barefoot counsellor

Written by Fr.Joe Currie.

Reviewed by:
Rupak Majumder(B2-46)
About the book

This book deals with several counselling processes and

vivid illustration of this processes. It also gives an insight
of one’s personality.

How a problem arises in one’s mind, how this small

problem proliferates into the thinking process and
creates several travails in the mind of counsellee.

This book is a counselling guide to the barefoot

counsellor.
Contents
 Proposition one
 Proposition two
 Proposition three
 Proposition four
 Proposition five
 Proposition six
 Self disclosure
 The Facilitative dimension
 The action-oriented dimension
 Dimension of counselling
Proposition one

 Two people, the counsellor and the counsellee.

 An intensely personal and subjective

relationship.

 Person to person relationship, not as a scientist

and an object of study.
Proposition two

 The counsellee is in a state of incongruence.

 He is anxious or prone to anxiety, confused.
 Not able to accept himself or others, or his
present situation
 The state of incongruence

IDEAL
REAL ME POSSIBLE
ME
ME
Proposition three

 The counsellor is in a state of relative congruence.

 He can accept himself better.
 He is in a better control of his feelings whether they are good
or bad.
 He can communicate them to others IF and WHEN
appropriate.
Proposition four

 The counsellor experiences EMPATHIC

UNDERSTANDING of the counsellee.
 He lets himself go in understanding the others.
 He sees the world as if he were the counsellee.
 He is good in listening and responding.
Proposition five

 Unconditional positive regard from the

counsellor to the counsellee.

 He “prizes” the counsellee as a person of self

worth, a person of value irrespective of his
conditions, behavior or his feelings.
Proposition six

 Providing optimal therapy that enable the client to explore

the strange, unknown and dangerous feelings in himself.

 The result is the movement of the counsellee in positive

directions i.e moving toward self-actualization, growing
toward socialization.
Proposition six

 The more the individual is understood and

accepted, the more he tends to drop the false
fronts with which he has been meeting life.

 He will be confident enough to take charge of

his won life and not be dependent on others
and their expectations.
Self disclosure

 “Will the real ME please stand up?”

 There is a conflict between our ideas and
reality.
 The sharper the conflict, the more vehement
the excuse; “he protests too much.”
 As we cannot be happy with our self, we
shall remain uneasy with our self and
therefore with others
The facilitative dimension
 According to Carkhuff- it is the nondirective,
personalized approach.

 The counsellor provides a relationship that is

characterised by
1.responsiveness or a listening attitude;
2.warmth,acceptance and respect; and
3.feminine “sensitiveness”
The action-oriented dimension

 Assertiveness or taking the initiative in the

interview;
 Offering directions when called for; and
 Masculine “frankness”.
 Immediacy and concreteness.
 The art of confrontation.
 Dimension of counselling

Genuineness

Action-oriented dimension

Understanding Acceptance

Facilitative dimension
Criticism