STUDY NOTE 3 FOR PYC3705
Theme: Counselling Micro-skills:
Micro-skills are the basic foundational skills involved in effective helping
relationships.
They are the foundational tools on which the success of interventions with clients
may depend.
They help to create the necessary conditions from which positive change can take
place.
They provide the client with such alliance building constructs as empathic
understanding, genuineness and acceptance, and will greatly facilitate the
development of a safe therapeutic environment.
They will aid in establishing rapport with clients:
Rapport can be understood as a harmonious or empathic relationship. The
development of rapport starts with the initial contact and continues throughout
the counseling process. Effective rapport is crucial for individuals seeking
counseling, as this may be the first encounter with a professional counselor
and this interaction may either encourage or discourage the client from seeking
counseling in the future or following up for subsequent counseling sessions.
Essential Counselling Micro-skills:
The micro-skills are a set of verbal and behavioural responses that facilitate the process
of counselling and alliance formation regardless of the counsellors’ theoretical orientation.
These skills are presented as a hierarchy that is organised within a systematic framework.
At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic attending skills such as patterns of eye
contact, body language, and tone of voice. A bit farther up the skills hierarchy is the basic
listening sequence, which includes questioning, paraphrasing, summarising, and
reflection of feelings.
List of Micro-skills:
Attending
Good communication involves more than just verbal content—much
communication takes place non-verbally. Following validation and education,
clients ranked nonverbal gestures and presentation and body language as the
most important alliance building factors.
Non-verbal attending behaviours communicate a counsellor’s interest, warmth
and understanding to the client, and include such behaviours as eye contact,
body position, and tone of voice.
Focussing
Identification of a problem
Theme: Counselling Micro-skills:
Micro-skills are the basic foundational skills involved in effective helping
relationships.
They are the foundational tools on which the success of interventions with clients
may depend.
They help to create the necessary conditions from which positive change can take
place.
They provide the client with such alliance building constructs as empathic
understanding, genuineness and acceptance, and will greatly facilitate the
development of a safe therapeutic environment.
They will aid in establishing rapport with clients:
Rapport can be understood as a harmonious or empathic relationship. The
development of rapport starts with the initial contact and continues throughout
the counseling process. Effective rapport is crucial for individuals seeking
counseling, as this may be the first encounter with a professional counselor
and this interaction may either encourage or discourage the client from seeking
counseling in the future or following up for subsequent counseling sessions.
Essential Counselling Micro-skills:
The micro-skills are a set of verbal and behavioural responses that facilitate the process
of counselling and alliance formation regardless of the counsellors’ theoretical orientation.
These skills are presented as a hierarchy that is organised within a systematic framework.
At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic attending skills such as patterns of eye
contact, body language, and tone of voice. A bit farther up the skills hierarchy is the basic
listening sequence, which includes questioning, paraphrasing, summarising, and
reflection of feelings.
List of Micro-skills:
Attending
Good communication involves more than just verbal content—much
communication takes place non-verbally. Following validation and education,
clients ranked nonverbal gestures and presentation and body language as the
most important alliance building factors.
Non-verbal attending behaviours communicate a counsellor’s interest, warmth
and understanding to the client, and include such behaviours as eye contact,
body position, and tone of voice.
Focussing
Identification of a problem
