Unit 4 Assessment Answers
Q2. Referring to your demonstration, discuss how effective the counselling skills you used were. Think about what you did
well and what you could have improved. How did you feel the skills you used helped the client and the relationship develop
and progress?
Sam is a young person that I work with once a week. Here, he shares how his week has been and how he feels he is struggling to
divide his time between hobbies, work, school, and spending time with his girlfriend, Amina. Sam expressed worry about Amina
believing she is not a priority of his, and fears this would upset her, and communicated a desire to “find a sweet spot” to avoid
this, whilst still dedicating time to other things he believes are important and enjoys doing.
Throughout this interaction I feel I succeeded in showing congruence, demonstrating both empathetic understanding and
unconditional positive regard by ensuring Sam felt listened to, and his thoughts, feelings and beliefs valued and accepted. In
order to demonstrate and relay this to Sam I utilised various counselling skills, including active listening, appropriate questioning,
paraphrasing, summarising and reflecting.
I began with the generic questions “How are you?” and “How has your week been?” to allow Sam the autonomy to direct the
topic of conversation, and followed these throughout with a mix of both closed and / or open-ended questions to encourage him
to either elaborate on or clarify a point he was making, or to reflect on how certain things were making him feel. When
paraphrasing what Sam was saying, I always asked him to confirm whether I was understanding him correctly. For example,
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but are you worried about…”. This was to ensure that I did not misunderstand his frame of reference,
and therefore allow him the opportunity to either correct me, or to reinforce my understanding.
I certainly attempted to reflect Sam’s feelings back to him in order to help him identify and clarify them, and I think I correctly
identified that he was anxious to protect Amina’s feelings and this, coupled with everything else he feels he must do, was causing
him to feel stressed. However, since listening back to the conversation, the feeling that stands out most to me is him being
‘overwhelmed’ by his commitments and responsibilities, and a desire to find some clarity and communicate this with his
girlfriend in order to find a solution and alleviate this stress for the both of them. My hope is that with practice, I will be better
able to identify and then verbalise a client’s specific feelings whilst ‘in the moment’.
In order to demonstrate these skills, I was careful to actively listen to Sam throughout our conversation. I orientated all my
attention towards him for the duration of the conversation to ensure that I really ‘heard’ everything he was trying to say, as well
as any messages he was conveying with his body language and tone of voice. Going into the conversation I tried my best to
follow Gerard Egan’s non-verbal listening process ‘SOLER’; I sat squarely, maintained an open posture, at times I leant forwards to
demonstrate interest, maintained eye contact, smiled or nodded to encourage disclosure, and tried to relax as much as possible
in the hope that this would also ease Sam’s nerves and ensure he felt comfortable ‘telling his story’.
As well as listening to what he was saying, I also tried to listen for what was missing. For instance, Sam feeling overwhelmed by
battling between wanting to protect his girlfriend’s feelings, whilst also recognising and meeting his own needs, and wanting to
find a balance to accommodate them both. I think I could have navigated this area slightly better. I wanted to help and support
Sam as best as I could, because ultimately I care about his well-being. But in wanting this, and feeling that I understood what he
was feeling and wanting, I think I slipped into giving him advice by suggesting his girlfriend’s point of view because it was clear he
cared greatly about this and did not want to upset her. Whilst I think that ultimately this may have helped Sam achieve some
clarity and insight into his situation, I do believe I need to be careful not to do this in the future and remember that it is not my
job to find solutions for him, but to aide him in finding these solutions and making positive changes himself.
Overall, I believe that I remained genuine throughout our conversation and that utilising these skills within this interaction
enabled me to focus on accurately and sensitively understanding how Sam was feeling from his perspective, and grasp his
thoughts, feelings and beliefs without imposing my own. Demonstrating this empathetic understanding and showing Sam
unconditional positive regard will - with time and consistency - inevitably allow Sam to grow and achieve his full potential.
Q3a. From what you have learned within the course, identify three of your own values and beliefs.
Independence. Possessing independence allows individuals to make decisions for themselves, whether these be physical,
emotional, or financial. It fosters a person’s ability to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, boosting their self-confidence and self-
esteem, and ability to do what is necessary to create a fulfilling life for themselves and those they love.
Social justice. Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities.
Everyone’s human rights are respected, protected, and promoted, with everyone deserving and worthy of equal treatment,
respect, and dignity.
Compassion. Compassion refers to one’s sensitivity to the emotional aspects of pain or distress experienced by others, combined
with the desire to soothe this suffering.
