Receipt date: 13/07/2022 / Revision date: 30/11/2022 / Acceptance date: 16/02/2023

Introduction

The changes caused by the pandemic that humanity is going through worldwide, have brought about a significant transformation of interpersonal relationships; especially the family, due to the prolongation of preventive measures, has been submerged in the deterioration of its emotional and socio-affective bonds, as well as the confrontation of a prolonged social confinement with negative repercussions in the coexistence between parents and children. Faced with this overwhelming panorama, institutional actions have focused their efforts on promoting emotional intelligence, the use of strategies for adapting to change and the development of life skills, with the objective of guaranteeing the satisfactory development of family members. 

In this regard, ECLAC-UNESCO (2020) states that the psychological and socio-emotional impact caused by prolonged confinement has reaffirmed the important work of the family counselor, as the professional in charge of offering psycho-social support that contributes to the willingness to "respond to the diversity of situations that each family and community face; which requires ensuring psychological, social and emotional well-being, as well as developing vital adaptation and resilience skills" (p. 14). This position is also shared by humanistic psychology, which shows the need to provide resources that encourage adaptation and the deployment of social and emotional competencies to function better, permanently and continuously" (Artiles et al., et al. 1995).

By virtue of the above, the figure of the family counselor emerges as an actor associated with comprehensive counseling, since given his professional qualities he is assumed capable of perceiving, helping and offering strategic alternatives that cooperate with the resolution of conflicts, as well as in the construction of the psychosocial climate in which parents and children achieve the necessary understanding to coexist, relate and face the challenges generated with the emergence of the pandemic; in this regard, Valdés (2007) states that the dynamics faced by the family not only requires learning to cope with what happens in the environment of which one is a part, but also to adopt a series of changes and tasks on which stability and psychological balance depend, among which "unexpected stress, frustration, emotional dependence and difficulties in establishing communicative ties" (p. 35).35). 

From Fromm's (2014) perspective, family and social life currently requires greater possibilities of interaction, as the process on which the understanding and development of the sense of community is based, in which each of its members, using their reason and the use of conscience, manages to discover the operational importance of the use of certain values that define coexistence, among which "mutual care, responsibility and respect" are mentioned (p. 27). This implies fostering a positive valuation of oneself and of those around them, as triggers for positive self-esteem and the self-concept necessary to deploy integrative skills associated with: the strengthening of bonds, intelligent actions and the competitiveness to proceed in the face of emerging changes. 

According to social psychology, counseling parents and children in times of crisis requires motivating optimism and the necessary socioemotional competencies to become active agents, capable not only of receiving help but also of offering support to others; this implies the adoption of new roles and responsible attitudes that encourage the growing individual to become more flexible and willing to change, thus becoming more independent and autonomous (Myers, 2003). In response to these requirements, this essay addresses the role of the family counselor in post-pandemic times, showing its relevance in the consolidation of positive psychological relationships, in which affective and socioemotional warmth prevails, as well as the full development of the personality. 

The role of the post-pandemic family counselor

The multidimensional and multifactorial crisis caused by Covid-19 has generated a complete change in the ways in which humanity relates to each other; the family as a social nucleus in which social, affective and emotional competences are developed has been disrupted in its functional dynamics, since prolonged cohabitation as a generalized condition has not only motivated the emergence of behaviors and behaviors with negative implications in the positive psychological climate, but also the scarce training in the handling, management and regulation of emotions has led to the deterioration of the bonds between parents and children (Morales, 2020a). 

Faced with this scenario, family counseling is positioned as the counseling process consisting of addressing situations and conflicts that, due to their implications, tend to increase dysfunctionality, putting at risk the integral wellbeing and quality of life of the family. Paraphrasing Lafarga (2016), the performance of the counselor today revolves around the development of social competencies and life skills, which provide interpersonal relationships with greater assertiveness, but also greater possibilities to integrate harmoniously around the management of conflicts that emerge with everyday life. 

