1.0 INTRODUCTION
This assignment comprises of several parts.
The first part of the coursework describes about the problems faced by Hassan.
It then proceeds to discuss the one possible theory that is able to help Hassan
to achieve his fullest self-potential. The following part concerns about two
counselling techniques that can assist Hassan in attending his problem. The
last part of this coursework discusses about the basic counselling skills that
will be used by Hassan’s counsellor. Relevant examples and citations are provided
in this discussion.
2.0 CASE DICUSSION
Hassan
is a bright student who has just got transferred to an elite school in town.
Hassan has to present his History assignment soon. He feels nervous and is
worried because he always has this thought that ‘I must obtain high scores in
my presentation as I have always achieved the highest marks in presentation in
my former school.’ You are a guidance teacher conforming to the five outcomes
of the system aspiration in the Malaysian Education System as stated in the
Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025. Explain how you will be able to help
Hassan in overcoming his feelings of nervousness and worries caused by these
irrational thoughts.
2.1
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Based
on the given case, Hassan is facing the problem of nervousness and worries caused
by his irrational thoughts. He might feel different to how he used to feel. The
new environment and being in the elite school make him feels more nervous as
the expectation is high at this kind of school. Students always have this
problem whenever they enter new school or knowing that they are competing with
other students where it becomes a difficult situation for them as they are lack
of motivation and low self-esteem. Most of the time, without proper care and
help from experts student like Hassan will have the irrational thoughts that
will then take over him and in the end caused him to be anxious all the time.
Consequently he may not be able to manage to do his task effectively as well as
affect his performance in the long run. In the context of this situation, Hassan
is in need of help from guidance teacher to resolve his irrational thoughts.
Figure
1: The five system aspiration in the Malaysian Education System
The five outcomes of the system
aspiration in the Malaysian Education System as stated in the Malaysian
Education Blueprint 2013-2025 is strategic plans for developing the students
and to help teachers at the school become a role model for the children to build
self-confidence of students in addition to counseling services that can help
students solve a problem. Additionally, counseling services provided can have a
significant impact in generating prosperity of human capital in terms of
emotions, thoughts and actions in order to contribute to the success of the
Education Development Plan 2013-2025. Curricular and co-curricular activities
at school is geared toward individuals who are skilled, balanced, achieving
high professional level of seriousness to develop national educational aspect.
This also indicates the teaching profession in Malaysian education system as
the driving force of development; especially in achieving a developed nation
status and high income economy by 2020.
“The
purpose of education in Malaysia is to enable Malaysian society to have a
command of the knowledge, skills, and values necessary in a world that is
highly competitive and globalised, arising from the impact of rapid development
in science, technology, and information.”
Preamble to the
Education Act (1996)
Students
who have the knowledge and skills at the world par excellent, as well as have
high sense of values in oneself, and able to compete with other students are of
the impact of the PPPM. Based on the plan, the possible impact from such
students, they are more likely to learn and succeed in the field they are in.
Besides, they also will learn from the environment where there is a belief that
they have the freedom to speak and voice their thoughts. Students also will
have the opportunity to learn from every aspect not only in academic but in
school projects and group works. By referring to the plan, the impact also has
on the teachers where they will enjoy the work as evaluation process is
transparent and fair and linked to relevant capabilities and performance.
This
case discussion is also one of the challenges faced by teachers today in
developing a person in holistic manner and can strive in any problems in order
to produce a productive citizen. Such challenge faced by guidance teacher in
school today to improve the quality of education in Malaysia. Based on the
problems faced by Hassan, the suitable counselling theory that can be applied
to help Hassan to achieve his fullest potential is the Person-Centered Theory. This
theory is also known as person centered therapy or client centered therapy.
This theory may help Hassan to achieve his self-potential and resolve his nervousness
and irrational thoughts. Teachers must make use of this theory in order for
Hassan to realize of his true self potential and reality of life. This
awareness requires considerable effort from Hassan to solve the problems. As
normal human being, Hassan is just like others as well who will continuously
strive to improve himself in the process of achieving self-perfection.
Generally, people never feel satisfied with his level of performance. Thus he
needs help in terms of motivation to achieve his self-actualization.
