Crowdly

Willing participation

Informed consent

Therapeutic contact

The

responsibility of a counsellor is to - - - - -.

Provide guidance to the client.

Make decisions for the client.

Help the client set up her/his own goals

Express her/his views and opinions to the client

You are a counsellor at a university

counselling centre. A student who failed the examinations despite studying hard

presents for counselling in distress. The student expresses the view that her

failure is a result of witchcraft. Based on your understanding of the “Surveying

contexts of counselling” study unit, the best approach for you as a counsellor

would be to…………….

Listen to the student and identify her faulty beliefs so that you could start a cognitive restructuring process.

Listen to the student and try to understand her point of view so that you can both explore how she got to espouse her current point of view.

Listen to the student with the understanding that in a diverse society, people are going to hold varying views that would not make sense to everybody in that society. Lived experiences are varied and complex and it is useful to help clients explore alternative ways of experiencing and interpreting reality.

Listen to the student with the intention to learn about her culture so that you could think of ways to help her correct her faulty thinking.

Which

counsellor, according to the descriptions presented below, is most likely to

develop trust in their client?

The counsellor who is goal- and solution-oriented and is renowned for “getting to the bottom” of the issue and guides clients on the correct path.

The counsellor with qualifications from a top university, has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and is recognised as an expert.

The other three options provided are all correct.

The counsellor who is warm and kind and prioritises listening to clients and building a relationship with them instead of trying to find solutions to clients’ problems.

From

the study unit, “Holding the cracks”, which of the statements below would be a

perfect example of “the art of listening” in counselling?

Giving the client space to express themselves in the best way they see fit at the moment.

Striving to understand the client’s frame of reference while observing their feeling state and constantly paraphrasing what they said as a way of confirming that the counsellor understood what they said.

Listening to what the client says, making notes of relevant parts of their verbalisation and then giving a summary at the end to convince the client that you have been listening.

Allowing the client to express her/his feelings, perceptions and thoughts without putting any judgement on what they say.

Which

of the following statements is TRUE for the notion of “opening up the space”

for the client within the counselling encounter?

Micro-skills should not be used early in the session as they may hinder the client from sharing his/her experiences.

A conducive and welcoming environment may create unrealistic expectations from the client’s side, therefore the counsellor needs to be cautious not to open up the space too early in his/her encounter with the client.

“Opening up the space” within a counselling context is an automatic process and it requires no effort from the counsellor, otherwise it becomes an artificial and incongruous act.

The counsellor’s warmth, congruence and unconditional acceptance of the client irrespective of the client’s behaviour are essential in creating space for meaningful engagement.

In the African context, in

which most of the PYC3705 students are likely to apply counselling knowledge,

there is significant emphasis placed on the phenomenon of

ubuntu/botho

(humaneness)

in human interactions. Which concepts of Carl Rogers’ counselling theory are

complementary to

ubuntu/botho?,

Authenticity

Unconditional Positive Regard.

Empathy.

The other three options provided are all correct.

Which counsellor behaviour, in the counsellor

behaviours described below, is an indicator of a reflexive counsellor?

The counsellor who is in touch with her/his own woundedness and uses that to deepen her/his own empathic understanding of the client’s painful experience.

The other three options provided are all correct.

The counsellor who is in touch with her/his emotional state and is aware of the impact of her his behaviour on clients’ perceptions of themselves during the counselling encounter.

The counsellor who is aware that reality is co-constructed, therefore her/his own views of the client’s reality cannot be the only reality.

Which statement is

incorrect with regard to the concept of “multiple realities” in a counselling

encounter?

There is no one way of understanding reality. To understand people’s experiences requires us as counsellors to “put ourselves in other people’s shoes” to understand what they are going through.

There is no right or wrong in what clients tell us as counsellors.

People bring a sample of their life context to a counselling encounter, therefore counsellors need to listen to clients’ accounts of their lived experiences.

Counsellors, by virtue of their qualifications and experience, are experts on issues that their clients’ lived experiences, therefore are best placed to provide guidance to their clients.

The study unit,

“Theoretical Context”, places emphasis on Frame-of-reference as a departure

point from which counsellors can provide structure to their thoughts and

interpretations of clients’ experiences. The study unit, “Surveying contexts

for counselling”, emphasises the importance of locating clients in a context to

make counselling relevant. From your understanding of the two study units, which

of the statements below is the best integration of theory and context in counselling?

The other three options provided are all correct.

A good counsellor understands the complexity of human diversity and sees value in understanding human nature as explained by different humanities and social science theories. Such a counsellor accepts that there is no one theoretical approach that sufficiently explains human behaviour. Instead, they strive to integrate all theoretical knowledge into one general theory of counselling that could be applied to a variety of human contexts.

A good counsellor is the one trained in one major theoretical tradition that they know very well and practice within the strict guidelines of the theory in which they were trained. Such counsellors are able to transfer knowledge from their theoretical approach to explain a variety of interpersonal contexts.

A good counsellor is the one who reads a variety of theories and applies the principles of various theories to the kind of problems clients from different contexts present with. Such a counsellor would also strive to familiarise themselves with different cultures in the society in which they work.