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Counselling Skills

Certificate in Counselling Skills

Welcome to this Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills.

As you start to read through each page you will be able to make notes and comments on things you have learnt or may want to revisit at a later stage. At the end of each section you will be asked to answer the relevant assessment questions.

Once you have answered the questions, go to the next section and continue studying until all of the assessment questions have been completed.

Please make sure that you set aside enough time to read each section carefully, making notes and completing all of the activities. This will allow you to gain a better understanding of the subject content, and will help you to answer all of the assessment questions accurately.

Good luck with your study. Now let’s begin!

We hope you find all of the information contained in this resource pack interesting and informative. This learning resource and the assessment questions have been approved by NCFE as a great way to meet the learning outcomes for this qualification. (A complete list of the learning outcomes can be found on the last page of this resource.)

The course is made up of two parts (A, and B). This is Part A which contains two units:

UNIT 1: Using counselling skills

UNIT 2: Introduction to counselling skills theories

Introduction

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Unit 1: Using counselling skills

Welcome to unit one.

Section 1: Core counselling skills

Section 2: Establishing a helping relationship

Section 3: Using core counselling skills in a helping relationship

Section 4: Concluding a helping interaction

This unit is split into four sections. These are:

Section 1: Core counselling skills

This section will explore the following:

• Core counselling skills

• How to use core counselling skills in a counselling relationship or other helping activities.

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Core counselling skills

This section identifies the following core counselling skills for you to explore in detail and assess your potential for practising them:

Carl Rogers identified three ‘core conditions’ for growth that are practised as skills by counsellors. These skills are:

• Unconditional positive regard

• Genuineness

• Empathetic understanding.

Gerard Egan thought that as well as possessing the core conditions, counsellors also needed to help clients make decisions, clarify and set goals, and to support them in implementing their actions. To this effect he developed a Three Stage Model:

• Stage 1 – Getting the story

• Stage 2 – Development of possibilities for change

• Stage 3 – Strategies for change and closing the session.

1. Unconditional positive regard

2. Genuineness

3. Empathetic understanding

4. Active listening

5. Questioning

6. Paraphrasing

7. Reflecting

8. Summarising

9. Challenging.

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Counselling Skills

These core conditions and stages can now be explained in terms of the skills that counsellors require in a counselling situation.

1. Unconditional positive regard

For a person to be able to grow and achieve their potential they need to be valued for themselves. In order to develop this as a skill, counsellors have to be able to separate the actions and beliefs of the client from the client as a person.

The effective counsellor has to display an attitude towards the client that says, ‘I accept you as you are’, even when they may not agree with the client or even when they may be disgusted at their actions.

Further Research: Unconditional positive regard Use the link below to find out more about unconditional positive regard. If you need help using the internet, you should seek advice from your tutor or your local library.

http://psychology.about.com/od/uindex/g/unconditional-positive-regard.htm

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Key FactThe counsellor’s role is not to change the client but to help the client to change – the client has begun this process of change by seeking counselling in the first place.

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Counselling Skills

Activity 1: Developing unconditional positive regard Over the course of a week, try to have conversations with people that you like and those that you dislike for some reason. Try to analyse whether you have, or could develop, unconditional positive regard for them.

Record your thoughts and feelings in the space below.

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Complete the next activity to learn more about the skill of unconditional positive regard.

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STOP AND THINK!

Think about what it was that made you like or dislike someone. Do you think it is easier to develop unconditional positive regard for someone if you like them?

What do you think you would have to do to develop unconditional positive regard for someone whom you disliked?

Make notes in the space below.

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Key FactFor the counsellor, having unconditional positive regard for someone means suspending any judgements about them or their behaviour. Normally we tend to judge others according to our own beliefs and values.

2. Genuineness

Genuineness is also called congruence. Like unconditional positive regard, genuineness is also an attitude that can be developed as a skill. It is perhaps the most important basic skill for the counsellor because often clients can tell whether the counsellor is genuine or not. They can tell if the counsellor is just ‘going through the motions’ in which case they are not likely to be forthcoming with issues of concern.

If the counsellor is perceived not to be genuine the client will lack trust in both the counsellor and the counselling relationship. A relationship in which the client can explore issues and make progress will not develop.

Genuineness comes from a desire to help the client find the solutions to their problems, not to want to solve the problems for them. It is strongly linked to having unconditional positive regard. It means that the counsellor has to be authentic and not have to put on a facade.

Further Research: Genuineness Use the link below to find out more about genuineness. If you need help using the internet, you should seek advice from your tutor or your local library.

www.gordontraining.com/leadership-training/acceptance-empathy-and-genuineness-not-a-weakness/

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Counselling Skills

Complete the next activity to learn more about your own capacity for genuineness.

Activity 2: Genuineness Using the space below, describe situations in which you feel that you can be yourself and situations where you feel that you can’t. Try to explain why this is the case.

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STOP AND THINK!

Are there particular people that you feel you are more yourself with?

Have you found that the more judgemental you perceive a person to be the less likely you are to be yourself? Make notes in the space below.

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Key FactSuspending judgement increases genuineness and unconditional positive regard.

3. Empathetic understanding

Empathy is the ability to try to understand what the client is feeling. This refers to the counsellor’s ability to understand sensitively and accurately – but not sympathetically – the client’s experience and feelings in the here and now.

Empathetic understanding is shown by the way that the counsellor attends to the client and listens and responds to them. It involves trying to see a situation through the eyes of the client rather than their own.

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In contrast, sympathy is where we feel pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune. For example, people with the experience of parenthood can sympathise with other parents whose child dies because they are imagining how they would feel if it happened to them. The emphasis here is on the feelings of the sympathetic parents – not the parents who have lost the child. This is particularly important for bereavement counsellors who must demonstrate empathy – not sympathy – where the focus is on the parents who have suffered the loss.

Further Research: Empathetic understanding Use the link below to find out more about empathetic understanding. If you need help using the internet, you should seek advice from your tutor or your local library. www.improveyoursocialskills.com/empathy

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