COUNSELLING

Analysis of Practical Counselling Skills

[Institute's Name]Analysis of Practical Counselling Skills

Introduction

The need for counselling and counsellors has always been in demand, people, grieved and burdened with the hardships and injustices of life and society are tend to move to the depressive and self-destructive side. These people need someone who would listen, understand and help them in returning back to normal life. Counselling was once considered as a society friendly skill; now the severities of living in a society where the challenges and competition of the education, profession and personal life are growing with every passing day, counselling has become a social necessity.

It is a known fact that a healthy individual is fundamental for a healthy and pleasant society; stress of workplace and domesticity leaves an individual in a constant state of tension and anxiety. A number of researches and surveys have shown that such individuals are not only dangerous for the people around them but for themselves as well. Their cantankerous behaviour acts as a factor of social unrest and a source of constant misery for their acquaintances and people in contact with them. Besides the influence of stress and pressure of professional and social factors, people that had suffered or are suffering from any kind of abuse also need counselling as much as the people suffering from stress.

Discussion

There are a number of counselling skills helpful in dealing with the people facing problems in moving harmoniously with society; the skills are, actually, the tools to fight with the negative factors making people's lives miserable. As a recognised and accepted fact, human mind is the centre of activities of man; individuals are influenced by the factors working on their psyche. The influences affect behaviour and performance of man in both positive and negative way (Jones, 2012, pp. 3,4). The counselling skills enamour the counsellor to help the affected individuals in recognising and accepting the aspects responsible for their condition. The right application of these skills will work efficiently for both the client and counsellor. The counselling skills required for appropriate psychotherapy are attending, minimal responding, listening, empathic responding, paraphrasing, challenging, questioning and summarizing (Krayford, 2011).

Attending is the very first and the most important skill while counselling a client; to encourage the client in talking and revealing the past experiences or the ones that are bothering it. In order to make the session successful there are some fundamental points that are to be followed and taken care of: to make the client speak freely with the counsellor it is a very important phenomenon to build a successful and encouraging relationship between the counsellor and the client. Petruska Clarkson (2003) in her The Therapeutic Relationship has examined the effects of relationship between client and counsellor on the treatment period. Relationships and interconnectedness work as healing power for people; families having strong ties of trust and confidence among each other are less likely to experience problems among them. The therapeutic relationship is considered and found to be more effective if both parties have the bond ...