What Should Counselors in Neutral Bay Avoid During Counseling Sessions?

What makes your counselling sessions unique? Are your clients content with the services that you offer them? As a counsellor in Neutral Bay, you must always ensure that your clients get all the help that they need.  For this reason, you have to ensure that you come up with ideas that will help you make your counselling sessions special.  Also, it would help if you remembered that there are specific actions or behaviours that you may do that will hinder the counselling sessions.  Therefore,  you should know the things that you should avoid during the counselling sessions so that you do not impede the outcomes of the counselling sessions.

 

Things Counselors Should Avoid During Counseling Sessions in Neutral Bay

The following are things that counsellors should avoid to ensure that they are providing quality counselling services in Neutral Bay:

 

  • Judging and criticizing clients

One of the things that make people fail to go for counselling sessions is fear that they will be judged and criticized for their actions or behaviours. This means that you have to make sure that you provide your clients with a safe space where they can open up as much as they can.

You should also avoid judging and criticizing them despite what they say to you. Therefore, during your counselling sessions, you should make sure that you do not make any moral judgements or criticism or even express any signs that you disapprove of the choices your clients make.  By doing so, you may create feelings of guilt, shame and defensiveness, which will make your clients lose interest in opening up and exploring any concerns they may have openly.

 

  • Interrupting the conversation

One of the essential skills that you need as a counsellor is effective communication. It would help if you never forgot that effective communication is two-way traffic.  It also involves speaking, listening and providing feedback. For this reason, during your counselling sessions, you must always ensure that you have practical communication skills.  This means that you have to ensure that you listen to your clients so that you can know how to respond to them.  Thus, you should avoid interrupting your clients as much as possible. Unfortunately, most counsellors are constantly interrupting their clients, and this hinders effective counselling.

 

  • Dominating the conversation

Another thing that you should avoid during your counselling sessions in Neutral Bay is ensuring that you do not dominate the conversations. Instead, it would help if you gave your clients all the time they need to open up to you. However, if you keep on dominating the conversations, your clients will not get the help they need. Also, this will be a waste of time for your clients since they should be the ones dominating the sessions rather than you.

 

  • Providing unsolicited advice to clients

Though your clients come to you for help, this does not mean that you can always give them advice without them asking you. Instead, you should help your clients explore their thoughts and feelings so that they can come up with potential solutions.  When you empower your clients in this manner, they are also able to make informed decisions. This, in return, will foster self-confidence.

 

  • Invalidating your clients’ feelings

Even if you have clients who have irrational and insignificant feelings, you need to acknowledge and validate these feelings. However, most counsellors will always invalidate the feelings of such clients.  By doing this, they hinder the clients from exploring deeper issues that are causing the emotional experiences they have. Fortunately, when you acknowledge the feelings of your clients, then you will encourage deeper exploration, which will ensure that they get the help that they need to cope with their emotions.