people. Meanwhile, taking inventory of your own inherent biases and perspectives can help you provide more objective care across your client base as a counseling professional.

Tailoring Approaches for Children and Adolescents

Working with young children and adolescents can be a highly rewarding part of the job for many counselors. However, it also requires some special care when it comes to getting younger patients to open up and get the most out of their sessions. Some strategies and approaches worth considering with children and adolescents include:

Play therapy
Group therapy
Parent-child interaction therapy
Exposure therapy
Family therapy

Implementing Counseling Theories Into Practice

As part of a counseling degree program (or related program), you may learn a great deal about different counseling therapies and their practical applications. Yet, it is one thing to learn about a theory in a classroom — and another thing entirely to put these theories into practice in the real world.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Techniques

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be especially useful in helping patients change their own ways of thinking while assisting with issues like anxiety and depression. Counselors should be aware of common CBT techniques and how to use them to help their patients. Examples of CBT techniques include:

Mindfulness exercises
Journaling
Roleplaying
Using imagery to recreate past experiences

Psychodynamic Approaches in Counseling

In addition, counselors should also have a solid understanding of psychodynamic approaches and their potential to help patients understand their own interpersonal relationships, build self-awareness, and potentially even process challenging emotions or trauma. Some specific techniques to focus on may include:

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)
Dream analysis
Transference-focused therapy

Over time, counselors may get a better feel for which techniques work for specific patients based on their backgrounds and challenges.

Humanistic Counseling Techniques

Another common area of counseling is humanistic therapy, which tends to be less focused on helping patients solve a specific problem and more centered on an idea of personal growth. According to the National Library of Medicine, humanistic therapy techniques are “united by an emphasis on understanding human experience and a focus on the client rather than the symptom.”

Some examples of humanistic techniques that counselors may want to practice include:

Person-centered therapy
Gestalt therapy
Transpersonal psychology
Existential therapy

Developing Personal Qualities of Effective Counselors

As counselors strive to become more effective in their work, there are some personal qualities they may want to improve upon. From self-awareness to cultivating a sense of continuous learning and professional development, striving toward these qualities can make for highly impactful counseling professionals.

Cultivating Self-Awareness and Personal Growth

All counselors, despite their best efforts, have some inherent biases and weaknesses that influence their work. By having a strong sense of self-awareness, however, counselors may work to navigate these biases in a way that better supports their patients and clients. Through mindfulness exercises, self-reflection, journaling, and other strategies, counseling professionals improve their own emotional awareness and better support their clients.

The Role of Professional Supervision

From the outside, counseling may appear to be a relatively independent job. In reality, though, counselors need ongoing clinical supervision from more experienced counselors in order to grow and develop professionally. With this in mind, all counselors should have supervisors who check in with them regularly to challenge their thoughts, identify potential areas for improvement, and help them develop their skills.

Ongoing Learning and Development

As is the case in most professions, counseling is a field in which you are truly never done learning or growing. Instead, counselors should be committed to a lifetime of learning, growth, and professional development if they want to best serve their patients and be the most effective counselors possible. This means staying on top of the latest news and best practices as well as going out of their way to attend industry events or even take specialized courses to gain new skills and designations.

Practical Applications of Counseling Skills

From one-on-one sessions to group sessions and beyond, counselors need to be prepared to help clients in a vast range of contexts.

Techniques for Individual Counseling Sessions

For many counselors, individual sessions are preferred because they give counselors and patients an opportunity to get to know each other in an intimate setting without disruptions or distractions. During these sessions, counselors may apply any number of counseling techniques to help patients, including CBT, mindfulness therapy, solution-focused therapy, and even interpersonal psychotherapy.

Facilitating Group Counseling Sessions

In some cases, however, group counseling may be preferred by the patient, the counselor, or both. For instance, some younger children may feel more comfortable in a group counseling session. The same applies to patients who may be experiencing reluctance or resistance to individual sessions.

For group counseling sessions, counselors must carefully select techniques to facilitate productive discussion. Some best practices for group sessions include:

Using “icebreaker” activities to help clients get to know one another and feel more comfortable.
Applying communication practices (such as active listening) among patients.
Encouraging patients to offer affirmations and feedback where appropriate.

