Section 2: Enhancing Your Own Practice

It is important to not only gather feedback about your practice and participate in self-evaluation but also to reflect upon this information and use it to determine whether any improvements are needed in your practice.

Using Feedback from Others

As mentioned in the previous section of this Study Guide, receiving feedback can be a very daunting process, however, counsellors need to strive for continuous development and look upon feedback as a chance to improve their practice. Some tips for receiving feedback and using it to enhance your practice include:

• Ask the person providing the feedback to provide some examples demonstrating the feedback they are outlining so that you can develop a clear picture of where you need to improve.
• Ask the person to also provide feedback on areas where you are doing well. It is important to also recognise your strengths, as well as your weaknesses, as both will contribute towards becoming a more effective practitioner.
• Check the feedback. Ask yourself, what part of the feedback is useful? Are you able to alter yourself or your behaviour to improve? People who are providing feedback are not perfect, so it is possible they have not provided constructive criticism. Seek to clarify any feedback and ask for input about how you might be able to improve.
• Take note of patterns or repeated feedback. If you receive consistent feedback on a repeated basis, then don’t ignore it.
• Try not to take it personally. As previously mentioned, feedback can be hard to receive, however, you should look at it as a chance to improve. It may help to re-write the feedback in your own words so you can take ownership of the feedback.

Once you have processed the feedback, it is important to turn the feedback into actionable goals. Come up with a plan about how you are going to turn that feedback into change. For example, if you receive feedback that you work insensitively with Indigenous clients (despite your best intentions), then you may develop several steps to become more culturally aware (such as gaining advice from Indigenous colleagues, doing some research on cultural sensitivity, and arranging to attend some cultural awareness training).

Using Your Own Evaluations

The process of recording and reflecting upon your practice may provide the opportunity to recognise strengths and areas needed for improvement. It is important to take note of your own evaluations. For example, although the process of writing in a journal can be helpful, it is important to read back over what you have written and look for patterns or repeated themes. Again, look for your strengths, as well as areas you may need to improve. You can bring these observations to supervision and discuss them with your supervisor. Similarly to using others’ feedback, you should come up with actionable steps to address any areas needed for improvement.

Although the extract above was written in relation to social workers, the information applies to counsellors. That is, reflection is aimed at determining what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and what to do differently next time.

Another way to evaluate your own practice is to compare your knowledge and skills with those outlined in the position description for your role. By using your own evaluations and comparing it with any recognised gaps in your ability to fulfil your position, you can then determine whether there are any gaps in your practice that need to be addressed.

As previously mentioned, counsellors will need to consider ways to transform any areas for improvement into actionable goals (we will talk more about the process of developing goals later). This may involve participating in further training.

Determining Training or Additional Support/ Specialist Advice Required

Counsellors generally need to ensure that they are knowledgeable across a wide variety of sectors and client groups. When they identify a gap in their skills or knowledge then they must take appropriate steps to fill this gap. Consulting with specialists or participating in additional training can be helpful to gain skills and knowledge. For example, if you recognised that you feel uncomfortable or unsure about working with a certain cohort of clients, such as teenagers or clients from a particular culture, perhaps there is a training you can participate in. Most counsellors will attend training sessions on a regular basis throughout their career and this will be an expected part of their professional development as well as (usually) being an organisational requirement. Indeed, counsellors are ethically required to maintain and enhance their skills and knowledge throughout their career as well as keep up to date with changes in legislation and best practice requirements. Additionally, if a counsellor joins any professional association, they will typically be required to engage in a specified number of professional development hours/activities every year.

A good supervisor will be able to advise you on training and development activities that may be beneficial to you and that will help you meet both your organisational and individual goals. You should make a point of seeking advice and further training when you know that you have a weakness in a particular area of your work. Your interest in personal skill and knowledge development will show that you are serious about your career and your professional development.

Case Study

Mariah works as a counsellor for quite a large organisation. Previously, the organisation had the counsellors divided into client age groups, so there was an adult counselling team, a youth counselling team, and a child counselling team, etc. Mariah had been working on the adult counselling team, working with adults for two years. However, the organisation has recently undergone a restructure and counselling is no longer divided by client age, rather it is expected that counsellors will work with a client of any age.