2.2
PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
According
to Palmer, S. (2000), this theory is classified under the humanistic
approaches. Humanistic therapies evolved in the USA during the 1950s. Carl
Rogers proposed person-centered or client-centered therapy in his first book
Counseling and Psychotherapy which was published in 1942. Rogers started the
therapy to his client’s experiences. Mearns and Thorne (1988) stated that
Rogers view differs sharply from psychodynamic and behavioural approaches that
he suggested that clients would be better helped if they were encouraged to
focus on their current subjective understanding rather than on other motives or
other’s interpretation of the situation. This theory also proposed that people
tend to describe their current experiences by referring to themselves in some
way, for example, “I don’t understand what’s happening” or “I feel different to
how I used to feel”. Similarly to the Hassan’s case where he has this
irrational thoughts where he need to strive the best for his presentation until
he feel worried and nervous and this will lead to doubt to his self-potential.
Hassan is no longer confident the way he was before.
Hassan
has set in his mind that he has to present very strongly and get high marks for
his History assignment presentation. He has his own aims and goals. This
situation makes him stuck. Referring to Rogers’ (1959) theory, it is the notion
of self or self-concept which is defined as “the organized, consistent set of
perceptions and beliefs about oneself.” This shows that it consists of all the
ideas and values that characterize ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and
valuing of ‘what I am’ and ‘What I can do’.
This
can relate to Hassan’s case where he is nervous and worried as he is too ambitious
to get high marks for his presentation where he perceives himself confident and
may well behave confident yet come to see his actions are otherwise. He is too
overwhelmed by his goals until he is worried and nervous. Consequently, the self-concept
is a central component of our total experience and influences both the
perception of the world and perception of oneself.
Person-Centered
therapy emphasizes the person’s innate striving for self-actualization and the
quality of therapeutic relationship between the counsellor and the client. This
theory also proposes that people are capable of self-directed growth if
involved in a therapeutic relationship.
On
top of that, this theory serves as a way for guidance teacher to cater problems
like Hassan’s case as the general goals are to increase personal choice and to
create new conditions for learning. Through this theory, guidance teacher can
help Hassan by giving him a positive and deep caring sense as well as enable
Hassan to learn to resolve his irrational thoughts. As a guidance teacher, this
theory also gives opportunity to provide rationale for goals, explain roles of
goals, purposes of goals and the client’s participation in the goal setting
process. By referring to Hassan’s case, he is in need of help, and only he can
make the changes in his life, whether he wants to be confident and put away his
thoughts so that he can be calm and focus for his assignment presentation. A
good and calm state of mind will boost the way he performs and will reduce the
risk of being nervous as well as he may present very well for his assignment.
Additionally,
this theory is a non-directive as it is a counselling approach that requires
the client to take an active role in his treatment while the therapist being
nondirective and supportive. In person-centered therapy, the client determines
the course and direction of treatment while the therapist clarifies the
client's responses to promote self-understanding. The goals of client-centered
therapy are increased self-esteem and openness to experience.
Furthermore,
according to McLeod (2008) this theory helps client to lead full lives of
self-understanding, reduction in defensiveness, guilt, and insecurity as well
as more positive and comfortable relationships with others and an increased
capacity to experience and express their feelings. What is most important in
person-centered therapy is the quality of the relationship between the
therapist and the client.
Based
on Hassan’s case, he is in a state of incongruence, meaning there is a
difference between how he sees himself and reality. Having an accurate
self-concept (the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs people have about themselves)
is the key to person-centered therapy. For example, Hassan is having the
thought of he must strive high marks for the assignment presentation at the new
school, and this thought leads him to be nervous and worry. It is the hope of this
therapy to help Hassan reaches a state of congruence (a match between
self-concept and reality; for people to see themselves as they actually are).
For example, if a Hassan thinks he can do better for the presentation, he would
not doubt himself when it comes to presenting the assignment. This indicates
that he is congruence with his self-concept. In person-centered therapy, the
teacher or counsellor does not attempt to change the client's thinking in any
way. The guidance teacher merely facilitates self-actualization by providing a
comfortable environment for Hassan to freely engage in focused, in-depth
self-exploration.
