Topic 4 A Health Behavior Change and Counselling Session Step-by-Step
What is actually counselling?
There is a big difference between a professional counsellor and a person who uses counselling skills. A professional counsellor is a highly trained and well-qualified health professional who is able to use a different range of counselling approaches.
Hence, counselling is:
- The process that occurs when an individual and a counsellor sed aside time in order to explore difficulties which may include the stressful or emotional feelings of the individual.
- The act of helping the individual to see things more clearly, possibly from a different point of view. This can enable the individual to focus on feelings, experiences or behavior with a goal to facilitating positive change.
- A relationship of trust. Confidentiality is paramount to successful counselling.
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Counselling is NOT . . .
- giving advice;
- judgemental;
- attempting to sort out the problems of the individual;
- expecting or encouraging an individual to behave in a way in which the counsellor may have behaved when confronted with a similar problem in their life;
- getting emotionally involved with the individual;
- looking at individuals’ problems from health professional’s perspective based on health professional’s value system.
What a health behavior change and counselling session needs?
The intervention related to nutrition issues needs to follow a specific structure with the aim to:
- exchange information,
- reduce resistance,
- enhance self-efficacy
The following figure summarizes the specific stages of a health behavior change session.
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