Counseling, Reflection, And Setting Goals

As is true of most people, it is difficult for me to apply a Freudian lens to my experiences growing up simply because I do not remember that far back in my life. According to Freud, every family experiences what he calls the 'family romance' of the Oedipus complex or the Electra complex. The young infant desires his or her mother and resents and wants to supplant the father in the mother's affections. The boy resolves this by identifying with his father. The girl's Electra complex "has its roots in the little girl's discovery that she, along with her mother and all other women, lack the penis which her father and other men posses" and so she comes to resent her mother yet identifies with her mother to 'possess' a man (Stevenson 1999). However, my experiences show the culturally-limited perspective of Freud I grew up in a single parent household.

First, people, including mental health professionals, possess a range of qualities. No one is just warm and accepting or just confrontational. We all possess these qualities to a certain degree. Therefore, to be genuine with our clients it is necessary for us to display these different parts of our personalities at different times. Second, although a client may come to counseling broken and hopeless and require a supportive, accepting, and warm counselor, if this relationship continues the client may never be pushed to make any real change. After the development of a strong working alliance between the therapist and counselor, it may (or may not) be necessary for the counselor to challenge or confront the client in some way to provoke change. It depends on the person. I agree with Lazarus completely when he says that a skilled mental health professional will know when to be warm or tough, when to confront a client or not, and when directive or non-directive (p. 458-459). Clients, because they each have their own unique identity that has been influenced by more factors than one can count or even identify, will respond differently to different relational styles, techniques, and treatments and this may change throughout the counseling process. In my opinion, it is the counselor’s job to know which approach or technique should be used to be the most effective with a particular client.

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.

Reflecting meaning and value was a skill I did not utilize in this learning collection. This skill would have allowed the client to think deeper about the content he was sharing and recognize feelings he may not have known he had. This would not only allow for personal growth, but also the bond in the counseling relationship. It would strengthen the bond in the relationship because the client would see that the counselor is working with him on bringing out his feelings opposed to simply asking the generic: “how do you feel” and moving on. For next session I will make sure to encourperate this skill in the session.

The main focus of this essay has to be on the three ‘core conditions’, as utilised by the counsellor to promote a positive movement in their client’s psychology. They are intended for maintaining a focus on the client’s personal growth, and detract from the therapist’s own outside world. The three core conditions are the professional apparatus or tool-kit of the therapist, and the use of each is a skill in itself but the combined forces of all three in an effective manner requires an abundance of skill or experience. These are, as have already been mentioned, congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy. They are separate skills but are intrinsically linked to each other. If used correctly, they can guide the client to a state of self-realisation, which could lead to the development of a healing process.

Data collected from Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary-Collins, Bates, and Lee (2000), suggest that strengthening a rapport with an individual is paramount to the therapeutic alliance and is the contributing factor of whether the person perceives the counselor to be influential to determine if the session was successful. To be a competent counselor, he or she should use open-ended questions, reflective statements of feelings, paraphrase key components of the conversation and utilize minimal encouragers to enable ability to strengthen a rapport with a person (Sharpley, Fairnie, Tabary-Collins, Bates, and Lee, 2000). This is an essential characteristic trait an effective counselor should adopt as often the individuals we serve have low-self esteem and encounter difficulties managing or reducing their symptomology, which could implicate the therapeutic alliance. By establishing and strengthening a rapport with an individual, that creates a framework for the counselor to set realistic goals to improve the person's

My experience in the counseling role has increased my confidence over the current semester. I feel that the extensive practice has paid off tremendously. For example, this course has taught me how to formulate a game plan when starting off my sessions. I now have goals which come with a much improved structure format than I had previously. In addition, I am able to have a much clearer perceptive of my feelings where I previously accepted thoughts as feelings. In this self reflection, I will continue to express how my growth experiences that have

I feel that a professional counselor should have several ideal personal attributes. They should be astounding listeners. Counselors should also hold themselves to a very high ethical standard, even in their own personal lives. Additional counselor attributes, skills and techniques that have been identified as important to the counseling process include, congruence, concreteness, immediacy, paraphrasing, reflection, problem solving, challenge, confrontation, and positive nonverbal communication (Pope-Davis, 2002, p 356). A counselor should also explore and practice getting started, contracting, gathering information, eliciting the client’s story, and being sensitive to the timing of interventions. (Pope-Davis, 2002, p 356).

Counseling is a relatively young profession when compared to other mental health professions. In my brief personal and professional experience with the field, I have come to define counseling as a process of engagement between two people, both of whom are bound to change through a collaborative process that involves both the therapist and the client in co-constructing solutions to concerns.

There are many steps in a counseling session, the first is initiating the session. Before the session starts we must realize that we are only to practice of what we know. If an issue occurs

The dynamics between the human dimensions and the professional demands of conducting a counseling practice has been the subject of a considerable amount of literature in the field. Indeed, it is a focus in counselor preparation programs. It not possible to segregate who we are as people and what we do as professionals. These two aspects of our lives are inexorably linked. The dynamics are such that the one impacts the other, while influence may be dominant in a particular direction, there is an inescapable mutuality. Further, research suggests that the individual attributes of the counselor have the most critical influence on therapeutic outcomes and have at least as much impact on client/ counselor relationship quality as the counselor's techniques and theory do (Corey, 2010).

Explanation: In order for the counselor to be effective during a session he/she has to be able to put their feeling and emotions to the side and be more empathetic towards the client Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer).

Prefers problem-solving orientations often centred on discreet issues and outcomes rather than resolving underlying reasons for conflict.

Counseling and therapeutic goals correlates with one another whereas in the healthcare profession there must be action plan in place. For example, counseling is designed to help individuals cope with the issues that maybe effecting normal daily routines. The therapy aspect of goals to bring self-awareness to the client and correct any distortion of past behavior the client may have or currently experiencing. Counselors and therapists work together to implement the best action plan to benefit the client. Capuzzi (2014) states counseling and psychotherapy encompasses several relationships and personalities in which the counselor and therapist need to be proficient (p.1). They are both a part of the foundation in which professional must make

During my practice counseling session with Sergio I felt very comfortable. Even though it was a little difficult to get Sergio to speak, I thought it was important that I asked him directly what his goals were and I explained what are some changes that should be done if Sergio wanted to achieve those goals. However, I learned that I need to be more aware of my facial expressions when counseling. Both Sergio and Stephanie mentioned to me that sometimes when I am thinking of questions to ask, I look to the side before I ask my questions. Regardless of my facial expressions, a technique that I have found useful in my counseling is using probes. When I use probes, I can show better empathetic listening and it feels natural to me.