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Work Within A Structured Counselling Framework
Work Within A Structured Counselling Framework
Work Within A Structured Counselling Framework
FRAMEWORK
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Theoretical perspectives..................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Counseling is a process in which an individual has the freedom of expressing their current
situation that has hampered their daily life (Patel, Flisher, Hetrick & McGorry, 2007). The
process of counseling involves certain clinically structured questions that aim to acquire
information about the mental and emotional status of an individual. Recover Counseling
Service is an organization that is concerned with providing mental health counseling service. The
client in the present role play example is a twenty five year old woman named Jocelyn who has
come to seek advice for the problems she is facing in her life. I tried to implement the
psychoanalytic type of counseling to her. I tried to get a perspective snapshot of her physical,
social, emotional and spiritual status. A detailed analysis about the role play has been provided
below. The theories, microskills used and the strengths and weaknesses of the approach are
described in the following sections.
Attending skills are the behaviors that help in encouraging the client to tell about their situations
and problems. These also demonstrate the interest of the counselor in the problem of the client.
These are important because they help in establishment of rapport between the counselor and the
client. These were demonstrated in the role play by the fact that I gained information about the
current position and the family of the client. I also made and kept constant eye contact with the
client (Kuntze, Molen & Born, 2009).
Questioning skills are those that help in guiding the conversation during the counseling session
because they help in enrichment of the story of the client. These were demonstrated by the
amount of information I could gather about the emotional as well as social aspects of the client.
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Responding skills are the ones that help in the confirmation of the actual facts that are given by
the client because it leads to the clarification of the facts and also serve as an encouragement to
the client. These were demonstrated in the role play by my timely cross evaluation of the
information provided by the client.
Noting and reflecting skills are used to bring out the hidden feelings of the clients because the
client may not always find it easy to convey all his feelings to the counselor. These were
demonstrated in the role play when I asked the client about the reasons behind her problems.
Client observation skills are utilized for the identification of incongruities in the information
provided by the client. These were demonstrated in the role play by the fact that I made detailed
observations about the voice tone, body language and facial expressions of the client.
Theoretical perspectives
The reason I used psychoanalytic or psychodynamic type of counseling is because I wanted to
make the client completely aware about her present situation. These involve therapies that lead to
an increase in self- understanding and also help to deepen the insights of the client into their
emotional issues (Hardt, 2006). These also make the client aware about the conflicts that are the
cause of their present difficulties. The main focus is on exploring the thoughts and the feelings
that are restricted to the unconscious mind of the patient (Rizq, 2007). An evaluation of the
emotional conflicts and the factors that can lead to the obstruction of the process of emotional
awareness is also made (Mackenzie, Gekoski, & Knox, 2006). The counseling technique
involves three sessions. The first session is the self- reflection, the second session is the
assessment session and the third session is the counseling session. The main purpose is to make
the client aware about their physical, social and emotional states.
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assess the positive and negative qualities of her behavior. She clearly defined the level of the
mental, social and emotional problems that were faced by her. She even identified the main
causes of conflict and her personality traits that are not suitable for her.
5
Conclusion
Counseling is a process in which an individual has the freedom of expressing their current
situation that has hampered their daily life. The process of counseling involves certain clinically
structured questions that aim to acquire information about the mental and emotional status of an
individual. At the time of attending the clients, a basic set of microskills are employed by the
counselors. These microskills help the counselors to develop a positive therapeutic relationship
with the individual. This role play was based on the psychoanalytic type of counseling. The
method proved to be successful and effective because the client showed a clear understanding of
the social and emotional underpinnings of her situation. The usage of attending, questioning and
noting and reflecting skills was good. However, my responding and client observation skills need
to polished.
6
References
ACA: American Counseling Association. (2009). Choice Reviews Online, 46(12), 46-7091-46-
7091. http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/choice.46-7091
Barnett, S., Roach, S., & Smith, M. (2006). Microskills: Advisor Behaviors that Improve
Communication with Advisees. NACADA Journal, 26(1), 6-12.
http://dx.doi.org/10.12930/0271-9517-26.1.6
Kuntze, J., Molen, H., & Born, M. (2009). Increase in counselling communication skills after
basic and advanced microskills training. British Journal Of Educational Psychology, 79(1),
175-188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000709908x313758
Mackenzie, C. S., Gekoski, W. L., & Knox, V. J. (2006). Age, gender, and the underutilization of
mental health services: the influence of help-seeking attitudes. Aging and Mental
Health, 10(6), 574-582.
Patel, V., Flisher, A. J., Hetrick, S., & McGorry, P. (2007). Mental health of young people: a
global public-health challenge. The Lancet, 369(9569), 1302-1313.
Shanley, E., & Jubb-Shanley, M. (2012). Coping focus counselling in mental health nursing.
International Journal Of Mental Health Nursing, 21(6), 504-512.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1447-0349.2012.00817.x
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Wilson, C. J. (2007). When and how do young people seek professional help for mental health
problems?. The Medical Journal of Australia, 187(Supplement), S35-S39.