Counseling Tactics to Initiate Rapport with Resistant Students

 Introduction

Unresponsiveness from counselees and the inability to establish rapport are some of the challenges that a student counselor has to overcome in order to be able to establish an effective counseling session. There are various causes of unresponsiveness including fear, shyness and the perception of helplessness-just to mention but a few. This paper highlights how a counselor can initiate and maintain rapport with Joe-an unresponsive counselee.

Firstly, as a counselor the most important step in any counseling session is to establish trust and dispel any fear or suspicion that the student may have from his preconceptions. This can be achieved by first trying to establish conversations meant to clear the “air” for the actual session (Baker & Gerler, 2008). These ground breaking conversations may be about anything other than the actual session’s issues. The counselor should try and establish what he student likes and thereafter initiate talks along that line of desire. This will help Joe in opening up for the conversation, because going straight to the session will inhibit responsiveness (Baker & Gerler, 2008).

After establishing some form of firm communication. The counselor should start the session by conveying a desire to be more understanding so that Joe can feel the concern and probability of getting help. Thereafter, the counselor should generalize Joe’s behavior and status without necessarily condemning or condoning it. The student should also be assured of confidentiality with respect to the content discussed. After establishing this reassurance the counselor should avoid any attempts directed at changing Joe’s feelings or thoughts or appearing judgmental (Schmidt, 2008).

Communicate openly about the issue of poor performance instead of acting a parenting role, while communicating balance personal views of the student’s failure against reasons that may be behind his failure. If any cases of unresponsiveness are detected at this level, the counselor should seek another suitable person that can broach the topic under discussion. The selected individual could be another counselor or teacher that the student may be trusting. Gather all facts about the problem and discuss the observed facts and keep away from labeling accusations. Thereafter, ask the student to openly speak about what s/he makes of the facts.

The counselor should thereafter explore the implicated reasons of poor performance and help Joe in weighing the costs and disadvantages or advantages. Thereafter, establish whether the student has established the gravity of the matter by asking him questions on the issue. Finally conclude the session with proper recommendations. Additionally, a contingency plan should be developed to avoid the re-use of a failed strategy. If further resistance is observed within the session or in sessions thereafter, the counselor should change strategies and keep persistence in trying to establish a communicative and interactive session with better response (Schmidt, 2008).

References

Baker, B. S. and Gerler, R.E. (2008).School counseling for the twenty-first century. Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall Publishers.

Schmidt, J.J. (2008). Counseling in schools: comprehensive programs of responsive services for all students. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon Publishers.

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