In this way, family accompaniment takes on special importance, as it is a process that aims to generate new and satisfactory possibilities to creatively face daily situations from the discovery of personal skills that promote not only wellbeing and integral growth, but also the development of one's own resources in order to operate with greater openness, intelligence and self-knowledge. According to Garriga (2020), the role of the family counselor involves important activities such as "building the best places to grow and learn to relate, to give and receive, to smooth the rough edges and to know ourselves better" (p.22). 

A review of the contributions of psychology indicates that the family, as the primary socialization factor, is responsible for promoting healthy lifestyles that involve social feeling, emotional intelligence and the adoption of cooperative attitudes, as essential traits that result in the disposition of a sense of community, which is a rare flexibility to integrate socially and channel efforts in common activities. According to Cloninger (2003), the achievement of these purposes results from psychologically, affectively and emotionally stable homes, in which trust and security prevail, factors that influence the deployment of empathy, altruism and "social interest in the common good, personal well-being, individual development and coexistence in conditions of cooperation with other people" (p. 122). 

In this sense, the role of the family counselor involves various activities associated with addressing the contradictions and disagreements between parents and children, which are referred to as critical processes that account for psychosocial imbalances that require intervention in an attempt to meet the needs of each family member, helping them to feel good about themselves and their immediate environment. In other words, advising the family to fulfill their individual and collective objectives means leading them to discover their personal purposes through the adoption of strategies linked to emotional intelligence and re-learning that allows the adjustment of negative behaviors that prevent the full development of the personality. 

By virtue of the above, the construction of a positive psychological climate is considered indispensable, since it is through it that both personal and collective evolution takes place, in which the individual manages to develop self-knowledge and self-determination that predisposes him to face daily challenges; this implicitly refers to the definition of his character, self-esteem and his own personal being, based on which to act responsibly, tolerantly and with the flexibility to reformulate his conduct in response to the needs of reality. This challenge refers to specialized accompaniment as a process of multidimensional change that seeks to foster the development of emotional regulation to manage conflicts appropriately. 

Paraphrasing Fromm (2014), it is through the productive orientation of the family that the strengthening of emotional bonds and the attainment of socio-affective maturity that drives the ability to achieve the necessary understanding between parents and children is achieved. This means, leading each member of the family to discover their difficulties, weaknesses and potentialities, as the process that seeks to awaken awareness about the aspects to be corrected, behaviors to be improved and behaviors to be transformed in order to consolidate greater possibilities of family coexistence. 

This suggests urging parents and children to assume the active role of co-constructing a positive environment, in which interdependence and adaptive relationships are privileged to maximize the possibilities of growing and developing a multiplicity of dimensions associated with integral wellbeing, among which the following are needed: cognitive disposition to value the positive aspects of each experience, flexibility to face changes and increase the possibilities of success and identify situations that, due to their potentiality, expand the opportunities to understand the world from empathy, altruism and resilience, as elements that favor the management of hostile behaviors and confrontations resulting from prolonged social confinement. 

In other words, it is the family counselor's task to motivate individual and group experiences, in which parents and children can use assertive communication and symmetrical dialogue to express the aspects that trouble them, as well as the definition of functions, roles and activities that from their own perception they consider should be adopted in an attempt to guarantee psychological balance and the disposition to face life in a realistic way. To do so, as Fromm (2014) reiterates, requires the creation of experiences in which both parents and children manage to "talk about their own lives, hopes and anxieties, and show their own interests" (p. 42). 

As proposed by humanistic psychology, the role of the family counselor involves, as a fundamental aspect, the strengthening of empathic understanding among family members, a process understood as the sensitive perception that favors the recognition of emotions and feelings expressed by each member; hence, active listening and clear communication are assumed as part of the strategies, through which to understand the points of view, favor exploration and give rise to the discovery of the causal elements that need to be addressed (Rogers, 1996). This does not imply, in any way, making judgments but, on the contrary, deducing psychological processes from an authentic and unfeigned position, which favors the genuine perception of a climate of trust in which positive and negative emotions flow.

