Counselling_Skills

Counselling skills level 2 lesson 1 November 30th 2009 Kerry Moore pg 1 I was excited about starting the new course today. I think it is because for the last few weeks we have been revising for our test and last week we just had a tutorial with peter. Now we are back to the lessons and that is what’s so exciting. When I got to college there was already a few of us waiting to go in so we were all keen. It was a bit nerving though because there will be new people starting and its the unknown but I’m sure we will all get on. As it happens though there was only one new lady and she seemed really nice maybe some more next week. Peter started off the lesson the same way as the last course which was necessary for in case we had forgot any of the important things like fire escapes and the first aid etc. We discussed the group rules and how if we all stuck to the personal moral qualities then we would be fine. We spoke about attendance and hoe 85% was needed and if we had more than 3 weeks of then we would be getting a phone call to see why. If we let college know and we have good reason to be off then that would be fine. Journals were next on the list and this course 600 to 800 words is necessary. Anything over 800 will not be read so we have to check our word counter. Activity one and we had to get into groups of four and we had to discuss people in our life that had helped us in some way and what skill or attitude they had used. We came up with:- * Teachers life skills (guidance) * Parents life skills (guidance) * Doctor counselling skills * Friends counselling skills * Sister counselling skills I also remembered one later on in the lesson which was support worker. I went to see one a few years ago when I had moved back to Worksop from Blackpool where I had been in a bad relationship and the support worker helped me immensely and if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be where I am today. We went on to discuss what we all had come up with and then we wrote down some helpful attitudes:- * Non-judgemental * Honest * Confidence boosting * Caring * Polite * Helpful * Respectful * Patient * Ability to listen * Confidential * empathy a sense of humour can also help but in some cases people don’t want the humour so you have to be careful when to use it. Activity 2 we discussed the helping continuum and how much power each one had and how it changes along the list. Teaching was the first and the power lies with the teacher. Advising is the same, the power lies with the advisor. The third one changes slightly, and with guidance the power is shared this is the same with the forth which is mentoring. The fifth and sixth befriending and counselling the power lies with the client. With counselling the client holds all the power because they are there of their own free will to change something themselves. If the client doesn’t want to be there they can leave at any time they want they also speak of what they want to when they are ready. A counsellor never gives advice they are there to listen the only time the client hasn’t got power is when there is boundary issues such as time and if they have to break confidentiality. In activity 3 we discussed our own definitions of what counselling is and this is my idea:- Counselling is somewhere that a person goes when they have issues that they want to resolve and get over. A client has to learn to own their own problems and find a way to deal with them in their own way. The client also has to understand what has happened to them and they do this by speaking about their problem. You help the client to do this by actively listening to them and showing empathy. Counselling can only be done by a qualified counsellor on a one to one basis. Counselling skills can be done by anybody unless they have a position of power over the person. To end today’s session we did some skills. I don’t like the skills but it helps us so that we eventually can do them naturally. I don’t like the talking because I struggle to think of things to say. Today in class I learnt about the helping continuum and I felt that this is useful to know about the power changes and I liked my group also its good to be back.