COU203A: Counselling Skills Exercise and Reflective Report - Assessment Answer

Introduction

Counselling or psychotherapy is defined as engaging in helpful relationships with clients to change behaviour. The goal is to help the client identify goals and solutions to address a particular problem. Many important skills need to be mastered during the counselling session (Ntshuntshe, Gqeba & Gqeba, 2020). This reflective report will provide insight into the key skills needed for counselling by reflecting on personal experience of counselling. The modality that I have chosen for the counselling session is person-centred therapy. The main rationale for this is that it enables conducting the session in a safe and conducive environment. The goal is to facilitate the personal growth of clients by allowing them to identify their strengths and identity. It can help in developing trustworthy relationships with clients (Purton, 2017). This reflective report aims to reflect on my experience of counselling the client and evaluate my counselling skills. I will comment on my strengths and weakness and areas of improvement based on my analysis.

Opening the Session

The first vital element in a counselling session is to effectively open the session and build rapport with the client. The opening session is important as it sets the tone for the rest of the session. During my experience of counselling, I first started by formally greeting the client with a pleasant gesture and introducing myself to the client. I informed her about my role in today’s session and gave the client a brief insight into what is counselling. While explaining the concepts, I used strategies such as questioning and affirmation to ensure that the client was clear about everything. The strength of my skills in initiating the session was that I focused not only on verbal skills but also on my non-verbal gestures. The non-verbal gesture is crucial to display warmth and making the client comfortable. I used to smile, eye contact and nod to ensure that I was focused and attentive. I maintained an ideal distance with the client to ensure she was comfortable. Effective use of non-verbal signals helps in gaining the client’s support and respect (Nor, 2020). In addition, as I was explaining client about counselling, I tried to use questions and affirmations to ensure that the client was clear about it (Westland et al., 2020).

At the beginning of the session, counsellors need to discuss confidentiality. I made sure to discuss it by clearly explaining that everything during the discussion will be kept confidential. However, I tried to make the client aware of the conditions during which I may break confidentiality. This is important as part of legal and ethical requirements as counsellors are bound to maintain the confidentiality of disclosures. I believe explaining the limits of confidentiality are important so that client have a full idea about their right to privacy and in what condition, this may be broken (Welfel, 2015). However, one mistake that I made was that I was in a rush to complete everything one after another. To establish rapport with the client, it is important to avoid rushing and starting with informal conversations before moving to the main topic.

Exploring Issues, Setting Goals and Determining the Course of Action

After the introduction with the client, I moved ahead to explore the main issues for the client. This was done by the use of appropriate questioning skills. I started with an open-ended question what brings you here today?’ It was an appropriate question that helped the client to start discussing the issue. According to Wubbolding (2017), questioning is an important skill that can yield results when used properly. Different questions that counsellors can use to encourage clients to open up about the issue are open and close-ended questions. Open-ended questions such as ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ allows speaking as much as possible. She had come to explain issues about her husband, who was being abused by her husband. She expressed her feelings regarding the issue. Identifying issues is the first step of counselling and it allows the counselor to be ready for the exploration stage. At this stage, the aim is to explore the issue in detail and evaluates its impact on different domains of life (Jones-Smith, 2019). I asked the client if the client was feeling stressed. However, reflecting and clarifying are some micro-skills in counselling and I feel that I failed to use them effectively. By responding accurately, counsellors can confirm that they have heard and understood the right thing. In addition, reflecting is important to bring out underlying feelings and reply to the client. It can be done by stating ‘It’s sad to hear this, how are you coping with it?’ or ‘It looks like you feel…’. Such statements help to connect with the client and I should have made efforts to reflect at different intervals.

