Myself As A Counselor Essay

Myself as the counselor Performing a short therapy session with a classmate was not only extremely beneficial to my learning experience, but it was also an eye opening experience to perform and evaluate myself as an actual counselor. At first, I thought the process was going to be extremely uncomfortable and weird such as “pretending” to be a professional counselor or acting out a fake therapy session with a classmate. However, to my surprise the process became extremely natural, as in nothing seemed forced or weird. In fact the conversation seemed to flow, as we never ran out of topics, or had to stop and laugh. Nonetheless while watching and analyzing my video I also notice multiple flaws and strengths in which I can improve on and …show more content…
In the beginning of the session I tended to lean towards the client with my legs crossed and my hands either on my knees or folded together in my palm. However as the session progressed I relaxed more into the chair by fully leaning back and resting my elbows on either side of the chair. At first, I did not really consider much of my body language and how it could effect my client and therapy sessions, but by watching my tape I’ve noticed as I relaxed more into the chair my client seemed to relax more, such as she stopped fidgeting with her hands, and her hair. Through this I’ve learned that body posture can have a major effect on the client and therapy session. By presenting my body in a comfortable yet relaxed way it gives the client a sense of welcome or ease to therapy, allowing the atmosphere to be more pleasant and allowing the client to become more comfortable and open to talk. Conversely one initial issue I had with my body posture was the movement of my hands. Before watching the video I never noticed how frequently I moved my hands, especially when I’m trying to explain or inform an individual. Due to this, I must be more aware of my hand movements and how I express certain situations in knowing that any movements could startle a client or effect a therapy sessions by throwing a client off their train of …show more content…
In addition by watching the video I was also able to review myself as the client, analyzing how certain things the counselor said or did affected my therapy session and responses. One particular quality I thought my partner did well was her body posture, and settle movements. Throughout the whole video my partner sat in an upright, yet comfortable position with both her legs on the floor and her arms folding together. By doing this it made the counselor appear more open and grounded into the discussion, which entitled me to become more open. However one negative thing about my partner’s body position would be the movement of her hands when she is trying to explain certain things. Even though it did not become a distraction to me, it can be to other clients, in which she needs to be aware of and try to control such