One of the most common reasons for not-so-good step-family relationships is lack of communication. It is important to include the children in family processes such as formulating rules and new rituals. This is a great start! The next thing to do is to encourage communication. Talking is the best way to strengthen relationships, understand emotions […]
Communication
Communication and Relationship Counselling
Communication is vital in any relationship. Understanding can be created and perhaps any hurt can be healed provided people can be kept in communication with each other. Therefore communication and problem solving are key areas to be considered when dealing with couples counselling. The counsellor’s aim here should be twofold: To help clients acquire skills […]
- July 30, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families
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Counselling Microskills: Focusing
Focusing enables a counsellor to direct client’s conversational flow into certain areas. It is a microskill that is relevant to all stages of a counselling interview. This skill however should be used sparingly. Example: After noticing that a client has mentioned very little about his family, the counsellor, (believing the family is relevant) directs the […]
- July 27, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process
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Communication Drills for Relationship Counselling
Communication has several key aspects which are all the more pertinent to people whose lives are entwined with each other and who need to maintain high levels of understanding. First of all, when speaking there are certain principles that come into play. Words have different meanings to different people and what we intend to say […]
- July 24, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Relationship & Families
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Encouragers, Paraphrasing and Summarising
A counsellor can encourage a client to continue to talk, open up more freely and explore issues in greater depth by providing accurate responses through encouraging, paraphrasing and summarising. Responding in this way informs the client that the counsellor has accurately heard what they have been saying. Encouragers, paraphrases and summaries are basic to helping […]
- July 21, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process
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Counselling Microskills: Questioning
Questions during the counselling session can help to open up new areas for discussion. They can assist to pinpoint an issue and they can assist to clarify information that at first may seem ambiguous to the counsellor. Questions that invite clients to think or recall information can aid in a client’s journey of self-exploration. Counsellors […]
- July 10, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process
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Stages of Child Development
As children travel through the journey of life they are faced with many different developmental challenges. Early in life, babies learn to pay attention and be part of a relationship. As they grow they learn to use their imagination and think logically. Greenspan and Salmon (1995) developed a road map outlining the emotional milestones children […]
- July 7, 2009
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development
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Negotiation Skills Training in Counselling
Negotiation is defined by the Macquarie Dictionary (1998) as ‘to confer (with another) with a view to agreement’. There are no formal rules governing how these negotiations are to be conducted, although there are culturally accepted styles or approaches for doing so. What negotiation and conflict have in common? The obvious common denominator in negotiation […]
- June 16, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Personal Effectiveness, Workplace Issues
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Principles of Active Listening in Counselling
Active listening is an essential skill counsellors can exploit to develop a positive and healthy interaction with a client. “Active listening intentionally focuses on who you are listening to, whether in a group or one-on-one, in order to understand what he or she is saying. As the listener, you should then be able to repeat […]
- June 2, 2009
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- Counselling Theory & Process, Personal Effectiveness
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Fostering the Development of Children’s Self-Esteem
Self esteem is… a person’s overall assessment of her or his personal adequacy or worth. (Weiten, 1998) feelings of self-worth stemming from the individual’s positive or negative beliefs about being valuable and capable. www.dphilpotlaw.com/html/glossary.html feeling good about yourself. It means liking yourself and being content with, and even proud of, who you are.(Hartley-Brewer, 2004) a […]
- April 21, 2008
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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Communication and Childhood Anxiety
Childhood worries and anxiety are a common challenge for many parents. In this post, we will be considering a cognitive-behavioural approach to working with children and their worries. A cognitive-behavioural approach works most effectively with children who are able to think in a structured sequence and understand cause and effect. This makes it more appropriate […]
- April 14, 2008
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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Common Communication Challenges for Parents
This post provides an overview of working with parents on common challenges of parenting. In particular, this chapter considers how to work with parents whose children are displaying aggressive behaviour or suffering from anxiety. To work on these issues it is crucial that parents have developed a parent-child relationship based on solid communication and trust. […]
- April 11, 2008
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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Communicating with Children and Discipline
Disciplining children effectively, not only requires a great deal of persistence but also the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly with children. When working with parents on the issue of disciplining their children, it is important to ensure that all disciplinary strategies are age-appropriate. Bad behaviour comes with penalties Carroll & Reid (2005) suggest that […]
- April 8, 2008
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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Communicating Effectively with Children
Developing, fostering and maintaining an open, trusting and committed child-parent relationship is the foundation of effective parenting. This kind of relationship is established through regular honest and respectful communication. First, consider the mechanisms that parents may employ to establish an open channel of communication between themselves and their children. By combining appropriate language with useful […]
- April 4, 2008
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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Series: Communicating with Children
“The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, […]
- April 2, 2008
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- Children & Adolescents, Lifespan Development, Relationship & Families
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