Counseling skills has provided me with a valuable insight into the helping relationship and how it is both created and maintained in order to encourage growth and development in the client. The factors involved within the helping relationship include considering Roger’s core conditions, congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy as the three main characteristics necessary in a helping relationship. In order to fully incorporate all three of Roger’s core conditions, I as the counselor must be self-aware, as a lack of self-awareness may inhibit truly listening and understanding the client; self-awareness can be enhanced through exercises such as Johari’s window. Counseling skills such as body language and active listening also plays a role within encouraging the client to open up and can help me as the counselor convey empathy. Carl R. Rogers theorized that through providing a certain kind of relationship with the client, one in which empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence were present, the client would “discover within himself the capacity to the relationship for growth, and change and personal development” . As a counselor empathy is essential as it allows me to enter my clients internal frame of reference, while still retaining a problem-solving stance. Entering the client’s internal frame of reference means I must consider the emotions and thoughts of the client, it is similarly vital not to get lost in the internal frame of reference as this creates the distinction between sympathy and empathy. Unconditional positive regard, also called acceptance is essential as it plays a role in creating a helping relationship in which the client feels safe to express any negative emotions or thoughts, while being... ... middle of paper ... ...ing silence, paraphrasing and reflection of feelings, as well as non-verbal skills such as body-language and active listening are all used in order to allow the client to introspect and work with their problems in a safe environment, the role of the counselor within the relationship being to support the client and help them to reach their true potential by expressing emotions and thoughts that they can’t express outside of the helping relationship, whether it be for fear of rejection or some other reason. Works Cited • Hough, M. 2010. Counselling skills and theory. 3rd ed. London: Hodder Education. • Mcleod, J. and Mcleod, J. 2011. Counselling skills. Maidenhead: Open University Press. • Rogers, C. 2004. On becoming a person. London: Constable. • Unknown. eds. 2002. Beginnings: Advanced communication skills. Stirling: Counselling & Psychotherapy in Scotland.
These techniques include showing concern for clients through active listening and empathy, showing respect for and confidence in clients, focusing on client’s strong points and positive traits, resources, replacing discouraging thoughts with encouraging ones, and helping clients to develop a sense of humor about life. (Watts & Pietrzak,2000,p 443) Another method, as mentioned earlier is building a strong rapport with the client. Therapists use a variety of techniques to facilitate change in the client’s behavior. Therapists help clients to choose alternative behaviors to the behaviors that are maladaptive. The next method is getting the client to change how he or she views a situation. This is done inside and outside of counseling. Through this technique a client comes to realize their abilities and strengths. Last but not least, therapists help clients draw on their resources and strengths when faced with a situation that seems troublesome. (Watts & Pietrzak,2000,p
One theme of the book that stands out is the counselor as a person and a professional. It is impossible to completely separate one’s personal and professional lives. Each person brings to the table certain characteristics of themselves and this could include such things as values, personality traits and experiences. A great point that Corey, Corey, and Callahan (2010) make is to seek personal therapy. Talking with colleagues or a therapist will keep counselors on their toes and allow them to work out any issues that may arise. This could also prevent counselors from getting into a bad situation. Another good point made in this book was counter transference. Therapists are going to have an opinion and some reactions are going to show through. It is not easy to hide one’s emotions, but a good therapist will keep the objective in sight and keep moving forward. After all, the help counselors are providing is for the client.
The counseling session should be centered on the client and their understanding of their world and/or problems not heavily weighted on the counselor interpretation of the client’s situation. The role of the counselor is to examine a problem needs changing and discover options in overcoming their problem. Bringing about change can help change the client’s narrative on their problem in the future and/or on life in the process.
According to Shebib (2016) the therapeutic or helping relationship, the role of the counsellor and client has a significant impact on the desired outcome for the client. However, in relation to the two theoretical models of counselling under discussion, the therapeutic relationships differ among the client and therapist roles (Corey 2009). In Person-Centred Therapy, the relationship between client and counsellor is viewed as being the person in the environment and the client is the expert of into their environment. There is a repetition of equality amongst the client-counsellor relationship (Corey, 2009). This notion that focus to placed onto the client and not the problem ( Shebeb, 2017). The counsellor’s attitude has a significant role
Seay (2012) offers that minority populations tend to underutilize counseling services and have higher dropout rates. Additionally, it is added that counselors who are able to build good rapport have better client outcomes (Seay, 2012). While working with the client, I never pressed for more information than she was willing to disclose. I did not want the client to feel like she had to disclose all her deepest, darkest secrets in the initial session, but did gain more information as the sessions progressed. Additionally, I utilized empathy, and active listening skills when talking with the client. James and Gilliland (2013) assert that providing empathy includes five techniques; attending, verbally communicating empathic understanding, reflecting feelings, nonverbally communicating empathic understanding, and silence as a way of communicating empathic understanding. I made sure to use paraphrasing skills, as well as nonverbal communication to make the client aware that I was listening and understanding the situation she was dealing with. I feel that utilizing these various techniques helped to develop a solid working relationship with the client. I feel that I gained her trust and made her feel comfortable so that she felt that I was there to help her, not judge
As a counselor, the therapeutic relationship should be the main focus. It can be suggested that the most effective therapy begins with a warm and genuine relationship between the client and counselor. This relationship should be collaborative and based on respect, positive regard, acceptance, etc. Active listening skills, patience, empathy, and consistency represent some of the fundamental elements of establishing rapport.
