People and Organizational Development

            It was last Friday, when I was invited by my ex-HR Manager for a very fruitful session (a talk by him actually) about what is people and organizational development (OD). Within that 2 hours, I gain valuable knowledge about what I need to do in my Company with regards to OD. I agree that I need to get more and more information so that I can run the show smoothly.
           So what it is got to do with counseling? I actually park the counseling unit under this department - People and Organizational Development. Am now in the midst to develop the whole framework on what I gonna do. No fancy things around, but i wanna make sure that its going to be an interesting department to work with.

Kenapa Tak Daftar?

      Sewaktu mengunjungi sebuah sekolah pada bulan September 2013 yang lalu, saya telah bertemu dengan seorang kaunselor. Beliau berumur dalam lingkungan 50an dan telah menceburi bidang kaunseling selama hampir 20 tahun. Apabila ditanya adakah beliau seorang kaunselor berdaftar, jawapan yang saya terima... TIDAK! Pulak dah... kenapa macam tu? Kenapa tak nak berdaftar menjadi seorang kaunselor?
      Kalau baca artikel di atas, memang dikatakan jumlah kaunselor di Malaysia ni masih rendah? Tapi tak pula dinyatakan nisbah antara kaunselor berdaftar dan pengamal kaunseling yang ada. Pokok persoalannya, kenapa ada kaunselor ni yang tak nak berdaftar dengan Lembaga Kaunseling Malaysia? Adakah faktor-faktor di bawah ini adalah sebahagian dari sebabnya? Atau ada sebab yang lain?

1) Proses pendaftaran yang terlalu rumit
2) Pengamal kaunseling Islam tidak diikhtiraf
3) Tidak mahu menjadikan kaunseling sebagai kerjaya, hanya sebagai ilmu
4) Pengiktirafan kerjaya belum meluas
5) Tiada penerangan lanjut dari pihak Lembaga Kaunseling

    Mungkin satu pun di antara faktor di atas bukan penyumbang kepada kurangnya pengamal kaunseling yang tidak mahu berdaftar. Mungkin memang ada sebab yang lain. Tetapi saya memang ingin nak tahu jawapannya. Saya nak bertanya kepada PERKAMA (Persatuan Kaunseling Malaysia) mengenai hal ini. Bukan apa, saya memang berminat nak jadikan kaunseling ni sebagai kerjaya; nak bantu pekerja, pelajar dan sesiapa sahaja. Saya nak dalami ilmu ini selagi terdaya.
    Ok nanti saya beritahu lebih lanjut kalau dapat jawapan dari pihak PERKAMA ye.

Counseling Strategy

         My boss asked me this question... "What are you going to do in counseling unit? What do you want to achieve? What is your goal? How do you want to conduct the session?..." Trust me, if  I don't stop him after that 4th questions, he can continue asking me about counseling and I will end up lecturing him about it. So what is counseling actually (hey, I'm just a 1st semester counseling student, i don't know much!)?
       For me, counseling is a discussion of an emotional problems from an employee with the main goal of decreasing it. Easiest way to say it, counseling is a session where an employee can 'have a talk' to the counselor. What? Only talk ah? Wait... let me explain further.
        The manager of respective department shall need to notice any inability of his / her people to cope with the work environment. If they show job dissatisfaction, resistance to change, disorientation, stress and much much more, then these group of people do need a counseling. 
       Counseling can help to REDUCE frustration. Not 100% cure, but it can reduce. How so? Just by helping the employee to choose a mature course of action to remove any obstacles that preventing him / her to achieve the goals. Am not going to discuss it here, maybe later ok.  
      But this is important... most employee misunderstand the roles of counselor. Counselor will not solve your problem, you will! By listening and communicating, counselor will provide sufficient observation on what you need to do to solve your own problems.
      I will explain on the rationality later. For now, i just wanna draft a proposal to my boss on having a counseling unit in my company. 