Based
on Rogers (1951), he also challenged the validity of therapeutic procedures
applicable at that time, namely in terms of advising, giving opinion, lead, persuade, teach, assess and
make interpretations. Hassan’s nervousness and worries because of irrational
thoughts should be assisted by providing advice that not all things or what we
do must be followed with excellent results. Hassan was an excellent student in
presentation at his former school, so when he is in elite school, he sees other
students as a major challenge and competitors. The underlying assumption of
this theory is that people are trustworthy and have huge potential to
understand themselves and solve their own problems. Hassan who has high
self-confidence led him to work hard and get excellent marks, but he would be
disappointed if the results are not as what he is expecting.
Moreover,
this theory is focused on individual counseling and psychotherapy in which the counsellors
are able to help a student like Hassan rebuild confidence and discard any
nervousness and irrational thinking. This theory was later developed into a
systematic theory of personality and practiced in individual counseling. This
approach was later converted into a Client Centrered Therapy (Rogers, 1951).
This theory is not just solving problems encountered or experienced at the
time, but what is more important is to achieve a sense of freedom and self-actualization
for the individual. The purpose of counseling is to help students in their
development process, so that they can cope with current problems and issues in
the future.
In
this theory, there are several techniques employed. However the techniques used
in this therapy are different from those employed in other therapies. The techniques
are used by the counsellors to create an environment that facilitates the
process of self-awareness, but in other therapies the counsellors use
techniques that focus on what the clients do during the therapy session. In this
theory, the techniques proposed are such as congruence in counselling,
unconditional positive regard, and empathy. The techniques mentioned will be
discussed further in the next part of the coursework in relation to Hassan’s
case.
2.3
COUNSELING TECHNIQUES
Rogers believes that, under
nurturing conditions a client will be able to move forward and resolve their
own issues. The techniques used in this theory are different from other
theories. This part will discuss two counseling techniques; unconditional
positive regard and empathy in relation to the Person-Centered Theory.
Figure
2: The two counseling techniques in relation to the Person-Centered Theory
2.3.1
UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD
Unconditional positive regard is one
of the techniques that can assist Hassan in attending his problem. Unconditional
positive regard refers to the therapist accepting, respecting and caring about
clients (Seligman, 2006). This technique is referring to the therapist acceptance
and caring, but not approval of all behaviour.
This technique also refers to the
counsellor’s deep and genuine caring for the client. The counsellor may not
approve of some of the client’s actions but the he or she does accept the
client. Thus in this case, counsellor needs to accept Hassan as he is. To make
this therapy successful, the counsellor needs to be careful to always maintain
a positive attitude to Hassan, even when disgusted by his actions.
By using this technique, the counsellor needs
to accept Hassan’s reality with kindness and not being judgemental towards him.
It is normal to feel nervous and worried. This feeling indicates that Hassan is
aware of his work and assignment and need to face the challenge. However, the
feelings that he feels must not take over him until affecting his performance.
To be ambitious is fine as long as he can manage anxiety problem.
The counsellor must help Hassan by accept
that he is nervous because he is facing the new situation where he needs to struggle
in order to maintain his performance. At the same time, what advice can the
counsellor give to him is, our performance it is not depends on how well we
were before but what he needs to know is he has to get ready for his assignment
well. Besides if he is well prepared in terms of the input to be presented, he
will get the confidence and will obtain high marks if he presents it clearly
and in calmer manner.
Even so, it does not mean the counsellor has
to agree with everything Hassan says or does, however see him as he is doing
the best he can and demonstrate this by expressing concern rather than
disapproving with him. This technique allows Hassan to express how he is
thinking without feeling judged, and help to facilitate the change process by
showing he can be accepted.
According to the theory teacher should try
not to give too much solution to student like Hassan as the decisions or solution
is remains in the hands of himself. Therefore guidance teacher is just becoming
the adviser and mentor because all the final decisions are dependent on Hassan
himself. Teachers will help Hassan build confidence and remove all the
nervousness and irrational thoughts simply because he decides to score high
marks in his presentation. This causes Hassan more depressed if the result is
not meet his expectations.