The next step of counselling involves setting goals, exploring alternatives and determining the course of action for the client. After the discussion about the main issue, my main concern was to help the client identify goals. I tried to engage in goal seeking by using statements like ‘ I see that your friend is a victim of partner abuse and it can affect her mental health. What support you are looking for? I have a list of options to discuss with you?’ With such a statement, I was able to set goals with the client, discuss alternatives and give her ideas about the pros and cons of each initiative. After a comprehensive discussion on the best step along with the client’s preference, I was ultimately able to make a plan with the client regarding the best course of action for her friend. During the termination of the session, I gave the client the time for the next scheduled session.

Applying Personal-centred Skills

I tried to use the person-centred therapy modality during the counselling session. It is a type of non-directive approach to counselling that focuses on the needs of the client and allows the client to take centre stage during the session. The goal is to act as a source of support for the client. I selected this modality because I wanted to empower the client and make them more positive about the situation instead of feeling unaccepted. The goals of the person-centred approach are to increase self-awareness, motivate clients to take the right step, boost their self-esteem and increase their independence (Rodgers & Tudor, 2020). The three important person-centred attributes during counselling are congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy. These three attitudes were described with Roger’s six therapeutic conditions. Congruence involves being genuine and authentic. The approach that I took to display genuineness was the use of an open and honest communication process. It involved trying to actively listen to the client's perspective and making her understand her capabilities in resolving the issue (Renger, 2021. This process was promoted by the use of appropriate questions to clarify meanings. For instance, I asked questions like ‘Is your friend focused on her career more than her husband?’

To engage in a person-centred approach to counselling, I tried to be as non-judgmental as possible. Throughout the conversation, I avoided giving any judgments on the client’s actions. Instead, the focus was to know more and understand the future course of action. This action is relevant to the attribute of unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers gave the argument that unconditional positive regard involves showing full support and acceptance of a person despite knowing about their limitations (Kim, Joseph & Price, 2020). It supported me to develop a therapeutic connection with the client. Throughout the conversations, I used questions to explore more about the issue but no judgment was passed.

Another approach to displaying unconditional positive regard for the patient is by displaying empathy. Empathy is a skill that helps to think about a situation from the perspective of the client (Bayne & Hays, 2017). I feel that I could not apply this attribute effectively during the counselling session because I struggled to express my feelings. However, there are some areas where I did well. For instance, in client-centred therapy, it is important to set clear boundaries to maintain a healthy relationship. I was able to communicate these boundaries at the start of the session. I made the client realize this by explaining my role in counselling, the purpose of counselling and the criteria for confidentiality. This step ensure an open and honest way to start the conversation and the client was comfortable. Secondly, I used many verbal communication techniques such as effective questioning and active listening to effectively understand client needs and set goals accordingly (Bodie et al. 2015). Throughout the conversation, I provide the client space to freely express his issue. I used a positive tone of voice and used gestures like nodding and leaning forward to show that I was attentive. According to Weger (2014), the benefit of active listening is that it can enhance the quality of counselling. It is an effective therapeutic micro-skill that can allow counsellors to respond therapeutically.

Active listening involves responding to the client's message and engaging in non-verbal involvement (Weger, 2014). On reflecting further on the whole process of counselling, I feel that I could not complete certain areas properly. Though my verbal response was appropriate, I was struggling to use the appropriate gesture in this situation. For instance, while listening to the client, it is important to use body language and gestures that reflect interest and reflection on feeling. It may involve nodding the head, leaning forward to listen and using facial expressions to display sadness, grief or other feelings. Gestures are important to communicate different types of feelings such as hostility, contempt, affection and approval (Del Giacco, Anguera & Salcuni, 2020). I feel that I could not use the appropriate gesture during the conversation and this could leave a gap in the counseling process. I aim to work on this area in the future.

Apart from certain challenges in applying person-centred therapy, certain micro-skills are counselling that I could effectively use during the session. For instance, attending to the client is important via proper tone of voice, body language and silence during conversation. I used appropriate body language. In addition, appropriate questioning and clarification are important micro-skills (Ivey, Ivey & Zalaquett, 2015). I used open-ended questions and probing questions to explore more about the issue. In addition, I used clarification techniques to ensure that my understanding of the situation was appropriate. However, one weakness was that I could not appropriately reflect on my feelings. This was important to explore their values in life and explore deeper aspects of their experiences (Nor, 2020).

