Competency of Counsellors in Handling Gay and Lesbian Clients in Malaysia

Competency is defined as a counsellor’s efficiency in guiding trainees in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude. This research was conducted to achieve the main objective, which is to explore the competency of Malaysian counsellors in the aspects of knowledge, skills and attitude. To obtain information, the researcher used in - depth interview method through the purposive sampling technique. This research included 15 participants who were made up of registered counsellors and have experience in conducting counselling sessions involving gay and lesbian clients. The data was analysed by studying the transcriptions of interview recordings and identifying the themes that emerged based on the research objectives. The obtained results show (i) knowledge and understanding of gay and lesbian people (ii) information regarding gays and lesbians (iii) application of definitions @ terms (iv) basic counselling skills (v) communication skills (vi) openness attitude (vii) unconditional acceptance attitude. It is hoped that the results of this research would provide guidance for counsellors, especially for counselling involving gays and lesbians. To conclude, researches such as this are further widened and deepened with regards to identifying specific handling methods and guidelines for counselling of gay and lesbian people and in turn, become a source of references for other counsellors.