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.
There are multiple structures of that can be applied to the counselling process, ranging from the basic idea of a beginning, middle and end to a more structured approach as that proposed by Egan (1994). Although his initial structure offered three main components; Stage 1, exploring the situation, stage 2, identifying a new or desired scenario to strive for and stage 3, the action stage, in which methods of coping are devised of and implemented. Egan later devised a ten stage structure that still takes into account initial stages from the speakers perspective of identifying a problem and seeking help, within this structure stage 4 is the initial meeting of the counsellor and client and can be considered the beginning stage of the helping re...
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... Explorations and Expansion. Handbook for participants. Scottish credit and qualifications framework
Mearns, D. (1998) Developing person-centred counselling, London: SAGE Publications
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The ABC model of crisis intervention refers to the conduction of very brief mental health interviews with clients whose functioning level has decreased following a psychosocial stressor also known as a crisis (Kanel, 2007). This method was first introduced by Gerald Caplan and Eric Lindemann in the 1940s, other variations of this model have developed over the years. The ABC model is a 3 step problem-focused approach used to provide temporary and immediate relief that has been known to work best when applied within 4 to 6 weeks of the precipitating event (Kaplan, 2007). The focus of the ABC model is to identify the aspects of a crisis or precipitating event, the client 's perceptions about the event, personal anguish, failed internal coping
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.
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...
Effective crisis intervention must follow ethical principles which ensure that client is not placed in further harm also that the decisions and opinions of the client are respected throughout the process and the intervention upholds a rights-based approach. This involves good listening communication skills, observing, understanding, genuineness, respect, acceptance, non-judgment and sensitivity demonstrating empathy, among other support provided by counselor. A number of specific strategies can be used to promote effective listening during crisis intervention. These include using open-ended questions - “what” or “how” questions. They are used to encourage sharing of information from a client about their feelings, thoughts and behaviors, and are particularly useful when exploring problems during a crisis. Closed-ended questions usually begin with action words such as "do", "does", "can", "have", "had", "will", "are", "is" and "was". These questions can be used to gather specific information or to understand the client 's willingness to commit to a particular action. Using close-ended questions that seek specific details and are designed to encourage the client to share information about behaviors (such as the specific actions or behavioral coping strategies used by the client), as well as “yes” or “no” responses. Restating and clarifying what the client has said can help the counselor conducting the crisis intervention to clarify whether he/she has an accurate understanding of what the client intended to say, feel, think and do. Restating can also be used to focus the discussion on a particular topic, event or issue. Owning feelings and using statements that start with “I” in crisis intervention can help to provide direction by being clear about what will
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 Egan model of counseling is used when the client is assisted by the helper to see possible solutions by a three step process. All three steps are gone through in the order in which they are laid out but the order can be varied with specific situations. An individual can move forward and backwards throughout the steps as the story changes. The first step of the process is to find out what is going on with the client. It is where the counselor helps by establishing a trusting relationship with the client in order to hear the story. The quicker that a confidential relationship is built up the easier it is for the client to establish trust in the counselor and the easier the story is to tell. It makes the start of the process easier for the client and the counselor.
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.
In today's society, individual counseling is becoming more main-stream with increased usage within the school system, family unit and even the military. The role that a counselor can have on any individual varies according to the chosen theory to practice and the approach taken. However, it must be stated that the approach and success of therapy is dependent on the relationship established by the therapist (clinician) with the client. In 2010 Seligman proposed the BETA treatment system, which stands for background, emotions, thoughts, and actions. According to Seligman, all theories are either focused on a person’s background, emotions, thoughts or their actions. For this reason, we will discuss three prominent forms of individual counseling therapy used today. The three types of therapy are Adlerian Theory, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Solution Focused Brief Therapy. The following paper will seek to introduce the key concepts, therapeutic approach, and application of various techniques, or procedures for each of these practices.
Nelson, P. (2007) an Easy Introduction to Egan’s skilled Helper Solution Focussed Counselling Approach. Available at: http://mystrongfamily.co.uk/downloads/PDFs/SFP-EasyIntroToEgan.pdf [Accessed 13th February 2014]
Stickley, T. (2002). Counselling and mental health nursing: a qualitative study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing , 9, 301-308. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.
‘Counseling’ is a recognized psychological therapy that is often provided to such patients. Counselors have often been employed to deliver psychological therapy to patients in primary care settings. Providing counseling alongside other treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy means that patients have greater choice, and that alternatives can be found for patients who either do not benefit from standard treatments or who do not find them acceptable.
This essay will attempt to highlight and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three main theories of counselling within the module covered this term. The three approaches in discussion are psychodynamics, cognitive behavioural and humanistic.
This essay will only be possible to provide a general description about counsellors, the main areas of applications, and brief descriptions of each discipline. This essay shall look back to the history of counselling, and the people who have developed the process into the valuable tool in the treatment of mental disorders today.
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.
Counselling is collaboration of steps that is aimed to help clients cope better and learn to deal with situations that they are facing. This includes teaching the client to focus on their thoughts and emotions, and to teach them to make positive choices and changes. It is a method for helping individuals to lessen primary anguish ensuing from a challenging situation and guaranteeing long-term constructive handling of stressful situations.