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Influence of diversity on behavior in psychology
The importance of listening in counseling
Influence of diversity on behavior in psychology
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This course opened my eyes to the importance of dialogue in ways that I had not previously considered. I did not know in counseling you should only talk 30 percent of the time and that the remaining 70 percent should be the counselee’s time to talk. My typical counseling sessions in the past were about 50/50 dialogue. I thought that the counselee needed my opinion. A majority of my sessions included this amount of dialogue, which I am now understanding was not helpful to those people. Even though several people did have great results due to our sessions, they will looked to me in the future for more answers to various problems. This made the counseling relationship more dependent on my advice rather than them talking out their problem …show more content…
S.O.L.A.R stands for facing the person squarely, open body language, leaning slightly forward, maintain eye contact, and relaxed posture. There is so much that can be done in a counseling session that can make or break the start the relationship. Counseling is truly an art of vulnerability, in which someone is being very transparent with you and allowing you to become a part of their inner world. Our facial expressions, gestures, and vocal cues have a huge influence on whether a person opens up to us or not. In my first practice session with a classmate I found myself shutting down early. My topic was deeper than I thought it would be and the counselor’s degree of interest or lack of it was the perception that I felt. A word they said triggered this gesture for me, my interest in opening up begin to dwindle afterward. This was a very good aspect for me to encounter as someone who would like to counsel others. I now understand the importance of my face, my gestures, and my vocal cues. Practicing S.O.L.A.R while also being aware of my facial expressions, gestures, and vocal cues will be a practice that I use in my counseling ministry. I will be mindful of my body language and also when I need a moment to gather my thoughts. In order to be proficient in counseling I will need to be aware of what I can and cannot handle dealing with. Knowing my limits is …show more content…
We have to be aware that everyone deals with grief differently. No two people have the exact same timeline of recovering from a loved one’s death. No two people go through the stages of grief in the same order as another person either. We have to remain sensitive to the counselee’s timeline and not expect them to get over their feelings because we are tired of hearing about them. In life we can’t avoid people who are hurting or painful subjects that need to be talked about. We have to be mindful to avoid giving people advice or minimizing the significance in that person’s pain. Sometimes we want to quote things that have comforted us in our time of need and that may not be appropriate for someone else. The respect for an individual’s particular feelings should be identified as their own feelings and not compared to how we felt when something similar happened to us. The task of getting people to open up and accepting their feelings, no matter the emotion they have, is a major task. We have to actively listen to the person and allow them to suffer in their own way while we counsel
The counselor, Sue Johnson, alerted the clients to her engagement in the therapy session by her verbal and nonverbal cues. She held eye contact with both clients, depending on who she was speaking to. They eye contact demonstrated to the clients that she respected and was sincere about the process they were involved in. It also showed the clients that she was interested in the conversation. If Sue had looked down or away while the clients were speaking or she was speaking to them, it could have been misinterpreted negatively by the clients. Sue also demonstrated engagement by passively leaning towards the clients. She nodded her head at appropriate moments and engaged in reflexive facial expressions. Mirroring a client’s facial expressions outwardly shows them that the counselor is closely paying attention and hearing what they are saying. These expressions could exhibit a wide array of emotions such as sadness, anger, happiness, contempt, or fear. Sue kept the tone of her voice even and soothing in nature, allowing the clients to feel relaxed and comfortabl...
A counselor should always keep their thoughts to themselves and remain open-minded about the situation. The only time a counselor should share their thoughts is if it helps the client with their situation that they are dealing with. “Counselors must practice only within the boundaries of their competence (Standard C.2.a.), and, if they “determine an inability to be of professional assistance to clients” (Standard A.11.b.), they should facilitate a referral to another provider. (Kocet, M. M., & Herlihy, B. J. (2014). Addressing Value-Based Conflicts Within the Counseling Relationship: A Decision-Making Model. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 180-186 7p. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00146.x).” Keeping your thoughts to yourself is
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.
...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.
The relationship between the counsellor and client is fundamental to the success of the counselling experience and the results that will follow. The counsellor and client need to build rapport and trust. The client needs to feel comfortable enough to open up and discuss their inner most thoughts and fears in the knowledge that the discussion is confidential and non-judgemental. The resulting relationship should be one of mutual respect.
For clients who express their experiences for the first time in counseling, it can be a powerful force to help them heal. It is important for the counselor to pay close attention to the person’s body language, affect and tone. The counselor must consider the possible scenarios that may occur in the first session. Cultural aspects of the client must be considered. From the client’s perspective, the first session is an important session, even if the first session is mostly an information gathering session. The client may have experiences much trauma in their life, never being able to trust a person with their closest feelings. This is why it is very important to establish rapport and trust in...
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.
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 counselor must establish a trustworthy relationship with the client which will create the foundation in order to effectively reach the goals for the client. It is important for the counselor to listen to the client’s story, make sure to take good notes, and establish clear objectives based on the specific needs of the client. The counselor should be empathetic, make sure your focus is on the patient, always make sure your relationship is professional, make sure proper procedures are followed and also that the importance of confidentiality. By communicating a set of objectives, with milestones along the way, you can help your client feel hopeful and their issues can come to a resolution.
Sharpley, C. F., Jeffrey, A. M. & McMah, T. (2006). Counsellor facial expression and client-perceived rapport. Counselling Psychology Quarterly. 19(4), 343-356. doi: 10.1080/09515070601058706
It is very clear to me, as a facilitator, to understand the importance to offer gentle, non-judgmental support and guidance without trying to fix or change the outcome of the person I come in contact with. During the healing process of resolving trauma/challenging emotions, we need to be aware of giving people the power to trust their own intuition, keep your own ego out of the way, and make them fell safe enough to
In this part of the assignment, I will be reviewing the strengths and weaknesses that were shown when I was using counselling skills on my client. I believe that there were more strengths when I was showing counselling skills compared to the weaknesses that there were.
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.
One aspect I found striking was the role of advice giving in counseling. Prior to this class, I knew that counselors did not typically give opinions or advice to lead a client in a certain direction. What I did not know was the entire reasoning behind this. A counselor might avoid giving advice so that a client learns to make his/her own decisions, does not become dependent on the counselor, and to ensure that a client will not later blame the counselor if the counselor’s advice did not turn out well. In this context, I have a better appreciation and understanding of why therapists refrain from telling the client what to do.
Motus, G. W. (2009). Introduction to Basic Counselling and Communication Skills: IOM Training Manual For Migrant Community Leaders and Community Workers. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.