Imagine, desire, act - succesful counselling : a case study of the youth support project
Aalto, Arja (2013)
Aalto, Arja
Humanistinen ammattikorkeakoulu
2013
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201303012821
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201303012821
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis is to study the methods used in counselling young people and the things that affect successful counselling. This is a case study concentrating on the methods used in counselling in Youth Support project. North Karelia Municipal Education and Training Consortium is the main operator in this project. The Consortium has some partners, such as the city of Joensuu’s workshop for young people and other projects situated in North Karelia. The objects of the study are the methods used by the counsellors in the project and and their experiences on counselling young people. In addition, this study looks into the elements of a good and successful counselling should contain.
The method of the study is theme interview. The material for the study is gathered by interviewing five of the project workers. The material consists of six hours of interviews that were taped and written. The interviews were not written word-for-word; only the most essential information was collected according to themes. Notes made during the interviews were used to support the tran-scribing process. The interviews were analysed and the results were recorded according to themes.
The theoretical framework of the study is based on constructivism, sociodynamic counselling and dialogical counselling. The counselling methods are based on these theories. The most significant theories are developed by R. Vance Peavy. The project workers have revised these methods to fit the goals of the project. The study turned out that all the counsellors use same methods. The most important methods are motivation interview, steps of the future, life space, open questions and profession cards. In addition, the counsellors use social media as a counselling method, especially Facebook.
The most important elements of counselling turned out to be confidence, time, inspiration, voluntariness, experiences of success and humanism. A lot of time is spent on counselling and creating a confident relationship with the young person. Enough time has been reserved for the appointment and the appointments recur as many times as needed. Creating a confidential relationship with the young one is the corner stone of the counselling. If the young one does not trust the counsellor, he/she will not show up and thus misses the support and help. Confidence is an important factor also in giving young people the chance to affect their own decisions. The experiences of success that come from assignments related to counselling and from preparatory studies will improve the young people’s self-esteem and help them to get on with their life. Counselling has succeeded when the counselees realize that their own repetitive way of functioning stands as an obstacle to moving forward. Participating the counselling is voluntary. The counsellors see that voluntariness is important and it helps the counselees to participate more actively. Humanism shows in counselling in the way the counsellors treat the young ones equally and how they take the young ones’ life situation into account.
It will be a challenge how the methods experimented in the project will be put into operation in e.g. counselling in schools. The counselling practices of the project require more time and personnel than schools usually can provide.
The method of the study is theme interview. The material for the study is gathered by interviewing five of the project workers. The material consists of six hours of interviews that were taped and written. The interviews were not written word-for-word; only the most essential information was collected according to themes. Notes made during the interviews were used to support the tran-scribing process. The interviews were analysed and the results were recorded according to themes.
The theoretical framework of the study is based on constructivism, sociodynamic counselling and dialogical counselling. The counselling methods are based on these theories. The most significant theories are developed by R. Vance Peavy. The project workers have revised these methods to fit the goals of the project. The study turned out that all the counsellors use same methods. The most important methods are motivation interview, steps of the future, life space, open questions and profession cards. In addition, the counsellors use social media as a counselling method, especially Facebook.
The most important elements of counselling turned out to be confidence, time, inspiration, voluntariness, experiences of success and humanism. A lot of time is spent on counselling and creating a confident relationship with the young person. Enough time has been reserved for the appointment and the appointments recur as many times as needed. Creating a confidential relationship with the young one is the corner stone of the counselling. If the young one does not trust the counsellor, he/she will not show up and thus misses the support and help. Confidence is an important factor also in giving young people the chance to affect their own decisions. The experiences of success that come from assignments related to counselling and from preparatory studies will improve the young people’s self-esteem and help them to get on with their life. Counselling has succeeded when the counselees realize that their own repetitive way of functioning stands as an obstacle to moving forward. Participating the counselling is voluntary. The counsellors see that voluntariness is important and it helps the counselees to participate more actively. Humanism shows in counselling in the way the counsellors treat the young ones equally and how they take the young ones’ life situation into account.
It will be a challenge how the methods experimented in the project will be put into operation in e.g. counselling in schools. The counselling practices of the project require more time and personnel than schools usually can provide.