Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Case Study
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Introduction
There are a number of important micro skills a counsellor uses to help clients and this
case study sheds light on how a client can benefit from the appropriate use of them
and what negative outcome can arise from not using them.
This case study examines a counsellor and clients first session. In the beginning the
relationship and to prompt the client to tell her story. In proceeding transactions the
counsellor fails to use skills that are identified as essential to use in this context and
instead makes inaccurate judgements on the client with a false diagnosis bringing the
Egan (2010), provides a well referenced framework of using counselling skills from a
micro perspective that focuses on the importance of communication skills, while Carl
Rodgers (1985) uses a person centred approach to counselling that is widely accepted
and used in the counselling field, that makes clear the importance of putting the client
first and a focus on the growing relationship essential for a client to grow and heal.
Together with the insight provided by these theories and the results of the examination
of the counselling session called Helping Rose, this case study brings to light
strengths and weaknesses within the counselling session and possible suggestions for
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Counselling Session Overview
Rose is a first time mother with a five year old daughter who has been unable to sleep
alone in her bed without crying and insisting on sleeping with Rose. At first Rose
allowed her daughter to sleep with her to stop her crying, however she has recently
decided this must stop and has become increasingly frustrated in using various
behavioural strategies to try changing her daughters behaviour. After five years of
this, Rose is almost desperate for help in resolving the problem when she comes to her
As DB listens to Rose she talks more about her problem. Not long after the session
has begun, DB stops listening and puts forward an idea that he explains is
spontaneous. The idea consists of his perception of how the problem lies within Rose
and not her daughter. Further attempts by Rose to talk about her problem are
interrupted by DB at which point Rose speaks less and less as DB increases his
talking. DB leads the session to a conclusion that Rose needs to form a closer,
spontaneous partnership with her daughter and to use her own internal signals from
her heart rather than her head. After failing to be heard, Rose seems to give up and
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Counselling Skills Application
One of the leading writers on counselling skills is Professor Gerard Egan from
Chicago, an organisational consultant and lecturer who has produced nine editions on
believes there are logical developmental stages a counsellor and client must go
through in order to solve any problem. The first of these stages is called The current
picture, Egan, 2010 (chapter 4), (pg 93), where the counsellor aims to find out what
is going on with this person, what are their key issues, resources and opportunities,
resulting in the development of a mutually trusting relationship and clear picture for
Developing this working partnership which helps a client tell their story requires the
Listening
listening.....is not something that just happens. Its an activity. In other words,
effective listening requires work. McLeod (2007), explains it conveys to the client
the counsellor wants to know more, is curious, patient and they are of great
importance. Furthermore, it is not just listening for what is being said but how it is
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(2010) and Armstrong (2006), using small indicators like this conveys the message
that the counsellor is interested, keeps the client focused on their issue and prompts
the client to talk more. Similarly Hackney & Cormier (2009), explain these short
encouraging expression.
As DB listens, Rose talks more. However DB stops listening after a short time and
very initiative with you right now, he then proceeds to tell Rose what might be called
his diagnosis of her and her problems. Egan (2010) provides a possible explanation
for the type of listening DB used called evaluative listening. This type of listening is
gives way to advice giving which is exactly what DB proceeds to do next in the next
sentences. Egan (2010) explains this will put people off and judgements should be
put aside until understanding of clients stories, worlds and viewpoints has been
established.
Similarly, DB interrupts Rose a few times which effectively means according to Egan
(2010) the person has stopped listening and often means they say things they have
been rehearsing.
The highest level of listening according to Egan (2010) is called empathic listening,
when the counsellor puts aside their own experiencing of reality and sense the
experiencing of the client as if it were their own (Mearns & Thorne, 2007, Hackney &
Cormier, 2009).
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Empathy
Mearns & Thorne (2007) describe the most advanced level of empathic responding is
DB effectively responded empathically with Rose a few times during the session.
