COUNSELORS FOR ADULTS ON CREATING RELATIONS WITH COUNSELEES (Doradcy osób doroslych o konstruowaniu relacji poradniczej)

The paper discusses building counselling relationship and counsellors' problems in dealing with their adult counselees. The authoress draws attention to the act of establishing relationships in counselling situations. She remarks that space in this relation is imbued with thoughts, feelings, emotions, choices and the way the both sides perceive themselves and each other. The resulting findings are confronted with counsellors' statements, which is supposed to help to refer to their daily practice. The counsellors point out that the establishment of the counsellor-counselee relations is as important as solving the problem itself. The following part discusses building counselling relationship and the role a counsellor plays in this process. The authoress has observed that, already at the preparatory stage, the counsellor has enough self-consciousness to take into consideration the unpredictability of the counselling situation. It is important that, while engaging in building the relationship, the counsellor creates a sense of security and confidence. The next part of the paper is devoted to the ways of participating in building the said relations. The authoress draws attention to such aspects as the counselee's ability to listen, active participation in communication enabling to get to know each other, understanding one another and providing help. Indeed, the first step of establishing a proper contact may be inviting other person to an honest discussion. The authoress also points out the issues that may hinder the development of the relation. Even the best interpersonal skills, deep commitment and a whole range of techniques designed to help may fail. The counsellors' statements reveal that there occur situations in which counsellors are helpless. In conclusion, the authoress cites the counsellors' reflections on the benefits of building the relations, reminding that reflectivity is an extremely important feature that allows counsellors to navigate the multiple levels of human existence. This is a quality that can be acquired by participating in interpersonal relations, establishing and sustaining of which is the main pivot of life, where its wisdom lies.