Each time Guidance and Counselling is evoked as part of debate, this will always start with discussion on what the nature of this field is all about. To adequately understand the nature of guidance and counselling, it is deemed necessary to elucidate its definitions, purposes, theories and principles.
This article will therefore provide the definitions and meanings of the terms Guidance and Counselling, the purposes and principles of Guidance and Counselling, the need for it and its functions in the School system. These will help lay the necessary foundation about the understanding of the 2 concepts.
However, the concept of Guidance and Counselling is as old as man. Before the evolution of formalized education practice, guidance and counselling has been in existence. That is why we shall take you through the evolutional development of this area in different parts of the world till it is established as indispensable part of school curriculum.
The two words, Guidance and Counselling cannot be separated because they have the same content, but guidance in its totality is not counselling. Attempts have been made by some scholars to give distinctive definitions of the two concepts.
Concepts of guidance and counselling
The Meaning of Guidance
Concept of Guidance
Guidance can refer to the function of advising and offering counsel and guidance to troubled individuals. This function according to Omoni (2009) gave rise to the traditional meaning attached to guidance as found in Dictionaries, The Webster’s student Dictionary (1999) defines guidance as ‘advice’ or ‘Counsel’ or ‘the act of directing’’ while Idiomatic and syntactic English Dictionary (1852) defines guidance as ‘’Leadership or guidance’’. These meanings are Shallow, confusing and misleading.
From the layman’s perspective, guidance means to guide, help, steer, show the way, pilot, inform, assist, direct, watch over or manage. These synonyms do not however explicitly state the deeper meaning embedded in the use of the concept. However, the word guidance is explained in different ways by various or many professionals given it as an educational service.
Shertzer and Stone (1976) define guidance as “a process of helping individuals to understand themselves and their world”. When a person understands who he or she is and his or her environment, positive adjustment will take place. Thus, guidance is seen and used as a generic label, an umbrella that covers all the means whereby an institution identifies and responds to the individuals needs no matter is source to help the client develop his or her maximum potentials and be able to face life challenges.
Welty, Tural & Weitzel in Chauhan (2009:) define guidance as “a systematically organized phase of the educational process which helps a youth grow in his power to give point and direction to his own life, to the end that he may gain richer personal experiences in making his/ her unique contribution to our democratic society”.
Egbo (2010) writes that guidance programme should help the students in reaching two rather opposite goals, i.e. adjustment to society and freedom to act as unique individuals. This per se is the real aim of being educated.
It is a cognitive educational service (within or outside the school system) that help people understand themselves, provided the client reveals accurate, reliable and valid information about him/ herself and his/her environment.
The Meaning of Counselling
The term counselling like the twin concept guidance has variously been defined. The Dictionary definition of counselling stresses “advice”, mental exchange of ideas” or to recommend. This definition is the reason why so many people see counselling as a profession anybody can undertake.
There is this erroneous belief that anybody can advice without proper training for the course. Meanwhile, counselling has more in-depth meaning technically. The American psychological Association Division of counselling psychology committee (1956:283) defines counselling as a process designed to help individuals overcoming obstacles to their personal growth, wherever these may be encountered and towards achieving optimum development of their personal resources”. In other words, counselling helps the individual to acquire skills that will enable him or her over come blocks’ infringing on his/ or her development.
According to action Health incorporated (2002), “counselling is a client – oriented interactive communication process in which one helps others make free informed decisions about their personal behaviour and provide support to sustain that behaviour”
In other words, counselling is a helping profession or guiding process in decision making where the client make the decision based on quality information given by the counsellor on the seeming unsolvable conflict. The definition further stated that counselling is a face to face relationship whereby the helper (counsellor) listens to the helpee’s concerns with a view to understanding the students (client) life, problems, feelings, thoughts and resources and figuring out what information will help them to make decision about their lives. This implies according to Omoni (2009) “that clients are capable of making their own decisions, when well informed and that counsellors do not advise or tell them what to do”.
Counselling is a process of helping individuals or group of people to gain self-understanding in order to be themselves. Burker and Steffler (1979) see counselling as a professional relationship between a trained Counsellor and a client. Counselling is a process meaningful, well-informed career or other choices and a resolution of problems of an emotional or interpersonal nature. It believes that every human individual has the potential for self-growth, self-development and self-actualization.
Differences between Guidance and Counselling
Writers in most cases find it difficult to distinguish between the two words. According to Shertzer and stone (1976), the attempt to differentiate between guidance and counselling has not met with any measure of success because it is difficult to make distinctions between the two terms. On the basis of similarities, the terms could be interpreted to mean the same thing because in terms of peoples’ welfare the two words are out to achieve the same goals. Although they are both educational services but contextually, they can be differentiated. The table below shows some differences between the two terms.
Comparison between Guidance and Counselling
| S/N | COUNSELLING | GUIDANCE |
| 1. | Student (client) directed. Locus of control moves toward student (client). This means the client is more involved at every stage in counselling. | Counsellor directed. Locus of control remains with the Tutor (Counsellor). |
| 2. | The Tutor (Counsellor) is a facilitator /enabler. He is not the decision maker. | The Tutor (Counsellor) is information/advice giver. |
| 3. | Client and Counsellor jointly negotiate a contract about agenda and methodology. | Counsellor determines objectives and methods. |
| 4. | Client participates in assessing needs and evaluating progress. | Assessment/diagnosis and evaluation is in the domain of the counsellor. |
| 5. | Concern is with the process of decision-making. Understanding how decision is reached is as important as the content of the decision. | Concern is with decision (decision seen as product). The way it is reached is not regarded as especially significant. |
| 6. | Learning is seen as transferable. What is learnt in one context is seen utilizable in another e.g. the learning of a skill such as breaking down problem into its component parts. | Learning is seen as specific to the problem in question. |
| 7. | Learning is seen as an emotional as well as a cognitive process. This means the behaviour and the thinking are important. | Feelings are not regarded as important in learning. |
| 8. | Learning about a subject is seen as involving a process of learning about self. | Learning about a subject is not seen as involving self-discovery. |
