Chapter 6 - Self Disclosure & Focusing Skills Flashcards
Self-disclosure / self-expression
- Expression of your thoughts, ideas, and feelings follows after your awareness of them.
- Statements that reveal something about you (Hill & Knox, 2002)
Self-disclosure should be used appropriately and not indiscriminately in the counseling sessions.
- It is important not to interpret self-disclosure to mean that you should talk about yourself;
- the primary focus of the interview is on the client, not the helper.
Topics to disclosed (didedahkan)
- The helper’s own issues
- Facts about the helper’s role
- The helper’s reactions to the client (feedback)
- The helper’s reactions to the helping relationship
Type of Disclosure (Do’s & Dont’s)
- Moderate disclosure : perceived by the client more positively than the practitioner who discloses at a high or low level (Edwards & Murdock, 1994).
- Too much / too little self-disclosure : limit the client’s confidence in you as an effective helper.
- Frequent : Blur the boundaries between helper and client and can be a precursor (pencetus) to problematic multiple or nonprofessional relationships with clients.
- Lack of disclosure: could turn clients away.
Benefits of self-disclosure
- As a reassurance to clients that they are not alone in their struggle
- As a means of rapport building to gain client’s trust especially when it involves adolescent clients, with clients who have substance abuse issues, and in multicultural counseling situations (Egan, 2014).
- To reduce discomfort in client due to the counselling process made client feel one-sided
Risk of self-disclosure
- Too much counselor self-disclosure can blur the boundaries in the professional relationship
- The client may perceived counsellor as not professional when counsellor disclosed too much information
Ethical self-disclosure
- Prioritize client’s value
- Consider the benefits
- Consider the risk/impact towards clients
- Be brief
- Use ”I” statements
Prioritize client’s value
Do not use self-disclosure until you manage to learn your client’s value system. Self-disclosure that are not aligned with client’s values may harm client.
Consider the benefits
Consider how the information will help the client in their personal development.
Consider the risk & consequences
Consider the potential detriment that self-disclosure might have on the client. The use of self-disclosure should be reconsidered if any potential risks to the client can be identified, regardless of the prospect of potential benefits
Be brief
In self-disclosing, say what you need to say in the most concise manner possible, limiting the details of your disclosure to what is most likely to benefit the client. Self-disclosure is less likely to cause harm when it is thoughtfully planned in advance of the session in which it is used.
Use ”I” statements
Make it clear that you are giving your opinion based on your personal experiences only. Otherwise, it can be easy for clients to assume that you are conveying academic and professional expertise, and this can be misleading.
Focusing Skills
- Involves active listening by the counsellor towards what the client brought up in the session
- Helps the client to explore in more depth, the emotions that lie behind the story
Focusing may involveprioritising issuesandmaking decisions about the urgency of the issuesthe client has brought.
- Emphasize on any emotional word mentioned by the client
- Focusing can involve a few moments of quiet (Silence focus)
Example of Focusing Skills:
Client: When she’s gone, I felt total devastated.
Counselor: I hear you were completely devastated.
- Counsellors demonstrate their focusing skills when they are able to reflect the client’s feeling/issue correctly.
- When the counsellor managed to hit the word accurately, client tend to dive deeper on the word they mentioned previously. Hence, may encourage in-depth exploration.
- Focusing can also help the client to focus on the dominant issue instead of having many issues.
