Test One Flashcards
What is congruence?
The capacity to be real and consistent with others.
Ex. “I ca help you with your grief, but I can’t help you get even with your husband.”
What is positive regard/warmth?
Recognizing the inherent worth of an individual; communicating in such a way that the client feels safe to share thoughts and feelings without judgement.
Ex. The client shares that they stole from a store and got beat up. The counsellor does not make judgmental comments or looks about stealing and focuses on the well-being of the client.
What is empathy?
Understanding the emotional perspective and communicating the emotional perspective of the client.
Ex. “You have been angry for a long time.”
What are the core conditions used to build the relationship?
Congruence, positive regard, and empathy.
What is relationship contracting?
Focus on respective roles and expectations of the participants and how they will communicate.
Ex. Discussing past counselling experiences with the client.
What is sessional/work contracting?
Defines the focus for the current session and the overall objective of the participants work together.
Ex. Discussing problems or concerns to be addressed with the client.
What is anticipatory contracting?
Planning strategies and responses for events that may occur during counselling.
Ex. The client shares feedback on how they want the counsellor to handle something.
What are the four steps of the listening process?
- Hearing and remembering
- Selecting and sorting
- Understanding meaning and emotions
- Responding
What are the four phases of counselling?
Preliminary, beginning, action, and ending.
What is counselling?
An empowerment process of helping clients to learn skills, deal with feelings and manage problems.
What are three things you might do during the preliminary phase?
Planning for the interview, preparing the setting, and self-awareness.
Ex. Reading client files, ensuring a comfortable environment, know and understand your own biases.
What are six things you might do during the beginning phase?
Negotiate the relationship, explore for understanding, actively listen, promote core conditions, define the relationship, and focus on strengths.
Ex. Discuss expectations, explore past counselling experiences, understand what has and has not been helpful to the client in the past, provide a friendly greeting, cover confidentiality, and discuss the pros and cons of counselling.
Under what conditions can confidentiality be breached?
There is reasonable suspicion that the client may harm themselves or someone else. Furthermore, if there is reasonable suspicion of child abuse.
What are some client variables that may lead to unsuccessful counselling?
Motivation
Capacity
Opportunity
Unrealistic expectations
Unconscious self-sabotage
Destructive personality
Organic factors
What are some counsellor variables that may lead to unsuccessful counselling?
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What are some common mistakes or pitfalls of counselling?
Pseudo counselling
Advice giving
Rescuing
Communication stoppers
Faulty technique
How can advice disempower clients?
Clients may believe they don’t know what’s right for themselves, or lack the opportunity to make decisions for themselves.
What are some other factors that may lead to unsuccessful counselling?
Transference/Counter-transference
Defense Mechanisms
What is pseudo counselling?
Exploring interesting but irrelevant issues that don’t lead to problem-solving.
What is parroting?
When the counsellor repeats the exact same w2ords back to the client.
What are platitudes?
Common sayings or expressions
Ex. Time heals all wounds
What are irrelevant questions?
Questions that do not relate to the client’s problem or needs.
What is advice giving?
Communicating in ways that undermine client self-determination and convey the message that the counsellor has the answer to the client’s problems.
What is overt advice?
Advice that tells a client they should do something.
Ex. “You should try…”
What is suggestive advice?
Advice that suggests a client should do something.
Ex. “Have you thought about trying…”
What is rescuing?
“Band aiding”. It involves actions that prevent or protect clients from dealing with issues or difficult feelings.
What is a tension reducer?
Used to avoid or switch difficult topics to avoid discomfort.
Ex. When the client starts to cry, the counsellor asks about something pleasant.
What is placating?
Avoiding confrontation, false feedback or empty reassurance.
Ex. “You are a strong person.”
What is impeding independence?
Doing tasks on behalf of the client instead of supporting them to be advocates of self.
Ex. Counsellor speaks for client instead of teaching them to speak for self.
