Counselling is considered a learning process, especially for the client. An effective counsellor displays affirmation and nurturing behaviours whilst less effective counsellors use the ‘watch and manage’, ‘belittle and blame’ and ‘ignore and neglect’ behaviours (Najavits & Strupp, 1994).
The role play that was undertaken was Michael the VCE student, whereby Karen Tran is the observer, Christian Brett is the Client and Sarah Boubis is the counsellor.
A counselling session was undertaken where the client Michael a student in his final year of VCE is struggling to make an important decision for his future. Michael is a high achiever and his parents have supported him immensely in his studies and strongly encourage him to pursue math and science subject to achieve a high ENTER so he can follow his father’s professional footsteps in to Law and Medicine. Although Michael is very appreciative of his parent’s time and energy into his education he is torn between two decisions of either travelling after high school or going straight to university. His mother supports travel and Michael is more open in regards to that subject. However both parents are concerned and wish their son to aspire to a further education and see it as far more beneficial at this stage in his life. Michael approaches a counsellor about the pressures he is experiencing and wishes to seek guidance and prompt him with a decision.
Each of the counselling processes had been met as required, thus reported on the following:
Preparation: Counsellor was reminded of the expectations, agendas, feelings and ethics towards counselling.
The Meeting: Preamble: The Counsellor greets the client and they both introduce themselves. The Counsellor asks the client to sit down and provides the client with the boundaries by saying ,‘we have approximately 45 minutes to conduct this session, everything that is said in this session is strictly confidential and that as my role of a counsellor is