Counselling is:

• The process that occurs when a client and counsellor set aside time in order to explore difficulties which may include the stressful or emotional feelings of the client. 
• The act of helping the client to see things more clearly, possibly from a different view-point. This can enable the client to focus on feelings, experiences or behaviour, with a goal to facilitating positive change.
• A relationship of trust.  Confidentiality is paramount to successful counselling.  Professional counsellors will usually explain their policy on confidentiality, they may, however, be required by law to disclose information if they believe that there is a risk to life.

Counselling is Not:

• Giving advice.
• Judgemental.
• Attempting to sort out the problems of the client.
• Expecting or encouraging a client to behave in a way in which the counsellor may have behaved when confronted with a similar problem in their own life.
• Getting emotionally involved with the client.
• Looking at a client's problems from your own perspective, based on your own value system.

Find more at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/counselling.html#ixzz3xznrV3JG

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More about Person Centred Counselling

This humanistic approach is probably what most people imagine when they think of counselling.

It's founding father, Carl Rogers, believed that we all have an in built tendency to develop and reach our full potential. However life events and experiences can negatively impact this natural process and undermine our self worth.

The purpose of client-centred counselling is to create the conditions whereby the client can explore their conscious experiences and reconnect with their values and worth.

The necessary conditions, according to Carl Rogers are:-

1. Psychological contact between the client and the counsellor.
2. The client is emotionally upset, and there is a misallignment (incongruence) between their experience and their values.
3. The counsellor is genuine and aware of their own feelings (congruent).
4. The counsellor has unconditional positive regard for the client.
5. The counsellor has empathic understanding of the client and communicate this.
6. The client recognises that the counsellor has unconditional positive regard for them and an understanding of their difficulties.

Out of these, the following three are known as the 'core' or 'active' conditions:

1. Congruence - the counsellor must be completely genuine. 
2. Unconditional positive regard - the counsellor must be non-judgemental and valuing of the client.
3. Empathy - the counsellor must strive to understand the client's experience.
   
   https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/person-centered
   

More about Gestalt
Therapy

Gestalt therapy is an experiential therapy drawing upon the 'here and now'. In other words  all our interactions are a representation of our past, our social environment, our conscious and unoncious knowing.

Consequently the gestalt therapist wishes to explore the processes or patterns being repeated in the clients life, even those within counselling and within the therapuetic relationship.

Through this awarenes it is hoped that clients can take responsibilty for what is happening in their lives and take a risk to make changes.

The objective of Gestalt therapy is to enable the client to become more 'fully alive' by freeing themselves from any unresolved issues that might decrease satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth. And to assist the client in creatively experimenting with new ways of being.

In my opinion Gestalt therapy is holistc because it incorporates body, mind and spirit. It sees the individual as an individual within a family and a society. Like the other humanistic approaches, being authentic in the therapeutic relationship is essential to the therapy. It is through authenticity the client and therapist 'co-create' the self in the here and now.

Gestalt therapy is an amalgamation of many theories and it's best known advocate is Fritz Perls.

https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/gestalt-therapy

More about the Therapuetic Relationship

In my training I was particularly influenced by Patruska Clarkson. She developed an integrative, systemic mode of the theraputic relationship which she summarised into 5 phases.

 (1) The working alliance:
This is the basis of the client–therapist relationship that enables both the client and the therapist to work together.
This first stage is very much about building a shared understanding and a foundation, so if the relationship falters, both parties can return to the contract and try to repair the therapeutic alliance.
(2) The transferential/ countertransferential relationship:
This is best summarised by the common experience of meeting a person for the first time and having a strong reaction to them. This strong feeling is sometimes  known as 'transference' because the person reminds us of someone from our past and we have ‘transfered’ those feelings from the past on to the the person in our present. This is relevant to both client and therapist, and why it is important for your therapist to have supervision.
(3) The reparative/ developmentally needed relationship:
Many clients utilise the therapists' emotional support during the personal growth that hopefully takes place during therapy. In this way the therapist may be providing support or guidance that was missing or insufficient during the clients developmental years. Given time the client begins to trust their own judgment and the need to use the therapist as an emotional support lessens, at this point therapy usually comes to an end.
(4) The person-to-person relationship:
This is described by the person centred model, in terms of “The 5 relationship model’ the therapist would use these conditions to facilitate the ongoing encounter with the client. The person-to-person relationship is the core or real emotional connection.
 (5) The transpersonal relationship
This refers to the 'connection' between the therapist and client. This connection could be described as an  energy, a spirit, a sense or an expansion of consciousness which can be spiritual or healing. 

http://counsellingtutor.com/petruska-clarkson-5-relationship-model