Authentic Counselling Training

Certificate in Counselling: Assignments

[Under construction: 23 August 2004]

This document in all parts is copyright © Peter Hughes from the date of construction given above. Please feel free to make use of it for solely personal purposes. However, should you wish to use it for teaching, training, commercial or other purposes, you are required to ask me first.

Assignment 1

Observing a Close Relationship

Purpose of the assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to compare your detailed experience of a close relationship with key features that belong to a person-centred helping relationship.

Procedure for the assignment

Read this document in its entirety, including the section entitled ‘Observing a Close Relationship’, before embarking on the assignment.

Utilising the headings (and subheadings) pinpointed below, write a structured report of 3,000 (± 300) words that describes clearly and in detail the relationship you have been studying in response to the questions in the section ‘Observing a Close Relationship’.

Your report will include material, perhaps brief quotations, from any observation notes you made.

· Introduction, including:

· a history of the relationship

· how you experienced carrying out the observation.

· Non-verbal communication within the relationship

· Quality of listening within the relationship

· Extent of empathic understanding within the relationship

· Extent of unconditional positive regard within the relationship

· Extent of genuineness and congruence within the relationship

· Ethical issues involved in the process of observation and in writing the report, and the relevance of these ethical issues to counselling, including:

· invasion of privacy

· negotiating consent (contracting)

· managing confidentiality

· Conclusions, including

· strengths and weaknesses of the relationship, including any alternative speculations about aspects of the relationship

· what you have learned about the relationship as a result of writing this report

· what you have learned about the nature of counselling as a result of writing this report

· what (insights) you have learned about yourself as a result of writing this report

· what you are satisfied with about the report, and what you feel least satisfied with about the report.

· List of references, giving full bibliographical details, including author, year of publication, (title of article if in a journal), title of publication, name of publisher, place of publication.

Observing a Close Relationship

Instructions

Read through the list of questions below. Choose a relationship that you have with someone to whom you feel close: a close relative, a friend, a good work colleague. Observe the interactions between you both over a period of two or three weeks. Think about your responses to these questions, and record (paper, disc, tape) your thoughts.

Questions

How listened to do you feel by the other person? Would you like the other person to listen to you more carefully? How eager are you to listen to what the other person says to you? Would you be willing to listen to the other person more carefully?

How fully understood do you feel in general in this relationship? Would you like to feel better understood in this relationship? How fully, in your opinion, do you understand the other person? Would you like to be able to understand the other person better?

How able are you to say whatever you like in this relationship? Would you like to be able to speak less inhibitedly to the other person? To what extent do you sense the other person feels inhibited about saying to you whatever they want? Would you like the other person to speak to you with greater frankness?

Have you been able to talk about this exercise with the other person? If so, how comfortable did you feel a) before, b) while, c) after talking about the exercise? If not, what would need to change about the relationship for you to feel able to talk about this exercise with the other person?

How ‘genuine’ do you feel in this relationship? Would you like to feel more ‘genuine’ in this relationship? How ‘genuine’ do you sense the other person being in this relationship? Would you like the other person to be rather more ‘genuine’ in their relationship with you?

To what extent do you feel as though the other person has time for you / pays you attention? Would you like the other person to have more time for you / pay you closer attention? To what extent do you have time for the other person? Are you willing to give the other person more time / pay them closer attention?

To what extent do you feel accepted by the other person? Would you like to feel more fully accepted by the other person? How much do you really accept the other person for who they are as a person? Is there room, on your part, for greater acceptance of the other person?

How warm do you feel towards the other person? How warm do you sense the other person feels towards you? Would you like the other person to feel warmer towards you?

How much do you respect the other person? How respected by the other person do you feel? Would you like to feel more respected in this relationship?

What, in your opinion, are the strengths of this relationship? What, in your opinion, are the shortcomings of this relationship? What could you do to change the quality of this relationship?

Assignments for Certificate in Counselling: Essay preparation, Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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Peter Hughes: introduction

p.g.h@btinternet.com