Demonstrate Effective Counselling Skills

The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate effective counselling skills by participating in a role play. I will be counselling a client for ten minutes, exploring the issues she is facing through the use of a vast amount of verbal and non-verbal communication. The scenario in which I will be basing my role play on is; a young woman who makes herself sick after she has eaten. She knows it is not a good idea, but she likes the sense of control it gives her. Due to being abused as a child by her father she finds it hard trusting people and forming relationships. Consequently, she does not have any friends or family that she feels she can talk to.
Skills used
Firstly, by using a range of counselling skills, this allows the professional to
Bikker et al., (2014) states that by using empathy it can be particularly beneficial in reducing distress and positively improving the quality of therapeutic relationships. This would be useful in my role play due to the fact that the client finds it difficult to maintain relationships and has no one she can talk to. By showing empathy, this will enable me as the professional to look at the situation from her perspective, and engage with her in a way no one else has. This will result in the increase of beneficial changes been made in her
I have a tendency to sympathise rather than empathise with an individual’s feelings. This is because it is easier to tell someone who is going through a hard time that “everything will be ok”. However, by practising this skill I believe I am developing an understanding of the difference and why empathising will be more beneficial for the client.
Secondly, maintaining professional boundaries is something I have to do all the time. When I am at work it is important that my relationship with the clients and their family are strictly professional. I must never give away my personal contact details and never meet them outside of the restricted working hours. This will be a skill that I will not have difficulty in maintaining, even if I was to be asked, I would confidently be able to say no and state why this is against policy procedures.
Finally, active listening is a skill in which comes naturally to me. I have realised I use listening skills constantly throughout my job as a career and throughout placements I have obtained whilst at the university. This will benefit my roleplay because I have already had a lot of practise with this skill and therefore will be confident in demonstrating this