Did you know that counselling skills could benefit you every day? You actively engage many counselling skills everyday more than you think. This is why knowing and cultivating some counselling skills is so helpful: they can literally benefit you in almost every aspect of your life.
What are some key counselling skills?
To a degree, we all have some level of counselling skills that we develop through social interactions with people, but there are some key attributes that separate those who are counsellors from those who simply counsel someone struggling with something in the moment.
Some attributes that make a good counsellor include being interested in people’s overall well-being, having good communication skills, and being able to show genuine empathy and interest in people when they are dealing with something. Some of these skills you may naturally develop, while others you would need to work on. Here are some key counselling skills you should want:
- Active listening – listening to someone intently with a desire to understand what they’re going through, rather than listening to respond
- Observation skills – being able to read their verbal and non-verbal cues
- Empathy – you need to understand and relate to other people and what they are feeling
- Goal setting – it’s important to be able to identify and set attainable goals to help others move forward from their situation
- Motivational skills – being able to gently challenge or encourage an individual to better themselves or take a different approach
Why are counselling skills valuable?
You may be asking yourself why these skills are important or valuable. Just think of the times you’ve had a distraught friend, colleague or family member struggling to make sense of their emotions or situation. What did you say? Did you say anything? Or did you feel awkward and unable to help?
These situations require you to have an understanding of how to manage people, their emotions, and direct a negative situation to a positive outcome. Being able to listen, show empathy, build trust and a good rapport with people can help you in almost any situation that involves people, which makes having counselling skills invaluable.
Some key counselling skills that can help in any industry
Let’s take a closer look at the counselling skills that you can use in the workplace across industries. In most cases, the workplace is where we face most of our challenges, especially with people. Here are some counselling skills that will help you navigate workplace situations better:
1. Patience
A major key to handling conflict or counselling is patience. Our initial reaction is normally to solve or respond to a situation. However, with counselling, acting fast isn’t always the solution. You can’t force the situation; you need to wait for the person you’re talking to to open up on their own to help them process their feelings. Only then can you truly help guide them to a solution, and most of the time this is a slow process.
Patience also involves accepting some of the wrongs they may do to you, showing that it hasn’t impacted you and allowing it to be resolved in due time and through the right channels.
2. Empathy
Being empathetic is a great way to help you build trust in relationships. It involves you being able to relate to what another person is feeling as if you went through it yourself. When you show empathy, people get the feeling that you genuinely care for them, which gives them a positive affiliation to you, and opens up a door for you to speak to them or counsel them to a degree.
3. Active listening and good communication
One of the leading causes of offence and workplace conflict is often because someone misunderstood or didn’t hear you accurately. If you’re able to communicate with people clearly and learn their social cues, you may be able to avoid these situations altogether.
Being able to give someone your full attention when they’re speaking to you also shows them that you are invested in what they are saying. This also helps you to fully understand them before giving them a response.
4. Problem-solving skills
Problem-solving is an extremely effective skill to have as you walk a road with someone or deal with challenging disputes in the workplace. Ideally, when you’re faced with a problem, the first reaction you should try to have is to look for understanding and show empathy. Following that, problem-solving skills can help you create an effective solution to the problem.
5. Understanding boundaries
It’s really helpful when you’re able to read people well. This involves learning the verbal and non-verbal cues and where their boundaries are. Because people work so closely with one another in the workplace, crossing boundaries can be extremely easy. So, by understanding what offends people and where they draw their line can help you avoid conflict in the workplace and can also provide you with understanding when someone has been hurt and offended, giving you more insight into why they feel the way they do and a means of helping them if necessary.
Where can you study counselling?
There are many ways in which you can develop good counselling skills in your life, but studying counselling is by far the most effective! If you’re looking for a great way to study counselling but you don’t want to tackle another four-year degree, taking a graduate diploma in counselling online might be the best solution. Consider doing a graduate degree in counselling through Canberra University. Their course will equip you with the essentials, and as a bonus, you can do it while you work.
Final thoughts
Counselling isn’t just sitting with someone and guiding them to the solutions to their problems; it involves good listening skills, communication, empathy, and an understanding of how people function and what they struggle with. These skills can be taken into the business world, work with families, friends, and more. That’s why everyone can benefit from having some counselling skills.