One response was very accurate when he said it leaves you feeling kind of helpless
which Rose responded Right. Thats exactly what it was. Hackney & Cormier
(2009) explain expressions such as yes thats it or thats exactly how I feel are
Genuineness
Carl Rogers created a Humanistic approach called the person-centred approach which
focuses on putting first both the client and the relationship between the counsellor and
client. One of the necessary elements of this approach is the counsellors ability to be
real and genuine with the client. This means being congruent and sharing openly,
Furthermore, Hackney & Cormier (2009) state the genuine counsellor is open to the
experience, comfortable with themself and those behaviours that help clients. They
While DB was being open and spontaneous with his thoughts and his shared feelings
of uncertainty by saying he wasnt sure he was doing the right thing by sharing this
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information because he didnt know how it would impact the counselling session, he
wouldnt be helping Rose because he is taking the focus off her and her problems and
focusing on his ideas. It was clear from Roses response of Ah, um? that she didnt
agree with this idea and possibly didnt understand what he meant. DB proceeded to
anticipating needs, putting own needs aside for the other person and displaying
genuine curiosity about the clients views and experiences (McLeod, 2007).
initial stages and this is done by eliminating any judgemental verbal or non verbal
responses (Hackney & Cormier, 2009). Clearly this didnt happen in this session.
Checking out
At this point DB might have asked Rose what she thought of his idea or waited for her
response. Checking out conveys to the client that they are important, listened to and
the counsellor is focused completely on them and what they have to say. It is a time
that a counsellor pauses in the conversation to find out or enquire about assumptions
or experience at that moment that the client may have (McLeod, 2007). The
counsellor could have asked her if they could stop as he had some questions about
check the accuracy of his understanding of where Rose was at and her problems. For
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example DB used a potentially good reflection that Rose wanted her daughter to
control her but didnt want to lose control at the same time and Rose responded
yeah, I guess that is true. An improvement DB could have made is to say have I got
this right?...you sound a bit uncertain. This would allow DB to check the accuracy of
his understanding of the message and Rose to feel acknowledged in her response.
Another way to check accuracy according to Egan (2010) is for the counsellor to give
DB would have benefited from summarising with Rose to check his understanding of
what she had said and where they were up to in the session. This may also prompt
Rose to bring up other important areas in her story rather than going over the same
problem repeatedly.
Some clients may require reassurance of the relationship before they can rely on it
which is why counselling often takes time and the importance of building a strong
to pause here so that I can share an important idea that we might be able to explore
together, and then listen to her feedback. By using this approach Rose would
understand they were both in the discussion and more likely to respect what the
as the session had just begun and DB did not know enough about Rose or her
situation.
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Asking Questions
It is unclear what lead DB to conclude he knew the cause of Roses problems and how
to fix them as he didnt do any basic fact finding. There was alot of information that
would be required before the problem can be clarified such as Roses living
While asking questions needs to be kept to a minimum (Egan, 2010) and done
appropriate to the session and issue at hand (Armstrong, 2006), it might prove
effective for DB to ask some open questions such as you said your daughter was very
ill, what was the problem? and you said we are working on the problem, how does
This information will help define the problem which is necessary according to Welfel
& Patterson (2005), who provide a five component process before a hypothesis testing
DB had been leading this session to a conclusion with Rose reluctantly following
(006), Rogers (1995) and Welfel & Patterson (2005) suggest. They recommend the
counsellor follows the client and is directed by the client. This is based on the
philosophy that humans have an actualising tendency, that have the internal resources
and self directed behaviour given the right conditions of which are explained above
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Conclusion
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In summary Rose didnt get help from DB, instead she had to struggle to get her story
out, most of what she repeated when DB stopped listening. DB failed in using the
accuracy and positive regard for his client. He was instead set on leading Rose down
Thus DB could have continued doing what he was doing well at the beginning which
was to give verbal encourages that allowed Rose to tell her story. That story would
be different and more information would be obtained in order to know how to proceed
next.
both effective methods that a counsellor can follow to ensure a collaborative, trusting
partnership is formed first, allowing the client to lead the journey to self discovery
however these suggestions are limited because there was a lack of other important
information such as ethnicity, non verbal communication between the counsellor and
client, what information had already been obtained by DB prior to the session and if a
Finally there was insufficient space to include other suggestions for improvement
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Reference List
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Armstrong, P. (2006). The practice of counselling. Melbourne: Thomson Higher
Education
Egan, G. (2010). The Skilled Helper. 9th Ed. Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Belmont, CA
Hackney, H.L., & Cormier, L.S. (2009). The professional counsellor. 6th ed. Sydney:
Pearson Education
Mearns, D., & Thorne, B. (2007). Person-centred counselling in action. 3rd Ed.