Counselling Skills - Coursework Example

Glen Vincent Counselling Skills 1 Assessment 2 Words 2,074 Counselling Skills: An important aspect for Counsellors Introduction Counselling is a familiar term and known to everyone and very often heard when someone is emotionally, socially or psychologically troubled or disturbed. The moment a person hears the word counselling, the first thing that comes to his mind is a ‘psychologist’ whom a patient solicits for advice otherwise registered for a therapy. According to Bayne and Horton, (1998) the word ‘counselling’ is continuously taken for granted and also misused. People around the global apply it with no understanding or knowing the accurate meaning (p. 47).  Psychoanalysis or Counselling means “an act of exchanging ideas and opinions”. Additionally, according to Bailes, (2002), counselling is “a practice of relating communication skills and psychological theories to clients’ concerns, personal problems, or aspirations.” (p. 75) The most essential part where counselling is very useful is to recovery the patient, when a person harms him/her self. Self- torturing is termed as grave concern and requires proficient psychotherapy capability of a therapist. A professional psychoanalysis acquiesce high-quality outcome which helps the convalescence of the sufferer.              This essay is based on three of the experiences recording in my journal while I was working for a child care department for troubled children recouping with bullying at school or family issues. I learnt that troubled children with family or bulling at school issues are very badly affected and take time to forget the situation. If they lack proper care or support then these situation often turn grave going to the extent of self harm or harm to others. My job as a supportive counsellor is to help these children get back to their selves and enjoy their childhood as the other kids of their age would do. Defining Counselling and Counselling Skills As per my perception counselling is an important portion in a person’s life, from the growth of the cognitive proficiency till adulthood. It plays a vital role in shaping the attitude of an individual towards life. As the individual goes through various stages of life at times he/she finds it difficult to cope up with issues like illness in a family or divorce, separation etc. This is where counselling plays a vital role. However not all are experts in counselling as this job requires certain skills and capability to address clients. It’s not just talking but various procedures that can help a patient to overcome his/her problems. This is where the counselling skills play a part. As a Supportive Counsellor I have learned that counselling skills and counselling are two different aspects and many have wrong notion about the two. I have defined counselling earlier ‘a technique used by counsellor to address and cope up with the client’s problems’ whereas counselling skills are; “strategies and techniques in communications which are helpful for all human interactions” (Corney, 1991). (p. 27)   Additionally, the necessary skills in reflecting, sympathy and listening are the mainstay of counselling, the counselling abilities also follows the principles which are obligated in counselling. As a counsellor I utilize different types of counselling skills to address the array of the circumstances of my clients.  Some of the important skills that I have learned from my experiences are: Attending Skills- To help the counselee open up I give my full attention. These include the posture, gesture and eye contact as it has tremendous effect while communicating with the patients. Loving Skills- To comprehend the patient’s feelings, I identify the patient’s current experience or feeling. Then, contemplates it to the patient, this make the patient feel that he/she is being understood. Listening Skills- Listening is unlike to hearing, when an individual listens, he/she comprehends the feelings and significance of every word conveyed by the speaker. Digging Skills- Digging too is a vital skill at time when the patient opens up and speaks about the problem. It includes methods like questioning, filtering and leading. At times I am required to continuously probe my patient as they are reluctant to open up. Responding Skills- The key objective is to retort to the problems of a patient. I use different procedures like informing, supporting, confronting, teaching, interpreting, silence, self-disclosing, and evaluating in order to retort the patient’s problem. Terminating Skills- Finally, terminating skill is important. This is where I inform the patient that the counselling has ended as the goal of helping him to get back to his or herself has been achieved and I regularly follow up to see if everything is well. Stages of Counselling I use the 3-Stage Skill which is the most extensively used model in stages of counselling. According to Gray, (2001) ‘stages of counselling are investigation, new understanding and accomplishment’ (p.39).During the examination, I create a warm rapport with the patient. This allows me to examine the issue thoroughly from the client’s viewpoint and afterwards focuses on the particular issues. Listening, active listening and giving attention are utilised in this stage. Under active listening, the significant skills are non-critical acceptance, emphatic understanding, reflecting feelings and legitimacy, focusing and support the patient to be exact. Next is New Understanding where the patient is aided to comprehend the situation with a new perception and give importance on the measures that needs to be done to deal with in a better way. Active listening and giving attention are used in this stage. Besides, some difficult skills that include intense emphatic understanding through helping the client to recognize the inconsistencies, themes, patterns of feelings and behaviour; provide information through appropriate sharing of the experiences and feelings of the therapist to the patient; plus propinquity via conversation on the occurrences among the therapist and the patient. The final and third stage, I help the patient to view the feasible ways to look and act, at the costs and consequences, prepare an action plan and then execute and assess them. All the skills in the two stages are required in this stage. Clinical Studies reflecting my counselling skills Description While working at a child