I was a student counsellor in my second year first semester of my bachelor in social science counselling as is my peer client. The five sessions took place in her home in the lounge area, the orientation of furniture was my responsibility so I took great pleasure in moving the couches into a desirable position for my peer client, and also beforehand we discussed the nature of being alone in the house when sessions were taking place which we both agreed upon. The DOPLE method was used in all beginning sessions.
The night before each session I made sure I had a good night sleep and had cleared my mind current things going on, this seemed to help me feel more transparent with the PC referring to peer client. Also the clearing gave me an ethical liberty when forming a basic relationship, as Corey (2013) points out building a therapeutic relationship puts responsibility on the counsellor to work ethically, by understanding their own values and how these values could interrupt the process if the counsellor is not aware of it.
Using the Powhiri Poutama model in our first initial session relating to the connection of two people by introducing ourselves to each other, informing the client of her rights as a consumer, asking the client if they knew anything about counselling, confidentiality, and their involvement in the process. The Powhiri model influenced the conversation and the feeling of comfort and cultural awareness, the client was relaxed and able to ask question freely. (CITE)
Two out of the four sessions our relational style consisted of the counsellor being an adult friend who is prepared to listen and adapt the thinking of the client. The PC view could be different. The last two sessions this changed into more into the counse...
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... model powhiri poutama. I am more comfortable using my skills with my peers as there isn’t as much repercussions if something were to go wrong. But also the chance to use my skills makes me feel less anxious about using them with real clients.
First session was a pretend new experience even though we knew each other we also pretended this was our first meeting, sceptical about what she would talk about, I felt calm and transparent pushing my values to the side, to hear the PC issues. Using the ARC model helped me sift through the story and reflect back content that sat with her in term of her underlying feelings.
I have learnt it is a professional responsibility to commit to my work, attending class, listening, reading books related to counselling, work collaboratively with the client, and practice implementing goals to ease anxiety when using it in the future.
Stickley, T. & Freshwater, D. (2006). “The Art of Listening to the Therapeutic Relationship” Journal of Mental health Practice. 9 (5) pp12 - 18.
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.
McLeod, J. and McLeod, J. (2011) Counselling skills: A practical guide for counsellors and helping professionals, 2nd editions, New York: McGraw Hill
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...
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
To explain, the client should not be inferior to the counselor; the environment should be two people discussing an issue and ways to make a difference. A therapist should occasionally share similar experiences; therefore, sessions should make clients feel comfortable. To add, the client should feel safe due to the positive atmosphere the therapist brings to the session. The goal is to finally give the client a chance to be heard, regularly people are muted and feel like they are insignificant to society. Similarly, to Person-centered therapy where communication with the client is unconditionally positive. The therapist needs to genuinely care about the client needs for them to fully express themselves successfully. Furthermore, clients should be encouraging to make their own choices which model how to identify and use power responsibly. Hence, this will help the client feel more confident in everyday life when making a meaningful
Nelson-Jones, R. (2008) Basic Counselling Skills – A Helper’s Manual, 2nd edition, London: Sage Publications.
t's problems. Instead, it should permit the client to feel that she has support to dive into emotions she might have been afraid to do so before entering client centered therapy. It is interesting to note according to Raskin et al. ( 2011), “Our basic practice [client centered therapy] remains true to the core conditions no matter who our client may be. We also assert that our ability to form an initial therapeutic relationship depends on our own openness to and appreciation of respect for all kinds of difference” (p. 183).
Current research implies that an empathetic clinician-client relationship and interrelated ecosystems play the majority role in the success of therapy (Kilpatrick & Holland, 2009). The clinician’s ability to be present and actively perceive what the client is experiencing is of utmost importance in creating a therapeutic alliance. It is imperative that the clinician gains positive regard towards the client and their environment displaying honest acceptance towards the client no matter what issues are presented in session. This closely relates to a sincere presentation of genuineness that instills a feeling of honesty within the client and clinician (Kilpatrick & Holland, 2009). An experienced clinician builds upon the therapeutic
4. Pedersen B. et al. (1996) ( ed.) Counselling Across Cultures, Sage Publications Inc.: USA
I start the session with warmth greeting. After that, I provide a clear structuring to client such as confidentiality, limitation, the length of session, and so on. That actually help client understand more about counselling process and get verbal inform consent.
Reflective listening gives the client a sense of importance due to them currently having the floor and a moment to express themselves. Reflective listening is orchestrated through acts of showing empathy towards understanding the perspective of one’s feelings. Through this method, the listener does not offer their opinion or perspective while the client speaks. Adding eye contact can also be beneficial or uncomfortable due to client’s background. For example, one’s culture can believe that is it disrespectful not to make eye contact while another may not participate in that activity. During completing the initial assessment with Gwinda, the social work intern participated by allowing her to discuss the need for services. Gwinda further discussed how she is unsure of how the treatments will go and expressed how fearful she was to undergo these different changes. With uncertainty lingering, the social work intern sat next to Gwinda’s bedside ensuring during that moment the client had a listening
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 following essay will look at what it takes to be an effective and professional counsellor through discussing what counselling is, its processes, the setting in which it is undertaken, the characteristics, necessary skills needed and the ethics involved in counselling.