MEETING THE OTHER IN COUNSELING

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the problem of identity difference between the two subjects in counseling: the counselor and the client. The issue is of paramount significance both from the theoretical as well practical perspective. Although it is obvious that the counselor and customer are two independent individuals, from the standpoint of the ethical relation of offering advice, the difference needs to be strongly recognized in order to preserve the autonomy of both persons. The counselor and the customer function in separate social environments, their encounters are short and take place for a specific reason which freąuently is either helplessness or a feeling of being lost on the part of the customer. Such situations may lead to abuse, malpractice or manipulation even if the initial motivation is positive. It seems that in case of counseling it is possible to distinguish three ways of reacting to the client s individual identity and otherness. The directive approach aims at eliminating the different identity understood for instance as immaturity, abnormality or significant departure from the standard. In case of the liberał approach, the otherness is not treated as a threat to the counselor, inter-personal relations or the society; it is perceived rather as immanent and nonremovable strangeness characterizing all subjects involved: all people seem to be strange to others, appear to be different, but such differences can be eąuated with freedom. The dialogue approach treats the otherness in a still different way, not as a specific and autonomous instance of existence or characteristics of particular subjects, but as a social construct, generated, reproduced and trespassed within and through the dialogue conducted. Hence the divisions: ‘we and ‘them’, ‘local’ and ‘foreign articulate the status of particular groups and this allows the client to assume a critical and reflective approach in social relations, including those with the counselor.