Guidance and Counselling for Deaf People

Deaf people pose a major problem for employment counselling as they seem to be lacking in a range of key skills and abilities. Yet the judgement of these difficulties is often placed as evidence within counselling settings by hearing people, for the use of hearing counsellors. This paper examines the nature of the counselling process and suggests its improvement by the understanding of Deaf wellness – the self actualisation process from a deaf perspective. The nature of Deaf–hearing relations is examined and some of the reasons for the development of a new approach are described. The role of the VOGS criteria tool is set out and its use in regard to the implementations of the new approach is described.