My Counseling Style Analysis

Gerald Corey (2017) states in the beginning of our textbook, “Counseling students can begin to acquire a counseling style tailored to their own personality by familiarizing themselves with the major approaches to therapeutic practice” (p.2). Throughout this year I have learned that how I view the world and how I try to fix things is neither right nor wrong, but it works for me. It is not how every person is going to view to counsel clients, but it is one approach. There is no right or wrong way to help someone, as long as it does not damage the client more. I believe there is a reason why everyone is the way they are and helping the client understand why they feel, think, or act the way they do, helps them become more self-aware and become at peace with themselves. No one changes their behavior without a cause. Helping the client understand why there is a change in behavior, can help let them understand why they feel the way they do. Whether it is a negative or a positive change, it still helps to know why. Over the past semester, I have learned to apply my strengths to my own counseling style and to improve my weaknesses, found theories

that I integrated into my own counseling style, and have a better understanding of where I want to go in the future using these techniques.
To be an effective counselor, I believe it is essential to be in touch with my values and beliefs. Being able to identify what my strengths and weaknesses are, gives me a better understanding of myself and how I can apply them to my own practice. This is crucial because it helps keep a healthy and truthful client-therapist relationship. Some of my own strengths that will help me with my practice are I am easy to talk to, I am a good listener, and I let my past life experiences help me empathize towards others. This is helpful because I can create a safe environment for clients to open up and talk freely about their thoughts. When it comes to approaching my clients concerns, I am good at rationalizing thought and approaching issues from different perspectives. By doing this, I can help my clients lessen their anxieties on issues they cannot help and keep them from drawing irrational conclusions about people in their lives. I pride myself on being creative, using appropriate humor to lighten situations, and I genuinely care to make people’s days better. As a therapist, I see myself equal to the client. Therapy is a collaborative process and requires an equal and open dialogue. I believe some of the best insight comes from the client because they know their life better than anyone else does.
In counseling, knowing my weaknesses is equally as important to knowing my strengths. A person’s weaknesses can drag them down, but they can also be turned into a person’s biggest strengths. Empathizing with clients is a strength of mine, but it also is a weakness. I tend to over empathize, which leads me to the fear of bringing my work home with me. My mind tends to never shut off, which leads to me obsessing over a thought and I often catastrophize what I’m thinking about. Being able to keep my work and home life separate is crucial for my own mental health. Because of my own mental health issues, I have anxiety over not be able to help my clients, fears of not having myself figured out enough to help a client, and being too much of a perfectionist. I have social anxiety, so I know group therapy is not going to be my area of expertise and I am going to have to overcome my fear of meeting people for the first time. However, because I know this about myself, I am able to work on these issues as my professional development continues and can spend this time becoming more comfortable in social situations. I can take what I learned about myself at this time and use it as an example for my clients to overcome similar issues. One other weakness of mine is not being assertive. I have a hard time with confrontation, which is important to realize because that can be a problem when it comes to difficult clients. Above all, I know these weaknesses are something I can work on and help me become a better counselor. As I build confidence in this area and gain more knowledge and experience, most of these weaknesses of mine will resolve themselves.
My definition of counseling is the assistance to help a client understand their thoughts, feelings, and other psychological issues and becoming more aware of themselves. By helping them do this, the client can actively make decisions to change their life the way that works best for them. For perspective clients, I would explain to them that my job, as a counselor, is not to fix them and give the clients the answers to their problems. I am here to help aid the client in working towards goals that we set together. Counseling will help them become more aware of their own thoughts and feelings and how they can cope with them. I also provide them with a safe environment to open up freely without anxiety of judgement. Within my counseling process, I have incorporated different counseling theories to help me aid the client with their concerns.
One of the major counseling theories I intend to apply to my work is Gestalts therapy. Gestalt focuses on the client’s here and now and not as much on the past. The therapist is unconditional and accepting of the client and lets the client do a lot of their own insight. In therapy, the therapist avoids using why questions because it often makes the client draw conclusions about their past (Pinnacle Of Man TM, 2017). Together we work on mindfulness, acknowledging blocked energy, and fixing unfinished business that is causing the client resentment, hatred, guilt, and anxiety. One technique I admire from this therapy is the internal dialogue. This technique involves the outward expression of inner conflicts (Quote Powerpoint). I find that this type of therapy helps clients draw their on conclusions in a healthy matter and enables them to apply this outside of therapy. Being mindful of your current thoughts and actions can help ease everyday anxiety.
Additionally, I am going to incorporate existential therapy into my practice. Existential therapy focuses on analyzing our experiences to know who we are better as a human. This type of therapy similarly uses mindfulness and self-awareness to help create an identity and establish meaningful relationships in life. Also, this ideology works towards accepting the anxieties in our lives and being aware of death (Quote powerpoint). I find this therapy useful because it moves the client to realizing life is not perfect and there are going to be ups and downs, but they will get through it. The client accepts their fears and learn to over come them.
Two other therapies that I find helpful are behavior therapy and person-centered therapy. Behavior therapy makes the client more aware of their body and their actions. In this therapy, progressive muscle relaxation is used. Essentially it encourages the client to meditate and stay in the present moment. As someone who meditates often, I think it is an important tool in calming my everyday anxieties. In person-centered therapy, creative art forms are often used for healing, self discovery, self-awareness, and insight into the clients mind. Also, in this therapy the client does most of their own insight on their lives, while the therapist is unconditionally accepting of their feelings (Quote powerpoint). I have alway been passionate about using art as a form of therapy. I have been painting since I was 4 and a half at an art school. As I grew up and my mental issues began to get worse, I would spend hours at the art studio painting my feelings away. Some of my best work has come from those times and still to this day I use it to help me. Together, Gestalt therapy, existential therapy, behavior therapy, and person-centers therapy have shaped my counseling style to be an effective therapist.
Counseling is not just sitting down with a client, one on one, for 60 minutes. It can be used in so many more settings. A possible career path that fascinates me is using therapy to help children of the world. Using therapy to help children that have been affected by conflicts in their countries and give them back a piece of their childhood. I became intrigued by this idea because I am currently taking a course called Global Children’s Issues. Throughout the year, I have learned about children’s rights and how they are violated around the world. In one video I watched, a man used art therapy mixed with group therapy to help children cope with the PTSD and anxiety they developed while fleeing from their countries, making them child refugees. I believe I can take my passion for helping people and love of children to make a difference in the world.
With this career path, it brings the question up of how I am going to handle a wide range of culturally diverse clients?

As a counselor, I will try my hardest to learn about as many cultures as I can and to learn from my clients appropriate and inappropriate things that are in their culture. As I help my client, I hope to have an open relationship with them where we can mutually ask about each others cultures. I will never push my own cultural beliefs on a client. Additionally, I am not one-hundred percent committed to my cultural beliefs. I like to learn about things from new perspectives and culture is one of those things. Fully submersing myself in a new country can help me learn the culture of the country I am working in. It would be extremely important in my career path to have broad understanding of different

cultures.
This semester has taught me to apply my strengths to my own counseling style and to improve my weaknesses, found theories that I integrated into my own counseling style, and have a better understanding of where I want to go in the future using these techniques. I chose to study counseling because I enjoy working with people and getting to know them on a deeper level. I love when I can successfully make someone feel better and give them a new perspective on life. I have been told I have strong motherly instincts and using that part of my personality to work with children would make everyday gratifying. My mission in the counseling field is to use my own philosophies to touch the lives of others.