Mariah feels very confident about working with adults and older adolescents but feels quite nervous about working with children, as she knows little about childhood development. Mariah talks to her supervisor about her concerns and together they organise for Mariah to participate in a child development training course. Additionally, Mariah is linked up with the more experienced counsellors from the now restructured child counselling team.

As the case study outlines, seeking advice from a specialist or more experienced colleague can help to fill in the gaps of your practice until adequate experience or confidence has been achieved. Additionally, case consultation is an important part of maintaining a duty of care to clients. This is highlighted in the extract below. Although the extract specifically refers to consultation in Child Protection work, the concepts are also applicable to counselling.

A Note on Learning Styles

When deciding upon training needs, it is worthwhile to consider their own individual learning style and how they can use these styles to integrate new skills into their practice. There are four main kinds of learning styles: visual, aural, read/write, and kinaesthetic.

Visual learners like to learn through visual means and respond well to charts, demonstrations and other visual material. Visual learners learn best using:

• Graphics, diagrams and illustrations
• Hand outs
• Using colour and highlighters
• Taking notes
• Watching videos
• Using flashcards with pictures or words

Aural or auditory learners learn best through verbal communication and lectures. The information is more likely to be absorbed when it is heard, rather than seen. Auditory learners learn best using:

• Reading out loud
• Explanations
• Attending lectures and workshops
• Participating in group discussions
• Listening to audiotapes, podcasts and recordings

Read/write learners learn best through reading and writing information. Information that is read is more likely to be remembered, particularly if it is then written down. Some strategies for read/write learners include:

• Writing out information again and again
• Lists
• Reading information again and again
• Rewriting ideas into other words
• Turning diagrams and charts into words

Kinaesthetic or tactile learners prefer a “hands on” approach. They require movement and touch in order to learn new material and learn through experiencing and doing things. Tactile learners learn best using:

• Role plays
• Experiential learning
• Imitation and practice
• Activities that get them up and moving

Understanding your learning style will help you to find and participate in training and development opportunities that are more closely aligned with your learning style as well as allow you to amend your approach to learning and training to reduce the time it takes to learn and apply the information. You can determine your learning style by considering which ways you learn best and which method allows you to absorb the most information.

As well as looking for ways to continuously grow and develop, counsellors also need to ensure they are adequately caring for and supporting themselves.

Self Confidence - Carl Jung

Jordan Peterson discusses Carl Jung's theories on relation to develop self confidence, an important tool to have as a Counsellor.

Working as a counsellor can be difficult as you may be working with vulnerable and disadvantaged people. You may be working with people who have experienced trauma and abuse, or perhaps you have experienced your own trauma in your life, which is why you are seeking a career in the sector. Counsellors must ensure they have adequate support systems in place to help them manage the stress and emotions that working with people can bring up.

Support networks can be made up of professional support people, such as your colleagues and supervisor. However, a support network can also be made up of people external to your workplace, such as your friends and family. Support can be sought for practical reasons such as seeking advice, assistance or information, or for emotional reasons, such as moral support, sympathy, and understanding (Collins, 2007). The type of support an employee may seek can be formal or informal. Some common sources of support include:

• Line management, supervision, and appraisal systems. As you know, supervision is a critical component of practice which serves not only a practical function, but also acts as a place of reflection and emotional support. Supervision should be a safe place for the supervisee to receive emotional support for any difficult issues or incidents. Another component of supervision is to formally discuss professional development, and whether they are fulfilling all the requirements of their role. This may be done by reviewing the position description for the role and examining whether all duties are being adequately fulfilled and discussing what direction you want to move your career in. You will learn more about professional development and appraisal systems in the next section of this Study Guide.
• Professional memberships. Counsellors may choose to join a professional membership as a form of formal support external to their organisation. The Australian Counselling Association (ACA) is the largest registration body for counsellors and psychotherapists in Australia. It offers various levels of membership and provides a number of opportunities for keeping its members up-to-date on industry developments, publications and resources, and opportunities for study, supervision, and professional development. The ACA has State Member Associations and Chapters which provide members with local professional development, supervision and support in:
  • Victoria
  • Queensland
  • South Australia
  • Tasmania
  • New South Wales
  • ACT
  • Western Australia
    The ACA also has international affiliations with peak bodies in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, and offers international membership to students and practicing counsellors living outside of Australia. You can find further information about the ACA on their website.
• Counselling or psychological support. Counsellors who work for large government and non-government organisations will typically have access to a certain number of free counselling sessions per year under an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). These sessions are usually provided via an agency that is external to the organisation and the sessions are completely confidential. In certain circumstances, your supervisor or manager may even insist upon you speaking with an external counsellor if you experience a particularly traumatic or frightening work-related experience (e.g., if an aggressive client were to assault you or a client were to die in upsetting circumstances – please note, these are very extreme examples of an adverse work experience). In many cases, counsellors may prefer to instead see a psychologist or counsellor independently of their organisation. There can be any number of reasons why you may seek private counselling. For example, you may work for a small service or organisation that does not have an EAP program. Alternatively, you may wish to use private counselling as a self-care strategy or as a way of addressing vicarious trauma or the re-emergence of personal issues due to this work.
• Informal networks: work colleagues, family and friends. Work colleagues can provide support in several ways, including the practical support mentioned previously, as well as a place to bounce ideas off of. Additionally, supportive work colleagues can help to buffer against the negative effects of stress and burnout (we will explore burnout in more detail below). New counsellors may benefit greatly from a ‘buddy system’ where they are assigned a more experienced colleague to help acquaint them with their new organisation for a set period (for example 3-6 months).

Counsellors may also rely on their friends and family for social support. Friends and family can provide social and emotional support (of course, you must ensure that any work-related discussion maintains client confidentiality. As such it is generally appropriate to speak to their family/friends about their own personal emotions and experiences but not about a specific of a client’s case).

Case Study

Aniya started as a counsellor at a large counselling clinic six months ago. When she started she was oriented to all the different types of supports available through her workplace. In addition to her fortnightly supervision, she had grown close with her teammates who provided regular opportunities for debriefing and advice. As a new counsellor, Aniya had been assigned a workplace buddy and is also required to attend monthly meetings with the clinic manager.

As Aniya started to get busier in her role and gained confidence, she stopped attending the monthly meetings. Her supervisor raised this with her in supervision, outlining that it was not only a requirement for her to attend but that it was also a good source of support for Aniya. Aniya started to re-attend the meetings and found that her stress levels decreased. She found that the support she received during these meetings helped her to be a more effective counsellor.

It is important that you take an active role in your wellbeing by adopting a healthy work/life balance, seeking out support, and guarding against burnout by adequately looking after yourself.

Self-care is important for effective counselling practice. Those who are sick, stressed, or exhausted are not much use to either their clients or their organisation. One critical aspect of personal development is developing an understanding of your own needs and vulnerabilities and finding strategies for dealing with them. This is particularly helpful for new counsellors.

Some of the areas of vulnerability that new employees need to be aware of include avoiding perfectionism, dealing with anxieties when seeing clients for the first time, and dealing with demands from clients. New counsellors tend to put themselves under enormous pressure and often have unrealistic expectations of what they can achieve with clients. As counselling tends to be ‘other focused’ (that is, the focus of the interaction is on assisting the client with their needs), too often counsellors run the risk of neglecting their own needs. Before we explore how you can ensure you are looking after yourself, we should first explore some of the elements of practice that can have a very detrimental effect on a counsellor if left unchecked.

Vicarious Trauma

“Vicarious trauma occurs as a result of observing, hearing or reading about, commonly violent, trauma that has been experienced by others” (van Heugten, 2011, p. 25). Counsellors may work with extremely vulnerable people, for example, children who have suffered abuse, women fleeing violent relationships, or people with substance misuse issues because of traumatic backgrounds. Vicarious trauma may closely resemble post-traumatic stress disorder, with similar symptoms of flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, avoidance, and hypervigilance. It is important to recognise these symptoms and take action to address them by talking to someone, such as a supervisor, or a professional counsellor or therapist.

Compassion Fatigue

Due to the constant and often demanding nature of counselling work, professionals can sometimes feel compassion fatigue when they experience an overload of their compassion over an extended period. The result is that counsellors, in a sense, run out of compassion. They lose their compassion for their clients as it has all been tapped out.