2.3.2
EMPATHY
Empathy is the ability to understand what the
client is feeling and emotions. This refers to the therapist’s ability to
understand sensitively and accurately but not sympathetically towards the
client’s experience and feelings in the here-and-now. Being sympathy is
different as it is often seen as feeling sorry for the client whereas empathy
is the understanding and being in the client’s conditions as well as allows
client to further open up (Seligman, 2006).
The person-centered therapist is appropriate
to encourage improvements in the client's self-psychological adjustment. As we
can see, Hassan is a student who is confident, however, limited by its own
irrational thoughts which create the conditions of nervousness and worries.
Through a proper handling using this technique, Hassan can improve his
confidence and self-esteem. According to Mearns & Thorne (1988), studies
have confirmed the importance of the contribution of empathy, respect and
authenticity in the counseling process. Thus as a guidance teacher I should
show empathy so that Hassan will feel he a bit relief as someone understand
what he is going through a rough time.
The most important part of being empathy is
counsellor or teacher must follow precisely what the client is feeling and in
order to communicate with them that the counsellor must first understands what
they are feeling. Below are the words of Rogers (1975) of accurate empathic
understanding:
“If
I am truly open to the way life is experienced by another person..if I can take
his or her world into mine, then I risk seeing life in his or her way…and of
being changed myself, and we all resist change. Since we all resist change, we
tend to view the other person’s world only in our terms, not in his or hers.
Then we analyse and evaluate it. We do not understand their world. But, when
the therapist does understand how it truly feels to be in another person’s
world, without wanting or trying to analyse or judge it, then the therapist and
the client can truly blossom and grow in that climate.”
This technique requires counsellors have the
right understanding of empathy. Clients who came to the counsellor might bring
his subjective thoughts about world, which of course is different from the counsellor’s
point of view. From the description of the client, either through language or
through movements of his body, the counsellor should strive to understand the
subjective world of his clients, so he can feel, perceive and experience the
feeling that faced by the client. As guidance teacher one should apply this
technique in each of the problems faced by students if they have any problems.
Teachers need to show the love to students like Hassan, because he needs to be
given proper approach and attention in order for him to resolve his problem.
Based on Hassan’s case, he is feeling nervous
and is worried because he always has the irrational thoughts that he must
obtain high scores in his presentation as he was in his former school, thus
being empathy may help him to assist his problem. The way I approach him will
be like “So you are feeling nervous and worried at this time because you are
thinking to maintain your performance of getting high scores for your
presentation”. Showing empathy like this can show that I understand of his
situation and he might feel comfortable to share his problem with me further.
On top of that, as guidance teacher I must
listen with empathy when Hassan is telling his problem to me. Listening with
empathy means that the teacher realizes that even the problem or situation is
hard to accept, but teacher must shows concern and offers help if needed.
Teacher must reflect and think back whether the decisions decided may fail but
this can help Hassan to reduce his anxiety problem.
2.4
COUNSELING SKILLS
As guidance teacher, the knowledge
of basic counselling skills is important as it takes counselling skills to make
effective therapy. Basic counseling skills allows teacher and student to have
an interpersonal communication which then make the counseling approaches a
success. Communication is a process by which the transferring of information
occurs between two people. With the correct counselling skills used by teachers
the process of attending student’s problem becomes easier. Interpersonal
communication involves communicating face to face and it occurs in a specific
environment or in groups. Its main function is to listen, speak, and resolve
conflicts.
Interpersonal communication differs
from verbal communication to the non-verbal. Verbal communication is communication
that involves the use of speech in face to face situations. It is the most effective
communication process; it allows the exchange of thoughts happen quickly. While
non-verbal communication is the delivery of messages through gestures, such as
hand gestures, head movements, facial expressions and so on. For example, a nod
to possibly indicate an encouragement affirmation and showing a sour face
depicting anger or worry.
Counselling process involves the five
main structures such as rapport and relationship building, assessment or
problem definition, goal setting, initiating interventions and termination. The
basic counseling skills will be discussed in relation to the counseling process
structures.