Remote Counseling: Challenges and Strategies

Because remote counseling has become increasingly popular among busy populations, counselors must also refine their skills in this area. Specifically, counselors working remotely should always be prepared to handle the occasional technical issue and have backup plans in place for if (and when) platforms fail. Meanwhile, clear communication is especially essential in remote sessions where body language or other cues could be easily misunderstood.

Enhancing Communication Skills in Counseling

Communication is, by far, one of the most critical skills for counselors to possess. Below are a few practical tips for taking your communication skills even further to better serve your patients.

Non-Verbal Communication Techniques

Communication entails more than just the words you speak. Be especially mindful of non-verbal communication cues and techniques, such as:

Posture and body language
Proxemics
Overall tone and volume of voice
Eye contact (or lack thereof)

Developing a Therapeutic Voice

Counselors do not perfect a therapeutic voice overnight. Rather, this is something many counselors spend their entire careers aiming to perfect. On both a physical and emotional level, you may improve your own therapeutic voice as a counselor by:

Being mindful about your tone of voice and not using any extremes in your vocal range.
Staying hydrated and avoiding clearing your throat during a session, if possible.
Using breathing techniques to protect and support your voice.

Leveraging Technology for Effective Communication

Today, there are plenty of technologies and advancements available that may help counselors better communicate with their patients (and thus better serve them). Counselors should familiarize themselves with these technologies and how to leverage them, with such examples including:

Video conferencing platforms for remote sessions
Text-based online chat options
Phone counseling and even email therapy

Ethical Considerations in Counseling Practice

Ethics and integrity are always at the core of counseling practice, particularly as they relate to confidentiality and decision-making.

Confidentiality and Its Limits

As important as patient confidentiality is in counseling, professionals must remain aware of the limits of confidentiality in the field. For example, in a case where a patient may be a danger to themselves or others, counselors may be required by law to break confidentiality and make a report to higher authorities. The same may apply in instances of domestic violence, neglect, or abuse.

Navigating Dual Relationships

According to the American Psychological Association, dual relationships occur when a counselor has more than one type of relationship with a client, as may be the case when a patient is also a family friend or business associate. When this occurs, counselors should refer the patient to another professional because the dual relationship could otherwise affect the quality of the care provided.

Ethical Decision-Making Models

Counselors are routinely faced with difficult decisions where it may be useful to draw upon ethical decision-making models (EDMs). These models typically involve pinpointing the problem, consulting with other professionals, and applying the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics to reach a final decision.

Measuring Outcomes and Success in Counseling

At the end of the day, counselors may consider their work a success if they are able to help patients achieve their goals and get what they hoped out of therapy.

Setting Realistic Goals With Clients

Helping patients set realistic goals is a great way to set them up for long-term and sustainable success. When creating goals with patients, SMART is a helpful acronym to keep in mind. Specifically, this refers to goals that are:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound

Feedback Mechanisms and Adjustments

Counselors must also experiment with different feedback mechanisms with their patients, making adjustments when needed to optimize treatment. For example, many counselors use positive feedback loops as a means of identifying patients who are at risk of plateauing in their treatment. Through positive feedback loops, counselors can encourage patients to continue pursuing their goals and providing information to their counselors.

Utilizing Outcome Measures Effectively

Finally, counselors must learn how to use different outcome measures to track patient progress and help patients see how far they have come in their treatment. Examples of different outcome measures to familiarize yourself with as a counselor may include:

Questionnaires and surveys
Observation-based assessment
Clinical interviews
Mental health screening tools

Advance Your Education at Post University

As evidenced above, effective counselors need to possess a wide variety of both technical and soft skills to best serve their patients. From solid communication and interpersonal skills to a strong sense of integrity and self-awareness, counselors are never really done developing and improving upon their core skills.

Looking to learn more about what it takes to build your counselor skills in order to help others? Post University offers a number of degree programs for current and aspiring counselors, including a Master of Science in Clinical Health Counseling and a Master of Science in Counseling and Human Services. Both of these graduate-level are designed to provide an educational foundation that aligns with your career interests, helping you explore a path that suits your personal and professional goals.

Request more information about any of the programs offered at Post University or get the ball rolling by completing your online application for admission.

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Counseling 101: Counselor Skills and Techniques to Make a Difference