The above attributes to the counselor the role of guiding family members to understand their emotional process in the face of a series of events that, due to their psychological implications, tend to negatively influence the way they act and proceed positively in future situations. Hence, the importance of a systemic understanding not only of the individual but also of his or her relationship with others, in an attempt to deduce the ways in which communicative interactions, actions and attitudes take place, from which to specify possible professional counseling actions. According to Ortiz (2008), the family counselor should extend his or her holistic approach to "individual analysis, which does not imply separating the subject from the group to which he or she belongs, but rather assuming him or her as part of a totality that relates and conditions" (p. 56).

In this sense, family accompaniment and the resolution of their problems requires an understanding of the structure and functioning adopted by each family, as well as identifying how the model in which they are inserted has determined the emergence of new actions or the reinforcement of behaviors that are strengthened and sometimes reproduced to the point of becoming unconsciously normalized. Facing this panorama from a systemic approach to guidance implies going beyond an exclusive focus on the family to a review of the socio-cultural context in order to reach an integral understanding, from which to offer assertive alternatives for action. 

In post-pandemic times, guidance from this perspective requires the construction of a positive interaction climate, in which parents and children feel free and equal to exchange positions, define difficulties and potential changes in which each member of the family must "show their commitment to it, since it is a matter of helping the family to change, but beyond that, to find alternatives to what is happening" (Ortiz, 2008, p. 60). 

From the perspective of family psychology, the functional organization responds to one of the purposes equally shared by the orientation, which seeks to reduce stress levels through emotional management; this implies, among other things, the development of a sense of responsibility in the adoption of positive behaviors, healthy habits and cooperative attitudes that promote not only individual but also collective life projects. This refers to the need to promote self-knowledge that leads to the adjustment and change of "attitudes that urge each family member to assume his/her responsibilities, to rationalize what is adequate and what is not, and to fulfill the role that corresponds to him/her" (Nardone, Giannotti and Rocchi, 2005, p. 17). 

This position refers to strategic interventions that not only provide solutions to family problems, but also generate experiences that help each of its members to develop socio-emotional competencies that contribute to breaking harmful relationship patterns, making them aware of the effects and possible consequences; this refers to the systematic accompaniment in which the reformulation of pernicious behavior patterns and the identification of problems associated with coexistence and mutual understanding are achieved. This procedure requires addressing permissive and excessively democratic family patterns that could become pathogenic, making it impossible to develop the autonomy and responsibility necessary to successfully face reality (Maggio, 2020; Morales, 2020c). 

In this regard, educational guidance has suggested that the current dynamics in which relationships of socio-emotional and affective dependence persist, requires the creation of psychosocial conditions that, from the individual and collective point of view, provide strategies associated with dialogue and assertive communication, in which individuals in training can overcome affective deprivation and learn to manage crises that could generate stress, frustrations and possible traumas (Morales, 2020a). In post-pandemic times, this implies fostering the deployment of capabilities to reinforce esteem, security and "confidence in one's own resources and psychological balance" (Nardone, Giannotti, and Rocchi, 2005, p. 28).

By virtue of the above, the family counselor should focus his or her attention on guaranteeing the normal development of the child and the coherent development of the personality, which implies maximizing the affective attention that provides the strategies of well-being and warmth necessary to cope with the changes, as well as the accelerated dynamism with which reality is transforming. In other words, it is a matter of achieving a solid and coherent emotional stability, which guarantees the timely organization of the family structure, in which each member actively responds to the task of "anticipating situations, building repertoires, maps, perceptual-cognitive systems to face the various circumstances of life" (Nardone, Giannotti, and Rocchi, 2005, p. 32). 

This set of competencies is associated with a sense of openness to seek support, help and assistance in the midst of complex situations that demand the specialized intervention of the counselor; in this regard, Bisquerra and Pérez (2007) propose that the development of emotional awareness and self-knowledge correspond to factors necessary to identify positive and negative emotions, as well as to promote strategies to regulate and manage feelings and thoughts through "access and appropriation of available and appropriate resources, which allow relating and interacting effectively with others" (p. 8). 

