Counsellors do not offer advice as such but instead give an insight into a client’s feelings and behaviour and they help the client to change their behaviour accordingly. They do this by actively listening to what the client has to say and comment from a professional perspective. Counsellors are trained to be effective helpers, especially in sensitive and difficult situations. They have to be independent, very neutral and professional as well as respecting the privacy and confidentiality of a client. Counselling can help clients to clarify their problems, identify the changes they wish to make and give them a fresh perspective. Counsellors should help them to seek other options and look at the impact that life events have made on the …show more content…

You then score each factor based on its influence and add up the scores for and against the change to find out which one wins. You then look at strengthening forces that support the change and managing those that go against, which makes the process more successful. Then you can describe the plan or proposal for a change in a box in the middle of the paper, you list the forces for change in a column in the left hand side and the forces against it on the right. Next, assign a score to each force, from, say, 1 (weak) to 5 (strong), and then add up the scores for each column (for and against). One this analysis process is done it can be used to decide whether or not to move forward with the change or to think about how to strengthen the forces that support change and weaken forces opposing it.
SWOT analysis is also a useful technique for understanding strength and weaknesses and for identifying both the opportunities open to the client and the threats that they may face. This analyses was created by Albert S Humphrey and it is used as a serious decision making tool. It helps clients to focus on choices that maximise their strengths and minimise their threats and take the greatest opportunity of opportunities available. When carrying out a SWOT analysis it is important to be realistic. For decisions to be effective they must ultimately be made by the client. Tools are only effective to help them make decisions if they are owned by the client who can then