Counselling Reflective Analysis

Strengths

With the help of the video attached, I was able to examine what my strengths are during a counselling session. One strength in the introduction was the clarity when I explained to Jesse that in this session we would work together to create a goal and plan that best suits him. Another strength was that I took the time to remind him what we had agreed on last session, and by doing this he was able to clarify any details. Another pro was asking the client to explain what specific words meant to them, for example, “what does loneliness mean to you”. Other strengths in the session include, paraphrasing so the client was able to reflect on what they were saying and as the counsellor I was able to know that was what the client meant. The
The first area that need a lot of improvement is my body language, to improve this I will need to practice this type of counselling more often and will have to use skills such as mindfulness to be aware of my behaviours. The second area that needs improvement is question formulating. Being able to use key words from the client to create questions that will explain or elaborate on what they are saying is difficult for me. I believe that with patience and lots of practice, I will eventually be able to interview a client more naturally. The third struggle that I have is being mindful, in the first session with my client I was very distracted. In the second session I found this had improved but would still need practice for it to be considered being mindful. To continue, another aspect that could be better about the session is the wording of my questions, for example, in the session I asked Jesse “what do you think would make you a good friend?” some clients could take this to offence or it may come across as me accusing them of being a bad friend. If I were to take my time and say the question to myself before saying it to the client I could find a better way to word the question without upsetting anyone. The final area that could use improvement is my empathy, at times it is hard to understand why the client is feeling or behaving the way they are which is frustrating, if I can try to put myself in the clients shoes and respect that they are struggling with a great deal of stress and anxiety like in Jesse’s case, I could be more empathetic and understanding about his