Personal Reflection Paper
Personal reflection paper
When I think of my experiences while perusing my course in psychology, I think about the kind of learning processes that I have gone through. Most of my learning experiences have been systematic, as there is a standard guideline for the procedures followed while carrying out-group counselling sessions. I have learnt that group counselling is a kind of therapy, carried out amongst people who share common experiences. I vividly remember the steps followed while counselling the specified group of individuals. According to Jacobs, 2011, group counselling begins with facilitation, by the therapist (s), of the contribution of the group members, aimed at steering their experiences, to effect personal change. To achieve desired outcomes during facilitation, groups are first oriented to each other, and then allowed to define themselves; consequently, therapeutic alliances are formed between the group members to create trust. Thereafter, the groups are asked to experiment new ideas aimed at developing their ego. Finally, the groups are disbanded until next counselling sessions.
As of now, I do posses significant potential group leadership skills, which I did not have, before I enrolled for a course in psychology. Even though I remember not being able to display any potential group leadership skills previously, now I can confess to have them, since I am now open to others and willing to share my views with them. In fact, I have acquired compelling listening skills as well as willingness to take initiatives on my own, which Goodman, 2001 postulates to be amongst potential group leadership skills. Moreover, now I can accept others the way they are without being judgemental, which I found hard to do so previously. I have also grown to become supportive, and I have confidence in groups.
Reflecting back on my memories, I remember my first practical class session where my tutor asked me to state how my cultural background influenced my thinking and behaviour, but, unfortunately, I could not. It is evident that I had a weakness in relating to how my cultural background influences my thinking and behaviour. I need to develop on this since based on Goodman, 2001 findings, if group counsellors fail to understand how their culture influence their thinking and behaviour, there is little chance that they can understand how cultural thinking and behaviour influence their respective group members. Nonetheless, I am sensitive to client differences in terms of their religion, gender, maturity, economic class and family history. Therefore, improvement of my specified weaknesses with upholding of my strengths would mould me into a competent group counsellor.
As I ponder through my experiences as a psychology student, I can hypothesise that the areas I have confidence in group counselling is that I can effectively plan for group counselling sessions, which involves screening members, establishing regular places and time for group counselling, setting rules to be followed during counselling sessions, and selecting manageable number of group participants. According to Jacobs, 2010, the mentioned are some of the basics for group counsellors. However, I lack confidence since I cannot help individual group members to link together based on their similarities. Moreover, I find confidence in my ability to respect roles of family and communal hierarchies of various clients, but I lack confidence in my ability in linking clients without assuming that they have no differences.
Based on my experiences as I perused psychology course in college, I have developed inborn interest to wish to lead/counsel individuals groups with mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s. I find passion in working with persons with such illnesses, as I wish I could contribute to making their lives better due to stigma and discrimination they succumb to in the way other societal members handle them. Moreover, if I had a chance, I would love to lead groups with common chronic illnesses, since my efforts would help them live longer despite the illnesses they are suffering from. I do hereby confess my sincere and undying appreciation and gratitude to college tutors for instilling the group counselling skills I can use today to help make lives of various individuals better.
Jacobs, R. (2011). Group counselling: Concepts and procedures. California: Wards worth
publishing.
