Critically reflect on how one or two insights gained during Personal Development and Skills Practice (in G108353 2017/18) have prepared you to become an aware and ethical user of counselling skills. Does a counsellor’s age matter? This is a question I have been considering throughout my time on this course and the answer is not straightforward. Within this essay I will critically reflect on my insight about age and counselling, and through doing this how it has prepared me to become more of an aware and ethical user of counselling skills. Van Wagoner (1991) says Therapist self-insight refers to the extent to which a therapist is aware of one’s own feelings and understands their basis. Robbins and Jolkovski (1987) concluded that therapists who are aware of their feelings are in a better position to do something about them before they are manifested behaviourally. More recently, Clara’s (2014) results clearly show that undergraduate students increased in self- efficacy for using insight skills. My insight began even at the initial interview stage of this course where I felt intimidated by other people’s age and how aware I was that I was the youngest and everyone else was more confident, experienced and wiser than me. This then carried on through the first module …show more content…
The BACP (2016) states that ‘We will make each client the primary focus of our attention and our work during our sessions together.’ Which is what I aimed to do, however thinking about their age and what I thought they were thinking about me meant that their thoughts and feelings were not my primary concern and this could have hindered the session. However, this was not the case for the client and the outcome of the session was beneficial. It was a real turning point for me as my preconceptions of how other people viewed me was proven