Introduction To Personality Characteristics

From a personal perspective, to be a competent counselor, it is imperative to adopt appropriate personality characteristics necessary to make an impact in a person’s life to enable him or her an equal opportunity to thrive within society. In that regard, it is quite the challenge to define what is and what is not considered to be proper, as personality characteristics are difficult to quantify and vary from person to person. Surely there are some instances where it is appropriate to foster particular characteristics above the rest, as there are some that take precedence over the others. Nevertheless, the fact remains clear that to be a professional counselor, he or she must foster personality characteristics in which a client can benefit from

Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary-Collins, Bates, and Lee (2000) theorized that strengthening the rapport is of the essence to determine if the client perceives the service to make an impact on his or her life functioning areas. To elaborate, when a counselor has the ability to create a synergistic dynamic with a person that is so compelling, the counselor in question has the opportunity to make an everlasting and influential imprint in the client’s life and day to day functioning; hence, building and strengthening rapport. Typically, when a person is diagnosed with a behavioral health disorder, his or her life functioning areas are impacted by their symptomology, which consists of four components: independent living, social and relationships, physical health, and vocational and educational. Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary-Collins, Bates, and Lee (2000), further claim that when a counselor has the ability to build a rapport with the client, that will be the determining factor of whether he or she views the counseling session as a success and will continue to seek services. Counselors adopt theoretical orientations such as providing minimal encouragers, affirmations, employ open-ended questions, paraphrase essential points of the conversation and reflect feelings and emotions to strengthen the rapport with a client; hence motivational interviewing. The previously mentioned is a crucial component of a counselor’s characteristic as the people who are seeking services often are exploited negatively and are resistant to treatment so building a rapport is vital to becoming an efficient counselor (Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary-Collins, Bates, and Lee, 2000). Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary-Collins, Bates, and Lee (2000), suggests that establishing a rapport with a person creates the framework to enable the counselor's