Creative Connections & Client Communications

Counseling?

I can not think of the word ?counselor? without hearing the resounding D-major sweeps from the chorus, ?For unto us a child is born? in Handel?s Messiah, among the words ?and government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.?

Tough act to follow! –This personal feeling about the word ?counselor? expresses my respect for the responsibility the word implies.

To be a counselor implies expertise. It is a status label that should be supported by skill and reputation, and not simply assumed in relation to intent. One goes to a counselor for professional guidance in some particular skill. But that skill is important and is sought only in terms of how it relates to life in general and to an individual?s life in particular.

When we seek a lawyer?s counsel, we seek the lawyer?s professional guidance in terms of how the law fits out personal life circumstances, our need, hopes, fears, and status. When we seek an astrologer?s counsel, it should be for the same reasons: to learn how our personal astrology fits our personal life circumstances, our needs, hopes, fears, and status. There must be a connection between client and counselor, and that connection must be the governing of life, a sharing upon shoulders, finding the peace of understanding in awareness of life purpose. ?Counseling without strong understanding and appreciation for the human being?s inner environment is irresponsible.

The Advice-givers: Harry Truman once said, ?I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.? –This is all too humanly valid: it captures what we know in life, that people ask advice to learn from someone else what they already know for themselves. Advisors don?t have to work very hard to be effective: they can negate the complexities of individuation, hoping to be persuasive, by saying , ?If I were you?.!? –How self-serving is that?!

The Problem Solvers: Many astrologers say they ?solve problems.? And here again we must ask ourselves, ?Do we attempt to solve clients? problems from our personal viewpoint or do we help clients solve their problems themselves?? –King Solomon was known for his wisdom, which he fulfilled by solving others? problems through the others themselves. The connection with others that is essential in solving problems is suggested in the keen words of Francis Bacon, ?A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.?

We Astrologers: Astrologers can do many things. When we transcend the status lures of power and control over someone else, when we escape the echoes of fate divination and pronouncement, when we make intimate contact with clients, learn their needs and share objective awareness with them, when we reflect their problems and their solutions, and when we reinforce their pride and purpose of being alive, we awaken their wisdom, meaning, and resourcefulness. What astrologers do best is to guide others to appreciate themselves. There is no one vocational word for this, except the word ?astrologer? and what our performance makes that word mean at this time in history.?

There are many, many, many techniques that help any analyst guide others to self-appreciation (inner environment) and strategy (outer environment) ?and in this ?Counseling Insights? essay inventory, there are some 70-80,000 words written on the subject?but it has been shown clearly that the analyst?s attitudeis a strength greater than any technique or combination of techniques.

George Mora has reported in the American Handbook of Psychiatry [and his field tests have been repeatedly corroborated over the years], ?We find increasing acknowledgement of the fact that psychotherapeutic results are strikingly similar regardless of the theoretical framework followed by each therapist, that the personality of the therapist is more important than his adherence to a particular school of thought.?

Counselor? Advisor? Caring Human Being? How do we profile ourselves and what we do?