Empathy Skills In Counselling

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Empathy Skill Empathy is awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people. It is a key element of emotional intelligence, the link between self and others. It is the way individuals understand what others are experiencing as if they were feeling …show more content…

The counsellor has to have regard for all clients regardless of their status in society. Moreover, the client`s concerns should not be undervalued. Attention has to be paid to every concern or problem raised by the client. It involves showing the client that they are valued, regardless of who they are. The counsellor must be non-judgemental, accepting whatever the client says or does, without imposing values ((HIV/AIDS Counselling, 2001). It is therefore, important for every counsellor to be acquainted with the basic counselling skills to aid the flow of the conversation, gain and clarify information from the client and show the client that he or she is being heard by exhibiting both the verbal and non-verbal ques. It is also important for the counsellor to refer cases or questions they cannot handle to other people. The skilled counsellor accepts all clients regardless of the living conditions. 21. What matters among other factors in the counselling process is to have regard for clients because they are human beings and acknowledging as well as, recognising their abilities and capabilities to solve their own problems as the counsellor facilitates the …show more content…

Ethical issues for the counsellor include the necessity of understanding one`s own motivation for entering the helping profession and one`s responsibility to be aware of his or her own personal issues and to seek assistance when necessary. Counsellors have a further ethical responsibility to maintain high levels of professional competence in the areas of professional growth, accurate representation of services and training to clients and developing knowledge and expertise in specialised areas. Counsellors should ensure that they provide only those services and interventions for which they have adequate training (Van Niekerk and Prins, 2001). Counsellors or anyone involved in counselling should practise high levels of confidentiality, professional competence and be in a position to provide appropriate information to the clients for them to make their own