Academic Essay on a Counselling Video

The term "micro-skills" is used to refer to the specific competencies that aid in effective communication with others. Counsellors and therapists among others are imparted with professional education on micro-skills which are critical building blocks for counseling, mediation, and therapy among others. Micro skills can be described as attitudes and behaviors possessed by counselors and allow them to hear, understand, communicate and empathize better. These skills are hardly noticed but can set apart a counselor from any other therapist or a counselor. In this paper, there will be an in-depth analysis of a counseling session from the Counselling and Therapy in Video series. It will entail a summary of the counseling session, identification of micro skills used and verbatim. Additionally, there will be an evaluation of the outcomes of the counseling session. Some of the counseling micro skills used in the counseling session include active listening, a reflection of content and paraphrasing among others. These micro skills are essential in building rapport and therapeutic relationship during counseling. Active listening can be described as hearing what is said and being attentive on how it is said to enable the adjustment of a conversation to elicit the necessary response. In building rapport and therapeutic relationship, active listening is used to for affirming and exploring the problem, responding to complaints and gaining information to get a clear picture. The reflection of content involves reflecting on what the client has said by the counselor showing that they have heard and understood. This helps in building rapport and therapeutic relationship since it demonstrates a connection affirms the identity thereby enhance bonding. Lastly, there is paraphrasing which entails rephrasing the client's message mostly in few words for the clarification of what they have said. It is essential since it helps the client in feeling heard and understood. This paper will analyze three micro skill utilized in the person-centered therapy session.

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Summary of the Counselling Session

The counseling session involves a counselor and a client who is a father of two and in a strained relationship with the wife. The client explains that the wife is a control freak and gets agitated with the slightest provocation. He claims that the wife has angry and despite their ability to solve issues at first, it has reached a situation dealing with her is impossible. The strained relationship and the outbursts from the wife are affecting the client at work and also the children. The client is thinking of leaving the relationship to prevent emotional turmoil to the children. However, he is also looking for alternatives to resolve the relationship with the wife.

Micro Skills used in the Counselling Session

Active Listening

Active listening is a mode of communication utilized in counseling and entails listening with all sense which includes hearing, attention, responsive gesture, and understanding, remembering and offering appropriate feedback. It entails counselor's ability to capture and understand the message communicated by the client as they tell their story transmitted either verbally or non-verbally. Active listening involves listening to gain an understanding of the verbal message (LoFrisco, 2012). It also entails listening and interpreting the non-verbal messages. The counselor can also understand the client in context and listen with empathy. Active listening is utilized by the counselor to build rapport and improve the overall relationship with the client. It enables the counselor to get a clear picture of the client's situation. It also helps to affirm, acknowledge and explore the problem. Through the information obtained and understanding, the counselor can respond to the client's problem. The client can see the counselor is involved and therefore it creates rapport and enhances the therapeutic relationship. Ultimately, the client opens up to the counselor, and an appropriate solution can be established for improving the success of counseling session.

Reflection of Content

Reflection of content entails reflecting the content of the message conveyed by the client. When the counselor is reflecting what the client said, they do not repeat what was said but take the important content information. The counselor listens accurately to the client and reflects the essence of the content in their own words (Byrne & Byrne, 1992). Reflection of content has benefits such as building rapport and enhancing the therapeutic relationship since the counselor shows interests, gains information and developments understanding of the client's problem. It builds rapport since the counselors show the client that they have heard and understood their issue and they are interested in them and what they are saying. Since the client knows the counselor affirms their identity and has interest in them, the therapeutic relationship is enhanced (Listening skills n.d). It, therefore, means that the counselor can get enough information thereby helping the client accept the problem and find a solution. This means it helps in improving the success of the counseling session.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing can be described as a micro skill used by a counselor and happens then they listen, restate succinctly and tentatively what the client said and at the same time conveying empathy, genuineness, and acceptance (Geldard & Geldard, 2017). It has impacts on the client-counselor relationship. It helps the client feel they are heard and understood. This promotes the bond between the client and counseling enhancing rapport. It builds empathy thereby building an empathic relationship and ultimately therapeutic relationship. This increases the possibility that the client will get the answers they need at the end of the counseling process.

Identification of the Micro Skills Using Verbatim

Active Listening Examples

It is important for the client to feel heard. The counselor can use several techniques to accomplish this objective. In, active listening, there are both verbal and non-verbal cues used by the counselor. In the Session 1 of the Person-Centered Therapy, the counselor uses non-verbal cues such as head nods, smile, and appropriate eye contact.

