ASSESSMENT COMMENTS & MARKING PAGE (YEAR 3)

REFLECTION ON PRACTICE (1000 WORDS)

Student number: 2190424 Tutor marking:

Word Count: 1017
Date: 29/05/2024

Topic Title: Reflection on Practice

Student’s General Assessment Comment:

Assessment Criteria Comment

Evidence of awareness of specific ethical

DONE
considerations

Ability to identify and reflect on key moments in

DONE
the counselling session

Ability to critically reflect on own practice and

relational process and consider next steps in DONE
own professional development

Consideration of difference and diversity and

COULD HAVE ADDED MORE IN STRUCTURES OF
structures of power within the therapeutic
POWER + DIVERSITY
relationship

Ability to link reflections on own practice to

DONE
relevant theory

Quality of presentation of the work including

SATISFACTORY
referencing

Mark: ……..……. % Grade: 60%

Tutor’s Assessment Comment:

Mark: Date:

BA (Hons) Person-centred Counselling

& the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
ASSESSMENT COMMENTS & MARKING PAGE (YEAR 3)
REFLECTION ON PRACTICE (1000 WORDS)

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE ASSIGNMENT

The client, Abdul, (name changed for confidentiality purposes), a 25 year old
male of Indian descent, conducted a 20 minute session as he felt he needed
someone to talk to. Presenting issues included self-esteem issues and low mood.
This session took place face to face.

Abdul displayed signs of nervousness and anxiety prior to the session starting. I
believed Abdul was displaying a state of incongruence, the first therapeutic
“core” condition, showing vulnerability (Rogers, 1957). Perhaps, it may have
been useful to utilise the Anxiety Inventory (Beck, Brown and Steer, 1988) in
order to specifically look at Abdul’s anxiety symptoms.

Being respectful towards Abdul’s emotions and anxious behaviour, I attempted

to show empathy and unconditional positive regard (UPR) by stating, “I’m
noticing your body language and understandably I can see that this is hard for
you”. This UPR and empathy met two of Carl Rogers’ core conditions deemed
necessary and sufficient for therapeutic change. I also tried to be as congruent
as possible to ensure I came across as genuine, real and relatable.

Abdul, smiling nervously, responded in agreement and added, “to be honest, I

don’t know what to expect, but I hope it helps”. After the initial contracting
process, I explained the counselling process, remaining empathic and friendly. I
tried to help alleviate the client’s nerves by telling him that it was okay and that
I feel nervousness too and that it is perfectly normal. I asked the client what he
would like from therapy or what had brought him here and whether the
counselling arrangement was comfortable enough for him in order to help him
feel relaxed. This helped begin building a therapeutic relationship (TR) and trust
from the very beginning. I allowed the client time to process and gage his
emotions, allowing silence for him to reflect. The core condition of ‘psychological
contact’ seemed to already be present in the therapeutic relationship (TR)
(Rogers, 1957). The remainder of the session was spent with the client
explaining his feelings of happiness and although he was happy, he usually felt
unhappy and expressed dismay at his studies and the point of it.

BA (Hons) Person-centred Counselling

& the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
ASSESSMENT COMMENTS & MARKING PAGE (YEAR 3)
REFLECTION ON PRACTICE (1000 WORDS)

Keeping a track of Abdul’s words, I kept mirroring him to help him feel comfort
whilst taking in his thoughts and feelings. I ‘held’ the client, allowing him to sit
with his thoughts whilst he pondered on them, as I did not want to guide the
conversation and wanted to allow him to reflect. The client seemed, almost,
fearful of being happy and expressed feeling great, in an almost confused
manner. Upon Abdul’s reflection, I used Socratic questioning in order to ask
questions that Abdul had the knowledge to answer, such as what happiness
meant to him, to attempt to draw his attention to any information he could
answer or reflect on and to draw his attention to anything he may find relevant,
to give it more focus and to perhaps get a new idea. (Padesky, 1993). Whilst
reflecting back to Abdul in order to gain clarity, to “check in” with my
understanding, I asked him to “correct me if I am wrong” and explored his
‘happiness’ and that he felt happy when his parents were happy and reflected
my understanding, as the session came to an end, to which Abdul agreed. Upon
reflection, I felt underlying ‘sadness’ within his emotions and should have used
the opportunity to explore this, whether it was a correct feeling or not and
perhaps the root causes of it. This promotion of feelings could have been more
beneficial, and I could feel myself stepping back to allow the client to remain
feeling happy, however exploring the sadness may have had a differing profound
effect instead. Upon reflection, I could have used the ‘Subjective Units of
Distress Scale’ (SUDS) (Wolpe, 1969) in order to check-in with Abdul and whilst
exploring his negative emotions, I could have ensured he was okay to continue
exploring these thoughts and feelings. As I was concerned about the client
getting triggered, I could have also suggested grounding techniques such as the
‘5 senses’ (Shukla, 2020) and ‘Box breathing’ (Divine, 2015). An initial
assessment such as a Basic ID (Lazarus, 1981) could have been completed prior
to the session starting in order to understand the client better.

