Workplace Counseling Tools.

This publication describes counseling approaches supervisors and human resource professionals can use to help marginal employees become better adjusted and more productive in the workplace. Three case studies are also provided for training purposes. The counseling tools are as follows: (1) Adlerian counseling, involving the belief that humans' interest in the social aspects of life is a prime motivator for many behaviors; (2) behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches, which hold that all behaviors are learned, faulty thinking leads to inappropriate behavior, and old behaviors can be replaced by learning new behaviors; (3) existential counseling, focusing on the meaning of life and humans' responsibility and freedom of choice for deciding their fate; (4) gestalt therapy, focusing on the importance of being whole and understanding how earlier events affect current problems and stresses; (5) person-centered counseling, which holds that all humans are basically good and trustworthy and tend toward growth, awareness, and trust in self; (6) rational-emotive therapy, holding that humans are both rational and irrational and cause problems for themselves by what they think; (7) reality therapy, focusing on getting clients to realize what they are doing now and deciding whether it is working; and (8) transactional analysis, which holds that the decision to change and responsibility to change are the client's. Discussion questions follow each case study. (YLB)