What is a communication stopper?
Any communication that brings the conversation to a halt.
Ex. Judgmental, assumptions, ‘why’ questions, not listening, and inappropriate silence.
What is faulty technique?
Inappropriate use of skills.
Ex. poorly timed questions, irrelevant questions, lack of empathy, multiple questions, excessive questions, and leading questions.
The ‘acting out’ defense mechanism
Emotional conflicts are dealt with through actions.
Ex. Child breaks doll.
The ‘denial’ defense mechanism
Refusal to accept what is obvious to others.
Ex. Person does not admit drug problem.
The ‘displacement’ defense mechanism
Transfer feelings to a less threatening object or person.
Ex. Fight with boss, kick the dog.
The ‘dissociation’ defense mechanism
Separation or disconnect from reality.
Ex. Daydreaming, forgetting about trauma.
The ‘humour’ defense mechanism
Avoidance of painful emotions by focusing on the humour.
Ex. Making jokes while talking about something serious.
The ‘intellectualization’ defense mechanism
Avoid feelings and focus on details or excessive thinking.
Ex. Focus on funeral arrangements.
The ‘passive aggressive’ defense mechanism
Indirect expression of anger.
Ex. Withholding helpful ideas from someone you dislike.
The ‘projection’ defense mechanism
Assigning our own unacceptable feelings to others.
Ex. Accusing others of being rude when you are constantly interrupting others.
The ‘rationalization’ defense mechanism
Self-serving way of explaining to avoid pain that comes with the truth.
Ex. You got dumped but say you didn’t care about them anyway.
The ‘reaction formation’ defense mechanism
Substitution opposite thoughts/behaviours.
Ex. Being really kind to someone you dislike.
The ‘regression’ defense mechanisms
Revert to early ways of coping.
Ex. Tantrum.
The ‘repression’ defense mechanism
Feelings/memories out of conscious awareness but still influence behaviour.
Ex. Woman who was sexually abused can’t remember it but is uncomfortable with touch.
The ‘splitting’ defense mechanism
Experiencing things only in polar opposites.
Ex. Seeing others as completely good or bad.
The ‘sublimation’ defense mechanism
Channelling unacceptable feelings into acceptable behaviours.
Ex. Boxing
The ‘suppression’ defense mechanism
Deliberately avoiding thoughts/feelings that provoke anxiety.
Ex. Changing the subject, taking drugs
What is bias?
The human tendency to draw incorrect conclusions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence.
How might counsellor bias affect the counselling relationship?
Assumptions are made about the client’s problem which prevent the client from addressing the problem and problem-solving.
What is transference?
The tendency of clients to communicate with their counsellors in the same way that they communicate with significant people in their life.
Ex. A client who desperately wants to be liked by others gives their counsellor gifts and compliments.
What is counter-transference?
The tendency of counsellors to inappropriately transfer feelings and behaviours to clients.
Ex. The counsellor has intense feelings for clients they hardly know.
How can we develop objectivity?
Avoid assumptions
Control identification with clients
Manage over-involvement with clients
What are three core ethical principles?
Respect for the dignity of persons
Integrity in relationships
Not willfully harming others
What is the difference between values and ethics?
Values are beliefs about what is important or desirable.
Ethics are principles and rules of acceptable proper conduct.
How can clients exercise self-determination?
Freedom to choose, knowledge and information, involvement in decision-making, access to resources, and control and informed consent.
What is metacommunication?
The message behind the words.
What are the six key questions for every interview?
- What brings you here today?
- What are your expectations of me?
- What do I need to know about your situation?
- What do you mean by…?
- What did we accomplish?
- What have we missed?
What are the steps involved in resolving an ethical dilemma?
- Gather facts
- Identify ethical values issues and potential violations.
Ex. Personal values, professional responsibilities. - Identify and evaluate options and strategies.
Ex. Taking action vs not taking action, risks vs benefits, outcomes. - Take action.
