Faculty of Sciences Cognitive and Human Development

KMY1063 Basic Helping Skills

Semester 1 (2022/2023)

Assignment 1: My Experience As A Counselling Client

Name: Aida Safiah binti Zambray

Matric No: 82362

Lecturer’s name: Mr Mohamad Azhari Abu Bakar

Date of submission: 23/12/22
 Introduction

Counselling is a type of talking therapy in which a skilled therapist listens to someone

and assists someone in resolving emotional concerns. A skilled, impartial expert with whom
people may establish a therapeutic and reliable connection is a counsellor. They are prepared
to provide a variety of services, most typically talk-based forms of treatment. The client, or the
person seeking therapy, and the counsellor converse one-on-one during individual counselling.
The two establish a partnership, connection, or link that fosters mutual trust and personal
development. In this counselling session, there are two people are involved which are a
counsellor and a client. Mrs Caroline Magges's roles as counsellor and me, Mrs Aida Safiah as
a willing client. There are three counselling sessions via the online platform Microsoft Teams.
But there are some lacking as the line very slow and need to continue the session to finish it.

There are three counselling session. The issue provides by client is study problem. So,
the client and counsellor need to collaborate to settle this issue together. The first session was
held on 20 November 2022. The first session was more about building relationships to get to
know each other and start to state the problems. This session took about 20 minutes.

Second session was happened on 8 December 2022. In the second session, Mrs Caroline
gave a task which was planning a table within 20 minutes and presenting it. The third session
on 18 December 2022, which was the termination stage or last stage, opened me to state new
problems due to my problems being settled, within 20 to 30 minutes only. Honestly, the three
sessions went smoothly as the counsellor managed to handle it. In this report, there are four
elements need to be discussed such as situation, affect, interpretation, and decision.

Discussion

Situation

I choose the exploration stage as the Critical Counselling Stage. The objectives of the
exploration stage in counselling are to establish a relationship with the client, learn more about
the issue at hand by examining the client's concerns and history, and experience emotion
through expressing more intense feelings. The main goal of the counsellor at this stage is to
develop a rapport and earn the client's confidence. For instance, in the first session, Mrs
Caroline started to explore my consent or problems by allowing me to share the problem that I
have faced. I noticed that she used Person-centred Therapy by Carl Rogers as her technique by
avoiding any piece of pieces of advice and suggestions. She chose to understand my problems
rather than more deeply.

Next, the objective in the exploration stage is formulating goals and planning strategies.
For example, in the second session, for about 10 minutes she did a simple or short
summarization of the first session and gave me 20 minutes to settle a simple task. Before that,
we set up a simple goal to archive. She gave a simple briefing related to the task for avoiding
confusion. After 20 minutes, we continued the session by presenting my planning table. This
was more to achieve the objective in this stage. Honestly, this technique is very creative to
avoid a client being bored in the counselling session and this can see a better plan for solving
the client’s issues.

Finally, in the third session, she also did a simple summarization from the second
session and opened me to state the new problems due to my issue having been settled. It took
about 20 to 30 minutes because this session was more leisurely. She did the termination stage
very well as she told me that this was our last session and gave me some motivation. I realised
she used to understand my new problems and gave some advises and motivation as this was
different form the first problem or issue. She liked to praise my wise actions to motivate myself.
I felt very joyful because she really understands me well. I think not all people an really
understand me, but she can understand me well.

Affect

Every counselling session will have satisfied and unsatisfied conditions expressed by
all clients. I as one of the clients, am satisfied with all the services and work by Mrs Caroline
as my trainee counsellor. This satisfaction made me more relieved. I felt pleased because I have
been listened to well by the counsellor. She was born to be the best listener. My assumption
was only certain people can be the greatest listener because they tended to full- fill the space.
Otherwise, I liked a person who can understand my problems and my counsellor, Mrs Caroline
did well in understanding all my problems. This understanding built up a tranquillity feeling
for me. In the conversation, she made simple summarization after I shared some problems. Her
wise or professional actions should be respected because she did not want to miss important
information. Other than that, she would use the word ‘right’ after she made a summarization.
This pushed me to answer the question. I felt less awkward automatically.

Besides that, my counsellor gave me good advice and suggestion to improve myself.
She also praised my brilliant action when I told her that I tried to solve my problems before.
Maybe some of my actions did not accept but I accepted the counsel with an open heart. The
way she spoke to me was very polite and brought me to accept the counsel. She also used open
and closed questions if I preferred to be silent as I did not know what to talk about next. When
using the technique, it would gain some ideas. Joking was the best way to enliven a clumsy
situation, especially with strangers. In this counselling session, Mrs Caroline liked to make
some jokes, so both could laugh together. This scene brought me to be cosier with her. In short,
the counselling sessions with Mrs Caroline gave the biggest impact on me to improve myself
slowly.

