Reflection on Professional Skills, Development and Ethical Practices

This assignment is a reflective piece focusing on the student's professional development. It addresses various aspects of self-evaluation, including seeking feedback from family members and professional colleagues to understand strengths and weaknesses. The assignment explores how to handle negative feedback constructively and the importance of giving and receiving feedback with coworkers, clients, and stakeholders. It also covers identifying training needs, aligning personal development plans with organizational guidelines, and the role of a counselor in the review process. The reflection further delves into protecting oneself from vulnerabilities, the frequency of self-development plan revisions, identifying industry developments, meeting ethical and legal requirements, determining professional development opportunities, and reviewing knowledge and skills through feedback mechanisms. Overall, the assignment provides a comprehensive overview of the steps involved in continuous professional growth and ethical practice within a counselling or related field.

REFLECTION
Reflection
Student’s name
Name of the Institute

REFLECTION
Reflection
1. When reflecting upon your own skills, self-evaluation can be done with the assistance of
others. List two types of people self-evaluation may be undertaken with?
Self-Evaluation is an important aspect of reflection. The two types of people with whom
self-evaluation can be done are:
i. Family Members: To understand one’s strength, weaknesses, confidence level, etc.
ii. Professional Colleague: To understand one’s capabilities, knowledge, capability, etc.
2. Sometimes feedback on how your beliefs and values affect your performance may not be as
positive as one would like. How do you go about accepting negative feedback without becoming
defensive?
It is correct that negative feedback could be disturbing at some time. However, it is
important that people should not take negative feedback in a negative manner. I believe that
every negative feedback should be used to make further improvements. I always try to find out
the reasons or drivers for the negative feedback and then I work accordingly.
3. Part of the review process requires giving and receiving feedback with co-workers. How do
you go about this?
I think that people should always be truthful when they have to give or receive the
feedback from co-workers. While giving feedback, I ensure that I am not harsh and at the same
time, I have to be assertive to make my point. While receiving feedback, I always ask people to
be completely unbiased with me so that they can provide me the best inputs. At an overall level,
the feedback mechanism and process with co-workers can be bit informal in nature.

REFLECTION
4. Part of the review process requires giving and receiving feedback with clients and or other
stakeholders. How do you go about this?
I believe that the process of feedback with clients is bit formal in nature. While giving
any feedback to clients, I ensure that the professional standard is made, and the feedback is
provided as per the expectations. While receiving the feedback, I ensure that I work on the
feedback as soon as possible. I believe that it is always a good practice to document the feedback
collected or given to client.
5. If you have been provided with some feedback and have identified an area where you need
further training, mentoring, or advice, what type of individuals might you seek assistance from?
One of the areas where I seek improvement is my team management skill. I think I can
get a training or coaching from a professional mentor with a good experience in the industry who
can coach me about the team management skills.
6. Organisations often have established requirements for the professional development of their
staff in order to meet the needs of their sector and/or clients. How do you or would you ensure
you meet your organisation's guidelines when undertaking professional development?
My professional developmental plan is in line with the organizational developmental plan
and this ensures that I meet my organisation's guidelines when undertaking professional
development. It is important that individuals should frequently discuss their goals and objectives
with their supervisors so that an alignment between personal goals and professional goals is
achieved.

REFLECTION
7. Why is it beneficial for you as a counsellor to be involved in in the regular review process
which determines the professional development and training needs of yourself and others within
the organisation?
As a counsellor, it is important that I am able to understand the training needs and
expectations of other people and likewise, I should be able to counsel them. I can understand the
need of different people only when I have regular interaction with them. Therefore, it is
furthermore important to have a system of regular review process in place.
8. A part of the counselling/case management process requires the counsellor to be aware of their
own needs and areas of vulnerability. What steps or processes do you use to protect yourself
from these areas of vulnerability?
The first step to protect myself from my own needs and vulnerability would be to have a
deep understanding about my strengths and weaknesses. It can be done when I have done a
strong assessment about myself. The next step would be to collect feedback from the people
around me. The third step would be to completely update my knowledge.
9. How often do you feel you should revise and amend your self-development plan?
I often that I should revise and amend by self-development plan at least once a quarter.
There can also be need basis amendment time to time.
10. How would you identify current industry developments and where appropriate how might
you apply them to improve your area of practice?
It is important to keep one up to date and it can be done through a lot of reading
literature. I always thrive to learn from people that I believe is the greatest learning for people.

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11. How do you or would you ensure you meet ethical and legal requirements within your area of
practice?
I ensure that I have strong ethical and moral values that helps me to create a boundary in
my professional life. I believe that people should learn to say ‘No’ and this helps them to emerge
as a strong ethical and moral personal.
12. How do you determine what opportunities may exist for professional development?
I believe that people should always talk within the team and outside the team to know
about the various opportunities that exists at the organizational level. The meetings and
discussions with managers and supervisors also help individuals to unearth the opportunities that
exists for me.
13. Provide an example of how you might undertake a regular review of your knowledge and
skills?
The simple process for this would be to take formal and informal feedback from the
people around me. The feedback would help me to review my progress against my knowledge
and skills.