My Personal Counseling Characteristics The purpose of this paper is to discuss my role as a future marriage and family counselor and what I perceive to be characteristic strength in developing a therapeutic alliance with my clients. Also discussed is a behavioral challenge that I foresee as being an issue. Two strategies are also identified in dealing with the challenged identified.
An Area of Strength An area of strength that I have that will help guide me as a therapist when developing a therapeutic alliance with clients is empathy. I have a deep capacity to feel others emotions, experiences, and understand their emotional pain. Empathy and warmth are the areas where I am able to make strong connections with others. Empathic understanding is the ability to feel with clients as opposed to feeling for clients, and view their experiences from the client’s frame of view …show more content…
The challenge I have is knowing when to self-disclose and how much. Self-disclosure on the part of the therapist can result in both a positive and negative impact on the client therapist relationship (Brammer, L. M., & MacDonald, G. (1996). I will have to work on drawing the line in revealing too much about myself as a therapist to my clients? I understand the power of self-disclosure when attempting to establish a rapport with clients. What I do not want to happen is to transfer the focus from my client to me.
Strategies to Improve A strategy I have been using for several years is to practice self-disclosure with a couple of close friends, and a classmate in during my undergrad studies. Initially it was difficult and uncomfortable. What I have noticed is that those two friends are confiding in me on a deeper level. I don’t just randomly run my mouth; I allow the conversation to give way to self-disclosure on my part. It is a continuous effort on my part.
An Area of Strength An area of strength that I have that will help guide me as a therapist when developing a therapeutic alliance with clients is empathy. I have a deep capacity to feel others emotions, experiences, and understand their emotional pain. Empathy and warmth are the areas where I am able to make strong connections with others. Empathic understanding is the ability to feel with clients as opposed to feeling for clients, and view their experiences from the client’s frame of view …show more content…
The challenge I have is knowing when to self-disclose and how much. Self-disclosure on the part of the therapist can result in both a positive and negative impact on the client therapist relationship (Brammer, L. M., & MacDonald, G. (1996). I will have to work on drawing the line in revealing too much about myself as a therapist to my clients? I understand the power of self-disclosure when attempting to establish a rapport with clients. What I do not want to happen is to transfer the focus from my client to me.
Strategies to Improve A strategy I have been using for several years is to practice self-disclosure with a couple of close friends, and a classmate in during my undergrad studies. Initially it was difficult and uncomfortable. What I have noticed is that those two friends are confiding in me on a deeper level. I don’t just randomly run my mouth; I allow the conversation to give way to self-disclosure on my part. It is a continuous effort on my part.