A REFLECTIVE INCIDENT ANALYSIS

A Reflective Incident Analysis

A Reflective Incident Analysis

Self Reflection of Counselling Skills

The purpose of this essay is describing the counselling practices that I did in my class room. In this reflective essay, I will describe the style of counselling that I used so far, the actions I had taken, the area of skills where I need further improvement, my perception about the feedbacks from other students and faculty supervisor. By discussing this unique experience in detail, I can start to aware of the specific skills and technique which counsellor may use in a different situation of the client in order to boost the client to take positive action by her or himself.

As part of community welfare curriculum, I need to role play 20 minutes of counselling session with my colleague. Before the final role play, I had done few days of practice sessions with my colleague. I was getting feedback from the rest of the classmates and teacher as they would be the observers of the counselling sessions. I found the practice sessions challenging because my friend was acting as a client. Even though, I was playing the role of counsellor, my mind was struggling to consider my friend as client.

Before embarking upon my reflection regarding counselling, I would like to contribute a brief description of about the client. My client was 52years of old lady who was looking after her 72 years of old mother. She (mother of the client) was suffering dementia. The client hast two kids who are studying. As she was working seven days, she was not getting time to ventilate her feeling to anyone. She came to me with complaints of stress. She was afraid to tell her mother she was contemplating nursing home care. I was really focused on my micro skills rather than therapeutic skills” as they play a pivotal role in counselling skills more “I belief. The micro skills such as empathy, questioning, minimal encourages, paraphrasing, summary, eye contact, body language, voice, structure, observation and listening are very important in counselling.

During the session, I tried my client to be relaxed and comfortable. I adopted a non-threatening and unofficial demeanour and attempted to establish a safe atmosphere for her to disclose her issues, also to develop a sense of trust between them by conveying a nonjudgmental and noncritical attitude. In the role play, areas can be identified quite well and overall appeared to contribute to an effective and well thought out approach to the process. The first area to reflect upon is the use of listening skills. I paid full attention to what the client had to say, and gave the right nonverbal cues as well to make sure she was encouraged to keep speaking. This included right gesticulation, nodding of the head and leaning forward (to show an active interest in what was being discussed). Part of being a good listener was also intervening at crucial junctions and clarifying certain points, so that she knew that the counsellor was fully engaged ...