MLELWA PIERY .G.


 CHALLENGES FACING COUNSELING IN MOST OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Counseling is the process of helping an individual to accept and use information and advice can either solve the present  problem or cope with it (Biswalo, 1996)

Counselor is a professional person whose role is to examine harmonious relationships among groups or individuals (MoEVT, 2006)

Challenge in counseling is the situation whereby counseling relationship is hindered, restricted or blocked. Counseling as a professional faces some challenges as follows;

Counselor’s attitude and beliefs, This is concerned with things like race, culture, ethnic group, gender and sexual orientation, the need to asses prejudices and stereotypes and to develop counseling that is negative to the client. Therefore, these affect counseling profession (Davis, 1992)

Counter transference, This  is the situation whereby the counselor develops feeling or views about the counselee .Example developing positive feeling of love or negative feelings such as anger, like or dislike which can hinder counseling profession  (MoEVT, 2006)

Language, This involves lack of familiarity in language between counselor and client which makes counseling profession to be difficult (Kaiser, 1990). Example some clients are not familiar with Kiswahili especially those from interior therefore, this may cause misunderstanding between the counselor and the client.

Environment, Some environments are not comfortable for the counselor (Kaiser, 1990). Example some counseling centers are located near roads therefore, this hinders the Counseling profession due to noise barriers. Also other rooms for counseling session are not conducive in terms of arrangement and the size of the room itself.

Cultural diversity, This includes people with handicaps, different sexual orientation, different religions, tradition and different ages. This facilitates difficulties in counseling profession (Davis, 1992) Example some counselors do not like to counsel clients who undergo homosexual.

Administratively, if the tasks of an institutional counselor are not defined clearly it might lead to conflict in the institution such as school, office and organization (MoEVT)

Poor emphasize, is given to our country concerning counseling profession, which makes  the profession to be seen as a disadvantageous to our community (Sue, 1996) Example at the moment the government put much emphasize on education and other issues rather than counseling profession.

Personal capacity, It can happen that a counselor is not accepted by the community because of his/her behavior in the counseling session or outside the counseling session as the role model in the society (MoEVT, 2006). This also hinders the counseling profession due to the behaviors of the counselor him/herself. For example a counselor being a drunk or a cigarette smoker.

Counselor’s commitment, Many counselors are not committed in their profession especially in process of facilitating counselor-client interaction (Sue, 1992) Example the use of abusive language and discouraging the client.

Classification of problem, Different institutions may have different ways of categorizing their problems depending on the population they save and concern of that population. Example (William and Darley 1937) developed one of the earliest classification into five categories namely personality, educational, vocational financial and health (Sharton and Stone, 1976 and Okech and Ngumba, 1991) or Recently 1982 Engelkes and Vandergoot developed two dimensional method of classifying problem intrapersonal and interpersonal.

Resistance /defense mechanism challenges, this is the defensive behavior of a counselee which prevents him/her from participating  effectively in the counseling process. (MoEVT, 2006) Example a client may hide some information which he or she think will undermine him /her.

Steps decision model, Counseling profession face challenges whereby decision are continuous tentative (not definite) and psychological. It is important for counselors to remember that there is a degree of irreversibility in many decision since some alternatives may no longer be available. Example counselor categorize decision as follows; accidental decision, negative criteria and positive criteria (Okech and Ngumba, 1991)

Therefore, a counselor should be stable and able to listen to others and inspire confidence in those who come for consultation. Also a counselor should have both theoretical and practical mind, people oriented, transparent, tolerant and knowledgeable in issues of ethical principles of counseling that guide counseling service provision. However, the government should realize, consider and educate the general public on the importance of counseling profession.