Counselling Skills

Counselling provides the opportunity for a person to express their thoughts and feelings in an environment that is different from their daily life. There may be a need to engage in a conversation where a person can receive feedback and a different perspective on the issues that they are dealing with in a non-judgemental and safe environment, McLeod (2007). In a recent counselling session, where I was the counsellor, I was invited to share the feelings and experience of my client who had some unpleasant experiences at work and he needed to talk to someone and express his feelings. According to Egan 2010, some of the important skills of an effective counsellor are good communication, active listening, empathic responding, probing, challenging and summarising. In this essay I will endeavour to elaborate on these and other skills which I used during the session, what I did well, what I should have avoided or done differently, the lessons learnt from this experience and how I intend to conduct myself as a counsellor in the future.

My day at work had been quite challenging on the day of the appointment and I was extremely tired and unnerved. I took a few minutes before the session to sit in silence and gather my thoughts, do some deep breathing exercises, and focus on the task that I was committed to. I felt calm and rejuvenated after this exercise and went in ready to start the session. According to Wilson 1995, the path to instant calm is creating a moment of silence and allowing ourselves to be still and in that moment to experience a sense of stability and focus. Wilson 1995 has also outlined some useful breathing techniques called the ‘art of breathing’ and affirmations where one can repeat positive and uplifting words in their mind over and over again to bring immediate positive change to a stressed and tired mind and body and those were the techniques I used. Due to the way I had felt earlier I had contemplated cancelling the session but went ahead as