Paraphrasing Morales (2021), given the conditions of social confinement that still persist, assistance to the family must address specific aspects such as the attribution of the duties and responsibilities that correspond to each member, that is, to indicate to them what their daily duties are, the tasks they must fulfill and how to face them successfully. Interpreting Nardone, Giannotti, and Rocchi (2005), some areas to be addressed in times of uncertainty are: 

To consolidate the willingness and flexibility to adapt to change, which will help in the free development of character and personality. 

Generate experiences that encourage the strengthening of interdependence, empathy and cooperation in the performance of daily activities. 

Motivate experiential processes that lead to the exploration of skills and the discovery of faculties that make "the acquisition of confidence in one's own personal resources emerge" (p. 38). 

Interpreting Morales (2020b), the counselor, in his task of helping in the functional organization of the family, should seek the definition of both explicit norms that reflect desired behaviors, modes of interaction that preserve emotional stability, as well as the maintenance of unity over time through the promotion of permanent relationships, in which confrontation and mistreatment in its various manifestations are avoided. This procedure is understood from the preventive intervention, as the agreement between parents and children in an attempt to mutually and openly understand behavioral guidelines that guide "coexistence, the assignment of activities, responsibility in certain roles and the expression of personal needs" (Valdés, 2007, p. 26). 

This refers, among other aspects, to counseling in the communicative dimension through which it is possible not only to share emotionally and socio-affectively, but also to promote a sense of openness that allows each member of the family to place him/herself in the place of the other, offering mutual support from an empathetic position that strengthens the proper maintenance of order, the autonomy of each member and the independence necessary to solve problems, taking advantage of opportunities to maximize the possibilities of dealing with conflicts. In this sense, orienting the family implies giving functionality to cooperative relationships in favor of common purposes, which implies dimensioning affective closeness and a sense of responsibility, as drivers of psychological health and integral wellbeing. 

In view of the above, the role of the family counselor should be understood as a multidimensional process consisting of defining the place of both parents and children, motivating the development of possible relationships between them, until the necessary order is achieved to enhance the functionality of the family. According to Valdés (2007), this involves guiding through an informative approach that allows "structuring and changing the self-assigned roles assigned to the members of the family system without adherence to the principles that define effective performance" (p. 38). 

This refers to the search for greater possibilities of quality of life based on the flexibility to manage the transformations derived from social relations, which, in addition to demanding the willingness to learn continuously, also require the development of socio-personal competencies, among which are "self-confidence, stress control, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy and capacity for conflict prevention and resolution" (Bisquerra and Perez, 2007, p. 4). These competencies as determinants of life in society and, especially in the family, suggest focusing attention on self-management as a psychological process that promotes the possibilities of adaptability, conflict management and the establishment of solid bonds that strengthen relationships with others. 

Thus, the family counselor should be able to guide parents and children towards the consolidation of self-efficacy to adjust their emotional responses in response to the demands of the so-called new normality, which can be addressed through the management of strategies associated with reciprocity, the management of feelings, the setting of adaptive and adjustable objectives and the use of both receptive and expressive communication, in which the use of positive, assertive and empathy-based vocabulary is privileged. From Muñoz's (2017) perspective, privileging the assertive management of problems requires fostering "the ability to select relevant situations that, due to their recurrence, require deepening, in an attempt to deduce possible solutions" (p.70). 

According to Corkille (2010), family counseling as a holistic care process seeks to favor the free development of the personality by strengthening internal confidence and self-esteem, as aspects on which the full exercise of meaningful and constructive relationships that are required to mitigate the implications of crises depends; hence, the commitment is to "help the family in the process of achieving its goals, especially in times of stress, when it is imperative to raise the chances of success as part of full functioning" (p. 12). 