The
first process by which a counsellor must undergo in the counseling session is
the rapport and relationship building. Counseling process involves the
relationship between the counsellor and his client in order to solve the
problem faced by the client. Thus the client needs to feel attached and have
good mutual relationship with the counsellor. This can help the client to feel
free to express the feeling and the problem he or she has. Hence a counsellor
must acquire the skill very well to determine the success of the treatment.
Based
on the cased discussion of Hassan’s case, the process of building relationship
must not occur by force. The relationship must be built through the correct use
of techniques where the counsellor shows kindness, empathy as well as giving
appropriate encouragement. Therefore, through the honesty showed by the
counsellor will help Hassan to feel safe and secure and eventually help him to
resolve the effects of his irrational thoughts.
Among
others situation can be seen is where teacher is using attending skills with
Hassan. This skill can help Hassan to tell his story. As the communication goes
along, the counsellor can draw out the appropriate background and contextual
information. Basic attending skills also will help counsellor to demonstrate
empathy and provide emotional support to Hassan. Hence Hassan will slowly grow
trust on the counsellor as the counsellor attend to his problem with respect
and accept him the way he is and not giving him any judgement. Counsellor can
positively build good rapport by accepting Hassan without any condition.
In
relation to this process of building rapport, active listening can be fallen
into this category where guidance teacher can use the skill of active listening
to establish good relationship with Hassan. Like what has been mentioned before,
active listening involves the attending skill by which it is expressing
awareness and interest in what the client is communicating both verbally and
nonverbally. Attending may help Hassan to feel more relax and comfortable to
express his thoughts and feelings in his own way. This also may lead to grow
trust to the counsellor. Whenever Hassan tries to talk and express his feeling,
counsellor can use a variety of brief encouragements such as “Um-hm” or “Yes,”
or observing his body language.
Next,
when mutual understanding and the building of relationship have been
established, the counsellor can start using probing skill in Hassan’s case.
Counsellor can use a question to direct his attention to explore his situation
in greater depth. A probing question should be open-ended for example, “Tell me
about the feelings you have been having at this time?” and “Are you worried
because you won’t get good scores?”. Probing may encourage Hassan to elaborate,
clarify, or illustrate what he has been saying. It also may enhance Hassan’s
awareness and understanding of his situation and feelings. Through this skill,
counsellor and Hassan can know areas that need attention.
Counsellor
must use appropriate language when dealing with Hassan. At this point, Hassan
really needs someone that can assure him that everything is going to be fine.
Using appropriate language with correct intonation, Hassan can accept the
advice given by the counsellor as well as creating a calm and friendly
atmosphere. This is important as good communication starts with the correct use
of language. In addition, the counsellor must ensure that Hassan’s parents use
suitable language at home to ensure the good performance of Hassan in the
future. For example, the counsellor can say to Hassan “I am concern about you
and very happy to listen to you.”
As
a guidance teacher, one must establish good relationships with his or her
student in the beginning of the counseling session so the treatment process can
be continued in smoothly with friendly atmosphere. This relationship can be
achieved when feelings of empathy in which teachers can understand the feelings
of his students. Besides, being empathy to Hassan also one of the skills to
build good rapport. The counsellor should strive to show empathy to Hassan so
he would feel the trust and respect and believe that his teacher is really
understanding, listening and cares about his feelings. By having the feeling of
empathy and good rapport between counsellor and Hassan, the effectiveness of
counselling treatment can be forged and sustained throughout the counseling
process.
The
process of assessing problem involves some specific skills including
observation, inquiry, and as well as recording the information. By referring to
Hassan’s case, counsellor can use the skill observation by observing his
general state of anxiety and note the gestures and movements that show
emotional condition. Counsellor also can note how Hassan frames his problem.
Hassan’s case may not need formal assessment to identify his problem. The counsellor
must realize the skills needed so that he or she knows what problem does Hassan
faced. The suitable questions that may be used are such as “What cause you feeling
nervous and worried?”, “Have you ever feel this way before?” or “How is it
impacting your performance?”. Sometimes counsellor must pay attention to the
health of the client. Counsellor can ask Hassan, “How do you feel today?”
