Psychology

Consultation in Psychology
Difference between the consultant and the consultee in the consultation process

In a consultation process, a consultant is any experienced individual trained to give advises and analysis as a way of helping their clients to make best choices. A consultee is an individual who presents a problem or issue to the consultants with an aim getting advice on how to solve the problem, or to sort the issue. Their role in the consultation process differentiates them further.
Consultation is demanding, and challenging. This means that it requires a consultant who can effectively beet the challenge and perform a successful consultation. Researches show that in any consultation process the consultant should always aim at making difference in peoples lives. Effective consultants possess internal motivation, are oriented in professional and personal growth, have the knowledge of both human behavior, and the process and content of consultation, and a6re equipped with the skills required for effective consultation process. The consultants are expected to demonstrate the acquired skills, knowledge, values and attitudes which enable them to work in integrative, collegial, and informed manner across their areas of specialization and practice. (Able  Freyer, 2003).

Consultants are willing to change and grow as a person. This does not mean that they experience direct personal changes rather it means change in any aspect of their lives which the endeavors to work on, as they willingly work to model changes in clients lives. In professional growth aspect, consultants participate in activities such as academic courses, training programs, and workshops among others to ensure they are current in consultation process.

Consultees are actively involved in the consultation process. They participate in problem solving. Unlike the consultants who give advices on how to make the best, consultees are professional collaborators. They link clients with consultants, serve clients directly, specify, evaluate and supervise actions of the clients. They specifically describe case details and nature of the problem. They are supposed to accurately respond to consultants probes and prompts and to provide the consultant with a comprehensive and detailed picture of the work-related issue or problem. Unlike the consultants who make recommendations on the concerned issue, consultees evaluate or rather make decision on the recommendations.  According to Bergan, although a consultant can work with a consultee in selecting a method to use in measuring their clients behavior, the consultees are left to evaluate the effectiveness of the measurement in getting the needed outcome. This explains that the major role of consultees in consultation process is to continually work with both the client and the consultant. (Bergan, 1990) (Babinski et al. 2004)
Stages of the consultation process

Entry
The entry stage involves entering into the system in search for acceptance. A formal step of negotiating for consultation contract can be achieved through witting or physical presentation of the consultant to the workplace. In cease of external consultants entry, the consultant is formally introduced to consultee and organizations staff. In this step, the consultant summarizes the services available and answers any questions from potential consultee. Formal introduction enhances recognition of the consultant, gives the interest of the consultant, and enables the consultant to control service presentation.  For the entry of external consultants to be considered successful, the consultant should be able to get a progressive deeper understanding of the organization, the organization members should trust and accept the consultant, and there should be an understanding of consultants methods, procedure and objective details. Entry of internal consultant is involves a consultant from within the organization.

Initiation
 It is common that consultation involves consultants and consultees in effective problem solving. To achieve this it is important to initially establish a positive work relationship especially when the consultee is new. There are a number of steps involved in initiating a consulting relationship. First, the roles of the two parties in the consultation process are discussed. This enables the consultees to express their preference thus agreement between the two parties on basic issues in the consultation. Status issues are discussed in this stage. Despite the fact that the consultant are not superior or rather have no administrative authority over the consultees, some consultees feel threatened and in some cases consider the consultant in a superior way rather than a colleague. A discussion on roles of both the consultant and the consultee ensures a good relationship between the two. According g to Caplan consultants should not make judgmental statements when regarding to the actions of the consultees to avoid development of superior- inferior relationship (Caplan, 2004). The second step of this stage involves action agreement.  Both the consultant and the consultee are expected to act for a change in the problem issue, thus requiring agreement on the extent of action. The last step takes place to terminate or rather get a good relationship. In all types of mental health consultation the relationship of consultant and consultee contributes a lot to problem solving it acts a s the backbone the consultants should ensure that the information shared with the consultees is confidential. (Ekenbark, 2004).

Assessment
In this stage, two appraisals are considered  problem-related factors examination, and consultee consultant assessment.  Domains in which to conceptualize the problem are analyzed. Consultation models vary with the presented problem and the underlying assumptions. According to the Caplans theory the type of consultation being done determines the type and responsibility of the assessment. However the in assessments the two appraisals are considered. Ways in which the problem is assessed acts as intervention method which targets at consultees change. Questioning broadens the views of consultees making them to learn ways of approaching similar problems which may arise in future. (Caplan, 2004).

Problem setting and goal setting.
In this stage the two parties examines variables related to the problem, and subsequent solving of the problem as the goal. Consultees target at one problem in cases with several problems. In all types of mental health consultations, it is the responsibility of the consultee to act to the problem. In consultee-centered consultation, it is the duty of the consultant to formulate consultees remedy shortcomings interventions without the awareness of the consultee. (Altrocchi, 1999)

Strategy selection
Means of achieving the set goals are analyzed. Both the consultant and consultees are involves in getting the best of the several strategies of achieving the set goals.

Strategy implementation
This stage offers a moment of truth. Unlike other stages which involve two parties dyad, this stage involves the implementation of plan of action in complex environment.

Evaluation
Summative and formation evaluations are considered in this stage. The summative is more formal than the formative as it gives corrective feedback, unlike the formal one which seeks information to determine the effectiveness of the plan. The consultants are interested in knowing the outcome of the consultation despite the fact that it is the responsibility of consultees. According to Caplan this increases the professional effectiveness of consultant.

Termination
The consultation ceases at this stage. In most cases the end of consultation is marked by the agreement between the two parties on solving the presented problem.

I consider the entry stage to be most significant because acceptance of the consultation contract gives go-ahead. Without acceptance no consultation can take place

Answer 3
It is important to understand different cultural groups before administering an intervention. This helps the consultee to easily understand clients actions and help in making a plan to address clients problem. If professionals apply a one size fits all approach to intervention design and implementation the consultee will lack knowledge and objectivity thus insufficient intervention.

Answer 4
I would subscribe the four-factor consultation model because it has a raised probability of the assessment to result to greater understanding of the behavior being assessed.

Answer 5
Initial step in determining the effective consultation model for this case is to determine the location setting. A consultation models are required in school setting is different from other settings. The hypothetical findings in this case evolve around the students behavior. The findings in this case include sporadic, intense and disruptive behavior. In this case, instructional consultation model is appropriate, as it gives a valuable guide in a school consultation, with the ecological emphasis on creating change. This model takes a collaborative approach to diagnose the students problem, and seeks to improve. In this case, the exploratory questions are at what which situations does the student scream At what time the does the student scream How often does the student scream In this case, the consultants, and the teacher who acts as a consultee act professionally to bring changes in students life by helping the student to acquire appropriate behavior and stop being aggressive.

According to the data collected on the students behavior at different time, and situations, the consultant and the teacher should target at improving the aggressive behavior of the student as their goal. The improvement of the behavior should be measured against time. To evaluate attainment of the set goals- if the student is changing the behavior, the consultant and the teacher should be involved in follow-up sessions to examine the past interventions, and evaluate the current interventions.