L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 10th April 2020

Research is an interesting aspect of counselling and psychotherapy, and I think it is very important. It is essentially a sphere of knowledge that exists parallel to your own body of knowledge as a person and as a counsellor, and overlaps in places. Research, or “finding out what works” has created talking therapies and its different modalities and theories, and…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary 31st January 2020

This week we looked at why theory is important in counselling work. Through a group discussion we identified several key aspects of why it is important, and I was quite surprised by the amount we came up with. First though, I think it’s important that I reflect on what is meant by the word “theory”. A theory is generally a…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 10th January 2020

Over the past few weeks we’ve been learning about three very different counselling theories – Person-centred counselling, Psychodynamic counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – with very different methods, glossaries and philosophies that ultimately all work towards the same goal, which is helping people. They each offer a different language, and a different way of understanding our personality or self,…

L3CiCS Learning Log – 29th November 2019

Person Centred Counselling was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1950’s around the philosophy that people can change, and that they are not bound by personal events in their past, or their circumstances in the present. This change is achieved by the counsellor making use of the core conditions of the Person Centred approach, and these are: 1. Empathy –…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 15th November 2019

This week we went straight into roleplays with relation to discrimination – as a client we had to play someone that had experienced some kind of discrimination or was somehow different to the counsellor. First off, I was counsellor to Leonardo’s client. His difference was that he felt he was being mistreated by his employer because of his Attention Deficit…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 8th November 2019

We were still working on diversity, discrimination and prejudice this week. Our tutor asked us to discover all the ways (both positive and negative) in which diversity can impact on the counselling relationship, which allowed us to consider how to take diversity issues into account when developing a counselling relationship. The most obvious negative one is a counsellor being unable…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 11th October 2019

This week we looked at what we feel and think are necessary to developing an effective working relationship with clients. I think the most important one, one that Carl Rogers outlined many years ago, is a core condition of the therapeutic counselling relationship – Unconditional Positive Regard. UPR is a non-judgemental point of view and an accepting attitude toward the…
L2CiCS: Reflective Diary – 28th March 2018

L2CiCS: Reflective Diary – 28th March 2018

This week we went through our folders and I realised I was missing a reflection from unit 6.2. Upon reflecting on whose agenda, the counsellor’s or the client’s, we are focusing on when we ask questions, I reached the conclusion that it depends on what is defined as an “agenda”. I know it’s strange to deliver the conclusion before the…