I am currently studying towards a Masters of Counselling at the University of Auckland. During my studies and beyond, I will be a valuable support to my colleagues in the legal profession and other professional services. I am now looking for clients to help me complete the counselling hours necessary for my qualification and to become registered with the New Zealand Association of Counsellors.
My background is in employment and commercial law, where I have experience in advisory work, dispute resolution and litigation. I know that working in professional services can be as tough as it is rewarding - I’ve been there! Most of us have experienced the pressures of navigating complex cases, challenging clients, difficult working relationships, struggles with workload and stress, and/or the tricky juggle with home life. Having someone in your corner to work through these situations with can be a valuable asset.
The recent and well publicised work within the legal profession to combat bullying, harassment and discrimination has been welcome, but not yet a panacea. Sadly, we also know that mental health concerns from anxiety and depression, to addiction and other formal diagnoses are rife amongst our colleagues. However, counselling can be helpful for unpacking the everyday struggles, not just those crisis situations.
I am developing skills to help my clients work through the many challenges they face, foster resilience and reach their potential - whatever that might look like. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to chat.
Person centred COunselliNG
My theoretical framework is based on person-centred and pluralistic counselling theories. At a high level, the person-centred counselling part of the framework involves demonstrating Rogers’ “core conditions” of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard, to create the necessary environment for Peter to engage in “constructive personality change” (Rogers, 1992, p. 827). The pluralistic part involved attempting to improve Peter’s wellbeing by acknowledging him as the expert in his life, collaborating over the therapeutic goals, tasks and methods that would be helpful for him, and customising the therapy accordingly (Cooper & McLeod, 2011).
Both theories agree that an effective therapeutic relationship between counsellor and client is important in improving client outcomes (Cooper & McLeod, 2011; Rogers, 1992). Research supports this, as shown in the meta-analysis conducted by Horvath et al. (2011). That study found a strong relationship between the quality of therapeutic alliances and psychotherapy outcomes, regardless of the many different ideas about how they should be defined, built and measured (Horvath et al., 2011). Accordingly, a central focus of my framework is building and maintaining an effective therapeutic relationship with my clients, including Peter.
To achieve this, my approach is to demonstrate Roger’s “core conditions”, because they have been shown to significantly contribute to an effective therapeutic relationship, particularly empathy (Bohart et al., 2002, cited in Cooper, 2008; Watson 2002). Research also shows that the collaborative approach from pluralistic counselling improves therapeutic relationships (Norcross, 2010). Collaboration involves talking openly with clients about their goals, tasks, methods, ideas and preferences for counselling, obtaining feedback about what is useful or not, and meta-communication about my and/or the client’s reactions to events during the session (Cooper & McLeod, 2011). Overall, I believe that if I keep the importance of the therapeutic relationship at the heart of my practice at this early stage in my counselling career, it could be enough on its own to be helpful for clients, and could also create a good foundation to develop my confidence proposing and facilitating different counselling interventions.
In terms of counselling interventions, I recognise that Rogers’ core conditions are not only useful for building effective therapeutic relationships, but are interventions in their own right that can help clients learn to regulate their emotions, gain insight and experience personal growth (Rogers, 1992; Watson, 2002). However, the pluralistic part of my framework means that I also aim to offer a range of therapeutic interventions, selected through collaboration with my clients (Cooper & McLeod, 2011). This means that at times, I might step away from the core conditions if the client thinks that would be helpful (Cooper & McLeod, 2011).
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