Burn Out

Burn out is a gradual process increasing in severity to the point when a counsellor experiences physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion. Burn out is usually the result of an overwhelming and unsupportive work environment where there is a combination of factors at play, such as:

• Caseloads are too high
• Feeling they have a lack of control over their work
• Too little reward for the work being done
• A break down in support from colleagues
• Clashes between the worker’s values and the workplace demands

^{(van Heugten, 2011)}

As a result, counsellors lose capacity for empathy, they may dread coming to work, or care little about the quality of their work. It is important for counsellors to recognise the symptoms of burn out which can include:

• Chronic fatigue
• Feeling helpless or hopeless, as if your work is pointless
• Loss of motivation
• Overly cynical
• Becoming ‘closed’ to any input
• Irritability or quickness to anger
• Depression or anxiety

There is no single cause of burnout. Burnout results from a combination of individual, interpersonal, and organisational factors. Rather than thinking about burnout as something that could afflict you, you might find it useful to consider your own role in increasing the risk of burnout. Certain personality traits and characteristics can increase the risk of experiencing burnout. Work factors, such as demanding clients and an unsupportive work environment, can also contribute to burnout. Due to the high prevalence of burnout in those working in a caring profession, it is imperative that you are aware of this issue and take measures to prevent it from happening. In addition to the strategies above, the following can assist in reducing the risk of burnout:

• Increasing their knowledge of the signs and symptoms of burnout
• Ensuring they have adequate work/life balance
• Regularly attending peer or individual supervision
• Ensuring they have a nutritious diet and exercise regularly
• Ensuring expectations about their role are realistic

Preventing burnout is an important consideration in any self-development program. Counsellors must be mindful of conserving their energy and maintaining their well-being. Beginning professionals are especially prone to taking on too much and becoming overly involved with their clients’ problems. Over time, you will learn what needs and vulnerabilities you have in relation to your work and will develop strategies to combat them. One way to protect against these stressful and detrimental situations is to ensure that adequate self-care is maintained.

Self-Care

Self-care is the conscious effort that counsellors take to ensure that they are looking after themselves adequately. Generally, people who work in the helping industry do so because they care about people. However, sometimes people might forget to also care for themselves. Self-care is a very important component of counselling work because, as previously mentioned, if a counsellor does not look after themselves and cannot do their work effectively, then they will be unable to help their client or their organisation.

Self-care should be a routine part of practice; however, it can take a little time to make it so. There are several ways that a counsellor can ensure that they look after themselves. Although each person will have their own techniques, the following are some tips and suggestions for self-care:

• Eat healthily and exercise regularly
• Ensure you get enough sleep
• Spend some time each day on yourself, even if just for ten minutes, to write in a diary, do some breathing exercises or meditation
• Always break for lunch and try and spend it away from your desk
• Ensure you have a healthy work/life balance. Have an interest outside of work, whether that be a hobby or social activity. Spend time with family and/or friends
• Don’t take work home
• Have adequate boundaries, don’t be afraid to say no
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it
• Take a small walk during the workday
• Take a daily break from technology

Self-care involves finding out what works for you to help you maintain your physical and mental wellbeing. Some people even create a self-care plan with their supervisors to ensure that they keep on track with their self-care.

An important technique that can be used to combat the risk of burnout is to develop good time management skills.

Time Management

Time management skills will allow you to manage your time effectively and minimise risk of becoming overwhelmed and overworked. The Queensland Government (2013) suggest there are three basic steps to time management:

1. Set realistic and achievable goals
2. Prioritise tasks by creating a list of all the things that need be done and sorting it from most important to least important
3. Use this list tasks to plan and break down tasks into small, manageable parts

Time management skills are also vital for planning and keeping track of your needs and requirements for professional and personal development. We will now discuss how you can use these three basic steps for planning ongoing development.

Personal Empowerment through Reflection and Learning

The TED presenter in this video, discusses the connection between personal empowerment and reflection and practice.

A counsellor has an ethical responsibility to maintain their professional competence. While organisations may need their employees to have skills in specific areas, they should also consider the preferences of individual counsellors when considering skill development options. For example, one employee may prefer to expand their skills in working with certain client groups or issues, while another may prefer to expand their planning and networking skills to move into a management role.

