Why You Must Recognise Your Own Prejudices in Counselling
- The School of Counselling
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Unexamined prejudice shapes what you hear and how you respond. Learn why recognising your own prejudices matters in counselling and what CPCAB Level 2 students need to know.
Recognising your own prejudices is a requirement of ethical counselling practice, not an optional add-on. Every counsellor carries assumptions, biases, and values shaped by their upbringing, culture, and life experience. These do not disappear when you sit with a client. Left unexamined, they shape what you notice, what you ignore, and whose experience you truly hear.
This post answers why recognising your own prejudices matters in counselling, what that process looks like in practice, and what CPCAB Level 2 students need to understand about this area of their training.
What Prejudice Means in This Context
In everyday language, prejudice often means strong negative views about a particular group. In counselling training, the term is broader.
A prejudice is any assumption you hold about a person or group before you have fully engaged with their individual experience. This includes:
Assumptions based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexuality
Assumptions based on class, accent, education, or occupation
Assumptions based on lifestyle, relationships, or values that differ from your own
Assumptions based on presenting problems ("people who self-harm are attention-seeking")
Assumptions based on your own experiences ("I went through something similar and got over it")
None of these assumptions are unusual. All of them are human. The problem is not having them. The problem is not knowing you have them.
Why Unexamined Prejudice Harms the Helping Relationship
When a counsellor carries unexamined prejudice, several things happen without them realising.
They filter what they hear. A counsellor who assumes a client's relationship style is problematic will hear the client's words through that lens. They will notice evidence that confirms their assumption and overlook evidence that challenges it.
They respond from their own framework rather than the client's. The client describes their experience. The counsellor understands it in terms of what they already believe. The client feels unheard without being able to say exactly why.
They limit who they can effectively help. A counsellor who cannot sit with difference will unconsciously steer conversations away from areas that make them uncomfortable.
The client learns, also unconsciously, which parts of themselves are welcome in the room.
Why Self-Awareness Is the Starting Point
You cannot challenge a prejudice you do not know you hold.
This is why CPCAB Level 2 places significant emphasis on self-awareness. The work begins with recognising your own assumptions, not eliminating them. Elimination is not possible. Recognition is.
The process looks like this in practice:
Notice when you have a strong reaction to something a client says. Curiosity, discomfort, irritation, or judgement are all signals. They point toward something worth exploring.
Ask yourself whose experience you are responding to. Is your reaction about this person, or about something in yourself?
Take it to supervision. Supervision exists partly for this reason. A good supervisor helps you see what you cannot see alone.
Engage in personal therapy. CPCAB training recommends personal therapy for this reason. Exploring your own material in a therapeutic relationship makes you a more effective helper.
What This Looks Like in a Level 2 Context
At Level 2, students are working in helping relationships rather than formal counselling sessions. The principles are the same.
You might notice you feel impatient with a helpee who keeps returning to the same situation without changing anything. That impatience is information. It may point toward a belief that people should be more decisive, or that problems have clear solutions. Examining that belief is part of your development as a helper.
You might notice you feel more comfortable with helpees whose backgrounds resemble your own. That comfort is also information. It may point toward assumptions about what kinds of experience are normal or relatable.
Neither reaction makes you a bad helper. Both reactions, left unexamined, will limit your effectiveness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why must we recognise our own prejudices in counselling?
Because unexamined prejudice shapes what you hear, how you respond, and whose experience you genuinely engage with. Every counsellor carries assumptions built from their own upbringing, culture, and life experience. Recognising these assumptions is what allows you to set them aside and focus fully on the person in front of you. You cannot challenge what you do not know you hold.
What counts as a prejudice in counselling training?
In counselling training, prejudice means any assumption you hold about a person before fully engaging with their individual experience. This includes assumptions based on age, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, lifestyle, or presenting concerns. It also includes assumptions based on your own experiences, for example believing someone should handle a situation in the way you did.
How do you recognise your own prejudices as a counsellor?
The main routes are supervision, personal therapy, and reflective practice. In supervision, a qualified supervisor helps you examine your reactions and responses. In personal therapy, you explore your own material and assumptions in depth. Reflective practice means noticing your reactions during and after sessions and asking what they point toward.
Is it possible to be prejudice-free as a counsellor?
No. The goal is not to eliminate prejudice, which is not possible, but to develop ongoing awareness of your assumptions so they do not go unchallenged. This is lifelong work. Even experienced counsellors return to it through supervision and personal development.
What does CPCAB Level 2 say about prejudice?
CPCAB Level 2 includes recognition and challenge of personal prejudices as a core area of development. The assessment criteria ask students to explore and challenge their personal issues, fears, and prejudices as part of developing their self-awareness and effectiveness as helpers.
The Ongoing Nature of This Work
Recognising your prejudices is not a task you complete during training and tick off. It is an ongoing commitment.
New clients bring new material. New life experiences in your own life shift your assumptions. What you thought you had examined resurfaces differently. This is why supervision continues throughout a counsellor's career. It is not remedial. It is the ongoing discipline of keeping yourself clear enough to be genuinely useful to the people you sit with.
The counsellors who do this work well are not the ones who claim to be free of prejudice. They are the ones who take their reactions seriously enough to examine them.
The School of Counselling offers CPCAB-accredited online counselling courses at Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4. All courses are delivered live via Zoom.
