Author Archives: Gladeana

Reflective Practice and Self-Evaluation

Reflective practice and self-evaluation take many forms. Reflecting on work with clients directly after a session has ended, on areas of counsellor strengths and weaknesses, on personal motives for engaging in counselling (McMahon, 1994) on gender and sexuality (Davies, Neal 1996) on personal counselling philosophy and theoretical approaches and on the relevance of research and

Collating Client Information

  There are many ways in which information can be collated.   – The counsellor may ask the questions and simply record the answers given. – The client may be given  a Client Record Sheet to complete. – A receptionist or intake worker may record the information prior to the initial assessment session. – The counsellor

Client History – Basic Administrative Information

A counsellor’s first task is to consider what basic information is required for administrative purposes, for example, name, address, telephone number (home and work), referral source.  In addition, many counsellors take a client’s General Practitioner’s details as part of the initial administrative recording procedure. This latter point may be totally redundant if you are a

Client History – Referral Letters

Referral letters are common and come in many forms. Some contain detailed information whilst others provide (after giving name, address and date of birth) a brief single line statement such as “I would be grateful if you could see this patient who is anxious and depressed”.  Some counsellors do not read referral letters until after

Client History Taking

Client history taking can be approached from a number of different angles depending on the orientation of the counsellor, the time constraints surrounding the counselling offered and the problem area presented by the client.  A psychodynamically trained counsellor will tend to focus on early family history whereas a cognitive-behavioural counsellor will generally require detailed information

The different types of help

Following on from the different types of people, let’s look at the different types of help they offer: Counselling Counselling is focused on helping people with emotional distress which stops them from being able to function as well as they would like.  Counselling timeframes can be as short as 6 sessions or less or as

The right help at the right time

  This short series of blog posts is intended as a guideline for the practitioner to share with clients looking for the best solution to their individual situation. I am often asked what the difference is between coaching, counselling and psychotherapy and which type of help is best for what type of problem.  Having spent

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