Microskills in Counselling

Running Head: MICROSKILLS
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MICROSKILLS
Essay
student
4/16/2019

MICROSKILLS
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Solution-focused therapy
Solution-focused therapy also called solution brief focused therapy, is the goal-directed
collaborative strategy to psychotherapeutic alterations that is conducted by the direct assessments
of the patient’s reactions to a range of specifically constructed questions (Reddy, Thirumoorthy,
Vijayalakshmi, & Hamza, 2015). As discussed in the case study Marie is suffering from stress,
unable to cope with the balance between workload and housework. One of the main sources of
stress for Marie was the news he used to read about the unstable politics of her birthplace. She
also developed some symptoms like problems in sleeping, self-worth, lack of direction and
purpose. Using Solution-focused therapy is a beneficial step to achieve the health goals already
set for Marie.
Some of the micro-skills like attending, silence, minimal encouragers, matching the
patient's tone and peace etc. can be beneficial to enable the patient to explore her concern
(Carrizales Sanchez, & Fernandez, 2018). By using attentive behaviour micro skills I will be able
to encourage the patient to talk and display that the counsellor is actually interested in what is
being said by her. Asking her a question like how was your day? How you are feeling? This
allowed Marie to discuss her actual conditions easily. Being silent is the most important skill that
must be applied while the patient is speaking. This will develop a sense inpatient that listener is
listening to her carefully and cares for her. This particular skill will encourage the patient to be
interactive as she has been socially isolated due to her busy schedule (Bailin, Bearman, & Sale,
2018).
Minimal encouragers are the verbal responses that show the interest and involvement of
the listener. It helps the patients to speak continuously in order to speak about their feelings.

MICROSKILLS
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Some of the examples of minimal encouragers include Yes, I am with you, I see what you mean,
umm, and silence followed by a positive facial expression (Tober, 2017). In the case of Marie,
she talked about her issues related to the problem she faced I have asked some question. For
example, she talked about the news she used to read about her hometown, I showed my interest
by using words like "is it?", and "really?". These questions helped to show my interest and
helped her to realise that I was attentive to the discussion. However, I avoided some questions
like "why" as it could have caused discomfort in Marie. Trying to match a patient's tone and pace
of her stories as they tell their experience in the way people speaks stories. While talking to
Marie I observed cautious behaviour, the pause occurs while she was speaking indicated that she
was testing my response regarding her situation. Her pace was conversational and her vocal tone
was even. While she was not in a hurry to discuss her story she sued long pause and her pace
was guarded. I have observed Marie’s emotions regarding her past experience in her pace and
volume. She was emotionally upset as she was unable to give time to her family and at the same
time she was angry or stressed due to the negative news from her hometown. While she
discussed her relationships issues, she used long pauses. It is known that people who are
emotionally upset usually take long pauses as it is a challenge for them to discuss their painful
issues (TAN, 2016).
Next micro skill is a reflection, the patient is feeling both angry and low, and therefore
she must be addressed with empathy and respectfully. Reflections of feeling, content and
meaning are the essential skill that has been used in the case of Marie. When is reflected my
feeling shown by Maries it helped me to let her know that I am in touch with her in a manner she
expressed her feeling. It also helped me to stimulate a deeper sense or understanding of the issue
so that she can analyse the problem more specifically or objectively. I have used some