Counselling someone about HIV/AIDS and someone affected by HIV/ AIDS is different from other types of counselling.

The goals of HIV/AIDS counselling are to promote behavior change to prevent HIV infection and its transmission to other people and to give psycho-social support to those whose lives have been affected by HIV.

Therefore, the counsellor is referred to as an HIV/AIDS counsellor. An HIV/AIDS counsellor must be comfortable discussing sexual practices of men, women and young people, discussing death and dying, be able to recognize and accept people who have different opinions/values than their own, be nonjudgmental, have thorough HIV/AIDS knowledge, be empathetic, be aware of resources to which he /she can refer the client when necessary, and be able to deal with the emotional challenges and stress.