Gerard Egan’s Counselling Guide

1913 Words4 Pages

Introduction Gerard Egan’s counselling guide is a three-stage model designed for counsellors or “helpers”. With this model these helpers are able to structure their work with persons in order to help them to help themselves. This is built around three questions: What is going on? What do I want instead? How can I get to where I want to go? The questions enable the person to begin with making plans for their life and to form priorities with realistic approaches to their problems. They are then able to gain a deeper insight into their own situation and problem. The counsellor will understand that these questions will have the effect of challenging the person into self analysis and action. Egan’s model is widely used in the counselling profession and gives a loose framework to the “helper” that emphasises the importance of their use of their own intuition, training and experience in making professional judgements . Egan knew that his structured framework of three questions to the person should be at the heart of the counselling sessions and key to the counselling approach; this way, the goals that are set in the counselling session will be formed by the person themselves, with the counsellor or “helper” assisting rather than leading . In the context of Pastoral Care, this assignment will focus on some of the values of Egan’s model with consideration given to some of its limitations in that arena. Values of Egan’s model Dividing counselling sessions into stages is common a practice among helpers . Egan’s model is a particularly positive one, and focuses on giving the power to the person with whom the counsellor is working. Often, the use of incremental stages is an analytical tool used by a counsellor. In Egan’s three stag... ... middle of paper ... ...ead given to them by the person, thus ensuring that their approach remains person-centred and empowering. Works Cited Axline, V. (1990) Dibs: In Search Of Self. London: Penguin. Culley, S. and Bond, T. (2004) Integrative Counselling Skills in Action (2nd edition). London: Sage. Egan, G. (2002) The Skilled Helper – a problem management and opportunity-development approach to helping (7th edition), California: Brooks/Cole. Gerkin, C. (1997) An Introduction to Pastoral Care. Nashville: Abingdon Press. Lyall, D. (1995) Counselling in the Pastoral and Spiritual Context. Buckingham, OUP. Lyall, D. (2001) Integrity of Pastoral Care. London, SPCK. Lynch, G. (ed) (1999) Clinical Counselling in Pastoral Settings. London, Routledge. Mearns, D. and Thorn, B. (2007) Person Centred Counselling in Action (3rd edition). London, Sage.

Show More
Related

  • Vignette As A Role Model

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    This method is grounded in the strengths perspective, a perspective in which the worker center’s their sessions around the clients’ abilities, gifts, and strengths (Shulman, 2016). Instead of focusing on what is wrong with the client, the worker highlights what is right with the client building on their strengths instead of emphasizing their deficits: the client already has what they need to get better or solve their problem (Corcoran, 2008). The role of the worker in this model is to help the client recognize their potential, recognize what resources they already have, and discuss what is going well for the client and what they have been able to accomplish already (Shulman, 2016). Techniques commonly used in this model, although they are not exclusive to this model, include an emphasis on pre- and between-session change, exception questions, the miracle question, scaling questions, and coping questions (Shulman, 2016). These questions are used for many reasons: for example, the miracle question is used because “sometimes asking clients to envision a brighter future may help them be clearer on what they want or to see a path to problem-solving.” (Corcoran, 2008, p. 434) while coping questions are used to allow the client to see what they are already accomplishing, rather than what they are transgressing (Corcoran, 2008). All

    Read More

  • Psychotherapy Strategies Drawn from Psychodynamic and Interpersonal Approaches

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brooks-Harris, J. & Oliveira-Berry, J. (2004). Key Strategies for Multitheoretical Counseling & Psychotherapy Vol. IV: Psychodynamic-Interpersonal Counseling & Psychotherapy [video]. Farmingham, MA: Microtraining Associates.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues With Mental Health

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    A common struggle for counselors can sometimes be to find the right balance between “the demands or managed mental health requirements and obligations to clients” (Braun & Cox, 2005, p.426). Often times counselors may be t...

    Read More

  • Issues and Ethics in The "Helping" Professions

    2181 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...a decision. Like the many cases in this book showed, sometimes there is not a right and wrong answer. A good counselor will use their skills, experience, and education to overcome obstacles in therapy and to provide the client with excellent helping service.

    Read More

  • Counselling Session Essay

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    Olivia as the client, was feeling overwhelmed due to having responsibilities in many separate aspects of her life. Including but not limited to her school, family, friends and new fitness goals. As the counsellor I aimed to help the client come up with a strategy that would not only incorporate all of her responsibilities but allow time to take for herself as well. Doing so, will greatly reduce Olivia’s stress. In order to implement a plan I used multiple techniques to acquire information and insight about the client, as well as her present situation. Throughout the phases of counselling I used the problem solving process, this will help the client manage and save her time. I also exhibited exploring and probing to gain insight about client. Various types of questions were also used including, open-ended questions, close-ended questions and coping questions. I also used the technique of empowering the client to make a change. I accomplished this by highlighting the client’s resources she already obtains. Completing this assignment allowed me to analyze my strengths, along with also allowing me to see the areas that need improvement including leading and advice giving. Overall this assignment allowed me to critically analyze my clinical practice and how far I have come since first beginning at Georgian

    Read More

  • In-Class Counseling Practice Exercises

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    The in-class counseling practice exercises gave a great insight into the various counseling theories and techniques. By role playing, I was able to better understand the challenges and benefits of the theories and how it applies to the current field of counseling. In the following, I will attempt to communicate my experience both at an academic level and spiritual level.

    Read More

  • Family Therapy Essay

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    ‘Counseling’ is a recognized psychological therapy that is often provided to such patients. Counselors have often been employed to deliver psychological therapy to patients in primary care settings. Providing counseling alongside other treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy means that patients have greater choice, and that alternatives can be found for patients who either do not benefit from standard treatments or who do not find them acceptable.

    Read More

  • Assessment of Counselling Skills

    1876 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nelson-Jones, R. (2008) Basic Counselling Skills – A Helper’s Manual, 2nd edition, London: Sage Publications.

    Read More

  • Motivational Interviewing

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    The counselor accomplishes the above by expressing empathy, developing discrepancies, going along with resistance and supporting self-efficacy. Moreover, the counselor guides the client toward a solution that will lead to permanent posi...

    Read More

  • What Is Essential in the Helping Relationship?

    2151 Words  | 5 Pages

    Counseling skills has provided me with a valuable insight into the helping relationship and how it is both created and maintained in order to encourage growth and development in the client. The factors involved within the helping relationship include considering Roger’s core conditions, congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy as the three main characteristics necessary in a helping relationship. In order to fully incorporate all three of Roger’s core conditions, I as the counselor must be self-aware, as a lack of self-awareness may inhibit truly listening and understanding the client; self-awareness can be enhanced through exercises such as Johari’s window. Counseling skills such as body language and active listening also plays a role within encouraging the client to open up and can help me as the counselor convey empathy.

    Read More

  • The Counselling Process for the Middles Stages of Helping a Relationship

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are multiple structures of that can be applied to the counselling process, ranging from the basic idea of a beginning, middle and end to a more structured approach as that proposed by Egan (1994). Although his initial structure offered three main components; Stage 1, exploring the situation, stage 2, identifying a new or desired scenario to strive for and stage 3, the action stage, in which methods of coping are devised of and implemented. Egan later devised a ten stage structure that still takes into account initial stages from the speakers perspective of identifying a problem and seeking help, within this structure stage 4 is the initial meeting of the counsellor and client and can be considered the beginning stage of the helping re...

    Read More

  • Weakness in Sigmound Freud’s Theories

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    This essay will attempt to highlight and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three main theories of counselling within the module covered this term. The three approaches in discussion are psychodynamics, cognitive behavioural and humanistic.

    Read More

  • Reflections on Counseling Sessions

    2225 Words  | 5 Pages

    The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.

    Read More

  • 4 Core Functions Of A Substance Abuse Counselor

    1840 Words  | 4 Pages

    Effective crisis intervention must follow ethical principles which ensure that client is not placed in further harm also that the decisions and opinions of the client are respected throughout the process and the intervention upholds a rights-based approach. This involves good listening communication skills, observing, understanding, genuineness, respect, acceptance, non-judgment and sensitivity demonstrating empathy, among other support provided by counselor. A number of specific strategies can be used to promote effective listening during crisis intervention. These include using open-ended questions - “what” or “how” questions. They are used to encourage sharing of information from a client about their feelings, thoughts and behaviors, and are particularly useful when exploring problems during a crisis. Closed-ended questions usually begin with action words such as "do", "does", "can", "have", "had", "will", "are", "is" and "was". These questions can be used to gather specific information or to understand the client 's willingness to commit to a particular action. Using close-ended questions that seek specific details and are designed to encourage the client to share information about behaviors (such as the specific actions or behavioral coping strategies used by the client), as well as “yes” or “no” responses. Restating and clarifying what the client has said can help the counselor conducting the crisis intervention to clarify whether he/she has an accurate understanding of what the client intended to say, feel, think and do. Restating can also be used to focus the discussion on a particular topic, event or issue. Owning feelings and using statements that start with “I” in crisis intervention can help to provide direction by being clear about what will

    Read More

  • Importance Of Professional Counselling

    2984 Words  | 6 Pages

    Helping consists of four parts, those being; (1) an individual seeking help, (2) an individual that is willing to help those seeking help, (3) the helping individual is competent and skilled enough to train, and (4) an environment that is conducive for help to be given and received.

    Read More

More about Gerard Egan’s Counselling Guide

Open Document