By encouraging counsellors to think about and write down their goals, professional supervisors will gain a better understanding of what the individual is aiming for and what skills sets they may need to develop. Creating goals and a plan for professional development is also useful for your own practice as it helps to keep you on track and ensure that your continued professional development is both personally and professionally worthwhile.

Once areas for further learning and development have been identified, it can be helpful to set goals that will guide learning. Goals for development in counselling work can be professionally focused, such as attending specific training; or it can be more personal in nature, such as addressing emotional issues that might interfere in work processes; or can be a combined focus on personal and professional targets, such as ensuring that strategies are in place to maintain effective work/life balance.

It is always advisable that the goals that you set are SMART goals:

• Specific – think about what you will need to do
• Measurable – can be checked and measured
• Attainable – can be achieved within the time frame
• Realistic – what you are willing and able to do
• Timely – needs to be done in the near future and has an end-date

Some additional steps for establishing SMART goals are outlined in the extract below.

Below is a goal setting example – the case study of Henry:

Henry is a counsellor who has recently commenced work in a community services organisation that provides counselling services to adults with various issues. Henry specifically wants to work in the area of alcohol and other drugs counselling. Henry decides to devise a professional development plan to allow him to start working towards attaining his goal. Henry’s states his goal according to the SMART acronym.

SMART Goal: “I will be working as an alcohol and other drugs counsellor in 18 months’ time”. Henry’s goal meets SMART criteria as it is specific (he will become an alcohol and other drugs counsellor), measurable (as evidenced by obtaining a relevant work role), attainable (Henry has viewed available alcohol and other drugs counselling positions and believes the 18-month timeframe will give him sufficient time to build up his skills and experience), relevant (it supports his career aspirations) and timely (he has specified a timeframe).

Henry breaks down his goal into smaller, more manageable chunks. Henry decides on the following steps:

1. Contact local alcohol and other drugs counselling centres to determine if they have specific training for health professionals.
2. Attend any professional development training available in the alcohol and other drugs field.
3. Talk to my supervisor to advise them of my career goals so we can work towards this in supervision.
4. Update my knowledge with ongoing learning through reading appropriate books and journals in alcohol and other drugs use.
5. Apply to the local alcohol and other drugs counselling service’s program for volunteers. Express my interest to them in becoming an alcohol and other drugs counsellor.

Before beginning any personal or professional development, you should ensure that you have prioritised your needs and requirements. For example, when working as a trauma counsellor for adults, having appropriate qualifications and additional training in crisis management would be more important than attending a training course on child play therapy, even though that may be of personal interest to you.

Some organisations that you will work for may even require you to create a professional development plan to show how you are planning to meet particular development needs. This may include giving an indication of where and how you will attain particular knowledge or make a record of the training courses you intend on attending.

There are a number of websites available that will guide you towards meeting your professional development requirements. Mental Health Academy is Australia’s largest provider of continuing professional development for the mental health professions and will assist you in finding many different professional development courses. Additionally, the Australian Counselling Association also lists many professional development events.

To keep track of your professional development plan, it is useful to keep a record of how you are going to achieve your development goals. The table below is an example of a record sheet you could keep.

In this section, you have learned about tools and techniques that you can use to become a more reflective practitioner and enhance your practice. By evaluating your work and discovering what techniques and methods work best for you (e.g., self-care techniques, your learning style, and appropriate development opportunities), you can develop a plan to develop yourself personally and professionally.

Collins, S. (2007). Statutory social workers: Stress, job satisfaction, coping, social support and individual differences. British Journal of Social Work, 38(6), 1173-1193.

Health and Human Services. (2022, April 27). Child protection manual: Consultation with specialist practitioners. https://www.cpmanual.vic.gov.au/our-approach/roles-and-responsibilities/consultation-specialist-practitioners#h3_1

Mind Tools. (n.d.). Personal goal setting. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

Queensland Government. (2013). Time management strategies. Retrieved from https://www.qld.gov.au/jobs/balance/pages/time.html

Toros, K., & Medar, M. (2015). Social work students’ thoughts on self-reflection: a qualitative study based on reflective journaling. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 5 (3), pp. 89 – 96.

Van Heugten, K. (2011). Social work under pressure: how to overcome stress, fatigue and burnout in the workplace. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.