My Experience In Counselling

Counselling, in the profession, refers to the creation of relationships that are helpful and positive between a counselor and a client. Counselling is intended to aid in adjustment and growth. Usually a client come to counsellors when they do not how to change so that they can lead a better and satisfying life. There are many skills and concepts that makes a great counsellor but in this essay, I will go back to the most fundamental basic skill which is "joining".

Carl Rogers, Born in Chicago in 1902 as the 4th of 6 children in a strict Fundamentalist Christian household.

Many people will, at some point in their lives, find themselves in the role of a counsellor without having a true understanding of the concept of counselling or what the role of the professional counsellor entails. There is a big difference between a professional counsellor and a person who uses some counselling skills as part of their role, for example their role as a friend or colleague. A professional counsellor is a highly trained individual who is able to use a different range of counselling approaches with their clients (Anon, 2001).

I understand counselling to be a helping practice that differs from other helping activities, such as teaching for example. Counselling requires professional training and is specifically contracted or explicitly agreed. It has a theoretical base and uses specific methods within an ethical framework. The relationship between the counsellor and the client is built upon mutual expectation and is central to the process of the client under-going significant change in their lives.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy is widely short-term and concentrates on enabling clients to deal with very particular problems. Often six weeks to six months sessions of course depending upon the problem it is pacifically goal directed and places great weight upon self-help as a long term coping tool that the client can take away with them and successfully use. Cognitive-behavioural therapy believes that clients can learn the wrong ways of developing and making sense of information during their cognitive development. This can often lead to distortions in the way they identify reality, it’s the job of the therapist to enable them to work this out.

Theoretical frameworks in counselling offer guiding perspectives and direction informing professional practice. As a practitioner I am drawn to post-modernist approaches that position the human experience as a social construction, and reality as a result of perception, language and culture ( ). Embedded however within that social construction for me is the necessity to consider the broader social and political climate and issues of power that may play a role in the human experience. As a counsellor, I would like to align with a therapeutic approach that values the diversity and experience of multiple realities, and that supports clients in finding their power both within and outside the counselling session. Embracing the client-counsellor

Having pursued employment opportunities that allowed me to make a positive difference on the lives of the less fortunate, the Counselling Psychology course at University of East London is an obvious field that will allow me to continue these desires. Ultimately, this course allows me to change the lives of people and obtain my goals.The course prepares me for employment as a professional clinician, and grants me the ability to continue the promotion of well-being.

I believe counseling is a collaborative partnership between client and counselor. Furthermore, this collaborative partnership is built from trust and acceptance of both client and counselor. I hope in conjunction with clients to understand the issues and concerns so to help them tap into their wisdom, creativity, and strengths to meet their current challenges. I believe in a comprehensive perspective through which clients can better comprehend themselves in the framework that our thinking about events can lead to emotional and behavioral upset. Moreover, counselors are to provide a safe environment for clients to explore their challenges and identify ways to move differently in overcoming these challenges.

The counselling process is based on the exchange of emotions between the client and the counsellor which aims to form an alliance (Hough, 1998). It involves the counsellor using skills in which they possess in order to communicate effectively with clients (Hough, 1998). This reflective essay clearly articulates my application of counselling skills used in this practice session and suggestions for improvement. It will provide a summary of the session, identification of a range of skills used and a brief explanation of the reasons for using the skill. It will also provide an evaluation of my application of the skills chosen, including verbatim examples, suggestions for improvement, also including verbatim examples to demonstrate what could

Welcome, and thank you for choosing THRIVE to provide your counseling services. This document has been provided to you to tell you about my background and help you understand our professional relationship.

For this essay there will be a critical evaluation of the counselling approaches and skills that are used which can guide the practice of education professionals and benefit relationships with children/ young people in supporting their social and emotional well-being. The approaches that will be looked at and compared are the Person-centred approach and the Psychodynamic approach. The approaches will be discussed and linked to the use in an educational context by teachers with children and young people. The strengths and weaknesses of these approaches will also be examined. It is important for teacher to support children and young people’s social and emotional development right for the start of their educational experiences in the early years. The statutory frame work for the early years published by the department for education in 2014 makes sure that every practitioner follows by law the learning and development requirements of every child. The DFE 2014 suggests educational programs have to include activities and experiences involving the children as suggested: personal social and emotional development entails assisting children to develop an encouraging view of themselves, and others; to make positive relationships and develop respect for others, progress on their social skills and acquire the skill how to deal and control their feelings, to know how to behaviour correctly in groups and to have self confidence in what they can do. From this practitioners can pick up on

Since beginning the Counselling Skills course, it has become increasingly obvious that I use counselling skills in my professional role. This involves working with young people from the early years through to senior stages, through an infinite number of issues from self harm to sexual orientation, allowing me to gain a thorough understanding and empathic knowledge of issues that affect children and young people in society today. Many of these youngsters will come to me looking for an answer to whatever their problem or issue and to be told what to do to improve their situation. I make a very conscious decision to withhold my views or advice, unless it is

To be able to help a client to access their deepest thoughts and open up for discussion that is both helpful and meaningful, there are several specific microskills to know about to enhance the communication with the client (Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors, 2009). These communication skills are built through different stages and may feel a little unnatural at the beginning. However, counselling is not about giving advice, but about supporting and helping the client to find his/her own solutions. This makes counselling challenging on many levels as you need to be aware of your own behaviour (Perinatal Mental Health Project, n.d.).

After I left the counselling session, I felt relieved as though I had a load off my chest. I realised the counsellor let me express what I wanted to but used history as a guise. I spoke freely about all aspects of my life and the counsellor didn’t need to say too much. She quietly, but professionally took notes when a point of interest arose but didn’t let the note-taking affect the flow of talk. I noted that expressions on people’s faces can greatly determine the nature of the conversation. If someone looks easy to talk to, then they probably are as their body language can emphasise and express feelings (Egan, 2007, p .84). I noticed the importance of simple and respectful questioning and how it promotes more talking. If the question requires the client to think and reflect on the situation at hand then I believe it is a worthy question to ask (Egan, 2007, p. 95). Open questions that my counsellor asked such as “how do you think you will react when your wife comes back to Australia?” challenged the way I was thinking at the time and promoted reflection (Egan,

“Therapeutic building blocks” (Young, 2001, p. 30) is a phrase used to describe the helping relationship and the components of that counseling relationship. The ability to facilitate the client into relaying their story is the basis of therapy for change. I have listed my therapeutic helping skills below, and have described an example of each.