Lamar School Counseling Reflective Report

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One of my roles during the practicum field experience has been as a Skilled Helper. Hackney & Cormier (2012) defines the skilled helper is can facilitate the process of growth and adaptation to challenges (p. 3). This function helped me apply and demonstrate what I’ve learned during the Lamar School Counseling courses. According to Egan (2002), the helper encourages the speaker to tell their story, by using active listening skills, demonstrating core conditions, and helping the speaker to explore and unfold their story, and also to reflect on it. I have used the skilled helper model in my own practices, by applying them to individual and guidance curriculum at the middle school level. For example, during individual counseling session …show more content…

The first stage is exploration which is where you find out information about what is going on in the client’s life in their own words. Some of the skills used with my client were attending (positive body language, eye contact, etc.), active listening (leaning forward, nodding, focus on what’s being said), acceptance/empathy, paraphrasing/summarizing, focusing (feelings), and questioning (open & closed) (Egan, 2002). All of these skills really made my client feel safe in her environment and that she was being heard and able open up. The second stage involves challenging the client’s views. For example, in one of my sessions I challenged my client to think about and issue from someone else’s perspective, this really opened up my client’s eyes to the way she viewed the situation (Egan, 2002). Challenging allows the client to think about where there is another way to look at an issue. The final stage of the skilled helper model is developing and action plan. During this stage the information is processed, and goals are developed to generate positive results (Egan, 2002). While developing goals it is important to set realistic, practical, measurable, and achievable targets. In my sessions I would help my client set goals for herself, and I would track her progress. This really motivated my client, and she would check in regularly to inform me of her