COUNSELLING PRECTICE

Counselling Prectice

Counselling Prectice

Introduction

When considering what part values play in social work practice, one of the first things to understand is what our values are, Thompson (2000) states that One of the significant features of values is that we tend to become so accustomed to our own values and beliefs that we do not recognise that they are there or how they are influencing us. An important step, then, is to be clear about what our values are. I will discuss both the personal and professional values that influence social work practice and discuss a particularly challenging experience I had with two clients who came for counselling. The names of the clients have been changed to ensure confidentiality.(Foster,2002,23)

Discussion

Reflecting on what we do is supposed to lead to wisdom, and professionals in a number of different fields have been encouraged to do this for some years. The results for individuals have been mixed - it is easy to go over a difficult incident in your mind without actually finding any new ways forward. Gillie Bolton's book offers a better way. Written out of the experience of running workshops on reflective writing for a wide variety of professionals, the book offers techniques for turning professional experience into story or even poetry, and in the process coming to terms with the emotional demands of professional practice.

Focusing Attention

The concept of counselling as a helping process, focusing attention on the interrelatedness of individuals and their world, is a critical aspect of contemporary nursing. Counselling skills also have implications for nurses involved in mentoring pre-registration nursing students, particularly where accurate, credible and accountable assessment hinges on how well students and mentors have invested in a learning dialogue. Such concerns become especially relevant to those students on the borderline of achieving clinical learning outcomes. This paper highlights a reconstructed narrative between a mentor and this author concerning a student on the borderline of achievement in clinical practice. The use of counselling skills in helping mentors to focus on complex assessment issues relating to pre-registration nursing students are subjected to a detailed critical analysis. The fragility of such encounters is underlined, as well as a need for mentors to engage in reflexive practice.(Frank,2005)

An important thing to recognise regarding values in social work practice, according to the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW) is that "values are integral to rather than separate from competent practice. Therefore there can be no such thing as value free social work practice. Such is the influence of values in social work practice that CCETSW set out six core values, that the student must demonstrate competence in, before she/he can be awarded the Diploma in Social Work. The first of these values is: "to identify and question their own values and prejudices, and there implications for practice".(Foster,2002,23)

It is not easy to recognise your own values, as often they are unconscious ideas or views, which can only be challenged or changed, when brought to the conscious ...