What Is Essential in the Helping Relationship?

Both of the selected theories place high importance on the relationship between the counselor and client. Given that research indicates

There are three important aspects to the therapist’s approach; congruence, unconditional positive regard and accurate empathic understanding. These are three core conditions that facilitate the actualization and growth. These conditions relate to the shared journey in which therapists and clients reveal their humanness and participate in a growth experience together.Its only

In this essay I will describe key elements of Psychodynamic theory, Person-Centred theory and Cognitive-Behavioural theory. I will also identify the key differences between the above theories. I shall also describe how counselling theory underpins the use of counselling skills in practise. I will then end with my conclusion.

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.

My passion for the helping relationship has only grown as I have gotten older and experienced more of life. The role of the helper has to be unique for each client and tailored to their attitude, behavior, needs and case, overall. In my opinion, the helping relationship is undervalued. Everyone could benefit and would benefit from therapy if they were open to the chance and found the best therapist for them. There has been a connotation around the idea of therapy and often individuals believe they would be perceived as weak if they went for help.

The purpose of this paper is to assess my skills as a counselor, while reflecting on an interview, which was recorded earlier this month. This 25 minute interview was my third meeting with the client. In my first meeting with the client, I introduced myself and clearly defined our roles; the expectations of the counseling process and asked her for permission to videotape the interview.

A demonstration of warmth, genuineness, and empathy will help the new client become motivated to move toward positive change even when there is a gap in formal training. These qualities are projected with words, body language, and actions. For example, warmth can be shown to the new client with a friendly greeting accompanied by a sincere smile, the offering of a chair and a beverage, and a display of sincere interest while listening to the presenting problem (Marini, 2015). It has been said that employers decide within the first two minutes of a job interview whether to hire the candidate. A counselor would do well to regard the initial client meeting as a job interview of sorts and strive to make a good first impression. Skillful interviewing techniques will project empathy as the counselor allows the client to relate his or her past helping experiences and showcase strong qualities (McClam & Woodside, 2012). There should be a genuine effort to see the presenting problem from the client’s viewpoint, which is the essence of empathy. These methods set the client at ease and more inclined to share openly and honestly, which facilitates better recall while he or she relates past experiences. Most importantly, this approach emphasizes that the client has something to offer in the therapeutic

The philosophy behind foundational skills in counseling is that it is essential in establishing a trusting and adherent relationship with the client. Foundational skills such as listening, being empathetic, and silence are all tools to become more understanding of the client’s situation. Putting these important tools together in therapy makes the client feel more relaxed, open, and honest. By actively listening, it is sending a message to the person that is talking that it is good for them to talk about their perception of the topic at hand and this comfort then leads them to better express their feelings about what they are talking about. This also allows them to display many different emotions without interruption on the counselor’s part

A unique aspect of this therapy is that the counselor and client both have defined roles. It is also stressed that the client’s participation is an integral part of the therapeutic process. My main role as a counselor is to teach concrete skills through the provision of instructions, modeling, and performance feedback. The client will then engage in behavioral practices such as role-playing, relaxation procedures, behavioral rehearsal, coaching, guided practice, modeling, “homework” in-between sessions. I will then provide

Outside the course, we all have some helping experience. For myself, I have lots of experience trying to help my friends through talk, which is like an unofficial way of counseling. While reading through the book, I start to reflect on my ‘natural helping experience’ which is also a starting point to develop my professional counseling skills. I realize one of my previous mistakes during those talk is that I paid too much attention on proposing solutions instead of helping itself.

Counselor role-played with client on how to utilize appropriate social skills with adults, family members, and peers.

In this role play, the helper showed a great amount of empathy for the client, along with demonstrating responsive listening. Another behavior that the helper demonstrated to be helpful was the use of open ended questions. The helper asked a lot of why and how questions such as “how did you feel when that happened” in order to elicit and encourage the client to elaborate on what happened and to ultimately help the client communicate. The counselor did a great job maintaining eye contact and maintaining an upright posture which was helpful because it demonstrated to the client that the counselor was interested and listening to what she was saying while at the same time encouraging the client to talk about her feelings. The counselor also exhibited

First, for person-centered therapy the client/counselor relationship is key and is the primary importance. During the counseling session, the qualities the counselor display includes genuineness by being real, warmth by being kind, empathy by putting themselves in the person’s shoes without feeling sorry for them, respect to admire their capabilities or abilities, non-judgment by not being critical of the person, and communication to connect with the person. By the counselor displaying these attitudes during the session the counselor will create an atmosphere of comfort and safety. This type of atmosphere will have a positive effect on the working alliance between the counselor/client.

The readings fir this week in Clara Hill’s “Helping Skills”, particularly chapters 7, 8 and 9, discuss how helpers can authentically attend observe and listen to client’s thoughts and feelings. Hill spends a considerable amount of time exploring verbal and non-verbal feedback the helper gives to the client. This section was of particular interest to me due to a concern to be at a loss of words when a client says something that causes me to be unsure how to continue.

Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13, HCSB)