Therefore, the aim is to generate psychological and social conditions in which the child is able to cope in a timely manner with emerging conflicts and drastic changes, with the purpose of preparing him/her to face future situations that demand stability, integrity and creativity; this implies a focus on addressing the needs associated with emotional well-being, which involves achieving the development of a full and rewarding life that responds to the conditions for optimal growth. 

It is necessary to affirm then, that the family counselor must procure the mental development having as a base the creation of consistent and close bonds, that make possible for parents and children to acquire conscience on the management not only of their feelings but of the deployment of their cognitive dimension that allows them to continue learning; this means, to promote the curiosity, the free thought and discovery of abilities that could impel the coherent confrontation of the daily situations related to the coexistence, but also, with the academic demands that demand their cognitive disposition to be solved with success. 

Paraphrasing Morales (2021), post-pandemia has generated the emergence of new needs or, at least, the reinforcement of needs associated with mastery and fulfillment, which revolve around the management of oneself and the environment in which one lives; this suggests learning to manage success and failure, which involves a high sense of openness and flexibility to see oneself, determine one's own functioning and know one's potential to face the challenges that emerge daily. From the perspective of ECLAC-UNESCO (2020), it is the task of the family counselor to focus his/her efforts on specific dimensions, among which he/she specifies: socioemotional and autonomous learning, self-care, cooperative and team work, cognitive development, active participation in the management of daily situations and the adaptive disposition to face changes. 

In the words of Bisquerra (2011), relevant family accompaniment should respond to the following dimensions: 

Everyday intelligence. This involves the management of common activities that determine coexistence, among which are: the fulfillment of tasks, functions and roles that help in the consolidation of a positive psychological climate. 

Practical problem-solving that enhances and exercises creative and innovative work, as well as the deployment of skills and competencies for life. 

Recognition of possible problems. This attitude involves formulating strategies and managing solutions that benefit the family group. 

This should be understood as the need to insert the family in the exercise of social intelligence, which enables the adoption of sensitive, communicative and social understanding behaviors, as well as adaptability and openness to new courses of action determined by the dynamism that permeates reality. These social competencies involve the management of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence as a way to enhance the integral health that favors the maintenance of parent-child relationships in a respectful, risk-free and positive environment in terms of autonomous and integral development of the personality. 

This challenge implies fostering coping skills in which parents and children can learn to manage negative emotions through the effective use of self-regulation strategies that not only resolve the intensity and drastic impact caused by recurring changes, but also the positive approach to impulsivity, anxiety and frustration from a resilient attitude that helps to mitigate the psychological implications, replacing them with emotional states in which the subject learns to flow with the circumstances, taking advantage of each experience to measure the quality of life. 

This implies, in times of social tension, guiding parents and children in the commitment to adapt to the new reality through the generation of a climate of affection, love and with special emphasis on social interaction as determinants of positive mental health, which seeks to promote unique strengths in the subjects; guiding the family then implies motivating lifestyles that provide consistency to the development of the personality, for which it is considered essential to insert both parents and children in the exploration of their potential and capabilities that result not only in the achievement of personal but collective beneficial goals. 

In view of the above, the role of the counselor should involve the discovery and attribution of meaning to the situations that each family member is going through, since the conditions of prolonged confinement have caused the emergence of negative emotions associated with depression, stress and anxiety, which require systematic monitoring of risks and joint assessment of personal difficulties and obstacles that could potentially harm the overall well-being and mental health of the most susceptible members of the family. Faced with this scenario, the counselor must promote cognitive openness that favors socioemotional learning (Morales, 2020a), which consists of exploring one's own emotional states to deduce the aspects that require special attention and on which depends the establishment of bonds of mutual help, the exchange of points of view and the joint approach to the situations that are experienced on a daily basis. 

