Second the therapist must convey unconditional positive regard for the client, this means that the therapist accepts everything the client say without passing judgment on the client. Clients trust that the therapist will not reject them if they say the wrong thing or if something critical comes out in the course of therapy. The atmosphere is safe for clients to begin exploring their distress. The third condition for the therapeutic progress is empathic understating. The client must feel that the therapist understands him or her.
The therapist needs an attitude of “I’ll accept you as you are.” The therapist must always maintain a positive attitude to the client at all times. Empathy: The ability to understand the other person at a deep level. It involves being able to put yourself in the other person’s position, and understanding them in their own terms, having the ability to understand sensitively and accurately but not
The six core conditions are: * Therapist-client psychological contact * Client vulnerability * Client perception * Unconditional positive regard * Empathic understanding * Therapeutic Congruence or Genuineness With Unconditional positive regard, the counsellor accepts the client unconditionally and is non-judgemental. The client is then free to explore all their feelings and emotions without the fear of being judged or rejected. Empathic understanding refers to the counsellors accurately understanding the thoughts, feelings and meanings the clients has and be able to perceive their world as they perceive it. Congruence is the therapist being genuine and authentic towards the client . The therapist is open and transparent to the client.
“A primary task in psychotherapy and counselling is the creation of a secure base in the reliability and consistency of the therapeutic relationship. Only when the client or patient feels some confidence in the therapist’s responsiveness and empathy will she feel able to make excursions into
Characteristics of an effective professional counselor include being empathetic, trustworthy and display good communication skills. The primary responsibility of licensed mental health counselors is to respect client dignity and promote client welfare (American Mental Health Counselor
Emphasis is on reviewing, consolidating, saying goodbye and shifting success to client. 2. Explain the importance of opening a session appropriately. Setting the scene and the relationship between the listener and speaker and building a level of trust and boundaries. It is the beginning of a therapeutic relationship whereby the listener actively and attentively listens to the speaker in order to gain insight and understanding.
Professional Identity and Career’s Claudia Gonzalez CNSL502 07/25/2014 Barbara Burt James Parker Professional Identity and Career’s: Counselor Our notion of a professional counselor, takes us to the concept of helping other in the form of advice, or guidance. Make us think about a friend, confident, priest, or someone who is willing to hear us without judgment. A professional counselor reminds us of people with personal qualities such as empathy, patience, good ethics, listener, and a well-versed person. These personal attributes play a role to professional identity in counseling. According to Gibson et al.
Because of the unique client counsellor relationship it is easy for them to be taken advantage of. This makes imperative the therapists be ethically aware of the power of their role. “Fidelity, honoring the trust placed in the practitioner.” Ref: “Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling & Psychotherapy.”
In addition I am going to explore how the client might feel in a session and the blocks, fears and uncertainties they may encounter. By way of background I will highlight person centred counselling which was pioneered by the eminent psychologist, Carl Rogers. Sincerity is key to being a good counsellor and the client needs to know that the counsellor has their best interests at heart, and are without a doubt sincere in what is said and what is professed. Courage in a counselling relationship is defined as acting in spite of known fears. Essentially, courage is strengthened with confidence in self and nothing can be achieved without courage.
The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client The therapist accepts the person as they are, puts no condition on valuing them, separates the behaviour from the person. When they know they are not being judged, it allows the client to think perhaps they do not have to judge themselves (Rogers, 1975?) 5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s frame of reference and communicates this experience to the client When the client is empathically heard, they get greater understanding of themselves. (Rogers, 1979) 6.