My Practice Session Taping

By discussing this particular experience in detail, I can begin to understand the specific skills a counsellor may use in many different situations in order to help others (Egan, 2007, p. 13). In this reflective

As the standards of the counseling profession are continuously being shaped, I desire to play a role in the educating

Counseling is defined as ”the use of therapeutic strategies to help clients address personal concerns and mental health issues” (Nystul, 2016). Pursuing counseling as a career involves many years of formal study and certification or licensure. After receiving licensure to practice as a professional counselors it is a requirement to maintain involvement and certification in certain associations in order to hold your license. These association often require further education and/or professional practice in order to maintain membership in these associations. It is quite obvious that counseling requires a large amount of commitment and passion in order to pursue it as a career and maintain a title as a counselor. I have conducted an interview with a professional counselor in order to further understand the experience of being a counselor. The interview that I conducted explores the requirements of maintaining and receiving a counselling career, the experience of being a counselor, and what characteristics or skills a professional may have. The Individual who agreed to the interview was a counselor by the name of Susie Facio. Susie Facio, through this interview, will be giving us a look at what influenced her to become a counselor, what her work entails on a day to day basis, and what qualities and skills she has acquired in order to become a successful counselor.

This reflective essay will try and develop an understanding of the experiences and theory that has been applied to a counselling roleplay and applied content over the duration of the module. Furthermore, identifying what has been covered and what has not been covered in the roleplay, its strengths, weaknesses, what needs developing and how it can help as counsellors within the field. The first topic will reflect on the skills and attributes that have been applied to the roleplay and how it has been beneficial. The second topic will be a critical analysis on the roleplay conducted during counselling focusing on what techniques have not been covered, what skills and attributes were not demonstrated in the roleplay. Then identifying how improving and applying these skills and attributes may contribute to the overall effectiveness of counselling. The last topic will touch on micro-skills such as summarizing and goal setting, its application to the role play looking at both the strengths and weaknesses assessing why micro skills are important in the counselling practice.

In this assignment I intend to define ‘counselling skills and knowledge’ and then show how I actively employ these qualities during my everyday life. These include informal helping interactions with family and friends, in a supervisory capacity at work and during skills practice sessions as part of my counselling course. Finally I’ll analyse the effects that these helping interactions have on me personally and the various ways in which I deal with those effects.

Through my work in counseling, I will aspire to be respectful of and sensitive to my client’s developmental needs and therapeutic goals. It is imperative for counselors to recognize that the counseling process can be intimidating for many clients. I will draw from a variety of

In this reflective essay I will provide an analysis of the counselling session I conducted and recorded. This will include a summary of the session. I will also describe the micro and advanced counselling skills utalised, as well as a critical evaluation of their effectiveness. A discussion of my application of these skills, as well as areas of possible improvement will supported by reference to relevant literature.

Counselors have a responsibility to monitor their effectiveness, in order to do this they need someone who is trained to assist them in understanding what is effective. Counselors have to seek supervision when appropriate and in order to do so a program needs to be in place that has supervisors readily available. The absence of clinical supervision may lead to counselors-in-training to lack the necessary skills to be a successful and productive counselor. Counselors need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the setting, population, needs, contexts and tasks of a counselor. As explained by Milne and Oliver (2000), Clinical supervision is central to initial professional training and to continuing professional development. It is necessary for counselors-in-training to refine their skills and get assistance in applying theories to any issues they may encounter with their clients. In addition to the everyday assistance necessary, a supervisor needs to present/model ethical behavior and counseling practices. In any profession the need for improvement is prominent and therefore any assistance and feedback given is appreciated and necessary. Expectations are increasing and therefore supervision is expected. Evidence shows that supervision results in school counselors’ increased effectiveness and accountability, improved professional development, and improved job performance, confidence, and comfort

For this part of the assignment I am using examples from a 50 minute session recorded within the learning environment. I play the role of the counsellor, and another student plays the role of the client. In order for me to answer the learning outcomes, I have watched the DVD recording.

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

However, in this short matter of time, I believe I am able to acknowledge some my strengths and weaknesses as a new counselor. At this point, I feel my strengths involve a sense of humor, empathy, genuineness, creativity, reflecting, restating and most importantly, a heart to serve others. Not only is making someone smile the highlight of my day, but being present with an open heart, mind and ear is what drives me to be a helper. As there are good qualities about myself, there are also weaknesses as well. For instance, I need to improve on my listening skills. I think I am still having difficulty listening to what is being said, how it is being said and why it is being said along with catching non-verbal gestures. As I am still get nervous during session, I think I get too caught in the “content” of the conversation versus catching the emotion/feelings behind what is being said. Another weakness that I have, is not recognizing the moment when I should ask the client to explore more about a comment they had said. Bearing in mind that I am still growing in the counseling field, my goal is to build on my strengths and sharpen my

For example, I found it difficult not using the word why to ask a question. I know that asking a why question will get you a yes or no answer which will in the end cause Amanda to become resistant, but it was still difficult. I believe I did a great job at affirming although I could have used more because Amanda is broken in this video dialogue and every time I turned a positive into a negative, gave her a compliment, or encouraged her she lit up. I am honestly confused on reflections because there are so many different types of reflections and I found it difficult to know when to use which reflection. I also felt that I reflected way too much. In my opinion, my video recording sounds like a broken record. I wonder if clients will get frustrated with their therapist continuously repeating what their saying like I felt that I was doing. I believe that

This essay is to illustrate my understanding of the skills of counselling. Evaluate and analyse the value of counselling skill used throughout the recording of the DVD. Furthermore, I will talk about my improvement that I have accomplished during completing this module and lastly I will demonstrate exactly how I can incorporate theories and approaches to support different skills used in the recording of the DVD.

Having the opportunity of taking a Counseling and interviewing class was really helpful since I realized the importance of listening to others. Even though I am not interested in being a counselor but rather an occupational therapist, after taking a Counseling and Interviewing class I realized that no matter how good you are at doing your job, if you cannot listen and reflect on others feelings, you are not doing it correctly. Listening to what the other person has to say helps to have an effective communication without misunderstandings. After working on the third taping assignment one of the things that I learned is that listening requires a lot of self- control because no matter how much we enjoy talking with people, it t requires a

To improve, we could have spoken in the video to make the audience feel more engaged - we didn't do this because we felt that we didn't have enough time to prepare for it.