This cognitive disposition is seen by humanistic psychology as the result of living together in a climate of trust and understanding, in which each member of the family must take responsibility for the generation of healthy appreciations and interpretations that result in the acceptance of the other; this context supposes, among other aspects, the possibility of establishing appropriate communicative relationships and the development of empathetic bonds with others (Artiles, et al., et al. 1995). The authors indicate that guidance should be assumed as a motivational process focused in several directions: on the one hand, as a way to achieve the improvement of the human condition through the enhancement of its functioning and, on the other hand, as a possibility to achieve adaptation through "the development of skills and competencies to operate optimally on reality" (p. 251). 

As proposed by Llavona and Méndez (2012), family counseling as a process linked to human development, seeks the integral personal formation of parents as a requirement to achieve the autonomous development of children throughout the life cycle. This means addressing the following dimensions: 

To build a positive environment in which mutual affective support and empathy are privileged. 

Promote emotional management, impulse control and feelings. 

Encourage respect and recognition of individual particularities associated with personality.

To motivate the consolidation of stimulating contexts that enable a sense of openness to change, adaptability to new conditions and the adoption of positive habits associated with personal autonomy, discipline and commitment to peaceful coexistence. 

The above indicates that achieving the full functioning of the personality in post-pandemic times implies achieving integral growth and personal security that enable the emergence of problem-solving skills as well as spontaneity to creatively adapt to the new normality (Sandoval, 2009).  Achieving these purposes requires that the family orientation process revolves around the development of personal autonomy, which according to Bisquerra and Pérez (2007) is associated with the strengthening of positive attitudes towards life, allowing parents and children individual self-management in dimensions such as: 

Self-esteem. Strengthening self-perception is considered fundamental in critical times such as those humanity is going through, since it is considered that self-concept defines the way in which intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships flow. 

Self-motivation. Setting achievable goals and becoming emotionally involved with them is an effective way to overcome difficulties, demotivation and discouragement. Hence, it is necessary to create a routine of activities in which both parents and children adhere to specific tasks that demand the integration of efforts and cooperative ties in their consolidation. 

Positive attitude. Professional counseling should involve the change of good habits for others with greater benefit, which cooperate with the adoption of a positive attitude towards circumstances, which should be assumed as challenges and opportunities for growth. 

Responsibility. As part of the autonomous and independent development, family accompaniment requires the assessment of behaviors, risks and implications that may arise from making the right or wrong decisions. 

Emotional self-efficacy. It refers to the capacity to value one's own reach and potential, on which depends one's effective disposition to involve oneself in the fulfillment of individual and collective purposes. 

The above should be associated with the joint construction of a collective and personal life project, in which each member of the family defines purposes, goals and interests that lead to their full realization and holistic attention to their needs. This suggests, among other aspects, the empowerment of faculties, talents and skills to ensure the positive functioning of coexistence relationships, which should guarantee not only different alternatives for multidimensional growth but also the fulfillment of goals linked to a dignified life in conditions of socioemotional stability (Camps, 2000). Guiding the family therefore requires promoting social competencies that improve the bonds and interactions between parents and children, which requires the mastery of fundamental skills such as: effective-assertive communication, active listening and empathic understanding, sharing emotions in conditions of trust and with a dialogic attitude. 

Optimizing the conditions of family coexistence, responds to a core function that involves advising for life and the consolidation of integral wellbeing, an objective widely associated with the achievement of significant advances that progressively help to organize personal priorities in a healthy and balanced way; this implicitly refers to the development of evaluative and critical attitudes that help to prioritize needs and identify the potential resources that should be allocated for their consolidation. This personal effort is linked to autonomous development and the capacity to self-manage one's own well-being, which contributes to the commitment to achieve a full and harmonious life. 

From a psychosocial perspective, family counseling as a preventive process constitutes a means for the transformation of living conditions, by making available to parents and children alternatives for change with respect to present circumstances, urging them to foresee possible risk factors that could make coexistence relationships unsustainable; hence, Montero (2004) proposes the approach to family contradictions and limitations, through the promotion of emotional education that will dimension the capacities to "detect needs, overcome negative situations and have the resources to achieve the active role of understanding the world and the new demands in which one lives" (p. 126). 126).

