Assignment Task
Opening a session
- What do you do at the beginning of a session?
- Introductions (“What would you like me to call you?”)
- Have you done counseling before? How was it? Explain what counseling is if nee Confidentiality requirements
Explanation of counseling
Counseling is a confidential process designed to help you address your concerns, come to a greater understanding of yourself, and learn effective personal and interpersonal coping strategies.
It involves sharing sensitive, personal, and private information with a trained professional who is committed to helping you achieve your goals.
During the course of counseling, there may be periods of anxiety, distress or confusion.
The outcome of counseling is often positive; however, the level of satisfaction for any individual is not predictable. Confidentiality requirements
Everything we discuss during our work together is confidential. However, there are some exceptions. As a therapist, I may have to break confidentiality if any of the following occurs:
- First, if you have thoughts of seriously harming yourself or someone else;
- Second, if a young person (under 16 years of age) is being neglected or abused or in danger of being neglected and abused;
- Third, if a serious crime has been committed or may be committed; and
Finally, to comply with a court order.
Demonstration of Counselling Skills
- Ability to open the interview demonstrated (introductions, explanation of what counselling is, ask client if they have any questions, confidentiality)
- Ability to assist client to explore the issue/s, set goals and determine course of action (why are they seeing you, what do they want to get from counselling, what will you work on together)
- Ability to apply person-centred principles & micro-skills demonstrated
- What did you do well & what could you have done or said something differently to be more effective, with examples of what you might have said or done differently?
Provide a brief outline of how you might continue to work with this client in future sessions.
Researching
You can search for peer-reviewed journal articles, which you can find in the online journal databases and which can be accessed from the library homepage. Reputable news sites such as The Conversation, online dictionaries, and online encyclopaedias are acceptable as a starting point to gain knowledge about a topic. Government departments, research institutes such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local not-for-profit organisations such as the Cancer Council are also good resources.
Description
The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate the application of appropriate counselling skills and techniques that you have been exposed to in this unit. Make a recording of a face-to-face counselling session of 30 minutes in duration. Transcribe 10 minutes of the recording and submit as an appendix to the assessment. Appendices are not included in the word limit. You will need to ensure that the transcription provides adequate material to answer this part of the question. The transcription does not need to be consecutive. Please record the starting time and ending time of each element of the transcription. While this may be a real-life situation or a role-play scenario, the client should not be a member of your family nor a very close friend.
Written reflection on your counselling skills/techniques based on the transcript
The purpose of this part of the assignment is to demonstrate an ability to reflect on and assess your counselling skills and yourself as a therapist, including the ability to identify areas for improvement. Using examples drawn from a transcript of your counselling session you must demonstrate the use of generic skills in combination with one of the therapies studied in this unit. Please ensure that:
- The ability to open the interview is demonstrated The ability to assist client to explore the issue, set goals and determine course of action is demonstrated
- The ability to apply person-centred skills demonstrated In addition, this assessment requires you to critically evaluate your skills by addressing the following:
- Where, in hindsight, do you feel you could have done or said something differently to be more effective, with examples of what you might have said or done differently? Provide a brief outline of how you might continue to work with this client in future sessions.