The essay then outlines and critically evaluates counselling skills such as body language, silences and reflective communication skills amongst others used during Eric’s third session while highlighting areas of improvement and identifying alternative options. The essay concludes with offering and exploring possible directions for future counselling sessions.
The counselor accomplishes the above by expressing empathy, developing discrepancies, going along with resistance and supporting self-efficacy. Moreover, the counselor guides the client toward a solution that will lead to permanent posi...
The counselling process is one that may last for as little as one session or for years, it is within the middles stages of the helping relationship that particular counselling skills such as a focusing, challenging and immediacy can be implemented, as well as use of advanced empathy that can be applied due to increased familiarity with a speaker. Many actions may occur within middles stage of the helping relationship such as transitions that occur for a multitude of reasons and the outcome of which can vary based on the attitude of the speaker. Self-awareness remains vital throughout the entire counselling relationship due to the continual influence of empathy in the helping relationship and remaining aware my own motives and values when using advanced empathy and specific counselling skills. Ethics and boundaries are also involved within the counselling process as within a counselling relationship, I as the counsellor, must be careful with the balance or expenditure of power when challenging.
Rapport and empathy are two essential skills for communication in health services. In this integrative essay, it is displayed how rapport and empathy play an important role for communication in health services, such as counselling and psychotherapy. Empathy helps building rapport with the client. Both skills are needed in counselling, because once the client has found trust in the counsellor there is a bigger chance of them opening up about their feelings. If a client has a good rapport with the counsellor, they are less likely to discontinue the sessions. A five minute non-scripted video is included with this essay and will be referred back to, while describing and discussing rapport building and empathic listening. The video’s content is a first interview with a client, where the client tells the counsellor about a troubling issue. At the end a self-reflection is included, which will reflect upon the video, the challenges faced and future improvements for personal improvement upon communication skills.
The use of active listening is an essential skill to achieve this type of relationship as well as a sensitivity for clients who come from a culture different than the counselor’s culture. Great counseling also includes being honest with the client from the first session where informed consent is provided. It is important to discuss the limitations of confidentiality. Another important factor is to guide the client into setting realistic goals, so the counseling sessions can be more
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.
The counselor’s objective is to identify the problem of the client and plan out the method of helping the client overcome the problem. The most rewarding part of being a counselor is the ability to make a difference in people’s lives. In private practice, there is a constant push to become more skilled at helping so that clients will refer others to you for help. It is also important to follow up with the client about their well-being even after treatment has ended to ensure that they are still living a healthy and stress-free life. The client must make time for all scheduled sessions with the counselor for best results of treatment. If we don’t express our feelings during counseling sessions, the hurt and frustration behind the situation will build up, and once the client releases, it may trigger other situations and bring on severe mental health
There are few circumstances counselors have to oblige when dealing issues from clients. Counselors have to be trustworthy; this is a fundamental to understanding and solving issues. Counselors have to keep information gathered confidential and restrict any disclosure of information to anybody. Clients voluntarily seek help to counselors for therapy or any kind of help they need. Hence as a counselor it is important to respect their clients’ self-government and ensure precision in information given. Commitment of a counselor plays a big role in a therapy. It is not ethical for a counselor to neglect a client such that the client’s well being is not taken care of. It is also important for counselors to have a fair treatment with all their clients. No matter how each client will be, there must not be any form of judgment, which will cause any form of unfair
This paper will explore the concept of dual relationships between counselors and clients and the ethical implications of such relationships. In addition to presenting several examples of dual relationships, this paper will also explore how ethical decisions must be made to avoid potentially harmful or exploitive relationships in therapy as well understanding how different interactions between counselor and clients can be understood from an ethical standpoint, as well as how reviewing these ethical dilemmas may shape my future career as a counselor.