Important Counselling Microskills

Counselling microskills help a counsellor to enhance his or her communication with different clients. These skills make it possible for counsellors to effectively construct a functioning alliance and involve clients in discussions that are meaningful and of great help. Many counsellors often fall short of some of the critical counselling microskills. In this article, we shall look at some of the core skills which can be implemented individually or combined to offer the best counselling service. If properly implemented, they can help clients access their deepest thoughts and achieve some clarity about their future dreams.

1. Attending behaviour

Displaying attending behaviour is very important when you first meet a client as it helps in building rapport. When a counsellor meets a client for the first time, it is important to show the client that you are interested in listening to him or her and assisting them. In addition, the counsellor is also in a position to encourage clients to talk openly and freely about the issues they could be having. One important aspect of attending behaviour is eye contact. Whether you are listening or speaking to an individual, maintaining eye contact is a very good way to show politeness and build trust. However, this does not mean staring at the client, it means maintaining normal eye contact so as to show a genuine interest in what a client is saying.

2. Questioning

Questioning is an important skill that every counsellor must master. This is because questions during any counselling session can give clients the confidence to open up and expand on new areas of discussion. Questions can help pinpoint an issue in addition to helping clarify information that initially seemed ambiguous to a counsellor. In addition, questions can trigger clients to recall and think of information that can help in their journey of soul searching and self-exploration.

Every counsellor should be well versed with various questioning techniques which also includes their use and their likely results. Although questioning is an important skill, it is also imperative to be cautious about over-questioning. Asking too many questions can make the client feel uncomfortable and therefore unwilling to cooperate.

3. Confrontation

In general terms, the word confrontation means challenging another individual over a certain disagreement or discrepancy. However, in terms of counselling, confrontation is a skill that a counsellor uses to try and bring awareness to the client regarding something that might have been ignored or overlooked.

Confrontation in counselling usually involves three steps. The very first step entails identifying incongruent or mixed messages as expressed through a client’s words. The second step calls for the counsellor to bring awareness regarding the incongruities and help the client to work on them. The final step involves the evaluation of the counsellor’s intervention as portrayed by the client’s growth and change.

Whether you are a new counsellor or one with many years of experience, the microskills outlined in this article are key to the success of a counsellor’s career

The Link between Communication and Counselling

Without communication counselling cannot be successful as a therapist won’t be able to get through to the patient while the patient will fail to covey to a therapist what the issues are. In essence there has to be a balance between the two in order for any counselling to succeed. But what does communication entail?

There are two ways to communicate. It can either be done vocally or through body language. For a therapist both of them are important, because it’s much harder for the body to lie. What the patient doesn’t say out loud can be seen in his or her body movements. Let’s begin with the foundation of communication.

Interpersonal communication
This is the first steps to assessing the patient and starts with an easy-going and casual conversation. Finding a common ground and understanding with the patient is the whole purpose of the exercise; otherwise you are just wasting each other’s time.

Unfortunately it’s not as easy as it sounds. What should be a simple process of conveying a message between two individuals can be difficult. People may put up barriers, which tend to block any chance of interpersonal communication. These barriers can consist of judgment, sending solutions and simply avoiding the concerns of others.

If this is the case the therapist has to find ways to break down the barriers first and establish a sense of trust. There are several ways to do this and it should be common knowledge for a professional therapist. But it’s safe to say that every strategy will start with focus.

How to break down the barriers
The therapist has to pay attention to the context of the dialogue in addition to the patient’s body language. In more common terms, the therapist has to look for any distinctive physical signs that could lead to more information. For example, finding out if the patient is restless or agitated and from this the right approach can be found such as therapy for possible anxiety disorders.

The environment the therapist presents also plays a crucial role in how communication is going to flow. If the patient doesn’t feel relaxed or safe then the barriers will almost certainly go up. It’s important for a therapist to approach the patient with support and comfort.

During these assessment sessions a therapist should make use of the basic communication skills. These include listening and awareness, verbal expression, acknowledgement and reflection. In other words, a therapist should have a good grasp on what clear communication is based on, while being able to put it into practice.

Pursuing a career in counselling will require certain people skills. For some it will be easier than others to progress faster with patients simply because they retain a natural social gift. Regardless of talent and skill, a therapist should always make it their main priority to develop communication skills, seeing as it’s the biggest asset within the profession.

The link between communication and counselling is so strong that the one cannot exist without the other. It’s the only way success in this field can be achieved.

Diploma of Counselling to Become a Counsellor

If you enjoy helping others and have a passion for assisting people through difficult times, a career as a counsellor may be the ideal path for you. You may have quite often been praised as being a good listener, and your friends and others comfortably turn to you for advice. And you feel rewarding when you can help others to find a way to solve their problems. Then you most likely have a good aptitude for a counsellor. Or you may have undergone counselling during difficult times and that positive experience motivated you to become a counsellor.

Regardless what the reason why you aspire to becoming a counsellor is, there is a certain path you need to go through to come into the workforce as a counsellor. Counsellors help people to define and identify their emotional problems and understand themselves better by explaining and clearing their issues and options, providing therapy, setting goals and assist them to take actions. Therefore, you are required to have acquired specific knowledge and skills to be a counsellor.

How to become a counsellor?

Basic personal requirements or aptitudes are compassion, empathy, and good listening and communication skills.

You could work as a counsellor without formal qualifications, but your career will be limited and if you are aiming at respectable and reputable position, you need to have qualifications. There are many institutions, including TAFE that offer a qualification in counselling in Australia. The most common option is Diploma of Counselling. This qualification has been well recognized in the counselling industry worldwide and provides you with a perfect platform from which to pursue your career as a counsellor. Each institution have their own prerequisites and subjects choices, so better contact your preferred institution and ask for further information. Some of them offer courses through distance education as well.

What is Diploma of Counselling?

Generally, Diploma of Counselling courses feature several popular counselling theories together with the fundamentals of the practices of counselling and human behaviour. The topics include counselling and the counselling process, the counselling relationship, personality and development theories, cognitive behavioural therapy, solution focused therapy, legal and ethical issues, case management, working with diversity and so on.

In order to get into these courses, you are required to complete Year 12 and gained HSC/ACT. However, some institutions or courses have flexibility in their entry requirements, so better to enquire first. If you are a graduate or student, you may be eligible to become a member of the Australian Counselling Association, and it is one of the advantages to obtain Diploma of Counselling.

Counsellors are often self-employed and work in private practice, but some work in schools, community centres, clinics, hospitals, and other non-profit organizations. They provide counselling and support to individuals, families, couples and groups. Some of the large organizations and corporations have their own counsellors who specialize in organisational or workplace counselling. Some counsellors are specialized in working with a certain group, such as indigenous people, non-English speaking background people, teenagers, single parents and so on.