Possible Future Work With the Client

In my counselling session with the client, I was able to explore issues in-depth and explore the client’s perspective regarding his reactions to the event. I also used my verbal communication skills to offer an alternative course of action and set goals with the client. However, I feel that at one point, I failed to use appropriate reflecting skills to further explore client values and needs. For instance, when the client discussed her friend’s suicidal thoughts, I did not use any reflective words. I could have made the session more effective by asking the client ‘It is sad to learn that your friend is having suicidal thoughts, what is your feeling about the issue? Do you consider it acceptable? Have you tried to explain to your friend about the consequences of such a thought?’ This question would have helped me to explore the client’s values and thinking regarding the issue and convince her to bring her friend for counselling. Hence, I am to fill the gap in my counselling session by continuing to work with the client in the future. I want to encourage the client to bring her friend to the session so that I could further explore her opinion and preferences related to treatment.

Conclusion

To conclude, counselling is an effective one-to-one interaction that allows the development of helping relationships and promoting behaviour change in clients. This reflective report gave insight into my assessment of my counselling skills and my role as a therapist in identifying areas of improvement. I discussed the use of core micro-skills in counselling such as questioning, empathy, reflecting, attending and clarification. My areas of strength were effective questioning technique, appropriate use of non-verbal gestures and use of steps to explore the issues. In addition, I could apply a person-centred approach by showing genuine interest, active listening and empathy. However, I have identified areas which I could not complete as per expectations which were the use of reflection and empathy during the session. My future plan is to work on these areas.

References

Bayne, H. B., & Hays, D. G. (2017). Examining conditions for empathy in counseling: An exploratory model.The Journal of Humanistic Counseling,56(1), 32-52.

Bodie, G. D., Vickery, A. J., Cannava, K., & Jones, S. M. (2015). The role of “active listening” in informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of listener helpfulness, sensitivity, and supportiveness and discloser emotional improvement.Western Journal of Communication,79(2), 151-173.

Del Giacco, L., Anguera, M. T., & Salcuni, S. (2020). The action of verbal and non-verbal communication in the therapeutic alliance construction: a mixed methods approach to assess the initial interactions with depressed patients.Frontiers in Psychology,11, 234.

Ivey, A. E., Ivey, M. B., & Zalaquett, C. P. (2015).Essentials of intentional interviewing: Counseling in a multicultural world. Cengage Learning.

Jones-Smith, E. (2019).Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: An integrative approach. Sage Publications.

Kim, J., Joseph, S., & Price, S. (2020). The positive psychology of relational depth and its association with unconditional positive self-regard and authenticity.Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies,19(1), 12-21.

Nor, M. Z. M. (2020). Counselling: What and how. InCounseling and Therapy. IntechOpen.

Ntshuntshe, Z., Gqeba, N., & Gqeba, M. (2020). Verbal communication in counselling and therapy. InCounseling and Therapy. IntechOpen.

Purton, C. (2017).Person-centred therapy: The focusing-oriented approach. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Renger, S. (2021). Therapists’ views on the use of questions in person-centred therapy.British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 1-13.

Rodgers, B., & Tudor, K. (2020). Person-centred therapy: A radical paradigm in a new world.New Zealand Journal of Counselling,40(2).

Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). The relative effectiveness of active listening in initial interactions.International Journal of Listening,28(1), 13-31.

Welfel, E. R. (2015).Ethics in counseling & psychotherapy. Cengage Learning.

Westland, G. (2015).Verbal and non-verbal communication in psychotherapy. WW Norton & Company.

Wubbolding, R. E. (2017).Reality therapy and self-evaluation: The key to client change. John Wiley & Sons.

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