One way of looking at counseling is to think of it as a three phase process for solving a problem. The three phases described by Hill in her book Helping Skills, are exploration, insight, and action. Interestingly, any of us who routinely solve problems, meaning all of us, are well aware of these three phases of problem solving. At least at a general level, there should be no big mystery as to what counseling is about.

To test this idea, I took a quick glance at one of my old (ancient) books from a course called Engineering Economy. The course text, one of a very few I saved from those days, is called Economic Decision Models for Engineers and Managers, by James L. Riggs (1968). The outline for economic decision-making presented by Riggs is:

• 1) definition of the problem
• 2) collection of data
• 3) formulating the model
• 4) evaluation

Clearly this is a problem solving model, and the parallel with Hill’s contemporary model for counseling is interesting. In counseling the client brings a problem they want to resolve. Riggs’ definition of the problem is where counseling begins.

Riggs’ collection of data is what Hill means by exploration. The only difference is that with Riggs’ model we are collecting economic data. With Hill’s model we are exploring the life of a complex human being. Counselors do this by listening to the story, or narrative, of important events the client has experienced.

Riggs’ “formulating the model” is a very close parallel to insight. The fundamental question that is being answered is “how does this system work?” The economic data provide the raw material for formulating an economic model. Exploration provides the raw material for insight. In any system, once we have adequate information, we can see, understand, hypothesize, figure out, model, etc., how things work. In economics we create a model. In counseling we gain insight into our self and how we are living our lives.

Riggs, like many managers, focuses a lot of attention on evaluation. Meaning, there usually are many options and the “right option” is the one that has the most economic payoff. As a side note, we humans have many more options in our life than we may be immediately aware of. Hill’s model moves from insight to action, yet, she does include the work of evaluating alternatives as part of the action phase. Deciding what the client chooses to change, deciding what the client chooses to leave as is, and deciding what course of action will be taken are all examples of Riggs’ evaluation. Evaluation must be followed with action (something a poor manager may forget) if change is to be made.

Now, this has been a bit laborious and not everyone is familiar with economic decision making. However, what about, say, buying a house? Exploration or data collection would include collecting information on layout, size, price, location, schools, etc. Insight or modeling would be the result of processing all of that information and determining a “dream home” to purchase. Evaluation and action would be all of the steps for selecting and purchasing the final home.

Another great model of problem solving is repair. First, if there is a repair to be made it is necessary to “size up” or look at, or in Hill’s words, explore, what is wrong. Is it a car? Is the tire flat? Is it a sink? Where is all of the extra water coming from? Insight takes the form of “knowing” what the situation entails. Oh, yeah, my tire is worn, the suspension in my car is shot, and I need to fix both of them. Or hmm, yes, the leak is in the hose from the dish washer, not the spay unit in the kitchen sink. I need channel locks, probably not the sledge hammer. Action is always where problem solving needs to go. The leak does not go away solely due to our knowing that it exists. No surprise, problems that involve our selves don’t go away either unless some new action (thought, emotion, behavior) is taken.

I have written about the OODA Loop in several posts as well. The original problem tackled with the OODA Loop was how to outperform enemy pilots so ours didn’t get shot down! Observe sounds a lot like explore. Orient is very much like gaining insight. I like the focus on Decide in the OODA model. Even in simple problem solving, making a clear choice of action is always better than mere reaction. And then as I stated above, the only way to get a different result is to take a different Action.

Hopefully this has helped in the quest to “demystify” counseling. Anyone who has been involved in solving a problem has at least a general sense of how counseling works. It seems to me that if you are comfortable solving problems you can be comfortable with counseling.