The Practice of Counselling - Essay Example

Running head: Counselling practice The practice of counselling Chapter 4: Personal Growth and development Activity 4.1 (Questions 1 to 5 - 400 words) 1. From the many approaches to personal development discussed in the chapter, choose one that you, (a) most feel comfortable with, and (b) that you least like or enjoy. I feel comfortable with a majority of the approaches, and I preferred to experience all the approaches personally. However, I will choose Roger's person-centred approach as the one that I am most comfortable with. Person-centred approach focuses on present, respect and trust. The three core conditions: unconditional positive regard, congruence and empathy, create a growth-promoting climate in which the clients moves forward and resolves their own issues. After reading the chapter, I was still not able to figure out which of the approach is the least comfortable for me. I might have a slight discomfort with the psychodynamic approach as the supervisor has to focus on student-counsellors' reactions to clients' transference/counter-transference issues. A supervisor should assist the student counsellor examine personal issues but only if these issues relate to problems occurring in the therapeutic relationship between student/counsellor and clients. 2. Journal your reactions to these approaches you have identified. Person-centred approach: the approach revolves around the self awareness of both the counsellor and the client. As such, it helps open door to such significant matters as power balance between the counsellor and a client, and the importance of communication between the two. Psychodynamic approach: I don't feel comfortable to discus my personal problems with my supervisor as the supervisor is to supervise my practicum. 3. What is it about each that you like, appreciate, feel comfortable with, and find stimulating I am more comfortable with the person-centred approach, as it lets a counsellor to exercise their discretion, thus allowing their patients to have authority over their experience regarding their problems. On the other hand, the psychodynamic approach helps break down a client's defences, as well as in the uncovering of unconscious motivations. 4. What is it about each that you dislike, critique, do not feel comfortable with, or find less stimulating The psychodynamic approach overemphasises on sex, aggression, and childhood experiences. It is also difficult to quantify and measure the concepts that are proposed, hence I not feel comfortable with this approach. On the other hand, the person-centred approach is more concerned with the attitudes and values of a therapist rather than their skills. The approach also disregards the significance of the past. 5. What does this say about your personality What does it say about your approach to counselling What this suggests is that rather than being pragmatic, I value form. Additionally, this is an indication that as a person, I value listening and learning about others, as well as hearing from them what it is that they would wish to do with their lives. It is an indication that I like helping people to think about not just what they want with their lives now, but also in the future. It also indicates that my approach to counselling is one that is geared towards ensuring a coherent understanding of the communication process with a client. Chapter 5: Ethics Write a short essay (200 words) on the core ethical principals that were covered in Chapter 5 and if you have a personal example of an ethical dilemma, please include this - even if it has not been resolved. Ethics are not only guidelines but a personal philosophy and approach to the person's whole life. The counsellor cannot uphold being ethical in personal life and wear a different set of values in the professional life. The counsellor will certainly experience conflicts and lack of clarity in their work. The ethical principles provide guidance for accessing increased awareness and higher level of consciousness. The principles are expressions of these core values in action as they form the foundation for ethical practice. According to British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the fundamental values are respecting human rights and dignity, ensuring the integrity of practitioner-client relationships, enhancing the quality of professional knowledge and its application, alleviating personal distress and suffering, fostering a sense of self that is meaningful to the person concerned, increase personal effectiveness, enhancing the quality of relationship between people, appreciating the variety of human experience and culture. Lastly, the ethical principle also consists of striving for the fair and adequate provision of counselling and psychotherapy services to promote growth of services as well as increase the public awareness and respect to this profession. The keystone of the counsellor's work is a commitment to certain guiding principles that focus on the way a counsellor can assist a client. These moral guiding principles are autonomous, as clients are mentally and psychologically capable of making informed choices based on the best information they have at their disposal. Non-maleficence is the most important principle which refers to 'above all do no harm' to the client and to others associated with the client who may be at risk. Beneficence is the partner of non-maleficence as not only you should you not harm, but you should actively do well. Next, justice implies the fair and impartial treatment to all clients. Lastly, fidelity reflects the trust relationship that is established. Chapter 11: Aboriginal and First Nations approaches to counselling Activity 11.2 (Activity 11.2 & 11.3: Total 400 words) 1. Describe one of the conflicts created by different cultural values shared in the story. This story has highlighted the variations between the mainstream counselling programs, and the traditional indigenous approaches to counselling. On the one hand, modern mainstream counselling practice has a different power relation and approach to counselling, in comparison to the indigenous counselling practice. For example, university counselling programs are specialist-driven seems to perpetuate professional ethos, and protect income levels and jobs. On the other hand, indigenous approaches are committed to the establishment of long-term trust based relationships with clients, and are reliant on personal integrity and a continued commitment to society, integrity and trust. 2. How do you relate to this conflict from your own experience From my personal experience, I have discovered that the mainstream counselling skills are more inclined towards assumptions and presuppositions about a client, making it difficult to address the root cause of a problem. Additionally, mainstream counselling skills are more rigid compared to traditional ones. 3. What ways do you see being able to create reconciliation How will you know you have this, in reality Reconciliation can be achieved by not making too many assumptions during a therapy session, and evaluating such dominant values as professional dominance, economic gain, and power to influence. These tend to underpin professional counselling in the modern world. To achieve this, it requires a personal evaluation of the values highlighted by being a professional counsellor. Activity 11.3 1. Take one of the counselling skills discussed by Bowers, and describe your understanding and use of that skill currently. Immediacy is one of the counselling skills that Bowers has addressed. This is a skill that is continuously taught to counsellor in training, for it is thought to be very important to therapy in counselling. Immediacy is about effective communication with your client, in a language that they understood, without the use of jargon. It also helps a counsellor to either listen to or share a story with a client. In a group situation, a counsellor for example, might use immediacy to share his/her intentions with such a group. 2. How did the sharing in this story challenge or change your views of the skill If you were not challenged, describe why, and what this means for you. Reading through this story has helped me appreciate that it is possible to let clients know about their weaknesses without embarrassing them. I also learnt that some client prefer it when hit the nail on the head, rather than 'beating around the bush'. This shows that unlike what counsellor may assume clients are more intelligent than we care to find out. 3. Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to critique one of the other 'core skills' in mainstream counselling, such as empathy, paraphrasing, reflecting meaning or feeling, etc. For other ideas of skills look to Philip Armstrong's Chapter 3 and perhaps you might like to re-read his chapter now in light of your readings in indigenous and cultural issues in counselling. Empathy- the ability to interpret correctly someone's feelings and show that we understand- has varying context in both the indigenous counselling and mainstream counselling. Indigenous counselling makes use of body language and non-verbal expressions to communicate understanding with another person. Advanced empathy as practised in the mainstream counselling combines and overlaps with immediacy, summarising, and self-disclosure. It's about searching for a covert message behind an explicit one when dealing with a client. Read More