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Group 8 (Katherine/ Charlotte/ Xin Yi/ Joy)

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Group 8 (Katherine/ Charlotte/ Xin Yi/ Joy)

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1) What are the common difficulties in getting started with new clients?
a) Client resistance in sharing
- Possible solution: Gaining trust with the client and establishing rapport; don't force the client to open up and allow it to be gradual.
b) Performance anxiety of the counselor/ therapist should it be a new scenario that the counselor is unfamiliar with
- Possible solution: Guidance/ mentorship/ supervision
c) Transference issues
Possible solution: therapist to make it clear in the case, can potentially use this to dig deeper into why the transference is happening

2) What are the challenges in asking clients for their goals
a) Client might not be clear on what their goals are
- Possible solution: therapist will need to ask more probing and clarifying questions
b) Client might expect the counselor/ therapist to set the goals instead ("tell me what to do")
- Possible solution: therapist will need to explain how therapy and the process works

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[Group 9] Common Difficulties in getting started with new clients

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[Group 9] Common Difficulties in getting started with new clients

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- Building Trust: to get clients to open up
- Self Care:
a) clients may be demanding  or criticizing everything what the counsellor
- Reflection:
a) Counsellor may give judgements on clients' sharing
b) Countertransference from the Counsellor may provide an hinderance to the session

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1)
-Uninvolved/Unwillingly/reluctant to accept counselling session
- Not a safe environment/insecure to share their problems (Trust Issues)
- Feeling nervous/uneasy for the first session

2)
- Clients don't know what goals they have
- They are lost in their life
- Don't even know their problem / or don't even wanna be here
- Having unrealistic goals

3)
- Orientate them in the counselling session.
- Making the client feel ease and empathy their situation so they are willingly to share
- Asking the correct question & guide them to setting their goals
- Active listening
- Paraphrasing their goal setting

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What are the common difficulties in getting started with new clients?

Reluctant clients how to make them open up. E.g. Teenagers who are being asked by parents to come.

Denial clients. E.g. alcoholics. Marital counselling where people do not think they have the problem.

Lack of trust in us as counsellors as counsellors are also new to the clients.

Possible Solutions to (1)

To let the clients know that we can help them. And assure them that we can help them.

To let them know that they are not alone and we are in the same boat, navigating through it together.

Spend 10 minutes to get information from the clients, like a warm up session. Build rapport.

Observation of clients in the first few sessions to understand how he or she is like

What are the challenges in asking clients for their goals?

They do not know what they want. If they have clear goals they might not need counselling.

Clients might be in a fixed mindset.

Clients might not know about the goals if they are being forced into the counselling sessions by someone or an organisation.

They don't know what issues they have and so they don’t know what their goal is.

Possible solutions to tackle (2)

Effective Questioning like What are the reasons this is going on? Why do you suppose this is happening? Do you know what is causing the issue?

Use of Problem Tree

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1)
rapport building
not knowing background very well
reflect to speak out
2)
Unrealistic goal
confusion/cannot identify the goals/not know what they want
3)
Actively listening
questioning techniques
short term goal first rather than big one

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Group 6- Hwee Min, Carol, Ana Marie, Ivy

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Group 6- Hwee Min, Carol, Ana Marie, Ivy

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common difficulties in getting started with new clients
1. Not willing to open up
2. hard to establish trust
3. concern on confidentiality
4. client worried about being judged

challenges
1. Client is not able to identify their problems
2. resistant to change and so does not want to set goal
3. expect the counsellor to provide the solution instead working it out with the counsellor
4. lack of complete information or client withholding info marking it hard to set goals
5. Counsellor is not professional or experienced enough to help the client to identify the underlying issue to make the right goals

Possible solutions
1. spend time to build rapport and trust
2. active listening and acknowledge the client issue
3. paraphrasing to understand/empathize
4. genuine/not pretentious to make the client comfortable
5. effective questioning
6. make it a partnership with client as part of the healing journey

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[Group 9] Challenges in asking clients for their goals

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[Group 9] Challenges in asking clients for their goals

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- Clients may not know what he/she wants
- Clients may have many goals but do not know what to prioritise
- Clients may doubt that the goals set, whether if this is really what he/she wants

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1)
* Resistance in opening up to the counsellor
*transference issues
*lack of confidence
*flow of communication
*issues with different genders
*age gap with different views
* conservative person, difficult to open up a conversation

2)
*lack of knowledge on how to set up goals
*reliance on counsellor to set goals for them
*seek for advise and answers from counsellor

3)
* Ice breaker to start off with prompting general questions to ease into the conversation
*Active listening and stay present, warm and genuine.
*Establish a valuable relationship with client
* Information gathering at initial session, once greater rapport has been established, goals setting can be establish along the subsequent sessions

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Part 1
- Difficult in getting rapport, not opened
- Lack of Awareness of Counselor
- Counselor time is limited in the first session, Time constraint.

Part 2
- Counselor needs measurable skills
- Questioning Skills
- Organized the issues
- Get client to confirm the issues
- Most cases, identify the issues

Part 3
- Identify the client problems & make a action plan. So that client feel better & confident with you.
- Explore option for solutions
- Prepare Action Plan

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Difficulties in getting started:
1. Getting client to speak up / open up about issue
Solution: Build rapport to gain trust and get them comfortable

2. To understand client's real issues, too many issue
Solution: Focus on urgent ones/narrow down to key issues

3. Financial issue
Solution: support agencies to assist with financials so can continue with sessions

3. Getting commitment from client
Solution:
a. Find out schedules and spread out the sessions that's easier to attend
b. Encourage them by explaining the benefits they may gain from counselling.

Challenges asking clients for their goals:
1. Client have no idea themselves, too overwhelmed with issue
2. Clients goals not stable because their mind keeps thinking of the weaknesses of their mental ability

Solution:
1. Streamline and prioritise. Elimination what's not urgent yet.
2. Taking baby steps - small goals to give a sense of achievements, build confidence to next steps.

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- ask hypothetical questions, e.g. how would things be different if the problem is gone
- Provide activities / homework
- give suggestions of reasons why they have to stick to goals

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Group 5 : Farizah, Jasmine, Eswani, Eileen

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Group 5 : Farizah, Jasmine, Eswani, Eileen

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Question 1 :

1. Building Trust & rapport w new client ; breaking e ice.

2. Conflict of Interest btw Client & Counsellor
( Being partial in judgement )

3. Clients coming into the session wo any specific aim and goals.  Disoriented thoughts.

Question 2 :

1.  The client may not be able to express themselves or spelt their goals in a more coherent way

2. Client may not be transparent or holding on to some important informations that are crucial in helping them identifying and achieving their goals.

Question 3 :

To overcome
1. Practice active listening ; be / show genuine and patient ; unjudgemental

2. Share & consult w your supervisor on your concern over your roles as a counsellor.

3. Using effective and guided questioning to help clients identify goals. Help clients to reorganise their tots using tools like problem tree. Paraphrasing with them.