Maps of the counselling relationship

Abstract

Two counselling relationships can never be the same. As we have noted, we all come to counselling — whether as counsellor or as client — from different backgrounds and life experiences. Having said that, it may be helpful to sketch out in broad detail the possible nature of a typical counselling relationship. To this end, we need a map that can help us to explore the changing course of what happens between counsellor and client. Like any map, it is never the same as the territory itself. If we consider, for instance, the map of the London underground system, it bears no geographical relationship to the actual layout of the rail network. More importantly, though, it gets us around London! So it may be with a map of the counselling process. I may never match exactly what happens in counselling, but it can help us to move through the relationship with greater ease.