Core Conditions
Name of Student: Fiona Cruickshank Student ID: 51125153
Course Name: Counselling Skills 1. Course Tutor: Anne Smith
Counselling Skills Essay 1. Date Due: 17 Nov 2011
Counselling is a form of communication whereby one individual, from now on referred to as the listener, forms a helping relationship with one or a group of individuals. (Hough 2010) A counselling type relationship is used in a multitude of everyday home and work settings. These individuals may not call themselves counsellors or indeed have any formal counselling skills training. It is this training that sets apart therapeutic counselling from other forms of helping communication. Sanders, (2007, p15) defines counselling skills as “interpersonal communication skills derived from the study of therapeutic change in human beings”. Crucially the counsellor is bound by a framework of ethics and professional responsibilities derived from their employment setting or by their professional body e.g. Doctors and The British Medical Association (BMA). In order to use effective counselling skills it is necessary to recognise that many different theoretical models exist. Understanding of the theoretical knowledge behind these models assists the counsellor to employ effective counselling skills. Carl Rogers’ Humanistic approach believed in the innate ability of individuals to find their way through their problems given the correct environment to do so. In order to do this successfully however, Rogers professed that three core conditions: empathy, congruence and understanding must exist. In the absence of one of these, positive personality change will not happen. This essay will explore in greater depth these three fundamentals and I will show how they are necessary, and can be applied practically to achieve an effective helping relationship.
For any therapeutic counselling relationship to succeed it must be established with the creation and maintenance of certain professional and
Course Name: Counselling Skills 1. Course Tutor: Anne Smith
Counselling Skills Essay 1. Date Due: 17 Nov 2011
Counselling is a form of communication whereby one individual, from now on referred to as the listener, forms a helping relationship with one or a group of individuals. (Hough 2010) A counselling type relationship is used in a multitude of everyday home and work settings. These individuals may not call themselves counsellors or indeed have any formal counselling skills training. It is this training that sets apart therapeutic counselling from other forms of helping communication. Sanders, (2007, p15) defines counselling skills as “interpersonal communication skills derived from the study of therapeutic change in human beings”. Crucially the counsellor is bound by a framework of ethics and professional responsibilities derived from their employment setting or by their professional body e.g. Doctors and The British Medical Association (BMA). In order to use effective counselling skills it is necessary to recognise that many different theoretical models exist. Understanding of the theoretical knowledge behind these models assists the counsellor to employ effective counselling skills. Carl Rogers’ Humanistic approach believed in the innate ability of individuals to find their way through their problems given the correct environment to do so. In order to do this successfully however, Rogers professed that three core conditions: empathy, congruence and understanding must exist. In the absence of one of these, positive personality change will not happen. This essay will explore in greater depth these three fundamentals and I will show how they are necessary, and can be applied practically to achieve an effective helping relationship.
For any therapeutic counselling relationship to succeed it must be established with the creation and maintenance of certain professional and