Lots Of Inventories

Just like entering the ToysR'us, I found it very interesting to know that there are lots of inventories to be use in Career Counseling. We got Scholastic Assessment Test, Differential Aptitude Test, Ability Profiler, MIQ, GATB, Kuder Career Search, Strong Interest Inventory and so on and so on. As for me, it is sound very interesting to know that all of these inventories are available for me to use it. But where to start? What to buy first? Where to learn how to use it? Then i told my self... Hey! Relax, you have plenty of times to move on. Have fun learning about it first. Once you 'master' the course, then you will find your way through.

Beginner Counselor - What Are The Issues They Faced? (Part II)

6. Demanding clients Are they so demanding? Naturally, why not? They are the customer, right? But that is the issue, beginner counselor does not know how to deal with clients who love to make constant demands. Sometimes client just want to spend more time with you, they want to see you more often and maybe they just want to spend the evening with you. Sound scary huh? Not really, if you know how to handle them. How? Make it clear during the initial counseling stage that you have certain boundaries and limitation with your profession. 7. Lack of commitment from client Am not sure about any survey, but am sure that there are people who are not voluntary to go for counseling session, especially student. So if this is the case, how you are going to create a good relationship with your client? Are you promising all under the sun to your client? Don't do that! Don't keep promise that you cannot deliver. Let your client know what will be the counseling process like. 8. Tolerating Ambiguity Counseling session is just like taking an exam; you won't get your result on the spot! Start learning to tolerate with the ambiguity of not knowing whether your client is satisfied or not; whether they are OK or not. It is also common that client might 'traumatized' at the early stage before they show therapeutic gains. 9. Sense of humor any one? Yes i know that most of the therapists or counselors are having problem with their facial impression. They can't seem to smile. Genetically they are human, like us. So go ahead and smile and create some humorous environment. But be careful, both you and your client need to know that humor and laughter does not mean that your disrespect the later, ok! By the way, what else can we do to cover up our anxiety? Is it laughter is the best medicine to cure the anxiety? I don't know, you tell me.

Beginner Counselor - What Are The Issues They Faced?

Below are some of the issues that the beginner counselor face during their early stage of being a counselor. Well, all of us will deal with these issues; it is just a matter of when and where. 1. Dealing with your anxiety? Is there any cute little tiny butterfly in your stomach? Most of the beginning counselor do have it. Why show it to the client? It will demonstrate that you are having uncertainties of the future of your client, you are not ready for them and you are not ready for your self. Self-doubt about your abilities? Well that is a good sign. It shows that you are a normal human being. So deal with your anxiety and talk about it with your supervisor. They have their own experience dealing with anxiety before. 2. Be yourself and self-disclosure Still anxious with the new counselor world huh? Worry about what your text books say? Do this and don't do that kind of thing? Just like a young lawyer who stand in front of the judge defending his client. And you try to imitate those 'world class attorney'. Why should you? (Some people ask, hey why not?) Be yourself! Get along with your abilities and values. Your client will love it with you act like yourself and be genuine with them in your counseling session. Don't hide behind somebody's back. And remember, it is all about YOUR CLIENT. So don't reveal to much. Know what to reveal, when and how much to reveal. 3. Avoid Perfectionism You cannot make mistake? It is a sin to make mistake? What??? Get real! Homo sapiens are not perfect. Religiously we know that. The best part is, even if you are an establish counselor, you are still 'bound' to make mistake. So make a room for mistake. Don't worry about it. It is part of your learning process and self development. 4.Be honest about your limit Surely you have one. Out of 10 (or out of 100) cases, you will not success all. Be honest, even though it is hard to take. You have your limitation, so be it. If you can't help your client, make sure you know where to direct them to. But as I always told the crowd, you may challenge your limitation. It is a learning process to deal with your 'realistic limits'. 5. Know the silent mode Silent may have many meanings. I remembered watching a movie (Good Will Hunting) where the counselor and his client sat in the session without talking with each other, for an hour. Wow!!! Good money huh! But being a good counselor, you need to know the meaning behind the silent. Client may think that you should ask something first. Client may not interested to talk or just 'want to be there silently with you'. Maybe after the silent broke, you may ask your client what was that silent all about. Who knows, he / she might tell you something. to be continue...