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Learning from My Mistakes in Clinical Practice

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Learning from My Mistakes in Clinical Practice
Learning From My Mistakes in Clinical Practice
Liberty University
Counseling 505 Techniques and the Helping Relationship

ABSTRACT
As a professional counselor I need to be open-minded, wiling to explore, and have the ability to except the mistake I make and let them be a learning tool. When first starting out in the helping profession it can be overwhelming when realizing how much there is to learn, especially in the areas of relationships and rational skills. With all the education and training I will receive before being able to start my journey into the helping profession there will still be times when I make mistakes. But as a professional I need to realize my mistakes and allow them to be a learning tool. There are many different mistakes that I could possibly make while working as a counselor but out of those I will discuss the five I think I might make and discuss things I could do to keep myself from making those mistakes.

As I embark this journey to becoming a professional counselor I have found that I have had many misconceptions about the field. I have learned many things I did not know about the profession, such as professional counselor are not there to give advice to client but instead are there to help the client in discovery. While in this learning process I have also learned things about myself that I did not realize. I believe Dillon (2003) is right when she states that many of those that enter the helping professions do not realize that there is so much they will need to learn about relationships and building better rational skills. I feel I fall into this group of people because when I first decided to pursue my education in professional counseling I thought I know what I needed to about relationships and had good rational skills but I am finding that actually I have a lot to learn. I admit I have made many mistakes as I pursue my ultimate goal of becoming a professional counselor

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