Counselors, regardless of their settings, impact as change agents within the context of therapeutic relationships with individuals. Successful relationships are facilitated by a skilled counselor who helps the client become more invested in the process and who utilizes therapeutic techniques appropriate to the client. Counseling is a process beneficial to most clients of skilled counselors. However, it is not always so. A significant number of clients get worse.
Successful counseling has process factors which are common across the various counseling models.
These factors include the counselor's establishing an open, trusting, collaborative relationship, facilitating client cognitive learning through reframing, feedback, and insight, and assisting the client in behavior changes through behavioral regulation, reality testing, and successful experiences. Successful counseling outcome is dependent on counselor therapeutic skills such as focusing conversations on life problems, addressing presenting problems directly, and providing structure for counselor-client intervention. Successful counseling progresses through various process stages, wherein different types of counselor-client interactions are reflected by different counseling techniques. The above research conclusions support the following perspective regarding counseling clients with substance abuse problems. Counselors, to be effective, first must have the ability to develop an open, collaborative relationship with clients wherein clients perceive trust and commitment.