Chapter 6 of 68% of exam

Core Counseling Attributes

This domain is about who the counselor is in the room: genuine, accepting, empathic, self-aware and culturally responsive. Items often ask you to recognize the attribute in a counselor's response or to spot when the counselor's own reactions or values are getting in the way.

Rogers's core conditions

Rogers described the relationship conditions for therapeutic change. The NCE uses his terms, so learn what each one does and does not mean.

Congruence
Genuineness: the counselor's outward expression matches inner experience, without a facade.
Rogers, J Consult Psychol 1957
Unconditional positive regard
Acceptance of the client as a person without conditions of worth; not approval of every behavior.
Rogers, J Consult Psychol 1957
Accurate empathy
Sensing the client's world as if it were one's own without losing the as-if quality.
Rogers, J Consult Psychol 1957
Interchangeable responses
On Carkhuff's scale, Level 3 reflects the same feeling and meaning the client expressed.
Carkhuff, Helping and Human Relations (1969)

Self-awareness and values

Counselors bring their own histories and beliefs into sessions. The codes ask them to notice this, keep it from steering the client, and get supervision or training when needed.

Countertransference
The counselor's emotional reaction to a client, often rooted in the counselor's own history; supervision or consultation helps manage it.
NBCC Code of Ethics (2023), directive 5
Not imposing values
Avoid imposing personal values and seek training where at risk of doing so.
ACA Code of Ethics (2014), A.4.b
No values-based referral
Do not refer clients based solely on the counselor's personally held values.
ACA Code of Ethics (2014), A.11.b
Cultural encapsulation
Treating one's own cultural assumptions as universal, as described by Wrenn.
Wrenn, Harvard Educational Review 1962

Attending and group therapeutic factors

Attending behavior shows the client the counselor is present. In groups, the counselor fosters the therapeutic factors that make group work helpful.

SOLER
Face the client squarely, open posture, lean in, eye contact, relaxed.
Egan, The Skilled Helper
Universality
Members discover they are not alone in their problems.
SAMHSA TIP 41 (Yalom's therapeutic factors)
Instillation of hope
Members see others further along in recovery and are encouraged to persist.
SAMHSA TIP 41 (Yalom's therapeutic factors)
Nondiscrimination
Counselors do not discriminate based on culture, gender identity, sexual orientation and other listed grounds.
ACA Code of Ethics (2014), C.5

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