OUTLOOK ON A PRODUCTIVE CAREER COUNSELLING | Self Reflection

Introduction

This assignment aims at providing self-reflective assessment feedback on the counselling session that was received from my partner. It would mainly demonstrate the areas of interrogating my own biases, stereotypes, preconceptions, derived from the information that was already available as well as few of my own ideas. it would also include the necessary micro-skills, the understanding of communication and insight into the overall effectiveness of the session.

Self Reflection

To begin with, the foundation of healthy development in personality is generally based on analysing the inherent human tendencies and working on them. For such development, a counsellor having knowledge and understanding of human nature is very crucial.

Confidentiality or privacy is one of the utmost importance of any form of counselling that can be termed effective (Alier et al. 2020). Privacy is a mandate that has to be maintained on all levels and even beyond the session. The terms of confidentiality were well-explained by the counsellor and made sure any advice and information given were in safe hands and in no way to be disclosed. This quality particularly eased my otherwise tensed situation when I eventually arrived for the session.

Observation of body language, in both verbal and non-verbal communications, is the key feature to understanding the nature of interest in a session. Being able to interpret the other through ethical body language and eye contact goes a long way. To understand my nature, in the beginning, helped in understanding the procedure in which the session was to proceed. The counsellor’s concern shown through subtle body language and eye-contact really relaxed me altogether. It was evident that I was sharing my troubles with a good listener because of the warmth in the counselling environment that she provided. She made talking-out very comfortable through her positive body language.

Attending behaviour through proper use of voice to state one’s opinion is crucial in building up a therapeutic relationship between a student and a counsellor. Genuine concern towards someone's issues yields positive results in counselling. It is relaxing when people, reaching out for counselling, receive compassionate attending to one’s own nature and behaviour. The advice delivered to me was in non-judgemental tone and the questions asked were also kept subtle, thus not enforcing power or superiority. 

An empathetic attribute is basically putting oneself in another’s shoes and trying to understand one’s situation without actually having been into it (Sakyi, 2017). By doing so the counsellor is building up a level of mutual trust with the student thus having a clear insight. For all my tribulations that were being shared, the counsellor made sure to keep an open mind and understand from my viewpoint without being overly empathetic.

Reflection of feelings is the foremost icebreaker in a counselling session. To understand and reflect the speaker’s experiences and emotional response to those experiences is the basis of this attribute (Floor and Lane, 2018). It was truly easing for me to be under the influence of such acceptance towards my feelings. Given that fact, my counsellor helped me in sharing the feelings by getting in touch with them on a deeper level. I felt my perspectives to be agreed upon and being asked me how I was feeling at the moment before starting right away.

Good listening skills teamed up with patience defines one’s quality of being able to calmly perceive another’s opinion without interrupting or growing annoyed at the other person (Ahmadi, 2016). The importance of listening comprehension in language learning.). This brings me to highlight the area of mutual understanding that is influential and paramount in building a trust relationship between two conversationalists. I received proper solutions to my problems because my issues were being told to a careful listener and she had been extremely patient in trying to figure out the foundations of the dilemma by providing the exact advice I needed.

Paraphrasing is the restatement of an already induced statement whereas helping in understanding the content of the information by using words differently yet meaning the same (Iyyer et al. 2018). It generally involves research orientation through reading books, journal papers and understanding of clients or students. I had been in good hands, which was evident from my counsellor, giving me ample time to speak up and her eager interest in letting me finish my inputs, later deciphering the information that I had given her about myself. 

Clarifying questions mainly deals with making a situation or query more deductible and comprehensible. Asking open-ended questions as opposed to close-ended ones really are a big deal for a session to be a success. Although probing  generally makes the student feel elicit and doubtful, it is very notable to mention that my counsellor had been very intuitive in helping me by asking me questions and clarifying my doubts. As well as that my tribulations in the education field are having a direct impact on the lifestyle that I was pushing myself into.

Summarising is generally the brief statement of all the points that are laid out in the beginning and what makes the basis of providing results. An entire session goes a long way in telling how much of a solution has been received in accordance with the level of issues taken into consideration while keeping one’s personal integrity and professionalism entact. I have been provided with the exact medication or solution rather than been given away a general deduction only by proper summarising of my issues.

Even if the session was a success, it would have been better, had she given more insight on how to train the mind to choose what is right and to stick to it. A lengthier version of the session would have been more impactful besides the advice that were given. Apart from the physical activities that were provided for a healthier frame of mind, had there been psychological activities to involve in too, it would have been more effective than it already is.

Conclusion

I am self-satisfied and content from the encounter that I had with my counsellor. At the beginning of the session, I was apprehensive of the entire process but as the session proceeded, I began to feel more assured and confident and by the end of the session I had a more coherent outlook on the decisions to be taken. All in all, the therapeutic relationship that I developed with me at the end of the session was also considerably more helpful than any other option that was available to me.

You may also like similar pages such as Counselling Theory, Ethics in Counselling

References

Ahmadi, S.M., 2016. The importance of listening comprehension in language learning.

Alier, M., Fonseca, D., García-Peñalvo, F.J., Amo, D. and Casañ, M.J., 2020. Protected Users: A Moodle Plugin To Improve Confidentiality and Privacy Support through User Aliases.

Floor, S.G. and Lane, D., 2018. The Structure of Group Therapy for Anxiety in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a CAMHS Setting in the UK. ARCHIVOS DE MEDICINA, 4(1), p.1.

Iyyer, M., Wieting, J., Gimpel, K. and Zettlemoyer, L., 2018. Adversarial example generation with syntactically controlled paraphrase networks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.06059.

Sakyi, J.P., 2017. Some effects of emphatic particles on Akan evidentials. Normas, 7(2), pp.34-47.