“Health habits?”. These questions are important as sometimes Hassan’s health
habits can affect the way he thinks and acts. Probably if Hassan has poor
health habits or might having some health issues, the irrational thoughts also
could be influenced by them.
The
aim of assessment and problem definition is to identify the problem. Thus
counsellor also can use paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is when the counsellor
restates the content of the client’s previous statement. Through the
communication with Hassan, counsellor can restates what has been said by
Hassan. This is to clarify so that counsellor can identify the real state of
problem and can find solutions for it. Paraphrasing uses words that are similar
to the client’s, but fewer. The purpose of paraphrasing is to communicate to
the client that you understand what he or she is saying. Through this skill,
counsellor can verify the perceptions of Hassan’s statements and can eventually
highlight the issue. On top of that, paraphrasing helps Hassan to realise that
the counsellor understands what he is saying and clarify his remarks as well as
focus on what is important and relevant.
Goal
setting is part of counselling process structure where the counsellor determines
whether how well the counselling is working. Besides, this process also enables
the counsellor to prevent the dependent relationship. Counsellor also can think
of what type of intervention needed to be used. Under this process, counsellor
can use summarising as this skill enables the counsellor to understand the
situation faced by the client. In this case study, counsellor can summarize
what Hassan said and think of what they need to do or what type of intervention
suitable to solve the problem. It is an important way for the counsellor to
gather together what has already been said, make sure that Hassan has been
understood correctly, and prepare him to move on.
Summarising
also helps the counsellor to focus for the session and confirm Hassan’s
perceptions. This skill also will help Hassan to figure out himself that
realise that the counsellor understands and have a sense of movement and
progress. Therefore by using this skill, counsellor and Hassan know what to do
next and try to figure out the best solution to clear his irrational thoughts.
The
intervention process must be related to problem. The selection of intervention
may become an adaptive process. Counsellor must have competency and knowledge
with the intervention. Under this process, counsellor also needs to acquire the
skills of processing. Based on Hassan’s case, counsellor is thinking about the
observations about Hassan and what he has communicated. Through this skill,
counsellor can think of what type of intervention or solution is suitable to
curb the problem. Processing also allows the counsellor to mentally process the
following data: Hassan’s beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and expectations.
Apart
from that, responding is also a skill that a counsellor must acquire in order
to initiate any kind of intervention. Responding is the skill by which the act
of communicating information to the client that includes providing feedback and
emotional support, addressing issues of concern, and teaching skills. Through
this responding skill, counsellor can use an affective responding style which
refers to focusing on feelings. While behavioural responses enable the
counsellor to focus on the actions and behaviours while cognitive response give
chance to counsellor to focus on the thoughts and cognitions. Counsellor will
balance these responses throughout the session and finally decided what type of
solution or intervention to be used.
3.0 CONCLUSION
As a
guidance teacher, we need to be aware of every problem that faced by our
students. The correct use of theory is crucial to determine what techniques are
suitable to be used to deal with Hassan’s problem. The theory chosen to address
the case is person-centered theory which proposed by Carl Rogers. While two
techniques used are unconditional positive regard and empathy. These two
techniques are discussed in relation to the theory. The unconditional positive
regard technique is referring to the therapist acceptance and caring, but not
approval of all behaviour. While empathy is the ability to understand what the
client is feeling and emotions. This refers to the therapist’s ability to
understand sensitively and accurately but not sympathetically towards the
client’s experience and feelings. As a guidance teacher, the knowledge of basic
counselling skills is important as it take counselling skills to make effective
counseling. Basic counseling skills allows teacher and student to have an
interpersonal communication which then make the counselling approaches a
success.
REFLECTION
During the completing of this task, various
challenges and obstacles I had gone through. It is undeniable that the topics
discussed in this coursework are very important as it is applicable to me as a
teacher. But I realized that in order to become educator, I must face such many
sacrifices in order to become an outstanding educator. Through this assignment,
various useful inputs I have gained such experience while answering the task
questions conforming to the case study about a student named Hassan. He faced
nervousness and worries because of his irrational thoughts.
