Let's Take a Moment of Silence...

Caption: Sunset on Timberlake

Photographer: Me (Camille Piccirillo)

While there are many skills a counselor will need to be familiar with in order to accomplish effective counseling, silence is one skill that may not come easily to new counselors. Thomas and Sosin (2011) define silence as “… pauses that stretch more than five seconds…” (p. 217). These authors mention how today’s societal expectations of noise contributes to the discomfort that many new counselors may experience when silence occurs within the counseling session (p. 218). The important thing to remember when first learning how to properly incorporate silence in the counseling session is that silence holds several meaningful purposes. The authors describe three main purposes for silence- taking a rest, recognition of non-verbals, and change of topic (p. 218). Often times difficult conversations are had within the counseling session. By allowing silence to take place, both the client and counselor can take this time to process or reflect on what was said. Next, one’s body language is just as important as what one is verbalizing. By having silence, both of these types of communication can be properly acknowledged by the counselor. Additionally, this can help the client feel heard and understood. Lastly, a client may be silent after expressing a topic. Allowing silence to occur can give the counselor an opportunity to have the client continue on with the current topic or give them a chance to re-direct the counseling session to another topic that needs to be discussed. Even though a counselor may initially feel uncomfortable with silence, this skill can be a great help to the counseling process.

Reference

Thomas, J. C., & Sosin, L. (2011).Therapeutic expedition: Equipping the Christian counselor for the journey. B&H Publishing.