According to Cloninger (2003), part of the family counseling actions to be undertaken in times of chaos and uncertainty are associated with "the adaptation and adjustment of the individual to the demands of life; this involves dealing not only with the demands of the context but also with the opportunities provided by the environment" (p. 9). To this end, it is considered essential that the recipients of professional help be oriented towards the reformulation of their ways of thinking and the change of cultural patterns that allow the discovery of capabilities, based on which they can satisfy their personal goals and objectives.

Paraphrasing Corkille (2010), it is in the family setting where the management of the daily situations that human beings go through is initially learned; hence, the importance of educating for the management of emotions and feelings, which implies familiarizing parents with the perception of the emotional states their children go through, helping them to accept them, express them and not repress them. These current conditions require the family counselor to bring the subjects closer to the use of intervention actions such as: active listening in which experiences and difficulties are shared, while offering alternatives on how to face each situation; avoiding the issuance of judgments and suggesting the repair of behaviors and the adjustment of negative behaviors; seeking together counselor-family, the deduction of causes, reasons and possible consequences of habits that could threaten the peaceful and harmonious coexistence. 

In addition, the family must be willing to deal with emotional burdens and negative feelings from a resilient attitude that prepares parents and children to see in each frustrating situation the possibility to learn, to redirect and reformulate their plans, to adjust objectives to changing situations as adaptive responses that will enable them to act in the face of the challenges of a world immersed in recurrent transformation. Interpreting Zorrilla (2007), the aim is to enable each member of the family to understand the meaning of each obstacle and difficulty, in which to identify potential opportunities for growth that bring satisfaction and self-realization to both parents and children. From the humanistic psychology point of view, this is nothing more than guiding the family to take advantage of crises as a propitious moment to discover qualities and virtues that help in the process of transcending towards the harmonious and balanced development of the personality. 

For this reason, it is necessary to assume the family as an open system in recurrent transformation, conditions that require the facilitation of actions that from a broad, holistic and systemic vision help in addressing the main problems between parents and children, among which are: difficulties in managing emotions and breaking communication barriers, inability to regulate feelings and manage differences from a conciliatory position, capable of opening the possibilities to promote changes that result in positive mental health. According to Montero (2004), achieving optimal conditions of well-being in both parents and children requires interventions that privilege "respect, the participation of stakeholders and the recognition of the pluralism of interests, purposes and ways of seeing the world" (p. 64). 

The approaches of social psychology show that it is in the family setting where integral wellbeing is promoted, as it is assumed as "a source of affection, sympathy, security, understanding and reinforcement, a place to experiment and a point of support to achieve autonomy and independence" (Myers, 2003, p.33). This implies, among other aspects, the promotion of responsible habits associated with health and hygiene, which guarantee aseptic conditions and the management of the sanitary norms necessary to guarantee the safety of the family. 

In view of the above, part of the competencies of the family counselor are associated with the continuity of the learning processes, in which, by means of an agreement between parents and teachers, the teaching of preventive measures is privileged and the adoption of habits and routines that enhance health safety conditions is promoted. This means organizing and structuring lifestyles that protect both physical and mental health; which, in turn, refers to the commitment to guide parents in the task of cooperating not only in the fulfillment of academic activities, but also in fostering resilient crisis management, the exchange of experiences and the psychosocial support necessary to positively manage stress and the emergence of negative emotions. 

Therefore, family accompaniment in critical times such as those experienced, requires focusing efforts around: 

1. Raising the self-esteem of both parents and children, because from a psychological point of view, a person with a weak self-concept is more prone to adopt negative thoughts and feelings, as well as the feeling of incompetence and the propensity to fail to meet daily obligations. 
2. The promotion of values such as tolerance, respect for human dignity and mutual recognition, from which to achieve higher levels of acceptance, correction of behaviors and adjustment of harmful behaviors, which prevent the emotional reinforcement necessary to achieve personal improvement and the integral wellbeing of the family. 
3. The promotion of experiences that privilege altruism, cooperation, empathy and resilience, as attitudes that dimension the ability to receive and provide support, and solve problems through reciprocal support that reduce the violation of psychological integrity, as well as the deterioration of relationships that support positive coexistence. 

