Counseling Reflection Paper

In this role one behavior I think I demonstrated as the counselor that was helpful was my use of nonverbal and verbal communication skills. I really focused on getting the client to engage in the counseling process in order for her to develop her own plan and strategies to deal with the problem at hand. I was sure to encourage strong nonverbal communication such as eye contact, maintaining an upright posture, varying my voice pitches, and demonstrating attentive silence to show the client I genuinely cared and was interested in what she had to say. Being an active listener was also a helpful behavior because it allowed me to demonstrate a balance between my listening skills with interventions in a manner that allowed me to optimize the counseling

Making sure the client was safe and if anyone else was in the house with her was also safe I think helped to defuse the situation. My goal in this role was to build trust, confidence, optimism while demonstrating a deep level of understanding and acceptance in a manner that encouraged the client to feel like she was safe. My solution for this role play was to have my client get out of the home or return in order to maintain her safety and to call for back up. I choose to have my client stay on the phone during this process until I ultimately knew she was safe and the authorities or someone of the right status could help her maintain her safety. During this process I tried to ensure my client was not only safe but was calm in order for her to maintain a clear head and not go into panic mode and do something drastic. In the end while trying to help my client who was in distress I wanted to give her as much emotional support with an immediate and ongoing plan to help her with dealing with the problem while providing her with safety while remaining caring and not only listening carefully but asking her situation seriously without giving her unwanted advice about her son or expressing my own personal judgments about her

By remaining rationally detached I could have maintained control better by not taking negative comments so personally. By taking this into consideration more throughout the conversation I could have better quickly defused the situation with the client and encouraged positive rational behaviors in response. Another non helpful behavior I could have used would have been using positive self talk. As the counselor you have to remind yourself you are not the target of an outburst or negative situation or the cause of the behavior. Simply doubting yourself in these situations may cause unwanted response to client, but telling yourself I know what to do or say will lead to a more productive response instead and help to keep the situation calm. Despite the fact I used “I statements” I could have utilized this strategy more in the role play. Using statements that start with “I” in this crisis role intervention could have been more helpful in providing direction by being clear about what will occur and what as being asked of my client. I statements such as I am going to explain the steps that are going to occur next could have even provided clear support and worked as an effective communication tool between me and the client in order to help her acknowledge and understand what was happening or going to happen