COUNSELLING SKILLS 1 ASSESSMENT 2 - UNDERGRADUATE Reflective Essay Once again, most of this information is contained in the Manual, but I’m going through it here in case you are going to participate in the teletutorial and there is something you’d like to know more about (and because once again I’m sending a gentle reminder about the work that needs to be done and making sure you allow enough time to complete things comfortably). This Assessment requires you to write an essay from journal notes which you have been keeping throughout this Term on the practical application of your counselling skills. What is a journal? For the purpose of this Assessment your journal will be a compilation of notes describing your practical application of counselling skills throughout t this Term. Commence your journal now if you have not already done so. Write in it your experiences of using counselling skills over the next seven weeks or so. Note in the journal how well you think you applied the skills, what you would do differently, what you did well. In other words, write down in the journal what you did when practising counselling skills and then write a reflection of how you did it, how well you did it, how you could improve in applying the skill, etc. Your task then is to write a reflective essay to give the reader a good understanding of how you have developed your practical counselling skills throughout this Term, as well as identifying what further development of skills you may need. The essay is effectively to be a critique of how you have been applying counselling skills during this Term. When submitting this Assessment, do not send in your journal. What you are required to submit is a reflective essay. An essay is a formal writing and is not a set of notes written in dot-point form. See the notes I sent to you for Assessment #1 to remind yourself of some points required for writing an essay.
For this Assessment you need to: • identify the key counselling skills you have used; • reflect critically on your application of those key skills. This essay is meant to discuss your counselling skills and particularly how you have developed and applied them throughout this Term. How have you applied them or ‘failed’ to apply them? How well have you done in using your newly found skills? All this of course revolves around reflecting on how you have practised your counselling skills. Write about your awareness of your personal change in using counselling skills. The instances in which you have practised your skills (consciously or subconsciously) and from which you have journaled your reflections, do not have to be “counselling sessions”, although you may very well choose to do some practice sessions. But the instances can also include pretty much any time in any situation, e.g. listening to a friend who wants to tell you about an achievement they have made; attempting to settle a misunderstanding with a work colleague; supporting a family member who is going through a hard time. These are just some examples of the many scenarios that may occur and be relevant to your Assessment task. By now you will be familiar with what the basic skills of counselling are. I wish here to comment on just one of these and that is, staying with the client. What this means is not to jump ahead of the client when you are working with them. A client at any stage of counselling will be at a certain point in their thoughts, feelings, consideration and reflection of their issue. An effective counsellor will not try to “speed up” the client in order to get ahead and to get closer to a solution. A client needs to be allowed to stay with their feelings, their story. A fine point, and a skill, for the counsellor is to determine between a client reflecting on their issue and being stuck on their issue. In the latter case, the counsellor needs to utilise skills in challenging. Your essay will be marked according to the ‘marking criteria’ set out in the “Assessment Requirements” Section in your Manual. Please familiarise yourself with this, as it is a very important structural guide. Ensure that you refer to articles, etc. from the literature for two reasons: to support what you write about your application of skills; and to demonstrate
the extent of the reading you have done for this Module. This is a requirement of the marking criteria. Word count requirement is 2000 words. A variance of plus or minus 10% (200) is allowed. Ensure that you note on the DE Assessment Cover Sheet or title page of your paper the actual word count. In calculating word count, do not include the title page or the Reference list. Ensure you include in your journal, verbatim statements made by you and other people you talk to, then use these in your essay to support and explain different points you write in your essay. Please refer to the notes sent to you on Assessment #1 for further information on writing essays, submitting your completed Assessment paper, etc, in addition to the Manual and Study Guide information. Contact me if you have any further questions. Good Luck! Kate Colette.