Categories of those who receive counseling
- Counselees who want a strong person to protect and control them. “Please take over for me.”
- Those who need someone who will help them maintain contact with reality. “Help me know that I am real.”
- Those who feel exceedingly empty and need loving. “Care for me.”
- Those who need a counselor to be available for a feeling of security. “Always be there.”
- Those ridden with obsessive guilt who seek t confess. “Take away my guilt.”
- Those who urgently need to talk things out. “Let me get it off my chest.”
- Those who desire advice on pressing issues. “Tell me what to do.”
- Those who seek to sort out their conflicting ideas. “Help me to put things into perspective.”
- Those who truly have a desire for self-understanding and insight into their problems. “I want counseling.”
- Those who see their discomfort as a medical problem that needs the ministrations of a physician. “I need a doctor.”
- Those who seek some practical help such as economic assistance or a place to stay. “I need some specific assistance.”
- Those who credit their difficulty to ongoing current relationships and want the counselor to intercede. “Do it for me.”
- Those who want information about where to get help to satisfy various needs, actually seeking some community resource. “Tell me where I can get what I need.”
- Nonmotivated or psychotic persons who are brought to the counselor against their own will. “I want nothing.”
From Crisis Counseling by Norman Wright
