Importance of Counselling within the Helping Services - Counselling Assessment Answers

Short answer research questions

Discussed in class but completed and submitted via elearn drop box individually

1. Describe in your own words various ways that counselling differs from other types of relationships such as friendships
2. What is the purpose or goals of counselling?
3. What is the place or importance of counselling within the helping services?
4. Describe in detail a general map, process or framework for a counselling session or sessions, such as Egan?
5. Describe how counselling has evolved over time with reference to the 4 forces in counselling?
6. Discuss the scope, professional and ethical limitations, and client rights in reference to counselling in detail including reference to, in detail at least 6 of the following:

   • codes of conduct/practice
   • contract requirements, formats for contracts and key information for inclusion in a counselling contract
   • discrimination
   • duty of care
   • human rights
   • mandatory reporting
   • practitioner/client boundaries
   • privacy, confidentiality and disclosure
   • records management
   • rights and responsibilities of workers, employers and clients
   • work role boundaries – responsibilities and limitations of the counsellor role
   • work health and safety
   • client rights

7. What are the principles of person-centred practice?
8. Discuss the potential impact of your own values on the counselling relationship reflecting on your answers to various in-class questions / activities about values
9. Why is documentation of counselling sessions and counselling plans important?
10. Describe how you would go about, what you would need to consider, when documenting counselling sessions?
11. How would you evaluate the effectiveness or success of a counselling session
12. What does SOLER stand for?
13. List all the types of issues with which clients may present to us with when we are working in the community sector
14. Discuss the extent to which these fall within the counselling scope of practice
15. Provide several services and options for referral in the ACT, for at least 5 of the types of issues you have identified above in question 13.How might you go about referring clients to those services? List at least 2 ways you would do this
16. What might concern clients or make them anxious when they come to see us for help when we work in the community sector?
17. How might we go about addressing their concerns – please give examples of what you might say to them including a description of what counselling is, and what their expectations and your boundaries might be in relation to what we can offer clients.
18. What are 5 ways that we can show respect to our clients.
19. Choose 5 of the client statements (1 – 21) in the Role Play examples on elearn and write a response for each statement that demonstrates one of each of the following skills for each of those client statement:ent statements (1 – 21) in the Role Play examples on elearn and write a response for each statement that demonstrates one of each of the following skills for each of those client statem

    • paraphrasing
    • reflecting feelings
    • open and closed questioning or probing
    • summarising
    • reframing
    • effective use of body language

20. What sources of information might you have prior to commencing a counselling session
21. What would you need to consider in terms of analysing this information
22. What are the key skills, communication techniques and approaches necessary in an initial session to gather additional information
23. What information might clients need from us in a first session
24. What needs to be included in developing counselling plans.

Question 1

Counselling offers purely professional advice to individuals who are seeking advice or guidance. Also, it does not necessarily involve personal relationships between the parties involved. On the other hand, friendships are relationships that have been nurtured over several years. They provide a more personal and intimate relationship between the people involved in the relationship. Friendships have the potential to last forever while counsellors are just there to serve a specific purpose.

Question 2

Counselling is meant to improve the coping skills of an individual. These skills will help one to relate easily with one another and help them develop stronger relationships with counsellors. It also gives peace of mind to the people who are involved in stressing situations. It gives them hope and encouragement to hold on and remain persistent. It also promotes the decision-making process. They give guidance to the people who are faced with tough decisions to make.

Question 3

Within the helping services, counselling plays a crucial role in assisting other people to gain the help they need. Counselling is only offered to individuals who are in need of help or who are in need of some assistance. In most cases, it is offered to people who are suffering from depression or stress. It helps them to recover from these ailments. Therefore, this falls into the category of helping people.

Question 4

The Egan counselling process goes through the following process. An assessment of the scenario is done. The blind spots to the situation are assessed and focus on the issue is generated. The second stage of the process will involve the identification of available opportunities to the patient. Goals are then set on what the counselling session hopes to achieve. The third and final stage will be to identify any available actions that one may take to improve the situation.

Question 5

Counselling is quite different today from what it was when it first came into existence. At first, it was only based on family and religion. During the industrial revolution, families became mobile. This called for the need to spread counselling services across to other regions. As the world developed, the role of counselling increased. The large scale interaction has caused people to change their behaviors and character. For this reason, counselling came to solve global issues on a global scale.

Question 6

Counselling covers a wide scope. It can be used to help individuals, families and couples. Therefore, counselling does not discriminate anyone in need. It maintains a professional relationship with the counselor and the client. This is under the privacy, confidentiality and disclosure act. The clients to counselling have their rights that should be observed. The counselor should observe human rights and privacy of the client information.

Question 7

A person centred in the practice of counselling, there are a few principles that should be followed. The counselor should be beneficial. This is the responsibility of doing well to the clients. The counselor should also practice justice. They offer non-discriminatory services to the clients. A counselor should also practice non-maleficence. This is the act of doing no harm to the clients. These principles guide the actions of a person-centred practice, which ensures good counselling services.

