For my client’s confidentiality, throughout the rest of this paper I will be using the false name of Carol to protect her identity. Carol is currently a full-time female student at York University. As I am also a full-time student at York university, when it came time to ask if she would volunteer as my client for this project, Carol’s academic appreciation and understanding personality made the interview very comfortable. Carol’s problem was between her and her best friend whom she feels are growing distant. She explained that she has known this friend since high-school but lately does not feel that her friend has time for her due to their busy schedules, her friend’s boyfriend and her own academic responsibilities.
My plan of action was …show more content…
I’ve always been conscious of my non-verbal skills when communicating with others so things like good open body position, appropriate spacing and voice tone were easy for me to emulate. However, I recall struggling to maintain eye contact with Carol because every couple of minutes I would look down to ensure the tape recorder was in fact recording or check my watch to track how much time had elapsed and determine what counselling skills I should be using next. Add on catching myself not smiling or head-nodding every so often and I’m sure Carol noticed that I was distracted and probably mistook this as I did not care to listen to her. Reflecting back, I believe it would have been appropriate to substitute more head nods and smiles for the over use of minimal encouragers to portray that I was indeed actively listening to Carol as she spoke. By my count, I used eight nine minimal encouragers (L 38,43,48, 56,58,60,68,70,72,74,77, 80, 83, 89, 99, 102, 109, 112, 123, 127, 133, 136, 139, 142, 144, 147, 150, 152, 152, 159, …show more content…
The first core condition of counselling is acceptance which is something I thankfully feel I excel at when I am around people. I took Carol as a who she was and nothing less or more. If anything, I was in her debt so keeping that in mind made it easy to accept her and relationship problem for what it was in a non-judgemental light. I have never considered myself one to judge and I could tell neither was Carol which made both of us very comfortable. The second core condition is that of congruence or genuineness. I admit I struggled at first to find a balance between a mock counsellor and genuine Andrew but as the discussion carried on, I started to feel like the real Andrew already shows honesty, respect and safety to others so I became less reluctant to just speak how I regularly would with a friend or colleague. I have also experienced friendship issues like Carol’s in the past so that made respecting her and her problem more genuinely relatable. The final and most important core counselling condition is empathy. The ability to give priority to another’s needs is something I have been working on for a long time. When interviewing Carol, I could tell she was speaking from a place of emotional distress which motivated me to sympathize with her as an emotionally relatable human being. The one point of conflict that I
My plan of action was …show more content…
I’ve always been conscious of my non-verbal skills when communicating with others so things like good open body position, appropriate spacing and voice tone were easy for me to emulate. However, I recall struggling to maintain eye contact with Carol because every couple of minutes I would look down to ensure the tape recorder was in fact recording or check my watch to track how much time had elapsed and determine what counselling skills I should be using next. Add on catching myself not smiling or head-nodding every so often and I’m sure Carol noticed that I was distracted and probably mistook this as I did not care to listen to her. Reflecting back, I believe it would have been appropriate to substitute more head nods and smiles for the over use of minimal encouragers to portray that I was indeed actively listening to Carol as she spoke. By my count, I used eight nine minimal encouragers (L 38,43,48, 56,58,60,68,70,72,74,77, 80, 83, 89, 99, 102, 109, 112, 123, 127, 133, 136, 139, 142, 144, 147, 150, 152, 152, 159, …show more content…
The first core condition of counselling is acceptance which is something I thankfully feel I excel at when I am around people. I took Carol as a who she was and nothing less or more. If anything, I was in her debt so keeping that in mind made it easy to accept her and relationship problem for what it was in a non-judgemental light. I have never considered myself one to judge and I could tell neither was Carol which made both of us very comfortable. The second core condition is that of congruence or genuineness. I admit I struggled at first to find a balance between a mock counsellor and genuine Andrew but as the discussion carried on, I started to feel like the real Andrew already shows honesty, respect and safety to others so I became less reluctant to just speak how I regularly would with a friend or colleague. I have also experienced friendship issues like Carol’s in the past so that made respecting her and her problem more genuinely relatable. The final and most important core counselling condition is empathy. The ability to give priority to another’s needs is something I have been working on for a long time. When interviewing Carol, I could tell she was speaking from a place of emotional distress which motivated me to sympathize with her as an emotionally relatable human being. The one point of conflict that I