Counselor (Role Variant)

The Counselor Idealist is one of the 16 role variants the Keirsey Temperament Sorter is based on. David Keirsey originally described the Counselor role variant; however, the very brief personality description of Isabel Myers contributed to its identification. Counselors correlate with the INFJ Myers-Briggs type.

Overview

Counselors are introspective, cooperative, directive, and attentive. Counselors find helping others to personally develop and reach their potential to be personally gratifying as they have a strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others. Counselors often communicate to others in a personalized manner and are positive and kind when dealing with others. Counselors are good listeners and are highly intuitive. They are often able to detect the emotions or intentions of another individual before the individual is aware of them. Counselors are sometimes amazed at their ability to read the emotions of others and this extreme empathetic ability could be the psychological basis for premonitions, mind reading, and other psychic phenomena.

Counselors usually have intricate personalities and rich inner lives. They tend to keep their innermost thoughts and emotional reactions to themselves, which can make them tough to get to know. Counselors tend to be private people, possibly because their ability to take in the emotional experiences of others can cause them to be easily hurt. They have great depth of personality and can understand complex issues and individuals.

Counselors often prefer to work on a one-to-one basis with others or to work intensely with people close to them. Counselors are happy doing jobs that require solitude and close attention. They are also happy working with others provided that the personal interactions are not superficial and they are given some quiet time in order to reenergize themselves. Counselors usually exert their influence behind-the-scenes rather than being a visible leader.

Counselors often work well in organizations. They value staff harmony, are good at consulting and cooperating with others, and they are concerned with the feelings of others. They strive to make an organization run smoothly and pleasantly. Counselors can also act as a barometer of the feelings within an organization.

Notable Counselors

For illustrative purposes, Keirsey and his son, David M. Keirsey, [cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200009/ai_mark01016857|title=FindArticles|accessdate=2008-08-03] have identified well-known individuals whose "behavior" is consistent with a specific type. Unless otherwise noted, the categorization of the individuals below, whether living or dead, as Counselors is a matter of expert opinion rather than the result of actual testing of the named individual.

* Emily Brontë
* Mary Baker Eddy
* Mohandas Gandhicite web|url=http://keirsey.com/handler.aspx?s=keirsey&f=fourtemps&tab=3&c=counselor|title=Keirsey.com Counselor|accessdate=2008-09-17]
* Jane Goodall
* Sir Alec Guinness
* Carl Jung
* Queen Noor
* Sidney Poitier
* Eleanor Roosevelt

References

ee also

*Idealist temperament
*Keirsey Temperament Sorter
*INFJ
*Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

External links

* [http://www.keirsey.com/ Keirsey Temperament and Character] The Web Site for the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and Keirsey Temperament Theory.
* [http://www.keirsey.com/personality/nfij.html Counselor Idealist] Portrait of Counselor Idealists