From a person-centred viewpoint, I was glad to be able to put the core

conditions into use and felt these helped to allow the therapeutic relationship to
begin with trust. Integratively speaking, I would have liked to use goal setting
(Beck, 2021) which could be reviewed further sessions down the line and
emotion regulation systems (Gilbert, 2010). I would also like to find out more
about Abdul’s attachment origins and style using Babi questions (Holmes, 2001)

BA (Hons) Person-centred Counselling

& the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
ASSESSMENT COMMENTS & MARKING PAGE (YEAR 3)
REFLECTION ON PRACTICE (1000 WORDS)
as he did mention his happiness being linked to their happiness.

Culturally speaking, the therapeutic relationship could also have been enhanced
due to my cultural similarities with Abdul (language and ethnicity). Exploring
certain actions such as Abdul clicking his fingers and swearing under his breath,
I could have understood his ‘frame of reference’ faster by perhaps, asking if it
reflected our usual cultural of these actions, meaning nervousness, anger and
sadness. It may also have been prudent to explore being a part of a group
collective, where Abdul and my culture, looks down upon individuals fraying out
of the ‘group’. There is perhaps a need to step away from cultural norms and is
something that I would like to explore in future sessions after promoting respect
and establishing trust.

I ensure remaining ethical by constantly discussing ethics in supervision with my

supervisor to ensure my practice is following the BACP Ethical Framework
(2018). As a trainee integrative counsellor, I stick to my scope of competency,
namely, Person-centred therapy. Attachment theory and CBT are two other
modes of therapy I try to apply where necessary, working within professional
standards, ensuring the client’s wellbeing is always maintained. As I try to
continue to gain a deeper knowledge of my counselling skills, I remain
trustworthy which I believe results in deepening the therapeutic relationship
(TR) in order to remain ethical whilst allowing the client autonomy.

BA (Hons) Person-centred Counselling

& the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
ASSESSMENT COMMENTS & MARKING PAGE (YEAR 3)
REFLECTION ON PRACTICE (1000 WORDS)

REFERENCES

BACP (2018) Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions [Online].

Lutterworth: BACP. Available from: <[Link]
resources/ethics-and-standards/ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-
professions/> [Accessed 29 May 2024].

Beck, A.T., Epstein, N., Brown, G. and Steer, R.A. (1988) An Inventory for
Measuring Clinical Anxiety: Psychometric Properties. Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 56, 893-897.

Beck, J. S. (2021). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (3rd ed.).
The Guilford Press.

Divine, M. (2015) Unbeatable mind: Forging mental toughness. United States:

Mark Divine.

Gilbert, P. (2010). Compassion focused therapy: Distinctive

features. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Holmes, J. (2014) The Search for the Secure Base. 1st edn. Taylor and Francis.
Available at: [Link]
secure-base-attachment-theory-and-psychotherapy-pdf (Accessed: 29 May
2024).

Lazarus, R. S. (1981). The Stress and Coping Paradigm. In C. Eisdorfer, D.

Cohen, A. Kleinman, & P. Maxim (Eds.), Models for Clinical Psychopathology (pp.
177-214). New York: Spectrum.

Padesky, C. A. (1993). Staff and patient education. In J. H. Wright, M. E. Thase,

A. T. Beck, & J. W. Ludgate (Eds.), Cognitive therapy with inpatients: Developing
a cognitive milieu (pp. 393–413). The Guilford Press.

Rogers, CR(1957). The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic

Personality Change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol. 21, pp. 95–103

BA (Hons) Person-centred Counselling

& the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
ASSESSMENT COMMENTS & MARKING PAGE (YEAR 3)
REFLECTION ON PRACTICE (1000 WORDS)
Shukla, S. (2020). Concept of Population and Sample. In How to Write a
Research Paper? Rishit Publications.

Wolpe, J. (1969). The Practice of Behavior Therapy. Pergamon.

BA (Hons) Person-centred Counselling

& the Psychotherapeutic Relationship