Counselling Essay Evaluation
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This essay will evaluate the skills used by a counsellor, Dr Berenson during a counselling session with a client named Rose. Various counselling skills will be identified and the effectiveness of their use and the impact of them on the client will be evaluated. Further to this, suggestions for more effective use of the skills will be made, also addressing the potential impact these might have on the client. While one of the main aims of the counselling process is to allow a therapeutic dialogue to occur (McLeod, 2007), as Armstrong (2006) suggests, the effective and appropriate use of counselling skills or tools enables the counsellor to support the client in clearly verbalising their story and also to ensure they themselves understand what is and what isn’t being said within this dialogue.
For the purposes of this assignment, an audio of the counselling session along with a transcript of it have been used. In the absence of a visual account of the session much importance is then placed on the tone and pace of the participants’ speech as well as other verbal cues such as silences. Rose, the client has come to see Dr Berenson to find some sort of resolution to the issues she is facing around her daughter’s sleeping routine. Having been an ill baby, Rose’s five year old daughter has rarely slept in her own bed all night since birth. Rose has tended to respond to her daughters crying at night by bringing her into her own bed in order to settle the crying. She and her husband decided several months earlier that this pattern of behaviour needed to end and so resolved to attempt various ‘reinforcement programmes’.
From early on in the session Dr Berenson clearly establishes an empathetic presence with Rose. This is clearly evident through the warmth and tone of his voice and his encouraging verbal prompts. In joining with the client, Dr Berenson is creating a foundation for a safe and supportive relationship to develop. Through the use of his voice, his patient
This essay will evaluate the skills used by a counsellor, Dr Berenson during a counselling session with a client named Rose. Various counselling skills will be identified and the effectiveness of their use and the impact of them on the client will be evaluated. Further to this, suggestions for more effective use of the skills will be made, also addressing the potential impact these might have on the client. While one of the main aims of the counselling process is to allow a therapeutic dialogue to occur (McLeod, 2007), as Armstrong (2006) suggests, the effective and appropriate use of counselling skills or tools enables the counsellor to support the client in clearly verbalising their story and also to ensure they themselves understand what is and what isn’t being said within this dialogue.
For the purposes of this assignment, an audio of the counselling session along with a transcript of it have been used. In the absence of a visual account of the session much importance is then placed on the tone and pace of the participants’ speech as well as other verbal cues such as silences. Rose, the client has come to see Dr Berenson to find some sort of resolution to the issues she is facing around her daughter’s sleeping routine. Having been an ill baby, Rose’s five year old daughter has rarely slept in her own bed all night since birth. Rose has tended to respond to her daughters crying at night by bringing her into her own bed in order to settle the crying. She and her husband decided several months earlier that this pattern of behaviour needed to end and so resolved to attempt various ‘reinforcement programmes’.
From early on in the session Dr Berenson clearly establishes an empathetic presence with Rose. This is clearly evident through the warmth and tone of his voice and his encouraging verbal prompts. In joining with the client, Dr Berenson is creating a foundation for a safe and supportive relationship to develop. Through the use of his voice, his patient
References: Armstrong,P. (2006). Counselling skills. In N. Pelling, R. Browers, & P. Armstrong (Eds.), The practice of counselling (pp. 46-75). Melbourne: Thomson Higher Education. Corey, G. (2009) Theory and Practise of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Belmont, CA: Thompson Brooks/Cole Egan, G. (2007). The Skilled Helper (8th ed.) Belmont, CA: Thompson Brooks/Cole Hackney, H. L., & Cormier, L. S. (2009). Building a working relationship. In The professional counsellor (6th ed., pp. 65-95). Sydney: Pearson Education. McLeod,J. (2007). Having a useful conversation: ‘Just talking’. In Counselling Skills (pp.135-169).Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.