Individual HIV risk reduction counseling is the most important service provided by CRCS – it is the heart of CRCS and is based on development and on-going revision of the prevention plan. CRCS risk reduction counseling is interactive and client-centered, using education, skills-building, role plays, support, crisis management, and other strategies to help clients to reduce and eliminate risk behaviors and then maintain these changes over the long-term.

CRCS risk counseling centers around the prevention plan discussed in Part 3. As early as possible, the prevention counselor should discuss goals and objectives to reduce and eliminate risk. This goal setting process is a dynamic process moved along with ongoing input and feedback from both the client and the counselor. Initially, the prevention counselor helps the client to focus on a limited number of reasonable and achievable objectives, and as these are accomplished, helps to choose new ones.

There are often questions about the meaning of ‘client-centered.’ For CRCS, ‘client-centered’ means tailoring the intervention to focus on the individual client’s HIV prevention needs, but it does not mean that the client gets to do whatever they want. The CRCS counselor will guide the sessions so that risk reduction is the primary focus, keeping the client’s particular challenges and needs in mind.

Go to section 2 part 4A