Question 8

The counselling session has some values that may supersede the values I have. However, the values of counselling can have an impact on the values that I have for myself. There is always the perception that the counselor gives the best advice. For this reason, one has to have strong values that will not be overcome by the values that are held the counselor. This is because the counselling relationship is purely professional in nature.

Question 9

Documentation of counselling sessions is important because they provide a guideline on how a counselling session should be conducted. Also, counselors who will emerge in the future can observe the counselling plans and strive to achieve the goals and objectives of the same as a whole. Furthermore, documentation will help in keeping track of the counselling sessions and trends that occur in the practice.

Question 10

When documenting a counselling session, I would require having participated in a counselling session. During the counselling session, I would be taking notes which I would use to document for future use. Also, I would consider the relationship status of the counselling session (Spink et al, 2008). The relationship status would help in documenting the type of relationship that was used in the counselling session.

Question 11

A counselling session would be successful if it addressed the issues it was meant to address. For example, a patient who goes to a counsellor to get treatment should come out of the counselling session healed. The number of successful treatments documented from the various counselling sessions would determine the level of effectiveness associated with the counselling sessions. Also, the feedback from patients would be used as a determining factor.

Question 12

SOLER refers to a type of interaction that is used between the client and the counsellor. The term SOLER is an acronym for Sit squarely, Open posture, Lean towards the client, Eye contact, and Relax. Using this interaction posture will result in a more intimate relationship between the counsellor and the client.

Question 13

While working at the community centre, there are some issues that may arise. These issues may hinder the activities being conducted within the community. Some of these issues include the following:

• Time constraints
• Being patient with others
• Understanding the behaviour of others
• Overcoming stressing situations
• Poor interaction skills

Question 14

These issues fall within the counselling scope. The counselling scope includes the problems that a client as while in the community. Clients have the chance to address issues related to stress in the community. Counselling provides a word of encouragement to the client, which helps in alleviating the feeling of stress. Also, counselling offers some advice to the clients by helping them to improve their interaction skills.

Question 15

There are several services that can be offered to address the issues named above. I would refer the clients to the services offered by the counselor through various means. Firstly, I would conduct awareness campaigns that would enlighten people about the benefits of the counselling sessions. Secondly, I would use word of mouth to create awareness. When one patient is healed, they would be asked to enlighten their friends about the counselling services.

Question 16

While working in the community sector, there are some few factors that might make the clients a little bit anxious. The clients might question the credibility of our services and our ability to fulfill the services that we promise to fulfill. Furthermore, some clients might feel anxious to get rid of the problem they are suffering from. Some may be bothered for a long time that they just want it gone. Furthermore, clients may be anxious because they might have never received similar services before.

Question 17

In a bid to address their problems, counselors should encourage the clients to use their services and enlighten them about the benefits they will receive. For example, I would then give the clients’ previous statistics of patients who have benefited from the same services I am offering them. Also, I will explain to them what counselling is and it will benefit them. I will hold a question and answer session where I will address the concerns of the clients concerning counselling.

Question 18

Respect can be shown by the following methods.

• Refraining from using abusive language.
• Treating them with care and gaining interest in the issues they present to the counselor.
• Providing a listening ear to the clients.
• Refraining from engaging in any acts of discrimination
• Provide a fair solution that would address the needs of the clients

Question 19

During the counselling sessions, clients often represent their feelings because most of the feelings they are going through are factors that happened to them personally. Paraphrasing is done because it is usually difficult for people to remember exactly what they went through. Open and closed question probing is one of the counselors when they are seeking information from the client. Clients summarise a big portion of what they have been going through and seek help for. Reframing is also practised when the client is trying to explain something for the counselor to understand.

Question 20

Before commencing a counselling session, I would have done research on the topic, I am going to discuss with the client. Also, I would prepare inspirational and encouraging information that I would share with the client in a bid to uplift their spirits. As a counsellor, I will also gather information about the client to learn how best to attend to them (Russell, Thomson & Rosenthal, 2008). The information about the client would work to ensure that the clients are not offended as they engage with the counsellor.

Question 21

During the analysis process, I will need to understand fully the situation a client is undergoing. Also, I would require having full knowledge of the client and the problems they are facing. Furthermore, various solutions that have been given in the past about a similar situation will be analyzed. This information will shed some light on the solutions that will be provided during the analysis phase.

Question 22

Some of the initial skills will involve the counselor practising the listening skills of the client. This is a move to gather as much information from the client as possible. The counselor should give the client time to speak and air their problem. The counselor should address the problem in a lenient manner by examining the raised problems in a chronological manner (Murphy et al, 2009). This will allow the client to understand the responses from the counselor and relate them to the situation they are facing.

Question 23

During the first session, there is certain information that the client would want to have. Some of this information include advice about how they shall overcome the problems they are facing. Also, the clients will require information about the past practices the counsellor has engaged. This information will give the client some confidence in the counsellor. Furthermore, then the client will require a general background on the counsellor.

Question 24

There are several things that should be included in a counselling plan. The needs of the client should be included in the counselling plan. Furthermore, the desired outcome of the counselling session should be included in the counselling plan. This will provide information about the strategy that will be taken by the counselling plan. The counselling trends that have been taking place should also be included in the counselling plan.