The counselor in this session used verbal cues too as part of active listening. For example:

Example 1

"00:50 Max Yes, it is, um, a bit awkward.

00:55 UNKNOWN Really.

Max, I was brought up in solving problems yourself.

UNKNOWN Yeah.

Max and, and the only time I ever (inaudible) problems to strangers. And I, I would (inaudible), but also I realized now that given a, a, the depth of the problem that I'll say, needed to get another perspective on things."

In this case, the counselor uses "Really" and "Yeah," this encourages Max to explore and talk more about the problem he is facing. He points out that it is a bit awkward and the counselor asks "really" to encourage Max to talk more.

Example 2

"02:50 Max Well, uh, I suppose things are just deteriorated in my relationship with my wife, um, Angelina.

02:55 UNKNOWN Really.

Max Oh, we've been married 11 years now, and we've got two kiddies, John is 9 and Jackie is 7.

03:00 UNKNOWN Right.

Max and she's very busy in her job, and she's always been a, I suppose a bit of control freak. She likes things to be just so. And, uh, occasionally she would, what I would call 'lose the (inaudible )', she'd yell at me and abuse me, but, um, in the past that was never a problem because we could sit down and talk about it and she'd recognize that she'd probably gone over the top and, and whatever. Uh, but lately it's really just gotten out of hand, and that's, uh, it's, uh, she's not controlling her anger, her temper. And, uh, it, it really concerns me now because, uh, I think it's starting to affect the kids (Counselling Therapies 2011)".

In this instance, the counselor uses "Really" and "Right" to help Max provide more information. At first, Max explains the deteriorated relationship with the wife. The counselor uses "real," and Max is encouraged to give more information concerning the relationship with the wife.

The use of active listening which includes verbal and non-verbal cues helps the client to trust the counselor more and strengthen the bond. This builds rapport and enhances the client-counselor relationship. Ultimately, the client provides more information to the counselor which improves the outcome of the session. At the end of the session, the client agrees to continue with therapy to explore more alternatives.

Reflection of Content Examples

"04:00 Max Yeah. I mean the kids are young and, uh, uh, I mean, John, John, he's a boy, and he seems to be handling things okay. Um, but you, you're always uncertain as to what really, how things are affecting him. Jackie is, uh, Jackie is only 7, as I said, and, uh, she's a lot more sensitive. And I just, she's not really handling things too well at all. And, uh, and that's really starting to, um, put a lot of extra, uh, concern to me.

04:30 empathy

UNKNOWN Yeah. Okay. So it sounds like you've, you've got a lot of concerns about both the kids. And John's probably handling it okay, outwardly, even though obviously he's feeling it. But Jackie you're particularly concerned about because she's quite delicate. And you're worried about that impact (Counselling Therapies 2011)."

In this instance, Max explains the reservation he has concerning the implication of problem to the children. The counselor reflects on that content by voicing what Max is pointing earlier. This makes Max know that the counselor is listening and acknowledges his predicament. This promotes rapport and the relationship with the counselor (Useful Counselling 2015). Since the counselor has the correct information, she can understand and help Max.

Paraphrasing Examples

"11:14 UNKNOWN Right, right. Um, okay, Max, if I could just summarize what we've talked about so far. Um, you explained to me that you've become very frustrated and, and tired and I think worn out, with a lot of the anger and a lot of the volatility in the relationship that you have with Angelina. And you are very worried about the impact on both Jackie and John. And you've been so worried, in fact, that you've considered leaving, uh, but it's also occurred to you that that's a, a major step to take and it's one that you would prefer not to do. And that, that makes you think that you want to work even harder to actually restore things between yourself and Angelina. And, and work things through so that, um, you can actually be more harmonious and, and live together in peace as a family (Counselling Therapies 2011)."

The counselor paraphrases everything they have talked about. It makes the counselor confirm the information already provided (Geldard & Geldard, 2017). This makes the client know that the counselor was listening and cares thereby promoting the bond between them. This means that rapport is enhanced and therapeutic relationship strengthened.

Conclusion

The objective of counseling is to help the client understand and accept their situation. It entails bringing out the voluntary change in the client's life. In this paper, the counselor aims to help the client understand the situation he is in and come up with an appropriate solution. At the start of the counseling session, the client points out that he is uncomfortable talking to a stranger. However, the counselor uses micro skills to ensure the session is a success. The micro skills used include active listening, a reflection of content and paraphrasing. This helps in building a bond between the client and the counselor. It aids in building rapport and enhancing the therapeutic relationship.