Self Assesment

I feel that I have learnt a lot from this course and hopefully by gaining such knowledge I can take it further, most of the things I picked up on through this course are included in the list below

• Confidentiality; do not share clients information unless they are in danger of themselves

• N.V.C (non verbal communication)

• S.O.L.E.R (sitting squarely, open posture, Leaning forward)

• Listening techniques, active listening skills

• Self Actualisation (Maslow’s Hierarchy of basic needs)

• Counsellor’s introduction for a session

• Focusing

• Managed silence

• Boundaries

• Rapport building

• A.G.E (acceptance genuineness and empathy)

• Ethical principles; Fidelity, Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, Justice, Self-Respect

• Mirroring

• What counselling is and is not

My feelings and experiences

To begin with I would like to state that my experiences gained on this course, has been intriguing and uplifting. The exercises we practiced in the lessons helped me to grasp a reality on how things work in the world of counselling in terms of contracting agreements boundaries and the important skills needed to help the client adjust to the circumstances.

Towards the end of the course we did an exercise covering important factors of our lifeline’s explaining the ups and downs of our life. I found this very interesting because reflecting on the past and present helped me to see the transformation from then to now.

Which became an important piece of evidence of the changes I have been through from the negative to the positive aspects and all importantly it has shown me about the person I have become today.

What I have learnt from receiving and giving constructive feedback

The feedback gained through triads helped me to understand counselling more and enabled me to improve on the skills I needed to. Once you have hands on experience of counselling another person you tend to see how interesting the session is and how important the skills are to create an effective counselling session.

The skills I used were as follows; restating, paraphrasing, reflecting, summarising and I also incorporated other things such as S.O.L.E.R and effective opening questions.

If these methods are applied then the client will feel more relaxed and comfortable with the counsellor enabling them to open up and form a bond of trust which is very important for progression and growth.

When the roles switched around within the triads we had to experience the role of a client, which was interesting at first I wasn’t even sure what to expect or what to even talk about but once you feel comfortable with someone those things you were worrying about go out the window and the words seem to come freely.

From then I realised how important it is for a counsellor to use the sufficient skills needed to interact with the client. It felt good to talk to someone about the things that were bothering me but also it helped me to understand the self governing feeling, as I had more and more sessions I came to a conclusion with my problems.