Diploma of Counselling

Question: Discuss about the Diploma of Counselling. Answer: As a clinical psychologist, I conduct intake diagnostic interviews of the clients who present with their psychological problems. Assuming myself as a client, I can experience their feelings when they inform about their social history. While informing my family life, I will be quite comfortable to inform about my nuclear family and the relationship that I share with my parents and siblings. Although this is an easy step for me, it might not be so easy for the clients who do not open up easily and do not wish to talk about their family life. When asked about my extended family, I will take some time to think and pass over the necessary information. During my process of thinking, I will have to judge my relationship status that I share with my extended family and this process may include the careless actions like tapping my foot or playing with my hair (Nakash and Saguy 2015). If I try to hide something from the clinician, I will try to avoid making eye contact with him and act nervous (Nakash and Alegra 2013). Since I am a person with a large friend circle, I will be happy to give out the relevant information about my friends and will be quite excited while recalling the memories of good times or may get depressed while speaking of the bad memories. Social modelling has been a gradual change that occurred over the time and took place in entire Australia. I live in a nuclear family in Perth, but I can well remember the days of my childhood when my parents used to leave for work and me with my siblings used to enjoy the company of our grandparents owing to the nearness of my extended family. It was a popular method of childcare in those days and we used to be influenced by their stories and life experiences. Extended families had the advantage of sharing of responsibilities that has changed over time and formal childcare systems are now in place for most of the nuclear families (Klocker and Gibson 2013). As a kid, I was an avid follower and fan of sports and I used to regard the athletes as role models. I used to follow the sports activities and even went for live matches to the stadiums. However, with my growth and maturity, I was disappointed with the transgressions of the athletes for a period. Although I cannot rule out those influences of my role models as a kid but certainly, I can be aware of those influences from the point of view of a counsellor. Many of the athletes from different games used to influence me and I used to consider them as role models. Their aggression for victory and their precision in performance always made me dream to be an aspiring athlete and lead their life of glory. With the passing time, I realized they are artists with flaws as I discovered few of my favourite athletes charged under doping scandal (Grunseit et al. 2012). Although it was like a dream getting shattered but that identified the counsellor in me and made me realize what is acceptable and what is not. Sports are for enjoying the performance and not for admiring the life of an athlete. However, the modelling influences have an impact my everyday life as they taught me the aggression for victory and perseverance under pressure. References Grunseit, A.C., Macniven, R., Orr, R., Grassmayr, M., Kelly, B., Davies, D., Colagiuri, S. and Bauman, A.E. 2012, "Australian athletes' health behaviours and perceptions of role modelling and marketing of unhealthy products",Health Promotion Journal of Australia: Official Journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals,vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 63-69. Klocker, N. and Gibson, C. 2013, "Looking inwards: Extended family living as an urban consolidation alternative",Planning Theory Practice,vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 555. Nakash, O. and Alegra, M. 2013, "Examination of the Role of Implicit Clinical Judgments During the Mental Health Intake",Qualitative Health Research,vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 645-654. Nakash, O. and Saguy, T. 2015, "Social Identities of Clients and Therapists During the Mental Health Intake Predict Diagnostic Accuracy",Social Psychological and Personality Science,vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 710-717.