Counselling with people who have an intellectual disability : issues and challenges

Historically, people with an intellectual disability have not had the same opportunities to engage in counselling as have people without an intellectual disability. The difficulties apparent when using traditional counselling methods with a person with an intellectual disability have resulted in counselling being viewed as an ineffective process. A review of the literature was conducted which aimed to identify effective counselling processes for counsellors working with people with an intellectual disability. The results suggest that elements of person-centred, behavioural and problem-solving approaches may be useful in assisting people with an intellectual disability to manage more effectively their difficulties with daily living. Recent evidence of visual stimuli such as pictures aiding comprehension suggests that the use of pictures may further enhance counselling processes. The effectiveness of a combined person-centred, behavioural, and problem-solving counselling process utilising communication supports such as pictures, merits investigation.