Honestly, all three-session going smoothly, but I felt very disappointed as I cannot see
my counsellor’s face in all the counselling sessions. I just can hear her voice but sometimes not
clear due to the slow internet. This is because we used online platform as our counselling
session as both of us busy with our own works and time constraints. I cannot make any eye
contact with my counsellor due to both of us cannot open our own cameras because my line
was very slow. Even though, my line was slowed but she can understand my condition. She
did not force me to open camera. So I think, counselling session need to do face to face as we
can see each other and can make eye contact to feel more comfortable to the client.

Interpretation

There are a lot of experiences covered in the three sessions. Firstly, in the first session,
I learnt how a counsellor builds client relationships. Building a relationship was the first crucial
stage to avoiding a client's awkwardness. For instance, the counsellor, Mrs Caroline, started by
greeting me, calling out my name and briefing me about the counselling session with the
consent form. Moreover, she asked me to introduce myself in detail. From there, she can get to
know me better. I noticed she used Person-Centered Therapy as a technique in the first session.
For instance, she used to understand more about my problems without giving any advice.
 Secondly, I discovered that good communication between the counsellor and the client
is essential to finishing a session quickly and effectively in all three sessions. Mrs Caroline
followed step-by-step the whole process such as before, now, and in recent counselling
sessions. For instance, before the counselling session started, she chatted with me just to remind
me about the session. From her chat, I could look she was good at communication even though
not face-to-face very politely. She made a short briefing before I shared my problems such as
I needed to fill out a consent form, she told me that it was a private conversation and I needed
to introduce myself. When the counselling session started, she allowed me to share any
problems. My counsellor was full of attention as it taught me that if someone talks to us, we
need to pay attention. This is because it shows that we respect others and can avoid
misunderstandings in conversation.

Lastly, in the second and third sessions, she started to give pieces of advice, and
opinions, and sometimes used a question to ask me. She used open and closed questions as
another technique. Besides that, she tended to make a short or simple summarization to make
sure she did not lose all the information. Apart from that, she gave me 20 minutes to finish up
a simple task for the second session. I presented my task. The simple task was worth it for me
as it helped me to settle my problems. She praised me for what I have did. The third session
was more leisurely as she asked about my old problem and summarize from the second session.
I saw this session was more to state new problems. She gave me more advice instead of hearing.

Decision

Additionally, I learnt a lot of experience and knowledge in this counselling session as

a client. Mr Caroline taught me a few techniques to handle a client such as certain things that
be allowed and there are certain things that cannot do it. For instance, she taught me how to
build a rapport with the counsellor and client. I need to improve my skill in building
relationships with clients next time such as how to avoid awkwardness with clients, how to
open the session and how to terminate the session. I need to improve my communication skill
with clients to be a more friendly counsellor, pretend to ask sensitive questions and never judge
the clients. I will teach myself how to continue the conversation with clients when they
suddenly stop it. The open and closed questions only need at a certain time as I cannot use them
frequently.
 Moreover, I need to choose which technique is more suitable for the clients. For
instance, in the first session, I need to use Person-centered Therapy as it is an opening session
and need to more understand the clients to build their trust. Maybe in the second session, I will
do some activities with clients to formulate goals and plan strategies to settle clients’ problems.
This is a very fun technique to pretend the session is duller. I need to put some jokes for every
session, so they are more comfortable with the counsellor. Apart from that, if my clients cry or
are in very deeply feeling I need to show empathy and give some space for them. Finding a
suitable time for giving advice and opinion is the best key to showing respect and avoiding the
client feeling judged. In the termination session, I learnt what I need to do such as open new
space for the client if they want to state new problems. and how to terminate the session
properly.

I learnt counselling session need to do face to face as both can see each other. This is
because this way is more effective as the counsellor can make an eye contact and nonverbal
actions. For instance, counsellor can show empathy from their face expression and how they
talk just to make sure the client feels comfortable. Besides that, the counsellor needs to make
sure the client feels comfortable in the counselling session as ask them about the place, is it
comfort or not. As a counsellor, I learnt we need to read the consent form, and this is our
responsibility to keep the session as confidentiality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, being a client in this session taught me a lot of knowledge and

experience. There are a lot of skills taught by Mrs Caroline to me. For instance, she showed
good communication skills, suitable techniques in all sessions, and pay attention to the client
when they are talking. Good communication skill is the best key for a counsellor to build trust.
When a client suddenly cries, we need to think of the best technique to calm down the situation
and what we need to do if our client is suddenly quiet or is silent as they do not know what to
talk about. We as a counsellor needs to think of the best solution to avoid awkwardness. Simple
summarization in every session is crucial to pretend a counsellor missing a piece of
information. As a counsellor, we need to state an objective in client issues and plan strategies
to solve the problems. Moreover, we need to arrange one-by-one strategies to make our
counselling sessions go well and smoothly. We as a counsellor cannot judge our clients and are
willing to accept clients in all conditions. A counsellor needs to do face to face session as both
can see each other. I think online session is not suitable as there are a few of problems such as
lacking video due to slow internet. If the counselling session needs to held using online
platform, the counsellor needs to open his or her camera as the client can see their face to avoid
awkwardness. Being a good counsellor is not easy as we need to practice more to polish our
skills as practise makes perfect. As a future counsellor, I need to improve a lot of skills to make
sure that the counselling session going smoothly.