Differences between guidance and Counselling
1 In guidance recipients of the service are not always worried or emotionally disturbed; ‘”normal” persons can seek guidance WHILES In Counselling, the recipients or Clint are mostly worried or disturbed.
2 Guidance is preventive in nature and is intended to prevent a problem from ci occurring eg: a talk on sex education to primary school pupils before they enter adolescence. WHILES Counseling on the other hand is curative in nature. It is provided when a problem had already occurred. Counseling helps to cure the emotional distress of the Clint
3 Guidance provision may not be Co emotional and may not involve strong feeling WHILES Counselling is almost always emotional and invokes strong feelings. It is intimately personal and highly emotional as the counselee talks about his/her total life and exposes himself / herself completely to the counselor.
4 Guidance is broader and many services failing under it. WHILES Counseling is one of the services of the guidance programme.
5 Guidance is provided mainly to students in groups and therefore it is public and as such other media like; letters, telephones, public lecturer’s p etc. can be used. WHILES counselling takes place between only two persons at a time: the student or client and a professional who is the counselor there is a greater degree of Confidentiality in counselling.
6 Guidance can be given within certain periods, it is given within a specific time eg: a talk to be given within a specific time duration WHILES Counseling is a continuous process and goes on throughout the individuals life time ie. It considers the longitudinal of the individual (from birth throughout life)
7 Guidance like advice can be given by anybody who feels capable of doing so. WHILES Counselling is highly specialized and professional and is provided only by professionally qualified and trained persons who have gone through special courses in Behavioral Sciences and are well versed in the use of interpretation of tests and Counseling technique.
8 Guidance services provided to students are various and usually have broad outlook eg: a talk on the dangers of drug abuse to SSS students WHILES Counselling is very specific and it focuses on the direct needs. Problems and the feelings of the client.
9 Guidance programmes are usually initiated by the teacher or counselor, they are counselor-initiated. WHILES Counselling is usually initiated by the client who has a problem, it is client-initiated.
10 Guidance is knowledge-based and it deals with information, facts, principles, methods and cognition. WHILES Counselling is affective in nature. It deals with the values, emotions. Feelings and needs of the client.
