Skill
Indicators
Brief Comments
Attending & Listening
Appropriate posture, eye contact, use of minimal responses, invitations to continue, facial expressions that are appropriate to the content of the conversation.
Use of Silence
No interruptions & allowing silences for the speaker to collect their thoughts.
Paraphrasing/ reflection of content
Indicated by concisely reflecting back the important content of what a speaker has said.
Reflection of feeling
Accurately summarising the emotions that accompany a speaker’s statement.
Questioning
Appropriate use of open questions to elicit information. Not asking questions to fill a silence or satisfy ones own curiosity.
Summarising
Picking out the salient points of the conversation and drawing them together in a clear and concise way.
Skills for Promoting Change
Other skills if that may become relevant and/or useful in your session including (but not limited to) normalising, reframing, challenging, use of immediacy & exploring options.
Commentary (500 words max). Write an evaluation of your skills session that includes
i) A critical assessment of how you used counselling skills to build demonstrate empathy and acceptance towards the client; ii) A critical appraisal of how effectively you deployed counselling skills to help the client explore their situation or dilemma; iii) A discussion of any theoretical frameworks that informed your strategy for assessment of, and engagement with the client; iv) A consideration of feedback from your client of their experience of counselling