Counseling Training Process Discussion

Original discussion question.

After conducting your first intake interview, this discussion will give you a chance to process the experience with fellow first-time interviewers. Select one strength, one weakness, one plan for improvement, and one observation from the client’s perspective to share with classmates.

Please respond to the following two posts…

M.L Posted

Intake Interview Reflection DB

I  appreciated the opportunity to give my first intake interview with my fellow students for learning and growth. One strength that I brought to the intake interview was empathy and warmth. The client stated that she shared more than she thought or planned and felt comfortable speaking with me. I try to be objective and look at each client as God would look at them. By doing this, I believe the client feels less judgment and is more secure. Hawkins and Clinton (2015) state that Christian counseling can be as simple as counseling by a Christian who believes in Christ and is spiritually filled.

There are multiple areas in which I need to improve, but one specifically is that I need to be aware of my actions. As I observed my video I noticed that I looked down and read from my intake form more than I realized. When I have decreased eye contact, my client

may think I am not listening or paying attention. Simmons et al. (2020) suggest that making eye contact, expressing feelings, body language, and paraphrasing are essential in a counselor’s understanding and exploring skills. One way to improve this weakness is by practicing aloud and memorizing how to conduct an intake interview without having to look at a form.

One thing that I observed from the experience was how vulnerable I felt when being a mock client. I was not sure what was going to be asked and felt nervous about sharing my struggles. It was good to be in the client’s shoes and feel what they may feel which will help me be a better counselor in the future.

References

Hawkins, R., & Clinton, T. (2015). The new Christian counselor: A fresh biblical and transformational approach. Harvest House Publishers.

Simmons, R., Anita Kuhnley, A., & Lilley, S. (2020) Introduction to counseling: integration of faith, professional identity, and clinical practice. Kendall Hunt Publishing.

C.C posted…

Performance reflection is a great way to enhance the learning process and promote growth and improvement (Sacco & Amende, 2020). Sacco and Amende (2020) suggest the use of metaphor as a creative way for counselors-in-training to self-reflect. In my paper, I described this experience as being on training wheels (Cox, 2021). For many of us, this was out first time conducting an intake interview, so we may have been wobbly. This discussion will be a great opportunity to enrich our reflections about strengths, weaknesses, improvement plans, and client perspectives.

Chen and Giblin’s (2018) cool head, warm hearttechnique inspired my disposition during the intake interview. The cool head allows the counselor to perform an objective assessment and the warm hearthelps the client feel more comfortable and understood (Chen & Giblin, 2018).  Emulating this style of interviewing was a strength of mine during our practice. I was able to gather all the necessary assessment information while performing basic counseling techniques such as active-listening, empathy, reflection, and goal-setting.

I was happy with my planning process in regards to the questions I used during my semi-structured interview. My weakness was that I failed to adequately plan for the opening and closing of the session. At the start of the interview, I forgot to introduce myself as the counselor to the client. In addition, the end of my practice interview was relatively abrupt. The conclusion of my partner’s session included a summary of the entire intake and what to expect going forward. This reminded me that I had forgotten to perform this critical action during my interview.

This will seem cliché, but truly my best plan of action going forward is further practice. I am fortunate that I have friends and family that are willing to act as fictional clients for me to practice with. In my paper, I noted that practice can also come in many other forms of study such as viewing and evaluating online intake interviews and completing additional unassigned reading (Cox, 2021). We can also attend conferences and workshops in order to further our learning. Experience using and recognizing counseling and assessment techniques will increase our exposure, making us better prepared for practicum and internship.

As the client, I found myself wondering how much of my current scenario I wanted to share with the counselor. Withholding some information is probably a common reaction during initial counseling meetings. Clients may not reveal every important detail about their situation or problem due to discomfort, embarrassment, or shame. Chen and Giblin (2018) note that clients will likely reveal additional information in later sessions as they become more comfortable with the counselor and the counseling process.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource