Leigh Osborne

12/6/2014
Final Paper
While Ive learned many counseling skills from this course, there are three
specific skills that Ive gained that stick out: paraphrasing, focusing, and confrontation. I
was able to use paraphrasing in the mock interview and I found that it helped the client
feel like I understood what she was saying. There was also a time when I incorrectly
paraphrased her story and she corrected me. This was very helpful for me to more fully
understand the clients perspective. I was able to practice focusing skills in class by
discussing a classmates social genogram. The discussion brought to light several aspects
of her social history and influences that I was not previously aware of. Lastly, in class
role-play I was able to practice confronting someone about her conflicting statements.
This mock scenario involved a vegan mother who was aware of her internal conflicting
views about letting her child eat at non-vegan friends homes and parties. I used a version
of the two-chair method to separate her discussion of the two sides of the issue.
These skills will most definitely be useful in my future career as a dietitian. I
believe that paraphrasing is very useful in creating a feeling of understanding and
acceptance with a client. I will likely use this skill in all my interviews with clients, in
hopes that they will feel open to sharing their thoughts and feelings about their eating
habits. Paraphrasing in this situation would also give the client an opportunity to correct
me if I misunderstand them. I will likely use focusing in my future practice when I want
to understand different aspects of influence on my clients eating habits. Eating habits are
not isolated to an individual, and are influenced by family, geography, culture and socioeconomic status, to name a few. By focusing on these different areas of influence I might

better be able to understand the roots behind my clients dietary habits and barriers to
healthy eating. A social genogram could be a very effective tool for focusing. Lastly, I
will likely use confrontation when a client presents with discrepancies in their statements
or actions. For example, if a client says they are trying to eat well to improve health, yet
they smoke, I would point out this incongruity. Ive learned that one must be delicate
when confronting a client and before changes can be suggested or discussed its
important to assess where the client is at in accepting the incongruity.
There have been two main areas of personal growth in the counseling process:
becoming more comfortable with paraphrasing and becoming more aware of cultural
sensitivity and bias. At the beginning of the quarter paraphrasing felt awkward and
forced. I was not used to using it in normal conversation, as my natural inclination is to
respond with a story of my own or a solution to the persons problem. However, with
more practice, paraphrasing became more natural and I was able to see the benefits of it
in conversation not only in the mock interview, but also in my own personal
relationships. The discussion about cultural norms regarding attending behavior and
preferred communication styles really brought to light the importance of understanding
your clients cultural norms. Its somewhat challenging because I dont know about the
norms in all cultures, but I am now very aware of the importance of learning about these
norms. Along with this, Im now aware of how my own cultural background and
communication style could influence my interviewing. Before this course, I may have
subconsciously been aware of these influences, but the course has really brought these
thoughts to the forefront of my mind. I will now actively be aware of my own biases and
hopefully will not let them influence my interview with a client.