Category:

Counseling Skills

By: Richard Nelson – Jones

Course Outline

Good counseling skills are the key to effective helping relationships. Introduction to Counseling Skills, second edition is designed to help readers acquire and develop these skills, using an easy-to-follow three-stage model. Drawing on many years’ experience as a counselor, trainer and writer, Richard Nelson-Jones describes each stage in detail and gives examples to show how the skills work in practice.

The book is full of practical features designed to aid learning, including activities, learning outcomes, examples and a glossary of key terms. For this second edition, the book has been fully updated and new material has been added.

The book covers:

  • What counseling skills are
  • How to improve your listening skills
  • Ways to clarify and expand understanding
  • How to help clients change
  • How to conduct sessions, and
  • Guidance on ethical practice.
 

Combining clear explanations with practical activities, Introduction to Counseling Skills, second edition is the ideal text for introductory courses in counseling skills, counseling and many other professional areas including health care, management, education and social work.

Richard Nelson-Jones is a leading international author whose books have helped train many thousands of psychotherapists, counselors and helpers worldwide.

Learning Objectives

1. List the five main ways professional counselors and clients send messages to each other.
2. Explain what is meant by “transference” and “countertransference.”
3. Explain the difference between an open-ended and a closed-ended question.
4. Explain what self-disclosure is and its positive and negative consequences in counseling.
5. Describe the various formats for terminating a helping relationship.

Course Contents

Part 1 Introduction

  1. Who are counselors, psychotherapists and helpers?
  2. Creating communication skills and feelings
  3. Creating mind skills
  4. The counseling and helping process
  5. Counseling and helping relationships

Part 2 The Relating Stage

  1. Understanding the internal frame of reference
  2. Showing attention and interest
  3. Reflecting feelings
  4. Starting the counseling and helping process
  5. Managing resistances and making referrals

Part 3 The Understanding Stage

  1. Assessing feelings and physical reactions
  2. Assessing thinking
  3. Assessing communication and actions
  4. Challenges, feedback and self-disclosure
  5. Monitoring, summarizing and identifying skills

Part 4 The Changing Stage

  1. Helping to solve problems
  2. Coaching skills: speaking, demonstrating and rehearsing
  3. Improving communication and actions
  4. Improving thinking
  5. Negotiating homework
  6. Conducting middle sessions
  7. Terminating counseling and helping

Part 5 Further Considerations

  1. Diversity in counseling and helping
  2. Ethical issues and dilemmas
  3. Training groups, supervision and support
  4. Counseling theory and research
  5. Becoming more skilled and human

References