udies examining these variables--and many of these are not recent. Despite this limitation, there have nonetheless been some reliable findings.
Some of these findings have been listed by Carkhuff (1983). In this regard, Carkhuff reports that in almost all cases, the effective counselor has a finely tuned ability to listen with understanding. The ability to offer a high quality of caring has also been found to assist clients to make progress in the counseling situation (Carkhuff, 1983).
Combs (1986) states that the effective counselor tends to have strong interpersonal skills, a strong belief in his/her own abilities and the ability of clients to rise above their circumstances. Also, according to Wrenn (1983), effective counselors are people who are not afraid to take risks. In this regard, Wren notes that counseling is a profession that involves risk-taking.
Some of the risks which a counselor takes includes being rejected as a helper, facing down a hostile and aggressive client, having to confront a client in areas for which the counselor cannot know how he/she will be perceived. Therefore, Wrenn reports that the ability to take risks, especially in the area of interpersonal relationships, is a very significant skill that has been repeatedly observed in effective counselors. Further, he feels that, of the kinds of risk-taking behavior called upon by counselors, the most significant is the ability to take risks in terms of confrontation.
With respect to the foregoing, Wrenn reports that before any serious gains can be made in therapy, patients must be confronted, in one form or another, with those issues that they are afraid of, in denial about, offering resistance to, and so forth. Not only must the counselor take the risks involved in this confrontation, he must do so in a non-defensive and caring manner. This ability, according to Wrenn, is one of the most significant of the attributes of effective counselo...