As a guidance teacher, we need to be aware of
every problem that faced by our students. The correct use of theory is crucial
to determine what techniques are suitable to be used to deal with Hassan’s
problem. The theory chosen to address the case is person-centered theory which
proposed by Carl Rogers. While two techniques used are unconditional positive
regard and empathy. These two techniques are discussed in relation to the
theory. The unconditional positive regard technique is referring to the
therapist acceptance and caring, but not approval of all behaviour. While
empathy is the ability to understand what the client is feeling and emotions.
This refers to the therapist’s ability to understand sensitively and accurately
but not sympathetically towards the client’s experience and feelings.
As a guidance teacher, the knowledge of basic
counselling skills is important as it take counselling skills to make effective
counseling. Basic counseling skills allows teacher and student to have an
interpersonal communication which then make the counselling approaches a
success.
Through this case study, a many ups and downs
experience I had confronted as I need to read in depth of the theories in
counselling. I had to choose the suitable theory in order to address the case.
The most challenging part is I had to burn the midnight oil to complete the
task and stay up late at night to write better coursework. Among the problems
faced by me in completing this assignment is my difficulty in determining the
appropriate theory to be applied in the Hassan case. Everyone knows that there
are many theories in counseling process that can be applied such as
psychoanalytic theory, person-centered theory, the theory of therapy, behaviour
therapy, rational- emotive therapy, electrical therapy and others. I have done
some reading and attempted to discuss with my colleagues about the theories and
techniques to be used in this case study, I finally decided to use
person-centered theory to address the case.
Apart from that, I faced some problem in
carrying out this task because the sources of the material is quite limited and
I need to do further reading about it. As I am in practicum phase 3, then I had
to spend some time to discuss and talk to my friends at school and had no time
to discuss with lecturers. Thus the reference material to be used is also very
limited. I borrowed some of my friends’ books to do references.
Through this assignment, I found that my
understanding of guidance and counseling is increasing, especially with respect
to theories of counseling. Maybe before my understanding in relation to this
theory a bit blurry but after doing this assignment I found myself I can
understand know how to address students’ problem in school if I have the chance
to address one.
In addition, I believe in being a guidance
teacher, the knowledge of guidance and counseling is very important in order to
be a good teacher in the future. Through
this assignment I know how to tackle the troubled students through the application
of guidance and counseling theories and techniques. I can say that this task is
very helpful and give a positive impression on me in shaping my identity as an
educator who will guide students in the school later on.
Based
on the assignment, I noticed that my understanding of the topic become so much
better. I learn to compare and contrast between theories in counseling and
choose the suitable theory to address certain issues. Not all issues can be
addressed using the same theory. Thus by doing this task, I learn more and can
decide which is the best and know what the suitable basic counselling skills to
be used are.
Furthermore,
after completing this assignment, I personally think that learning such
theories give me some input to be applied in actual classroom situation. All in
all, this assignment has taught me some examples on how to cope with students
and plan a good intervention and provide me with the necessary skills to cope
with student’s problem. Also as teacher we should be aware of the variety of counselling
skills so that I can manage my students in order to enhance the education
system in the school and increase students’ performances in the long run.
REFERENCES
Seligman, L. (2006). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: Systems,
strategies, and skills. (2nd ed.).
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Ltd.
Mearns, P.,
& Thorne, B. (1988). Person-Centred
Counselling in Action (Counselling
in Action series). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Rogers, C.
(1951). Client-centered Therapy: Its
Current Practice, Implications and
theory. London: Constable.
Rogers, C.
(1959). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and
Interpersonal Relationships
as
developed in the Client-centered Framework. In (ed.) S. Koch, Psychology: A
Study of a Science. Vol 3: Formulations of the Person and the Social Context. New York: McGraw Hill.
Rogers, C.
(1975). Emphatic: An unappreciated way of being. The counselling
psychologist,
5(2), 2-10.
Palmer, S. (2000). Multicultural Counselling: A Reader. London: SAGE Publications.
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Person Centered
Therapy. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.html. Retrieved on March 2nd
2015.
Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (2012).
Prelimanary Report Malaysia Education
Blueprint2013-2025. http://www.kmu.edu.pk/ins/sites/kmu.
edu.pk.ins/files/Lectures/counselling%20skills.pdf.
Retrieved on February 23rd 2015.
