Forming of Trust
Trust eases the counselling session, because mistrust is associated with control and testing of the relationship and this activity uses up a lot of time. Therefore, in counselling contexts, in which the time budget is limited, a quick build-up of trust is necessary. The most important thing for this is the easy ‘readability’ of the counsellor: The quicker the client is assured that he does not have to imagine, in order to know what is going on inside the counsellor, but rather, he has experiences, which give him the security that the counsellor will not conceal anything fundamental from him <b>für ihn</b>, the quicker trust will grow. This is why attitudes of aloofness, taking expert positions and emotional distance are dysfunctional in counselling. But if the opposite happens, i.e. if a counsellor expresses himself, not as a counsellor, but as a human being with his own issues and needs, the client can no longer be sure that it revolves around ‘his’ subjects and that ‘he’ is in the centre of the meeting. This reduces trust too, mostly unconsciously, however, and without reflection or it introduces symbiotic relationship patterns. This is not infrequent in the counselling context (one hand washes another). This must be clearly distinguished from trust.