You know the theory. What do you say next?
A fifteen-year-old answers every question with "I don't know". A father has already decided and wants you to confirm it. A professional's voice breaks halfway through a sentence about money.
None of these moments is solved by knowing a theory. Each one depends on what the counsellor says next, and how.
You're Talking. But Are You Counselling? is a practical communication playbook for career counsellors. It turns established counselling skills into clear, usable moves for real sessions with students, parents and working professionals in India and beyond.
What you will learn

• Build rapport and trust, including with clients who were sent by their parents, school or employer.
• Listen beyond the words with reflections and summaries that show the client you have understood.
• Ask questions that open thinking, drawing on solution-focused and motivational interviewing approaches.
• Work with beliefs, values and emotions, including fear, shame, anger and your own reactions in the room.
• Deliver difficult messages honestly, and use influence without manipulation.
• Structure each session from the opening to a next step the client owns.
• Look after yourself: recognise early signs of burnout and know when a client needs a referral beyond career counselling.
Inside the book

• Realistic dialogues with recurring fictional clients, including what went wrong and what worked better
• Common mistakes and professional cautions in every chapter
• 19 practical worksheets
• A one-page guide to difficult moments, with a first move for each
• A competency map, glossary and full reference list
Honest about the evidence
The book draws on person-centred counselling, counselling microskills, motivational interviewing, solution-focused practice, cognitive approaches and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Every technique carries a clear label, so you can tell research-supported methods from widely used frameworks, practitioner techniques and claims the research does not support. NLP ideas are used where they are helpful and questioned where the evidence is thin.
Who this book is for
Aspiring and early-career counsellors who want to get better at the conversation itself, and experienced counsellors, teachers and trainers who want a structured way to review their practice. It is a book about career counselling conversations; it is not a guide to therapy.
This is Book 2 in The Practising Career Counsellor series, following Foundations of Career Counselling. It can be read on its own.
Build trust. Let the client lead.