Reference no: EM132312322 , Length: word count : 3000

Assignment

You are required to think of a Significant Episode of Communication from your past: this can have been either a planned or an unplanned situation.

You are required to undertake a critical discussion of the communication reflecting upon the counselling approaches utilised by the MH Nurse.

Your interview could involve the person suffering, or their carer/partner. An episode drawn from your clinical practice environment is preferable, however if this is not possible the client may also be from a workplace, school or personal family life context.

You are required to reflect upon and critically discuss (with integrated support from the literature), an appropriate communication and counselling approach. In your discussion, you must refer specifically to the following issues:

What is preferred theoretical model of counselling/helping;

Application of the model of counselling /helping to achieve health goals with individuals, families and groups;

Maintaining a therapeutic relationship;

Students are required to describe and explore appropriate strategies and interventions they utilised with reference to theory and practice of
contemporary counselling.

Students are also required to reflect upon their overall effectiveness within the communication episode.

Students are required to reference correctly, using the APA reference style of citing author, and year of publication. Use direct quotes sparingly.

Reference to a wide range of current literature is expected, particularly journals (if you do not do this you will NOT do well).

Tasks to be undertaken:

1. Students are required to consider a significant episode of communication involving an individual requiring support and who is undergoing emotional and/or mental health issues that are affecting their functioning.

2. You could [i] base this on an interview / interaction you might already be having with a consumer or [ii] you could interview a significant person/carer who is experiencing emotional difficulties and requiring additional support.

Overview of the Episode of Communication:

3a. Students are to provide an overview of their perception of the situation.

3b. Students are to provide any limitations to their overview of their assessment. Is there a gap in their perception? If yes, please specify.

4. What are the variables that are affecting this person? In your response examine variables such as:

Environmental;

Cultural;

Social.

5. Students are required to identify and document the cognitive, emotional and behavioural barriers that are interplaying in this person’s experience.

Overview of preferred Theoretical Communication and Counselling Model:

6a. Students are required to specify which theory / model they found useful in working with this person’s current predicament.

6b. Students are required to explore and describe the key principles of their chosen model and analyse why this model lends itself to this helping session (i.e. Psychodynamic, CBT, Person-Centred etc. approaches).

Exploration of preferred Communication Theory Model

7. Students are required to identify and explore the practical application of the strategies/interventions associated with the model that were utilised to support this person’s current emotional state, feelings and/or behaviour.

8. Students are required to identify and document the strengths and limitations of the models that you have chosen within their practice setting.

Reflections after the counselling session.

9a. At the end of the communication session, students are required to reflect on the session and explore their type of interviewing style.

9b. Students are also to reflect on and document what they perceive as their interviewing strengths and weaknesses.

9c. On reflection, how did this interview affect you and what was your learning from this helping interview?

9d. On reflection, how did you go about building rapport with the client?

9e. On reflection, how did your verbal and non-verbal language help or hinder your efforts to build rapport with your client?

9f. On reflection, what past experiences helped or hindered your efforts to build rapport?

10a. During the counselling session were you aware of variables that affected your effectiveness? If so, how and when?

10b. On reflection, were you able to maintain effective listening skills throughout the counselling session? If no, why not? Specify when you were ineffective.

10c. Identify which prompts during the counselling session you did not recognise or decided not to respond to, and state why?

11. Identify your own learning requirements to enhance your counselling skills for the future.

Some areas to consider in writing your assignment:

Introduction:

In your introduction ensure that you:

Provide a clear overview of the episode of communication. State, who, what, when and how and what lead to this interaction/ interview.

Provide a brief introduction to the context of the communication episode; including the authors own role as well as the issues affecting this person.

State the appropriate communication and counselling approaches that you will be discussing and using.

Remember that the introduction should only state what you are going to do; the analysis is to occur in the body of your essay.

Body of Analytical Essay

Overview of the Episode of Communication:

Briefly document a snapshot of the client’s background.

Specify whether the client is from a workplace, school or personal family life.

State whether your client is undergoing emotional and/or mental health issues that is affecting their functioning.

State how is their functioning affected.

Upon reflection, document which variables were affecting this persons’ emotions, feelings and behaviour. Were they environmental, cultural or social, and if so, why?

Upon reflection, document which variables were affecting your emotions, feelings and behaviour. Were they environmental, cultural or social, and if so, why?

Overview & Application of your preferred Counselling Model:

The aim of section three is to ensure that your communication strategies are based around expert opinion:

Clearly discuss with reference to the literature the preferred theoretical model/approaches that you used.

Document the key beliefs/principles of your preferred theoretical model and explore how the model that you have chosen applied to the communication session; include any assumptions that underpinned your practice as well as the communication strategies that were utilised.

Analyse the key strengths and limitations of the model(s) that you have chosen to use in your episode of communication.

Analysis of the communication process:

What do you perceive as your communication strengths and weaknesses and why?

Did this episode of communication affect you? If so, how?

What did you learn by preparing for and conducting a communication session having reflected upon your preferred theoretical model?

How successful were you at building rapport with the client? What factors promoted and hindered rapport building?

Do you believe that your verbal language during the counselling session promoted or hindered rapport building with your client? Provide examples to support your response.

During the counselling session how did any of the variables (identifies in section 1 above) impact upon your effectiveness? If so, how and when? Please provide specific and measurable examples.

During the counselling session were you able to maintain effective listening throughout? If no, why not? Please provide specific and  measurable examples.

During the counselling session did you identify any prompts or clues that you decided not to respond to? If yes, what was the basis of that decision?