Lesson content Lesson 1: Core counselling skills and how they are used in a counselling relationship The following lesson will help you answer questions 1 and 2 of your assessment. A counselling relationship is formed when an individual and a counsellor work together. Counselling is considered to be a ‘helping activity’ because the counsellor assists individuals to identify problems or issues that are negatively impacting on their quality of life and supports them to find a solution or resolution. Other helping activities include a ‘helping conversation’ or a ‘helping interaction’. These take place between a helper, who is not necessarily also a counsellor, and a helpee. Helpers can be a manager, teacher or doctor. In these instances, the helping sessions may be short, lasting 15-20 minutes, and may take place on an ad hoc, or one-off basis. For example, a manager may have a helping conversation with a colleague who is struggling with an issue at work. During the time together, the manager will talk the colleague (helpee) through the issue, which can itself be very beneficial for the helpee. Core conditions refer to the attitudes displayed by counsellors when they are working in a helping relationship. In a counselling relationship the counsellor will use a range of core counselling skills to build rapport and trust with their clients. In the 1950s, psychologist Carl Rogers described three ‘core conditions’ counsellors should display. Core conditions help counsellors to show clients that they value them and are genuinely interested in helping them. Click on each tab to learn more about Rogers' three ‘core conditions’ counsellors should display. EMPATHY CONGRUENCE UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD Unconditional positive regard (UPR) – i.e. the counsellor demonstrates that they value and accept the client as they are; they show that they genuinely care about helping the client. Read the following information to learn about the range of core counselling skills – including Rogers’ core conditions – and how they are used in counselling relationships and other helping activities. Click on the headings below to find out more. Beginning a relationship The ability to appropriately begin a relationship is an essential skill for a counsellor to have as it creates an environment in which the client feels able to talk openly. To begin a counselling relationship, the counsellor will use open questions as a means of finding out what the client’s issues are. Open questions are those that cannot be answered with one word or with a simple Yes or No, rather they require the client to describe and explain their thoughts and feelings. For example, ‘What is it that brought you here today?’; this promotes trust and helps the client to feel safe and better able to talk about difficult issues. Unconditional positive regard The counsellor demonstrates that they value and accept the client as they are; they show that they genuinely care for the client. When a counsellor demonstrates UPR, they build trust and a rapport with the client. The counsellor will make it clear that they value and accept the client even though they may not agree with some of their behaviour. By doing this, the counsellor is creating a ‘safe space’ in which the client can talk about anything without fear of the counsellor showing disapproval of them (rather than of their behaviour) or being rejected. Congruence Congruence (genuineness) demonstrating that the counsellor is genuine and authentic by showing warmth and understanding. If the client feels that the counsellor is genuinely interested in them and that their comments and questions are genuine and authentic, they will feel at ease when talking about difficult or embarrassing subjects. Congruence, like UPR, helps counsellors to build a trusting relationship with clients in which they feel safe and supported. Empathy Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings. Expression of empathy with clients helps to build trust. By demonstrating empathy in their words and physical gestures, the counsellor is showing the client that they understand their feelings and are not judging them. Empathy is an expression of unconditional positive regard. Active listening – reflecting When the counsellor actively listens to their client, they are showing them that they are interested in what they are saying and invested in helping them to find solutions to their issues. Reflecting, or repeating key words back to the client, is a way of demonstrating active listening and understanding by the counsellor. When the counsellor repeats words or phrases back to the client they are allowing them to hear what they have said, which helps them to get perspective of their situation. Questioning Open questions – we explored open questions in the ‘beginning a relationship’ section (on page 5 of the PDF workbook). Other examples of open questions include: How did that make you feel? How is your relationship with your father? Closed questions – require a Yes or No or short answer. This type of questioning is used only to gather facts and information as they do not require the client to provide full, thoughtful answers. In a helping relationship, closed questions should only be used to clarify understanding. Examples include: How old are you? Are you okay? Silence In a counselling relationship, silence is an important tool that is used to help the client think about their situation and organically come to their own conclusions or find answers to their issues. Silence can also be used to encourage clients to talk at their own pace, which will help them to feel more comfortable telling the counsellor about their situation and thoughts. Summarising Summarising can be used at various points of a session with a client to sum up, using the main points, what the client has said. This demonstrates, like active listening, that the counsellor has been listening and understands what the client has said. Summarising helps the client to understand where they are and to further examine their thoughts and feelings. Paraphrasing When a counsellor paraphrases something, they choose the key phrases that a client has used and repeat them back to them. This shows that the counsellor understands the client, helps the counsellor to check that they and the client are on the same page and allows the client to hear what they’ve said, which can help them to see it from a different perspective. Did you know? Most counselling sessions last between 50 minutes and an hour. Knowledge activity Go online and research the main differences between a helper and a counsellor. Write them down in a notebook. Test yourself These test yourself activities will help you to answer your assessment questions. Please note: these are not part of your formal assessment. Question 1: Can you match the following skills into their correct categories? Drag and drop each statement to its relevant category. Alternative version This activity asked you to sort a series of skills into the following two categories. When they are sorted you should have the following lists. The categories should read as: Category one: Core counselling skills unconditional positive regard empathy active listening – reflecting questioning silence summarising paraphrasing. Category two: Non counselling skills conditional positive regard unconditional negative regard intuition being chatty quick to arrive at a decision repeating exactly what a client has said. Question 2: What does UPR mean? Type the exact phrase below. SUBMIT TAKE AGAIN "The following activity may not be fully supported by your screen reader; an accessible version has been provided underneath this activity.” Question 3: Can you match the core counselling skills used in a counselling relationship and in other helping activities with their condensed meanings? Drag the options on the left to the targets on the right. the counsellor demonstrates that they value and accept the client as they are the counsellor is genuine and authentic by showing warmth and understanding the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings the counsellor shows the client that they are interested in what they are saying SUBMIT TAKE AGAIN Alternative version This activity asked you to match the core counselling skills used in a counselling relationship and in other helping activities with their condensed meanings. The statements should read as: Unconditional positive regard: the counsellor demonstrates that they value and accept the client as they are. Congruence: the counsellor is genuine and authentic by showing warmth and understanding. Empathy: the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings. Active listening: the counsellor shows the client that they are interested in what they are saying. Question 4: There are four more core counselling skills; can you name one of them? Type the exact word or phrase below. SUBMIT

Brown v. Board of Education

Ruled that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Separate but Equal Doctrine

Legal doctrine that justified racial segregation, stating that separate facilities for different races were acceptable as long as they were of equal quality.

Civil Rights Movement

Social movement aimed at ending racial discrimination and promoting equal rights for all citizens.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization formed to fight for civil rights and against racial discrimination.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine.

Affirmative Action

Policy aimed at increasing opportunities for historically marginalized groups in education and employment.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Legislation aimed at overcoming legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement known for his use of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Malcolm X

Civil rights activist who advocated for Black empowerment and was a key figure in the fight against racial oppression.