2-2 Journal: Counseling Behaviors and the Attitudes Behind Them
Tabbie Bozeman
Discuss the importance of demonstrating support skills such as empathy, OARS
(openness, affirming, reflective listening, and summarizing), a respectful and open
demeanor, and the right body language.
When you encounter someone in a store, on the road or in your workplace, you feel taken
aback when they are rude or show you some level of disrespect. As a counselor you have to
remember these things when you encounter your clients. Your clients may have trauma along
with their substance use issues. They may be experiencing homelessness, broken
relationships with their families and friends and unemployment. Beaten down by life and
some of their own choices, they are coming to you as a counselor for help.. OARS allows you
to be respectful, open and empathetic to what your client may be going through.
1. Open-ended questions, this allows the client to express themselves more. Having to
elaborate their answers, will make them put more thought into what they are saying,
thinking and feeling. Yes or no questions will not encourage openness.
2. Affirmations, the positive strengths, behavior and efforts that your client has. This
sheds a positive light on these things, because you as a counselor recognizes them.
3. Reflective listening, I have my own kids do this, paraphrase back to me, so that I am
sure that they understood my instructions. With your client, when you repeat back to
them what they are saying, it encourages them to continue to be open, because they
know you are listening. I have a hard time when I have an entire conversation and I
feel like the person(s) I am speaking to, did not hear a word of what I was saying.
That can be frustrating. For your client to have a counselor not hear them can be
harmful to their treatment and recovery.
4. Summarizing, hitting the key points, that were discussed during the conversation. This
helps with clarity and you, and the client understand the important parts of what was
discussed.
This approach is led by the client, it prioritizes the client. You as the counselor are building a
rapport and making the client feel comfortable. We have to make sure; we have relaxed and
positive body language. Our demeanor is non-judgmental, we don’t raise our eyebrows or
make facial expressions that appear to be hurtful or harmful to our client.
How will your personal beliefs, attitudes, and biases impact your work with clients?
How do you (or will you) manage the occasionally significant differences you will
encounter?
As a black, lesbian female I am judged every day of my life. Most times for no other reason,
but the color of my skin. It has been my mission, my entire adult life, not to have biases
towards others. I understand that no matter what we do, at some point we all have
unconscious bias. If we are ever made aware of those biases, we need to make the necessary
adjustments to correct that behavior. I embrace the differences that we all have, except when
it comes to racism. If I am being honest with myself, dealing with a racist client, would be
challenging, and something I, would have to come to terms with and work on. I would never
mistreat a client, and I would be fair. I am not one to discuss my beliefs with anyone, other
than close family and friends, so I am sure that keeping my beliefs to myself will not be a
problem. If a client came to me and was openly hostile and had an issue with me being black,
lesbian or female, I would still try and work it out before referring them to someone else. In
this life, we encounter and have to deal with all types of people, and it baffles my mind, that
there are still some out there who dislike some on sight. It could be because of gender, race,
sexual orientation or religion. I like that we are all different and I am committed to helping
people no matter what their background is.
Corey, G. (2020). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, Enhanced (10th
ed.). Cengage Learning US. https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9798214354903
