Issues Faced by Beginning Therapists

Question 1

It is when most beginning counselors have ambivalent feelings when meeting
their first clients.

Answer 1

Dealing With Your Anxieties

Question 2

Because you may be self-conscious and anxious when you begin counseling, you may have a tendency to be overly concerned with what the books say and with the mechanics of how to proceed.

Answer 2

Being Yourself and Self-disclosure

Question 3

It is when we burden ourselves that we must never make a mistake.

Answer 3

Avoiding Perfection

Question 4

You cannot realistically expect to succeed with every client. It takes honesty to admit that you cannot work successfully with every client.

Answer 4

Being Honest About Your Limitation

Question 5

Because therapists feel they should extend themselves in being helpful, they often burden themselves with the unrealistic idea that they should give unselfishly, regardless of how great clients’ demands may be.

Answer 5

Dealing With Demands From Clients

Question 6

Practitioners must begin by openly discussing the nature of the relationship. Counselors who omit preparation and do not address clients’ thoughts and feelings about coming to counseling are likely to encounter resistance.

Answer 6

Dealing With Clients Who Lack Commitment

Question 7

Many beginning therapists experience the anxiety of not seeing immediate results. Tolerate the ambiguity of not knowing for sure whether your client is improving, at least during the initial sessions.

Answer 7

Tolerating Ambuiguity

Question 8

Working with clients can affect you in personal ways, and you own vulnerabilities and countertransference are bound to surface. Beginning counselors need to learn how to let clients go and not carry around their problems until we see them again.

Answer 8

Becoming Aware of Your Countertransference

Question 9

This includes any of our projections that influence the way we perceive and react to a client.

Answer 9

Countertransference

Question 10

___ occurs when we are triggered into emotional reactivity, when we respond defensively, or when we lose our ability to be present in a relationship because our own issues become involved.

Answer 10

Countertransference

Question 11

Both clients and counselors can enrich a relationship through humor. it is important to recognize that laughter or humor does not mean that clients are not respected or work is not being accomplished.

Answer 11

Developing a Sense of Humor

Question 12

One mistake is to assume full responsibility for the direction and outcomes of therapy. This will lead to taking from your clients their rightful responsibility of making their own decisions.

Answer 12

Sharing Responsibility With the Client

Question 13

Therapists help clients discover their own solutions and recognize their own freedom to act. Even if we, as therapists, were able to resolve clients’ struggles for them, we would be fostering dependence on us. Our task is to help clients make independent choices and accept the consequences of their choices.

Answer 13

Declining to Give Advice

Question 14

Relying on techniques too much can lead to mechanical counseling. Ideally, therapeutic techniques should evolve from the therapeutic relationship and the material presented, and they should enhance the client’s awareness or suggest possibilities for experimenting with new behavior.

Answer 14

Learning to use Techniques Appropriately

Question 15

There is no one way to conduct therapy, and wide variations in approach can be effective. You will inhibit your potential effectiveness in reaching others if you attempt to imitate another therapist’s style or if you fit most of your behavior during the session into the procrustean bed of some expert’s theory.

Answer 15

Developing Your Own Counseling Style