In a timely manner...

Caption: time-clock-head-woman-face-view-outlook-watches

URL: https://pixabay.com/en/time-clock-head-woman-face-view-1739629/

          Time is of the essence. Within a day, time hands us 24 hours to fulfill what needs to be achieved. In contrast, through the eyes of humans, time has always been a commodity labelled “hard to get”. It seems that time runs and leaves us behind, that time is never enough. In a fast-paced community like New York City, individuals have grasped the concept of time as very fundamental to their actualization process. In the movie, Alice in Wonderland (1951), we observe White Rabbit’s constant consciousness of time when he is seen singing the words, “I’m late, I’m late! For a very important date. No time to say “Hello, Goodbye.” I’m late. I’m late.”

          Counselors too observe the essence of time and timing in the counseling profession. We see the need to compress lengthy procedures or apply certain psychotherapeutic processes into time constrained sessions over short periods of time. An example is the use of solution-focused brief counseling in school settings to help students who do not have the opportunity of seeing a counselor for long periods (Jones et al., 2009).

          Despite the restraining concept of time, timeliness is crucial in the counseling session. Young (2017) makes mention of knowing when or when not to utilize skills such as questions in the session. I concur with the author when he shares how important it is to leave questions out of the first few sessions where it is critical in building a good rapport with the client. A client would not want to approach counseling only to play the game of 21 questions, when at that moment, the counselor’s authentic presence is needed. Therefore, the ability to appropriately use counseling skills in a timely manner is very important. However, these skills are not learned in a day.

It will take Time!

References

Jones, C. N., Hart, S. R., Jimerson, S. R., Dowdy, E., Earhart Jr., J., Renshaw, T. L., &

          Anderson, D. (2009). Solution-Focused Brief Counseling: Guidelines,

          Considerations, and Implications for School Psychologists. California School Psychologist,
          14111-122.

The White Rabbit (Character). (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2017, from

            http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0088704/quotes

Young, M. E (2017). Learning the Art of Helping: Building Blocks and Techniques (6^thed.)

            Boston, MA: Pearson. 

Culturally Empathic Counselors

Caption: Hands of the World

URL: http://postgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/empathy1.jpg

Professional counselors have gone through rigorous schoolwork and training in order to learn skills and techniques that are useful during the counseling process. Furthermore, one engages in various assessments through observation and questioning (Young, 2017). Observation can help the counselor identify problems by noticing the client’s appearance, speech, motions, and other features. This can be very beneficial; however, it is possible that our own cultural biases, assumptions, and worldview will affect our observations. If we look at others through our own cultural lens and judge their behavior based on standards established by our culture, we won’t possess the empathy that is needed in the therapeutic relationship.

            According to Chung and Bemak (2002), empathy is the counselor’s ability to enter the client’s world. Counselors are going to have many clients of various cultural groups; therefore, it is essential that one seeks to enter their world and understand more about them. A counselor who is culturally empathic maintains their cultural identity while also being accepting of the cultural values of the client (Chung & Bemak, 2002). Furthermore, it would be foolish if the counselor assumed that there is a common normal behavior among cultural groups. According to Pedersen (1987), behavior changes based on the cultural group values and beliefs as well as when encountering different situations. Therefore, it would be wise to identify behaviors based on the context of their culture. While it might be rather impossible to free ourselves from worldviews and biases we possess, we should continually make an effort to grow in self-awareness. Furthermore, we should seek to learn more about other cultures and diligently strive to be empathic counselors.

References:

Chung, R. C. Y., & Bemak, F. (2002). The relationship of culture and empathy in cross‐cultural counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80(2), 154-159

Pedersen, P. (1987). Ten frequent assumptions of cultural bias in counseling. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 15(1), 16-24.

Young, M. E. (2017). Learning the art of helping: Building blocks and techniques. Pearson Higher Ed.

The Importance of Empathy

The Importance of Empathy 

Caption: Make Empathy Great Again

URL: http://i65.tinypic.com/124alcn.jpg

My first reading journal focused on the importance of listening. In this reading journal, I want to focus on a key ingredient of listening. That ingredient is empathy. Not only have we been reading about the importance of empathy, and ways to communicate empathy (such as reflecting feelings), but additionally there is much research about the importance of empathy in the counseling relationship.

Empathy is frequently associated with Carl Rogers and person-centered therapy, but all counselors should employ empathy and strive to create an empathic relationship with their clients (Clark, 2010).  According to Kwon and Jo (2012), counselor empathy can even counterbalance a lack of experience. If a counselor is new to counseling, empathy can overcome the challenges of inexperience and is correlated with positive outcomes of the counseling relationship (Kwon & Jo, 2012). So not only is empathy important for counseling as a whole, but it can even make up for new counselor’s lack of experience. This fact struck me, specifically because as an emerging counselor to-be, I know that I will have virtually no experience when I enter the field. While there is no way to get experience except to do the work, it was encouraging to find out that there are skills I can focus on that will help those early years of learning.

Empathy is being able to see or feel from someone else's perspective, even if you disagree with them. It's especially important today, because oftentimes culturally speaking, we would rather refute people than understand them.  Empathy allows us to step away from ourselves and see through the eyes of another. It opens up lines of communication. Empathy is crucial if we are going to be counselors that listen well to their clients.

References

Clark, A. J. (2010). Empathy: An integral model in the counseling process. Journal of Counseling and Development : JCD, 88(3), 348-356.

Kwon, K. I., & Jo, S. Y. (2012). The relationship among counselor experience level, empathic accuracy, and counseling outcome in the early phase of counseling. Asia Pacific Education Review, 13(4), 771-777.