care department for troubled children, I encountered many situations; in this essay I would discuss 3 scenarios. First is a scenario where a child lost his best friend due ragging at high school. I anticipated he blamed and held himself responsible for his friend’s death. In the second scenario, a child in his early teen (around 15 to 16 years of age) was frequently beaten up by his father as form of punishment. In the third situation there was a child around 14 years who was sexually molested by her step father. In the first situation I wanted to comfort to him, as I anticipated that he might be blaming himself for the accident. But, I knew anything said to him probably might make the situation worse. Hence, refrained from saying anything but later felt guilty that I did nothing to help the child out and thus there was inadequate use of the above skills mentioned. This was a learning experience for me. In the second case I helped the child speak up, this way he was able to open up and this helped me provide him with a solution. This was my first achievement as a counselor. I also spoke to his parents who understood the situation and were very co-operative. The third case which was quite grave, the child was quite aggressive and defensive as she was sexually molested by her step-father. This was the most difficult and challenging case as the child had started to self-harms and at times even harms others to defend her self. One of my other responsibilities was to study the eating habits of these patients. In the 3 above mentioned scenarios one thing was common; these patients had absolute no liking for any kind food. Feelings Before I met these patients, I thought to myself “What a terrible situation these are going through”. As I was speaking to them, I thought, "How can I counsel them better”. These were the feelings before and on meeting the patients. Evaluation After the first situation, I felt awful. I felt that my connecting skills could perhaps been better. The good aspects of the experiences were: I could use it to discover my weaknesses and this has helped me to achieve my goal and improved my counseling skills. Analysis As mentioned before in my first case was not very helpful to me or the patient as there was lack of connection. But it was good learning experience for me as it has helped me to solve the other scenarios mentioned above. In the second scenario the parents of the patient were very supportive hence it became easy for the patient to recuperate faster. The third scenario there was much effort required and the child had to be under severe supervision and medication so that she could not harm herself or others. In this situation I had to gain the patient’s confidence first and then slowly help her to get back to herself. Although, it was not easy for her or me, but I was able to handle the situation well with the help of my colleagues. Conclusion As mentioned before I could have handled the first situation better if I would have consulted my senior colleagues. Hence in the other 2 scenarios I took the help of my senior colleagues to help my patients better. Now I also read books on counseling to keep myself updated. As every situation is different listening skills play a key role in helping the patients get back to themselves. If you listen to the patient properly you are able to comprehend the problem faster and also provide a solution to the same. It’s best to keep a record of every situation that you encounter. I have recorded a number of situations in my journal and these three were some of them. Conclusion Based on these gathered studies, it has also revealed that counselling is a successful tool in helping patients to recovery, combating depression and anxiety, saves relationships and marriages and also improves the physical goings-on of a person. Although, according to Burnard, (1997) shaping the most effectual type of counselling is somewhat complicated. All of the approaches used by me have delivered effective outcome on certain psychological distress. For example, in case of depression where only counselling is an effectual tool for addressing the issue of the patient (second scenario), alternatively, some patients takes medicines like antidepressant along with counselling sessions (third scenario) and in case where counselling is on death, older kids more often take time get back to their self as it is quiet difficult for them to move on (first scenario). Hence I can say that no precise therapy can be name as the best therapy for patients, utilizing the use of deliberate counselling, telephone or befriending counselling can be successful in some cases like wise ineffective in certain other cases. The various approaches of counselling might have indefinite results and may indirectly be accountable in the healing results of the patient; though the counsellor or the person has a drastic impact on the result of the counselling, capacity and knowledge of the counsellor plays a very important role for the positive outcome of any counselling sessions. In the first scenario due to insufficient or not enough counselling skills and knowledge I had difficult time in addressing the concerns and problems of the patient. Hence, I can say that before becoming a counsellor, extensive reviewing and studying of this counselling ability is required. Counselling is not an easy job that anybody can just take on if she or he wants to. The counsellor should have the required skills to carry out the job in the most competent way. Counselling is an efficient tool, with different kinds and practices already shaped and original techniques being developed. No doubt that it is a useful tool; though counselling requires a competent person for performing those actions. A good model or form of counselling would not be effectual when the counsellor or individual in charge does not comprehend the true significance of counselling and lacks the essential counselling skills in order to perform the task. References Bailes, B. 2002. Evidence-based practice guidelines-one way to enhance clinical practice. AORN Journal. 75(6). Bayne, R. Nicolson, P. Horton, I. (1998). Counselling and communication skills for medical and health practioners. Leicester: BPS books. pp.42, 241 Corney, R. (1991). Developing communication and counselling skills in medicine.London: Routledge. p.28 Gray, M. J.A. (2001). 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