In summary, accompanying parents and children in crucial moments such as the ones humanity is going through, implies strengthening communicative relationships and increasing affective and emotional quality, with the purpose of motivating positive bonds that contribute to overcoming conflicts and the articulation of efforts around the consolidation of psychosocially favorable scenarios for the development of the personality. This implies providing the necessary strategies to generate active participation, commitment and flexibility for family members to adapt to changes, as well as "increasing their capacity to give their own answers and manage their own reality" (Garriga, 2020, p. 18).

Discussion and conclusions

Guiding the family today is a complex challenge associated with reconciliation and the meeting of parents and children in a relationship of synergic cooperation, mutual help and affective support, in which the consolidation of an organized life is achieved, generating possibilities of holistic development, balance and well-being. This refers to family counseling as a fruitful field to promote multidimensional human growth, by providing communicative and dialogic strategies that result in the consolidation of interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships that empower parents and children to act positively and coherently in the social context. 

Based on the above, it is possible to specify that the role of the family counselor in times of post-pandemia, revolves around the positive development of the personality, by providing the interest for the integral well-being and quality of life, tasks that revolve around the adoption of healthy styles of coexistence, in which the management of conflicts and obstacles as challenges to grow multidimensionally prevails; this implies strengthening the feeling of community and flexibility to face emerging changes with a positive attitude. This implies guiding parents in the process of consolidating stimulating environments for their children, in which values such as autonomy, interdependence and respect are strengthened, but also symmetrical communication and a dialogic attitude that motivates the approach to conflicts through the unification of efforts based on cooperation. 

In other words, counseling the family as part of the functions of the counselor, involves strengthening relationships between parents and children, in which mutual understanding is achieved, the handling and management of divergences, and coping from the emotional intelligence of risk factors associated with: confusion, tension, anxiety and stress, as those responsible for the deterioration of intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships, as well as the achievement of both individual and group goals that promote the functionality of the family. This means fostering the management of communicative processes and personal responsibility to create solidarity circuits that result in the expansion of the personality and the well-being necessary to overcome inadequate learning, adopt positive habits and reduce risk factors that could threaten the socio-affective-emotional stability of the family.

Therefore, family accompaniment in times of pandemic requires both individualized and group approaches, with the purpose of identifying unsatisfied emotional needs and deducing burdensome situations that need to be addressed immediately, thus avoiding acute states of frustration, depression and stress that, together with prolonged confinement, can lead to episodes of violence and aggression; in this sense, it is considered essential to reduce any trigger of conflicts through preventive processes that integrate the creation of a psychosocially positive environment, in which empathetic understanding, intelligent management of emotions and feelings, as well as the adoption of healthy habits, prevail. 

In summary, the pandemic caused by Covid-19 led to the emergence of conflictive situations at the family level as a result of the global application of measures of prolonged social confinement, which forced mankind to reformulate their lifestyles and ways of relating to each other; this should not be seen as a negative aspect, but on the contrary, the possibility to generate processes of integral and constructive counseling for parents and children, in an attempt to maximize the free development of character and personality, through the adoption of flexible, spontaneous, resilient and open to learning attitudes; all this constitutes an invitation to systematic, individualized and holistic accompaniment in which emotional balance is privileged as well as the satisfaction of affective needs on which depends the development of autonomy and personal interdependence. 

References

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Bisquerra, R., and Pérez, N. (2007). Competencias emocionales. Educación Siglo XXI, 10, pp. 61-82. 

Bisquerra, R. (2011). Educación emocional. Propuestas para educadores y familias. Bilbao: Editorial Desclée de Brouwer. 

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