Improve Counselling Skills:
Assignment 1 Reflective Practice Task
Due Date:
Word Count: 1500 words (guide only)
For this assignment you need to keep a journal for the first few weeks of the module. The aim of the journal is to reflect on various aspects of professional practice, study challenges, or any other feature of counselling work or study. You do not hand in the journal.
Using the information gathered during this process you will write the practice task reflecting on your professional practice that includes three professional practice goals.
It is recommended that you make a brief entry in your journal everyday in which you record events, situations, information and your insights related to counselling. Ensure that
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You are wise and bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to the module and field.
Breadth of experience to date and what you have learned from these experiences
I expect that many of you will not be currently working in the counselling field so your professional breadth of experience may be fairly limited. It is important to honour all the work and lived experience you bring to the course and field. It is okay to acknowledge that your experience to date may be professionally limited but identify areas in your current work environment or personal life where counselling experiences are present. Remembering that skilled conversations with others involve using counselling skills like active listening, empathy, unconditional positive regard, attending, etc.
Professional practice strengths
Be honouring of the skills that you are confident in – name your strengths and take pride in them!
Areas requiring further development
Identify areas in which you believe there is room for improvement and growth. Do you need to work on empathy because you might tend to be more sympathetic?
Professional aspirations
What do you wish to achieve in the future in the area of counselling?
Three Professional Practice Goals
Identify 3 goals for professional practice using the SMART model
SPECIFIC
Use your work from P3 and analyse (consider in detail) it e.g. what are your strengths in counselling skills, why you think they are your strengths and where do you use them. What are your weaknesses, why do you think they are your weaknesses and what can you do to turn them into strengths.
Wk 25/ 4th April 2014 Journal Homework Assignment Jeanette Sweeney: 20243457 BTEC Level 5 counselling Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling
I would try to use the Cognitive Behavioral Approach, especially focus on using the Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Therapy (CT) to help the client. I would briefly describe the background of the case, which include the counseling setting and the social nature. I would talk about the assessment of the case, including the problem of the client and the need of the changing part of the client. Then, I would focus on the goal setting of the counselling process and the invention plan. Finally, I would talk about the insight on the professional counselling practice and the
Describe why you are interested in the position and why you believe you should be considered a suitable candidate? (100 word
Another goal I would like to see you improve on is your ability to be assertive. Remember how this was brought up during your year two PAF meeting at the end of CPE? I feel that if you were able to show more assertiveness in your approach to clients and team members, your practice would be more fluent. A way to present this assertiveness would be to show confidence in what you are saying and in yourself. Some strategies to do this would be to assess the situation you are entering, speak clear and specific and listen effectively. Remember, you don’t need to know everything but that your ideas and insight are still a valuable resource to the care team. A third area that I would like to bring attention to is your practice with client’s family members. I know you can become intimidated and reserved when those family members approach you with questions, concerns and opinions. Don’t forget that these individuals are part of your client care and responsibility. They are often the ones that support client needs, advocate for their loved ones, and are a valuable resource for pertinent
Journal writing is a safe way to express emotions (Ackley et al., 2017, p# 764). Recording emotions on paper provides a form of expression for Joan that will alleviate the built-up emotional stress. The journal provides privacy and allows the client to fully express themselves without the fear of judgment or consequence. This healthy form of expression with allow Joan to reflect on her actions and become more aware of her emotions. The constant reflection will help Joan in managing her emotions in a long-term time frame.
There are eight core areas of counseling training that were developed by The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. Professional Orientation and Ethical Practice is one core action that provides an outline of the history and philosophy of the counseling profession as well as the current background of counseling. The objective of this core area is to help counselors-in-training comprehend the career and begin to visualize themselves as future counselors. To me, this component is important because it’s essential that students have a history background as well as current information of any profession they are going into. In my opinion, without understanding the history of a profession students will become lost
However, I have realized that counseling skills can be learned, practiced and mastered over time. Although I believe that I have some natural abilities that can be considered helping skills in counseling, I have learned that I have some strengths that can be refined and continually strengthened, while those skills that I am naturally weak in can be the skills that I focus on developing through practice and research. For example, I know that I do well with making people feel comfortable by exhibiting an open posture, while attending to them with relevant open-ended questions. On the other end, I struggle with using various sentence stems when reflecting back emotions and content to the client. I also found myself struggling at times clearly communicating directions to interventions that I would like for a client to try during a counseling session. It was an enlightening experience to be able to watch my classmates learn and grow in developing their counseling skills and techniques too. I felt like we are all able to not only learning from one another but have the opportunity to engage in some of the modeling techniques we learning about in the behavioral interventions section of our text (Hackney & Cormier,
To be able to discuss and examine the role of case formulation in counselling psychology in action for those experts who uphold a person-centred way to deal with their clinical practice.
I will continue to practice these skills so that I can continue to grow as a counselor. I plan on practicing techniques with my peers and with the students I work with at Pierce College. I believe the more I practice what I have learned, the more my confidence will grow when I am advising. The areas where I require improvement will be my main focus so that area can then become a strength. Also, I plan on reaching out to my colleagues, specifically the counselors, and ask if I can shadow their counseling sessions. I believe the more counselors I see the more I will learn, and determine the counseling techniques that best fit my style. Lastly, I will reach out to my professors when I have a question about the counseling field. I am glad to have taken this microskills class because it pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me become aware of what it would be like to be a
| Context:All communication takes place within context. It is recognized that there are four major factors influencing context. 1) Physical – where is the communication occurring ie. What location 2) Social-psychological – what rules are applicable to this encounter? Different rules exist for workplace, home, friends and/or acquaintances 3) Temporal – timing; is now the best time to raise or discuss an issue or concern? 4) Cultural; different cultures
Once I had acknowledged that it was normal to make mistakes in the mock sessions, I was able to enjoy the sessions and better know my client. I also learned that the skills, such as reflection of feeling and open questions, are skills that are essential to master in order to be successful in the counseling field. The basic skills that are taught in this course are skills that will be used throughout one’s career. Also, these skills are applicable to situations outside of counseling and can be practiced on individuals, such as family members. As stated earlier, my client was extremely patient with me while I navigated through the
2. The two important questions asked are, "Why is counselling happening?" and "How is it being done?"
I can now confidently speak about myself, and articulate my qualities and skills to an employer.
To be honest, before my first counseling session I thought that counseling would be easier that what it was; nonetheless, I learned very quickly otherwise. I believed that because I am an educator and encounter similar situations that may require particular skills such as encouraging, empathy, questioning and observation that I was going to have an advantage over acquiring and applying the rest of the skills needed for a complete counseling session. Hence, I went into the first session with an authoritative and even judgmental attitude towards my client; which I now regret. At the moment I intertwined my teacher and counselor personas and I should not have done this. If I had been the astute and objective counselor, I would have had appreciated every second of the first session to build rapport and trust. Instead, I lectured the student about the school rules and how to avoid getting in trouble. Therefore, I ended up spending some of session two reconstructing what should have been done to properly serve the client and focus on the main concern without imposing my wishes or prejudicial thoughts into the matter. Simple interviewing based on open and closed questioning with a bit of self-disclosure allowed me the opportunity to understand my client from their perspective, where and why her problem stemmed from, and to formulate a few possible solutions that I wished for her to arrive to with my